1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,800 Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:12,080 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,600 Now, here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:16,080 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:21,160 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board certified doctor of non-force chiropractic and practitioner 6 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:22,680 of functional medicine. 7 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:27,360 I identify conditions other doctors miss by running tests that your insurance usually 8 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,720 doesn't want to pay for because they consider them, quote, medically unnecessary. 9 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:37,560 And the focus of this show is metabolic conditions, meaning the loss of function in various organs 10 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:44,040 and tissues that result in problems with digestion or immune system function, high blood pressure, 11 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:51,040 high cholesterol, heart disease, anemia, low thyroid, diabetes, brain fog, difficulty getting 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:58,040 to sleep, waking up and not being able to get back to sleep, anxiety, depression, dementia, 13 00:00:58,040 --> 00:00:59,040 et cetera. 14 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:04,960 And I help people with these things mainly with better food, exercise, and supplements. 15 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:09,120 But as I mentioned at the top of each show, I'm a non-force chiropractor. 16 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:13,040 So I thought I'd talk a little bit about that for this episode today. 17 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,320 So what is non-force chiropractic? 18 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:18,600 How is that even possible? 19 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:23,160 Don't all chiropractors crack your bones, twist your neck, snap your back? 20 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:24,160 No. 21 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,320 We don't all do that. 22 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:28,960 But then what is chiropractic? 23 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:33,640 So the definition of chiropractic just means done by hand. 24 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:37,000 Chiro is Greek for hand. 25 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,360 And practic from practikos means done by. 26 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,920 So chiropractic just means done by hand. 27 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:48,880 The term was invented back in 1895 by Daniel David Palmer, the founder of the profession 28 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:49,880 of chiropractic. 29 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:55,680 Back in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa, where he founded the very first chiropractic college, 30 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,440 which as it happened is the school I went to, Palmer College of Chiropractic, where 31 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:03,280 I graduated in 1989. 32 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:05,280 So I've been in practice for 33 years. 33 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:10,840 I've been at my current office in downtown Ventura since 1997. 34 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:13,120 So what is non-force chiropractic? 35 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:20,680 How can you fix neck pain or headaches or back pain or sciatica or carpal tunnel syndrome? 36 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,960 Any of the things that chiropractors usually work on, how can you do any of that without 37 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:30,280 manipulating the spine, without doing the traditional style of an adjustment? 38 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:36,980 The best way to understand this is to understand that most musculoskeletal pain, most physical 39 00:02:36,980 --> 00:02:45,920 pain is caused by hypersensitive nerve endings and patterns of tension in muscles. 40 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:50,760 Hypersensitive nerve endings and patterns of tension in muscles. 41 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,480 That's what causes most physical pain. 42 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:57,240 That's what causes most neck pain and most back pain and most foot pain and shoulder 43 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,400 pain and headaches, et cetera. 44 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:04,600 So someone with low back pain, if you've ruled out a metabolic cause like kidney disease 45 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:11,720 or bone cancer or some injury to tissue in the back like a herniated disc or dislocation 46 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:18,400 or a fracture or a torn muscle, some kind of acute trauma, lacking those things, most 47 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:24,080 pain in the low back as elsewhere is caused by tension in muscles and hypersensitive nerve 48 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:25,080 endings. 49 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:26,240 So a lot of times you can't even feel this. 50 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:31,000 And I sometimes hesitate to say tight and instead say short muscles. 51 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,360 Your muscles become shorter and tighter. 52 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,200 If I say your muscles are tight, you assume that that means you can feel them. 53 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:40,040 You can feel muscles when they're tight. 54 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:43,640 But a lot of times you have tight muscles that you can't feel because they've just 55 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,560 gotten shorter and shorter over time. 56 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:51,840 You may notice that you have less range of motion, less flexibility than you used to. 57 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:52,840 That's what I'm talking about. 58 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:56,960 When you have less flexibility, that is due to a pattern of tension in muscles. 