Very often, conventional approaches taken by physical therapists, orthopedists, and personal trainers for the treatment of chronic pain fail to elicit truly corrective results. In this article, let's quickly examine a case of nagging pain stemming from organ ill-health in order to help highlight the importance of utilizing a broad perspective.
Musculoskeletal pain or dysfunction in the lower back, knees, or feet that is not due to blatant deformity or acute trauma can arise from exhausted or unhealthy adrenal glands. When the sartorius (a strap-like muscle that helps support the hip and pelvis) and posterior tibialis (helps stabilize the ankle and inner arch of the foot) muscles stop functioning like they're supposed to because of an adrenal issue, instability and malalignment of the lower body can be the result, procuring back pain, knee pain, sciatica, or plantar fasciitis [1]. In such a scenario, would the appropriate prescription be to statically stretch the lower back? No. How about isolated strengthening of the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO)? Nope. A handful of Ibuprofen? No way Jose. Let's look a little deeper. When the body is persistently stressed, does cholesterol production not increase to assist with the stress response? Since cholesterol is needed for the synthesis of vitamin D, if cholesterol is essentially being diverted away from vitamin D synthesis because of continual stress imposed upon the body, what happens to the absorption of both calcium and phosphorus in the gut? With lower vitamin D levels, intestinal absorption of calcium and phosphorus will drop, possibly compromising the health and integrity of bone tissue. Now, even if vitamin D levels are sufficient, the cellular entry and exit of calcium is promoted by prostaglandins, hormonelike fatty acids that can also enhance skeletal muscle growth or modulate muscular regeneration [2] [3] [4]. So if you're not consuming enough healthy fats, you may end up with sore, stiff muscles in addition to calcium deposition in joints (which can create joint pain). If your intake of healthy fats is too low for your body's needs, or if you're having a problem metabolizing fats properly, a good indicator may be a low salivary pH value [5]. Somewhere around 7.2 is typically considered ideal for an adult's salivary pH, so if your measurement is consistently closer to 6.0 or less, you may simply need more healthy fats, or you may need to uncover what's interfering with your metabolism of fats [6]. Even though this case was a very brief example, it served to show that for a symptom as seemingly innocuous or uncomplicated as mild knee pain, employing a more holistic or systems biology approach can be very necessary. Nutrient deficiencies, microbial infections/overgrowths, toxicity problems, hormonal imbalances, and communication "noise" or impediments can all strongly influence and even conjure musculoskeletal pain, a frontier all too often assumed to operate quite independently from the rest of the body. References:
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AuthorDenton Coleman is an Exercise Physiologist and Medical Researcher. Archives
October 2023
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