The Root cause of a clients health issues is something that I give a lot of consideration to, particularly when it refers to pain, lack of mobility or energy and muscle & joint problems.

I often find that patients will come to me with a story about how they have a bad back, hip, and knee or shoulder problems. The story will usually include something about age or playing too much sport, having had a bad accident or fall and not being able to do the exercise to keep things moving. They will often have been to see many therapists, physiotherapists, and chiropractors etc. that are all quite happy to buy into this story and keep people coming back for regular treatment or maintenance.

It is not a story I agree with, for 3 reasons. Firstly the body is very good at healing itself, secondly when you identify the root cause of any issue then it is possible to support the body to heal itself. Thirdly if you focus on the story of why you have the health issue i.e. reduced mobility, pain, headaches etc then you are giving yourself permission to keep the problem rather than take the steps that are available to free yourself from that story and get back enjoying life and doing the things you want to do with new vitality.

The nervous system is responsible for our co ordination, mobility, pain messages, reflexes, communication between all the systems of the body and much more. During a consultation I investigate how the muscles are working and whether they are responding properly. This is often mistaken for strength testing when it is actually testing the nervous system and the patients reflex ability to function optimally. Reflexes are important because they protect the body from outside forces and protect us from injury. It is my belief that many injuries happen after reflexes become dysfunctional, not as a result of the injury incurred. This is particularly true of injury where the mechanism of injury is unknown. 

It is more difficult to apply this principle to a physical sport such as rugby where you are always going to have collisions that can end in injury, but again I will reiterate, it is reflexes that help our body respond and absorb an impact when we are playing. As yet there are no studies that I am aware of in this area but there are studies linking strength training reduces neck injury risk in professional rugby players and concussion risk in high school athletes (Hrysomallis C., 2016).

The other advantage of testing the whole bodies nervous system and reflexive ability is that it can help us to understand if a problem is isolated to a particular joint or area of the back or if there is a more systemic problem affecting the whole body, which means that the person is at a higher risk of injury and ill health.

The possible cause of dysfunction are huge but they can include things such as, nutritional deficiencies, toxic exposure to chemicals, extreme stress, poor diet, not drinking enough water etc. the list is endless. If I take one example from the list toxic exposure, this is everywhere even though we live in a part of the world with great air quality. Elements such as heavy metals like aluminum, cadmium and mercury can cause real problems for our health. Mercury is an abundant toxin it is extremely toxic to our system and although the majority of exposure comes from fish consumption and dental amalgam (Bernhoft R, 2012), it is also present in exhaust fumes and from certain industrial processes. Exposure to large amounts of mercury can cause very serious lung or gastrointestinal conditions. Lower levels of exposure are less well understood, but if the body’s natural ability to rid it of mercury through the glutathione system is impaired it can build up and cause health problems (Patrick L, 2002).

If you have been living with a story about why you have a certain health issue then finding the root cause can be a big part in helping change that story from one of living with a problem to finding solutions and getting your health back on track and in your control.

Bernhoft RA. (2012) Mercury Toxicity and Treatment: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Environmental Public Health 2012: 460508.

Hrysomallis C (2016) Neck Muscular Strength, Training, Performance and Sport Injury Risk: A Review. Journal of Sports Medicine 2016 Aug; 46(8): 1111-24.

Patrick L(2002) Mercury toxicity and antioxidants: Part 1: Role of Glutathione and Alpha-Lipoic Acid in the Treatment of Mercury Toxicity. Alternative Medicine Review 2002 Dec; 7(6): 456-71.