59 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,340 The muscles become shorter over time. 60 00:04:00,340 --> 00:04:05,000 And therefore when you lose that flexibility, when you lose that range of motion, it becomes 61 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:11,040 much more easier, much more easy to traumatize that tissue, to create little micro tears 62 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:14,240 just through normal movements. 63 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:16,540 Never mind something like a full blown injury. 64 00:04:16,540 --> 00:04:21,280 For example, a lot of people will herniated disc in their low back and the final straw 65 00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:24,240 is just bending over to pick something up off the floor. 66 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:28,720 They drop their comb or their toothbrush and they throw their back out. 67 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,520 Well, that's not the full picture. 68 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:37,240 That low back was an accident waiting to happen for many, many years before someone actually 69 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:38,240 comes in. 70 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:46,040 So a lot of times the spot where you feel the pain is not where the pain is being caused. 71 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:47,920 And it could be a long distance away from that. 72 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:52,440 For example, really tight hamstring muscles on the back of your legs or even calf, tight 73 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,400 calf muscles can cause low back pain. 74 00:04:55,400 --> 00:05:00,280 And the hamstrings and the calf muscles aren't even directly attached to your low back. 75 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:04,760 The hip rotator muscles, which are less familiar to most people, but these are muscles in the 76 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:10,000 upper gluteal area that enable you to turn your foot out like a ballerina turning their 77 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,560 foot out or a soccer player use these muscles. 78 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,680 Most of the time we walk around, we're not turning our feet in and out that much, just 79 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,360 bending the knees like an engine walking forward and back. 80 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:26,800 But these hip and sitting in chairs, people say, well, how did I get this way? 81 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:31,640 How did these muscles end up short and tight without me even being aware of it until they 82 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:33,840 got bad enough to cause the pain? 83 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:40,000 All you need to do to develop patterns of tension in the hip rotators and the hamstrings 84 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,640 and the quadriceps, all the muscles mainly in your hips and your legs are the ones that 85 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:46,200 mainly cause low back pain. 86 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:51,480 For example, all you have to do for those muscles to become tighter and tighter over 87 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:56,320 time is sit in chairs. 88 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:59,520 Anybody out there sitting in a chair right now? 89 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:03,920 Anybody out there spend the majority of their day sitting in a car or sitting in front of 90 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:07,120 a computer or sitting and reading somewhere? 91 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,080 Throughout much of the world, people don't sit in chairs. 92 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:11,680 They sit on the floor. 93 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,920 People that sit on the floor in countries in Asia and elsewhere and get up and down 94 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:21,000 off the floor several times a day, they don't get tight hip rotators and tight hamstrings 95 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,600 and some of these other tight muscles that cause this pain, this situation, this pattern 96 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,200 of tension that builds up that causes low back pain. 97 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,320 So if you have patterns of tension like that, you will eventually develop tension in the 98 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:37,920 joints and that's what traditional chiropractic is looking for first, mainly is tension in 99 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:38,920 the joints. 100 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:45,040 So if you find a tight spot, a tight joint in your spine and mobilize it with an adjustment, 101 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:49,000 immediately that tension is freed up and you get a little hit of endorphins and it feels 102 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:50,000 amazing. 103 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:51,920 And you know, there's nothing wrong with traditional chiropractic. 104 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:55,720 I tell people I get a lot of patients who come to me who've been to other chiropractors 105 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:00,640 and I always tell them, you know, it's good that you were getting adjusted because after 106 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,780 examining their low back, it's clear it's been tight for a long time. 107 00:07:04,780 --> 00:07:08,560 If they hadn't been getting some kind of an adjustment or massage or some other kind of 108 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:13,280 treatment, it would be even worse because you know, you would have developed worse arthritis. 109 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:20,600 You know, arthritis and the spine especially is the result of lack of movement in those 110 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:21,600 joints. 111 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:23,960 That's the main cause and trauma, you know, mild traumas. 112 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,840 If you had injuries that happens, but even when you have a fall slip and fall, you get 113 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:33,280 in a car accident or any kind of injury where you know that, Hey, I just did this and it 114 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:34,860 hurt my back. 115 00:07:34,860 --> 00:07:39,080 The part of your back that ends up injured is the part that's already an accident waiting 116 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:40,080 to happen. 