Every area of the body was designed with a specific job in mind. Every muscle and joint is programmed to use a specific range of motion. The whole body is also programmed to move through a specific range of motion designed for the most efficiency. This is called Global Range of Motion.
Global Range of Motion is about stride length, back and neck movement — overall body movement. The body will try to go to the movement it was originally designed to use. If one area isn’t moving enough, the body still tries to move the body to the maximum amount. This will result in some areas moving more than they were designed to move. This results in overwork.
Overwork leads to fatigue which leads to an area becoming weaker. If the muscles around a joint become weaker then that joint will be unstable — have extra movement.
The body reacts to this by first trying to tighten the muscles around the joint. But the weak muscle just becomes weaker. Next the body inflames the joint, swelling the tissues around the joint and increasing the joint fluid in an effort to try to stabilize it. If that doesn’t do the job, connective tissue, then calcium or bone is used. This results in arthritis.
This isn’t the only cause of arthritis but it is a big factor in the progression of arthritis of any cause.
Example: Everyone knows someone who has had their back fused because of back pain (degenerative changes to the spine). Many of these people do well for a while then develop problems just above or around the area of fusing. This is because the body wasn’t designed to have an area not move so other areas are overworked.
One purpose of Chiropractic is to keep everything moving as good as possible in an attempt to minimize compensation and its long lasting secondary effects.
