Introduction: Defining the Problem
Riddle of the sphinx
What is it that has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, and two-footed and three-footed?
The human being initially crawls on all fours, walks on two legs for most of his adult life and then the structure seems to fail as many lean on a cane in their senior years.
Why is it that we learn to walk upright and often end up walking with a cane or seeking joint replacement surgery. Is it a tenet of aging that we become crippled or our activity level severely declines? Medicine abounds with successful interventions for infections, disease and generally increasing our life expectancy.
We live longer, but do we live better?
Why has it failed to protect us from simple bodily stiffness, aches and pains?
During the course of our lives, our sensory-motor system continually responds to daily stress and traumas with specific muscular reflexes.
These reflexes become motor patterns which create habitual muscular contractions. These contractions become so deeply involuntary and unconscious that eventually we no longer remember how to move about freely. Form follows function....and our structure begins to change.
The result is stiffness, soreness and a restricted range of motion. Eventually pain ensues and we are given a diagnosis based on our pain and where the dysfunction lies. For example, a degenerative condition in the back, knee osteoarthritis or shoulder bursitis. Once the label is given, the reason for the impairment is often neglected.
Medicine often aims to fix the lesion but what about the impairment?
I would propose that pain is more related to dysfunctional impairment rather than pain because of the clinical diagnosis. Many people have functional impairments which are clinically silent. For example, they can no longer balance on one leg, or sit cross-legged on the floor.
A client may have a diagnosis of arthritis or bursitis, but this is just the label for the condition. It is the effect – not the cause? The cause often lies in the dysfunctional movement patterns of the client. Where in the body has structure broken down and allowed abnormal strain or wear patterns in a joint which may cause early degenerative change or make a person prone to frequent injury?
Perhaps, we need to start looking at the cause of pain and not just the effect.