117 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:44,600 That's the part that's already overloaded by these short tight muscles, by these patterns 118 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:50,120 of tension that have built up over usually many, many years, if not decades before you 119 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,220 first feel the pain. 120 00:07:52,220 --> 00:07:58,160 So you ask, how can I fix something that's been there for years or decades, something 121 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:03,120 that's really stuck and really tight without applying some kind of force, without doing 122 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:07,560 a traditional adjustment, without manipulating the spine or doing some kind of deep tissue 123 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:11,200 massage or physical therapy or something like that? 124 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:16,080 Well, the best way to understand that is to understand how your brain and your nervous 125 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:21,840 system control all those muscles and what's interfering with keeping them supple and loose 126 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,800 and flexible and relaxed the way they would like to be. 127 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:31,060 And so the best way to understand that is all the nerves that control every muscle in 128 00:08:31,060 --> 00:08:36,640 your body start out in your brain and then pass down through the brain stem through a 129 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:41,680 little hole in the base of your skull, which then forms the spinal cord, which travels 130 00:08:41,680 --> 00:08:47,120 down the center of your spine all the way down to your tailbone. 131 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:51,520 And then all of the rest of the nerves branch to the rest of your body, branch off from 132 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:55,640 the spinal cord, all the nerves in your arm, upper extremity, all the way down to your 133 00:08:55,640 --> 00:09:01,600 fingertips, branch off of the spinal cord and your neck, all the nerves to your legs 134 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:06,000 and all the way down to your feet, branch off the spinal cord in the base of the spine, 135 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,800 near the bottom of the low back and the between your hips and all the nerves to the major 136 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,760 organs from the vertebra in the middle. 137 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:18,280 So the cervical spine is your neck, the thoracic spine is your middle back, your lumbar spine, 138 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:21,960 your low back, and then the sacrum, pelvis, et cetera. 139 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:27,580 So these, this tissue, this brain and spinal cord, the central nervous system is surrounded 140 00:09:27,580 --> 00:09:29,800 by it's very delicate. 141 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,920 If you remove the brain, I show this to people when somebody comes into my office and I explain 142 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:40,240 this, I open Grey's Anatomy and show them a picture of a human brain and spinal cord 143 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:43,840 that's been removed from the body. 144 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:48,360 And it, you know, it's about the consistency of jello or overcooked pasta. 145 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:50,040 It's very delicate. 146 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:54,320 So you could easily just pinch the spinal cord anywhere along its length or right where 147 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:57,160 it attaches to the brain and cut it off. 148 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,160 And if you'd become paralyzed if you did that. 149 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:03,380 So the brain and the spinal cord are very well protected. 150 00:10:03,380 --> 00:10:07,280 The brain is completely surrounded by the skull, by a bony container called the skull 151 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:08,920 that protects it. 152 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:15,040 And the spinal cord is completely surrounded by the spine, which is essentially a tube 153 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:18,560 of bone cut up into 24 segments. 154 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:23,780 So you can move with some levers on the back for muscles to attach to. 155 00:10:23,780 --> 00:10:27,200 And all that bone protects the delicate brain and spinal cord. 156 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:32,000 But in addition to all that bone, the brain and the spinal cord are also surrounded by 157 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:36,760 a fluid filled sack called the meninges. 158 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:41,880 It's the meninges plural because it's three layers that compose this sack and it's filled 159 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:45,880 with fluid called the cerebrospinal fluid. 160 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:47,560 So you've probably heard of a spinal tap. 161 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:51,800 That's where they remove some cerebrospinal fluid maybe to see if you have an infection. 162 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:55,880 If you've ever heard of an epidural, epidural means around the dura. 163 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:59,680 So that's an injection that goes right around that sack to block pain, which is a common 164 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:03,840 thing in people with low back pain or during pregnancy. 165 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,600 And sometimes they even inject pain medication directly into that cerebrospinal fluid in 166 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:11,000 severe cases too, which is called a nerve block. 167 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:17,480 So that sack protects the delicate brain and spinal cord inside the skull and the spine. 168 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:22,520 And then once the nerves exit the spine, then they're surrounded by a thick layer of connective 169 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:25,260 tissue of their own that protects them. 170 00:11:25,260 --> 00:11:31,080 So the communication between your brain and all those muscles happens through the spine. 