I was out to dinner with some old friends and my friends wife mentions her current battle with a frozen shoulder. She then mentioned her tennis elbow problem and how long it took to heal and then the knee problem she had on her opposite side. The one constant she had was her orthopedic who treated each of these areas reducing the symptoms over time, while other problems began to appear. I understanding aging well as I am four years older than my friend and it is true, the game changes as we age. On the other hand, how we play the game of aging and navigate those changes can make a huge difference in our health. When the body does not function as it should, and we load it up with forces and motions we don’t commonly perform, those parts may begin to hurt. The other inconvenient truth is that our overspecialized system of doctors who look at parts of us in isolation, while referring to other specialists miss what is right in front of them; a person who is different than the last person. I have often mused that in a thousand years, when they perform an archeological dig trying to understand past civilizations, they are likely to find titanium parts of knees, hips and other joints and wonder what they are for? In truth, replacement parts for our bodies is big business, especially when you have a healthcare system that places intervention ahead of prevention. Those interventions which include commonly performed hip and knee replacements are traumatic, painful and when one joint goes, the next will eventually go and then the next since the reason behind the damaged joints was never addressed. When a joint is not yet damaged enough to justify replacement, in the case of the knee, doctors are well reimbursed to inject a substance into the knee which in 6-12 months may relieve pain, but does not improve knee, hip, gait or foot function. It is also likely that looking only at the painful joint or part, we are missing the mechanisms behind why those areas hurt. While I was listening to my friend, I mentioned that I have never seen a shoulder problem such as a frozen shoulder that did not involve the lower body in some form or fashion. She had never heard this from anyone, yet, shoulder problems are developed because of dysfunction in other parts of the body, usually the hips. By looking only at the part, you are missing the whole picture which may be why her shoulder pain is so frustrating. Perhaps her shoulder pain may be from her lower body. If you follow the math behind the problems she mentioned, knee pain comes from the foot, hips and may even involve the upper body however these areas may be asymptomatic. Understanding the painful area in the context of how we move, feel and function leads to better and more effective care. These functional problems often are misdiagnosed diagnosed and then we play pickleball and we develop knee or shoulder pain. Was pickleball bad for us or was our physician we trusted seeing us superficially, but actually misdiagnosing us, setting us up for future painful problems? We all have grown up in our current healthcare system which has taught us that when we are young, we need a pediatrician, we need vaccines, we need, we need, we need. What they do not tell us that this system feeds the healthcare system and since it is what we know, we assume that they have the answers to our problems. Do they or is there a misunderstanding behind how our bodies which are integrated systems work and how our healthcare system is set up to understand it. The chiropractic holistic perspective. As a chiropractor listening to my friend, who has probably never visited a good sports chiropractor before, she may believe pickleball is the reason for her shoulder pain and other problems. I am listening to her and doing the math on how her different problems may be related. Can a foot problem that is inherited be causing all of her problems in the elbow, knee and now shoulders. Does she had numerous bad adaptions from old injuries, from childhood and from how she functions in her daily life. Growing evidence is showing that people who are older and developing balance problems have less movement in their pelvis and a shorted stride which affects balance. If one side of the body tightened up into the base of the skull, you may develop headaches or worse, vertigo. It is also true that other systemic problems can cause physical and physiological problems during a game. My friend this weekend was having pain in her foot when she got in and out of the car. The big ask was what type of specialist do I need to go to. My answer was perhaps you need a generalist. When she left the car, I explained to her husband, another close friend that to solve plantar fasciitis, you do not treat the point of impact. You evaluate and treat the mechanism causing her to slam her heel or foot into the ground. While I do not wish to directly advise them to come to my office even though it should seem obvious, The specialist mentality pervades. It is what we were taught. Einstein said it best. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Understanding why we hurt begins with a holistic evaluation of the body. Your local sports chiropractor is trained to take a primary care approach to the musculoskeletal system. The math behind why we hurt comes from holistically evaluating the person from the ground up and understanding how they move and are their immediate and past problems actually related to movement. Then we have the fascial system which is now understood to control how we move and function from the ground up. It has its own neurological system, circulatory system and is interconnected throughout the body. The myofascia adapts to how we work against gravity. Scientists are beginning to understand that the muscles, bones and nerves model we learned in school is dependent on the myofascial system to work. Doctors of chiropractic trained in methods such as active release techniques and other methods of myofascial release can change how the myofascia works and how our bodies function. Improve the myofascia, and improve how our bodies work in sports, against gravity when walking and how our joints function. For those who have seen me work at an event, as I have recently done in women’s pro football with the Jersey Shore Wave football team, people are sometimes amazed at how quickly I can perform a postural assessment, take a thorough history and address their complaints effectively in the short period of time we have. Working these events for years brings a large amount of intuitiveness to the job. This happens with many practitioners who after seeing hundreds or thousands of cases, understand what they are seeing and they can quickly diagnose and treat many problems. In the world of musculoskeletal medicine, chiropractic sports physicians develop these skills as well. Chiropractic sports physicians are unique as they take a primary care approach to the joints, fascia and reeducate the body through exercises that retrain the brain that retains new movement patters that the patient learns while improved function improves movement. Improving movement and function is how chiropractic works. Understanding the patient in the room is vital to better results. In pain? Think differently. Think holistically. Think Chiropractic first. Need help today. Book online today.