by vicakbb | Dec 28, 2015 | Chiropractics, Muscle Damage, Uncategorized
In 1989, an actor by the name of Daniel Day Lewis played the part of Christy Brown, a young man who was born with cerebral palsy who learned to paint and write with the only limb he could still control: his left foot. Not surprisingly, the name of the movie was called “My Left Foot.” I, too, was involved in a personal saga involving one of my limbs. Though not as harrowing and inspirational a story as that of Christy Brown’s, I would still like to share it with you. My story is called, “My Left Shoulder.”
One year after My Left Foot debuted in theatres, I fell on my left shoulder while playing basketball on an indoor wooden court. It occurred while I was running at full speed leading a fast break and was cut off by another player running directly towards me from the left. This twisted my body and caused me to fall with all my weight directly on my left shoulder.
I remembered thinking…as I impacted the floor with the weight of my entire body directed into my left shoulder, and then sliding along the wooden basketball court about ten feet…that, at the point of impact, both my legs were off the floor and higher than my body! The end result was that I didn’t just fall on my left shoulder; I shattered the ball at the top of my upper arm.
I was told later (decades later) that after this happened I should have put my arm in a sling and allowed the shattered bone (then, soft as clay but held in place by the outer layer of the bone) to re-harden to its original pre-determined shape. Of course…this didn’t happen as three days later I was out playing basketball again! This resulted in my shoulder hardening into a more flattened shape that didn’t at all fit into my shoulder’s socket.
Now permanently distorted, the ball began tearing up its own joint. Within ten years it was bone-on-bone and ten years later, in 2010, I had total shoulder replacement surgery.
This is the most severe of all the shoulder surgeries and the hardest to rehabilitate. Thankfully, I already had muscles turned back on from
the original trauma by seeing several of my colleagues who specialize in Applied Kinesiology. By the time I saw the orthopedic surgeon almost all the muscles were turned on, and he remarked “how strong” I tested and he estimated I would get back 95-100% of my shoulder’s range of motion after the surgery. At this point in time, I have nearly 100% of my range of motion!
So, who am I? My name is Dr. Joel Vickers. I am a Chiropractor here at Vickers AK Chiropractic in Holland, Michigan and I use Applied Kinesiology as my primary diagnostic tool. Hopefully, by now you have read “Muscle Weakness From Trauma” found elsewhere on our website to better understand how Applied Kinesiology or “AK” can help restore your muscles back to their proper working order.
Call Vickers AK Chiropractic at (616) 738-1200 to make an appointment, and let me help you feel better with Applied Kinesiology muscle balancing techniques that can help you use your shoulders again!
by vicakbb | Dec 28, 2015 | Applied Kinesiology, Muscle Damage
Do you ever wonder why you can’t do the things you used to do when you were younger? Things like…walking, or running, or jumping? Are you telling your friends you can’t take them up on their offer to play in that softball or volleyball league with them because of that old hip or knee injury, the nagging shoulder pain, or the wrist soreness?
Have you told your buddies that the flag football or basketball games are now just a distant memory and that you don’t do that anymore… not because you don’t want to but because you hurt too much afterwards?
Hi! My name is Dr. Joel Vickers. I have been practicing Chiropractic in Michigan since 1992, and I use Applied Kinesiology (AK), Nutrition Response Testing (NRT), and Morphogenic Field Technique (MFT) as my primary diagnostic tools. Many of you already know about NRT and MFT so I’d like to tell you a little bit about Applied Kinesiology.
Applied Kinesiology or “AK” is a diagnostic system where manual muscle testing is used to help the doctor make his diagnosis. Started in 1964 by a second-generation chiropractor in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, AK is widely known as the granddaddy of muscle testing techniques. AK is taught only to those who are licensed to diagnose, which limits its use to physicians. There are only about 150 doctors who use AK worldwide!
I primarily use AK as a muscle-balancing technique to restore balance and, hence, enhanced function to the human frame. 900 hours of AK Training and 25 years of experienced use of this wonderful technique has allowed me to help restore muscular balance to thousands of grateful patients.
But, a short anatomy lesson first…
There are 650 muscles in the human body. These muscles hold the 200 bones in their proper position (posture) and they move the bones around (movement) like when we walk, run, jump, write, type, cook, talk, etc. Every time we move, our brain calls on a muscle or a combination of muscles to help us move our body or parts of our bodies.