171 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:36,880 And that's why if there's any area of your spine that's creating pressure, and it's often 172 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:38,480 not even really pressure. 173 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:43,800 The idea of a pinched nerve is a simple way of explaining things to somebody that's sort 174 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:47,880 of easy to grasp, but it's really not, it's rarely what happens. 175 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:51,840 Rarely is the pressure so severe that pinching is an accurate term. 176 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:53,280 It's more just rubbing. 177 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:54,280 It's just a slight pressure. 178 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:59,800 All it takes is a little bit of pressure on a nerve where it exits the spine to create 179 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:04,680 pain in your shoulder or in your neck from nerves that are exiting the spine in your 180 00:12:04,680 --> 00:12:11,720 neck or pain in your low back or glutes or down the back of your leg, sciatica from pressure 181 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,760 of the nerves exiting your spine there. 182 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:20,120 And that pressure can be from, in a worst case scenario, a herniated disc or a dislocation 183 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,560 or a fracture. 184 00:12:22,560 --> 00:12:24,680 Nerves and fractures are pretty rare in the spine. 185 00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:29,200 Herniated discs are pretty common, but it's much more common than that. 186 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:30,560 Take sciatica for example. 187 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:36,000 The nerve that goes down the back of your leg, it's a big bundle of nerves that's formed 188 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:38,640 by several nerve roots at the base of your spine. 189 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:42,880 So just imagine those nerve roots exiting the base of your spine on either side in the 190 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:47,320 sacrum area, the low back, the bone that your two hip bones connect to. 191 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,760 Several little nerve roots are connecting back up and forming a bundle that forms this 192 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:51,760 thick cable. 193 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:54,800 It's about a half inch thick called the sciatic nerve. 194 00:12:54,800 --> 00:13:01,040 And that goes down the back of your leg and every muscle and every sensation in the back 195 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:06,600 of your leg and from the knee down, front, the whole leg from the knee down and your 196 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,640 foot, toes, everything are all innervated. 197 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:10,640 They're all the nerves too. 198 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:15,880 All of those parts of the leg and foot are from branches of this sciatic nerve. 199 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:20,460 Well, that nerve can be irritated where it originates in the spinal cord. 200 00:13:20,460 --> 00:13:25,400 If you have a herniated disc, that's a common cause of sciatica or any pain, numbness, tingling, 201 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,520 burning, shooting down your leg all the way down to your toes. 202 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:30,000 It might just be in your toe. 203 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:35,140 It might just be just a pain in a few of your toes or numbness or tingling or burning that's 204 00:13:35,140 --> 00:13:40,800 caused by pressure where those nerves originate in the spine and your low back. 205 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:43,040 And that could be caused by a bulging disc. 206 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,200 It may not even be fully herniated. 207 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:48,720 It might just be have some micro tearing that's creating a bulge. 208 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:52,000 But again, this isn't really pinching the nerve necessarily. 209 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,400 It's just rubbing on it a little bit, irritating it all the time. 210 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,040 And that's why the pain can come and go. 211 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,800 Well, the sciatic nerve after branching off from several levels of the nerve roots that 212 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:13,080 exit the low back also goes through some of these hip rotator muscles in the glute area 213 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:15,840 called the piriformis and the gluteus minimus and medius. 214 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,960 The gluteus maximus, most people know that one, that's the big butt muscle. 215 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,920 But there are some smaller glutes underneath that one and another hip rotator called the 216 00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:24,920 piriformis. 217 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:30,560 And these muscles, the sciatic nerve goes right under the piriformis. 218 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:36,140 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley presenting to you safe, effective natural solutions for almost any 219 00:14:36,140 --> 00:14:37,140 health challenge. 220 00:14:37,140 --> 00:14:42,200 And the focus of today's talk is non-force chiropractic and specifically low back. 221 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,320 We've been talking about some of the causes of low back pain and in a little bit I'm going 222 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:51,000 to present a couple of cases of some really bad disc herniations that I was able to help. 223 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,520 But right now we're going to get back to the hip rotator muscles that press on the sciatic 224 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:55,520 nerve. 225 00:14:55,520 --> 00:15:00,120 So these muscles in the upper glute area can irritate the sciatic nerve. 226 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,920 And a lot of times people think they might have something really bad. 227 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:09,000 So for example, I've had patients come in who have had an MRI and they have a bulging 228 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,920 disc or two or three bulging discs in their back and they're told they may need surgery 229 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:17,360 or sometimes they've already been told they absolutely must have surgery. 230 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:22,900 Sometimes they're scheduled for surgery and I check them and find out that they've also 231 00:15:22,900 --> 00:15:27,020 got, they do have a herniated disc, but they've also got a tremendous amount of tension in 232 00:15:27,020 --> 00:15:32,960 these muscles that are irritating the sciatic nerve in the gluteal area. 233 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:38,040 And when I relieve that tension, it takes the pressure off the sciatic nerve and the 234 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:39,780 sciatica goes away. 235 00:15:39,780 --> 00:15:44,200 So a lot of times many, many people have bulging discs that don't cause a problem at all, especially 236 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,000 if it's in the lumbar spine, the low back. 237 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,000 They've lined up nurses back in the days when MRI machines were first coming out, they would 238 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:57,240 line up hospital staff and just do MRIs on everybody because MRIs have no radiation, 239 00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:58,240 no side effects. 240 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:03,320 They've already paid for the machine and just see how many people have disc herniations, 241 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:04,900 whether they have low back pain or not. 242 00:16:04,900 --> 00:16:10,480 And two thirds of everyone they do MRIs on have a bulging disc somewhere in their low 243 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:11,480 back. 244 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:13,600 And that's usually not the cause of the problem. 245 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,000 It's usually doesn't cause any pain at all or any symptoms. 246 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:22,400 It's not even necessarily dangerous if it's a really small bulge, especially if you get 247 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:28,320 a more complete exam and identify patterns of tension in the muscles, which are not your 248 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:32,840 back muscles, but muscles in your hips and your thighs and your legs. 249 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:38,120 Those are the muscles that are actually overloading and creating most of the stress on your low 250 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:42,080 back and causing the discs to bulge in the first place. 251 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:43,240 And there's a couple of muscles in the back. 252 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,080 There's also a psoas muscle, which I could do a whole show on that pinches your spine, 253 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,480 one of the core muscles that often goes unidentified. 254 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:54,280 A lot of doctors never check that muscle either. 255 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:59,660 But the point is, if you identify these patterns of tension in the hip rotators and the hamstrings 256 00:16:59,660 --> 00:17:06,920 and the quads and glutes and calves and then develop a strategy to release the tension 257 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:13,220 from those muscles, then the problem is much more likely to the correction of that. 258 00:17:13,220 --> 00:17:17,760 That style of correction is likely to last much longer than if, say, you just had a deep 259 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,440 tissue massage or traditional adjustment. 260 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:23,680 Again, both wonderful things, temporary relief. 261 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:28,160 But if you can get your brain to reverse this pattern of tension, to release this pattern 262 00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:32,160 of tension that's been built up in the muscles that are constantly stressing some part of 263 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:37,280 your body 24-7, even while you're sleeping a lot of times, then that's a much more lasting 264 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:38,280 solution. 265 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:40,960 So that's why I choose to not do traditional adjusting. 266 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:41,960 I used to. 267 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:43,040 Everybody, we were taught it in school. 268 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:46,680 It's actually really fun to crack necks and twist backs. 269 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,160 It's very satisfying, the little popping sound every once in a while. 270 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:54,800 My patients who have been to other chiropractors and are getting great results with non-force 271 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:58,480 chiropractic, sometimes they'll come in a couple of months later and say, you know what? 272 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:02,000 It just feels like if I could just get a little crack right here, that would fix that. 273 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,600 And I say, all right, we're going to do the non-force work we always do first. 274 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:07,800 And if there's anything left to crack there, we'll do it. 275 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:08,800 And of course, there never is. 276 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:11,000 It released the tension in the muscles. 277 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:19,240 If you can reconnect your brain to your back, then you no longer feel like you need a crack. 278 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:20,640 I'm a little proud of that one. 279 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:24,600 I wrote that a long time ago, and I'd kind of forgotten about it until just now. 280 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:30,600 If you can reconnect your brain to your back, you'll never feel the need for a crack. 281 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,560 So one of the great things about using non-force methods is I actually can do things that some 282 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:36,120 traditional chiropractors can't. 283 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:40,360 If you have a really bad herniated disc and you're scheduled for surgery because your 284 00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:47,320 whole leg is numb or you've lost muscle mass, you have obvious severe pressure on a nerve 285 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:49,160 somewhere, you can't crack that spine. 