Some of our muscles are regulated automatically by our nervous system, like our heart muscle, which pumps blood throughout our bodies, or the diaphragm, which helps us breathe. The rest are moved voluntarily by us telling our brain what we want to do.
These muscles can become weak. I don’t mean “weak” from not using them at all or not exercising regularly because we use our muscles all the time. Did you know that within fifteen minutes of getting out of bed in the morning you have used all 650 muscles! What I’m talking about are these two types of muscle weaknesses:
- Muscle weakness due to trauma to the muscle itself
2. Muscle weakness due to organ dysfunction
In this report I will address the first type of muscle weakness, weakness due to trauma to the muscle itself. In another report I will address the second type of muscle weakness that is due to organ dysfunction.
First, let’s look at how a muscle may become weakened through trauma, ie. jolts, jars, falls, accidents, etc.
Did you know, in an auto accident at 30 miles-per-hour you experience approximately 2,000 pounds of shear force to your head and neck? No wonder they call it “whiplash”! What if you’re going 15 miles-per-hour and hit someone coming straight at you at 15 miles-per-hour? Same thing. The effective speed is still 30 miles-per-hour and the force is the same. Unless you’re Superman or Superwoman, you cannot stop the damage that will occur to your body.
People have died from an 8 mile-an-hour impact.
Consider these other more common scenarios as well…
Two athletes are running towards one another at high speed and they collide. A rider falls off their horse. A cyclist falls off their bike. An athlete sprains an ankle. Another torques their knee. A weightlifter injures their shoulder lifting weights. A person walking on a slippery surface falls down, injuring their back, leg, shoulder, and wrist. A dental patient receives trauma to their jaw from dental work or from braces…which is more common than you think! The possibilities are endless.
We live in a high-speed world…way faster than our ancestors. Accidents happen all the time and some accidents are worse than others. Most of the time our body handles the trauma well and we only have a few days of down time until we are up and running again. However, sometimes our bodies don’t handle the trauma, and we suffer from it, either immediately or later…sometimes much later in our lives.
Many people think that, if there are no broken bones then their trauma wasn’t severe enough to warrant any doctor’s or therapist’s intervention. Nothing could be further from the truth!
However, if bones are broken or ligaments torn, then that amount of force generated will certainly take its toll on weaker tissues, such as muscle tissue. This explains why, after fractures or ligament damage, most therapies take so long, often without any lasting benefit.
Exercising a muscle that has been damaged via trauma won’t turn it back on. Specific exercises may strengthen muscles around the damaged muscle, but the damaged muscle will continue to stay weak. Ask anybody who has done specific exercises after an injury. As soon as they stop doing them, the problem comes right back.
I use AK to help me find the muscles that have been weakened through trauma…but that’s just the beginning. I also use it to restore normal function of the weak muscle.
In other words…I turn the muscle back on!
There are at least twenty different therapeutic techniques that I use to turn muscles back on. These twenty plus techniques are not used all at once nor are they all used on the same muscle. Some muscles may require two or three therapeutic techniques to get them functioning normally and others may require just one.
What’s exciting about this is that it requires no specific exercises, and no weights, pulleys, or rubber bands! Even more exciting is the fact that, once a muscle is turned on, it won’t need to be turned on again. It is now working 100%, for life!
That is, unless you injure it again.
Isn’t having the use of all our muscles one of the major things we all want as we get older? Wouldn’t you like to be able to go hiking with your grandchildren or your great grandchildren…when you’re 80 or 90 years old? How about playing tennis when you’re 70 or 80 or beyond? How about playing full-court basketball with players who are 30 or 40 years younger than you, not only keeping up with them but be considered a serious competitor in their eyes?
Or have you given all that up because of some nagging pain or injury that keeps you sidelined while others go out and enjoy life? Years ago I met up with a friend of mine from high school at our ten-year reunion who told me he had stopped playing basketball because he kept injuring himself…and he didn’t want to miss any more work. How sad! What have you given up in your life due to injuries that were never addressed, movement that was lost, and function that wasn’t restored?
I know and understand these types of questions and I can help you, your friends and your loved ones gain back the pain-free movement that we all desire.
Call Vickers AK Chiropractic at (616) 738-1200 today to make your appointment with me, Dr. Vickers, and let’s get your body functioning the way mother nature intended it to function.
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