286 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:51,480 You can't do a traditional adjustment on that low back. 287 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:55,520 And I actually have chiropractors, traditional chiropractors that refer patients like that 288 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,920 to me because they know they can't do a regular adjustment on them anymore. 289 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,960 And I've had several patients like that that were scheduled for surgery. 290 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:06,320 And I look at their MRIs and I tell them, yeah, that's pretty bad. 291 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:08,160 You're probably going to need the surgery. 292 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,000 Well here's an example. 293 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:15,080 I had a man come to me who had a seven millimeter disc herniation in his neck. 294 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:16,080 That's really, really bad. 295 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:19,000 A seven millimeter disc herniation is bad in your low back. 296 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,200 Well, the discs in your neck are much smaller. 297 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,640 This thing was sticking out into the canal, definitely pressing on his nerves. 298 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:31,120 He had pain, severe pain in his neck all the way down his arm. 299 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:34,080 He couldn't, he lost strength in his arm, in his hand. 300 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,240 He couldn't, he couldn't hold a pencil. 301 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:37,240 He couldn't write. 302 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:38,680 He couldn't squeeze anything with his hand. 303 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:44,400 He was, you know, a lot of significant loss of muscle strength, pain and numbness. 304 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,440 And I told him, you're definitely going to need the surgery. 305 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:48,440 But guess what? 306 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:50,560 They usually schedule these surgeries a couple of months out. 307 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,200 So you definitely have to have the surgery, but no hurry. 308 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:54,400 We'll get you in in a couple of months. 309 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,200 Have you ever heard that before when you try to make an appointment with a specialist? 310 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:02,520 So anyway, he's not scheduled for surgery for something like six to eight weeks. 311 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:07,720 And I examined him and the segment that had this herniated disc was the second to last 312 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:09,320 one in his neck. 313 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:13,900 C6, there's six to seven vertebrae in the neck is the second to last one in his neck. 314 00:20:13,900 --> 00:20:21,640 And so C7 and T1, T2, three, four, five, six, the next six or seven vertebra below the damaged 315 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,600 disc were, it felt like they were almost fused. 316 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:27,440 There was no movement in them at all. 317 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:31,920 So I told him, if you don't get this area loosened up, even if you have the surgery, 318 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:36,200 you're not going to have a very good outcome because this, this is, this is so tight. 319 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:41,520 That's why this last segment that could move gave, finally gave out because nothing else 320 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:42,860 is moving. 321 00:20:42,860 --> 00:20:46,300 It was overloading this tissue and that's why you got this herniated disc here. 322 00:20:46,300 --> 00:20:51,400 So I recommend that we work on this, mainly this middle back of yours and get it loosened 323 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:55,400 up so that when it comes time to do the surgery, you'll have a better outcome. 324 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,600 It'll be less likely that the surgery won't give you the relief that you need. 325 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:00,600 And we did that. 326 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:07,000 And I worked on his back for about three weeks and I never touched, I didn't touch the herniated 327 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:08,000 segment C6. 328 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:10,280 I didn't touch the vertebra below that or the one below. 329 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,160 I stayed two segments away from that disc and all I was doing, he's laying on his back 330 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:19,160 and I'm just lifting these tight spots in his middle back up and holding in a way that 331 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:22,720 sends feedback to the brain so they can figure out how to release that tension. 332 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:27,760 Well, I did that for about three weeks and he started to gain strength back in his hand 333 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,520 and the pain in his neck was gone by half. 334 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:35,200 Well around six weeks, whenever his surgery was scheduled, he was like 50% better. 335 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:41,200 He had gained almost all of the strength back in his hand and his pain was like a quarter 336 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:42,800 of what it had been. 337 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,760 And he went back and saw the surgeon and the surgeon said, yeah, well, if you're doing 338 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,160 that well, let's hold off on the surgery. 339 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:56,600 So about three months later, he's got no pain, full strength back in his hand and it's like 340 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:57,840 he's almost as good as new. 341 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:02,580 He's still just got a little stiffness in his neck and he knows he needs to be careful. 342 00:22:02,580 --> 00:22:04,600 And this was a man in his 30s. 343 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,400 And he was otherwise, you know, in pretty good shape. 344 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,800 But I told him, I said, I have no idea how you've recovered this well. 345 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:12,400 There's no way that disc herniation is gone. 346 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:16,760 We've just gotten enough pressure off that it's not rubbing on those nerves and causing 347 00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:18,120 the nerve symptoms anymore. 348 00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:22,640 And we've relieved the tension from your middle back so it's not overloading that tissue and 349 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,260 the disc is healing. 350 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:27,040 But there's no way that bulge is completely gone. 351 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:32,320 It's just shrunk enough, apparently, based on physical findings alone to not press on 352 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:33,320 the nerves anymore. 353 00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:38,360 So I was, I was, I literally, I begged him to, you know, go to his doctor or come up 354 00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:41,800 with the cash himself so that I could order a follow up MRI so we could see what that 355 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:42,800 disc looked like. 356 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:44,880 But he just, he said, I'm, I'm good. 357 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:45,880 I feel fine. 358 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:48,440 He was driving to me from like an hour and a half away. 359 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:52,480 And so anyway, I never got to see a follow up MRI on next week's show. 360 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:57,040 I will present another case of really severe disc herniation where I have a series of MRIs 361 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:01,560 that chart the fact that we were able to reduce the disc herniation or reduce the bulge in 362 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,600 the disc with the type of treatment I'm talking about. 363 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:05,520 But anyway, this guy was fine. 364 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:06,700 I just told him to be careful. 365 00:23:06,700 --> 00:23:09,640 Maybe six months, eight months later, he came in and he'd hurt his neck. 366 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:10,640 He stopped coming all together. 367 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,040 I hope I think he kept doing his stretches. 368 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:17,520 But anyway, he came back in about six months later and he'd been playing with a niece or 369 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,840 a nephew or some kid, some small child holding him up, arms outstretched, holding him up 370 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:22,840 in the air. 371 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:26,720 You know, that, that kind of movement can really irritate your neck and he'd re-injured 372 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:27,720 it a little bit. 373 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,360 And even then we just, you know, did the same thing, worked on him again, got him back on 374 00:23:31,360 --> 00:23:35,320 his stretching and got him in coming in once a month for a little, for a little while. 375 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:40,600 And that was several years ago and he's, he's still feeling fine. 376 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:45,300 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley sharing with you safe, effective natural solutions to almost any 377 00:23:45,300 --> 00:23:46,800 health challenge. 378 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:51,800 Always remember the health of your body is more important than the name of any disease 379 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:53,760 that you've been diagnosed with. 380 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:58,200 Do something to be healthier this weekend than you were last weekend. 381 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:03,360 Please review last week's episode, all of the prior podcasts are available on my website 382 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:07,520 at Dr. Binkley or the website is BinkleyHealingCenter.com. 383 00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:10,000 You can find past episodes of all these shows there. 384 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:15,900 Last week I talked about all the reasons you really should try and avoid eating too much 385 00:24:15,900 --> 00:24:16,900 sugar. 386 00:24:16,900 --> 00:24:20,560 Yes, even right now during the holidays, it's sugar is really, really bad for you and it 387 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:24,660 causes a whole host of health problems, which I detailed in last week's episode. 388 00:24:24,660 --> 00:24:30,040 So eat a little fat and healthy protein before you go to those parties, some olives, some 389 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:35,200 chicken, something to fill you up before you're tempted with all that sugar and plan to go 390 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,540 for a 30 to 45 minute walk afterwards. 391 00:24:38,540 --> 00:24:39,540 Thank you for tuning in. 392 00:24:39,540 --> 00:24:41,120 Have a very Merry Christmas. 393 00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:46,320 I look forward to speaking with you right here on KDAR next week at 4 PM. 394 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:51,820 You've been listening to safe, effective natural solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 395 00:24:51,820 --> 00:24:56,320 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 396 00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,920 Dr. Binkley at BinkleyHealingCenter.com. 397 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:05,600 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 398 00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,560 ones because our health matters. 399 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:16,600 Join him next Friday at 4 PM for safe, effective natural solutions right here on 98.3 The Word, 400 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:23,600 KDAR.