Is it a Muscle or a Joint Problem?

So I always get asked, “Is it a muscle or a joint problem?” Well, there are 2 answers to that, bear with me whilst we go on a circular conversation here.

Now, if you are asking which tissue is injured and producing pain it can be one or the other, or both or neither. Answering the question this way is what we call the reductionist approach to problem solving.

One the other hand, if your approach to problem solving is holistic it can never be one without the other. The problem will always be both, regardless of which particular tissue is actually injured or generating the pain. Muscles and joints, their supporting tissues and the over-riding control of the nervous system are inseparable. Actually, this inseparability is true for all body systems.

 It was the more recent approach to modern medicine that took the reductionist view, looking at the body as separate parts. A wonderful stepping stone in gaining understanding of the human body, and catastrophically falling short as even a starting point in understanding the human mind.

 As with all things though, once you’ve deconstructed something into its constituent parts the next step is to put it all back together again. But this approach of pulling apart and putting back together as if with a machine, otherwise referred to as Mechanistic Determinism, still lands us well short of where we need to be. After all we are far more than the sum of all our parts and we now know that there are factors at play that extend well beyond the ‘physiochemical.’

I remember the pulling apart well whilst studying neuroanatomy in my medical science degree. We were put into groups of 3, given a head each cut off at the neck (ours was called Monroe, pretty sure not his actual name) and set to dismantle it with scalpels and bone saws. It was amazing to do and served to provide wonderful insights with regards to anatomy but still very different and far removed from working on a head still attached and animated with life-force.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the brightest minds of the day were still arguing about whether the mind and body were uniquely separate or connected and how much one could influence the other… ridiculous to even consider now, as I’m sure are many of the other concepts we entertain today and will look back upon as folly in years to come.

Reductionism plays its part in providing a starting point in medical science. But the real magic comes from a thorough understanding of the intricate interplay of all our systems; structural, visceral, emotional, neurological, biochemical, social, energetic and so on and so on until eventually somewhere along the way a paradigm shift must occur to account for the many non-mechanistic factors at play ultimately giving rise to the idea of Vitalism or Vital Indeterminism.

Professor Lovejoy describes this type of vitalism as the general doctrine that “the action of living bodies is not strictly a function of the number and spatial configuration of the particles composing them at any instant.” This doctrine, I can’t help but point out is one that the modern day western medicine with its roots firmly planted in pharmacy clearly ignores while it continually focuses billions of dollars monetising the next chemical that will provide what they believe to be your ‘mechanistic body’ the missing compound it so desperately needs for a return to health. In truth, modern medicine is still functioning in principles, ideologies and paradigms that have now been dated for nearly 100 years. While acknowledging that physiochemical mechanisms prevail universally they do not, and cannot, afford a complete explanation of certain natural processes.

As our understanding continues to evolve the paradigm continues to shift towards the unbreakable universal law that everything is connected and we are just desperately trying to piece it all together.

If the sun is responsible for the same rise and fall of neurochemicals like cortisol and melatonin these universal forces cannot be left unaccounted for in understanding the human organism and its manifestation of either health or disease. It is from this most basic recognition of interaction between natural forces and our health that mountains of research has followed into areas like sleep science, neuroendocrinology and psychology to name a few.

If the pull of the moon is responsible for the tides, what are the possible effects that lunar cycles may have on our biology given that we are 70% water? All of a sudden a concept such as this doesn’t sound so alternate anymore.

As I heard it once said, “To not understand nature is to not understand ourselves, because we are nature” (sorry forget the originator of the quote!)

So now we find ourselves back at the start of this little conversation… when someone asks if it’s muscle or joint, not out of disrespect but in recognition of how much and how little I know about the topic I have to try to keep the smile off my face and just say, “Well you know it’s both, and here’s why….” What I do know though is that if your joints are locked up, your muscles tight and weak you are definitely a big step away from your potential of health and synergy with the natural order of things.

True health cannot be had without a deeper understanding of yourself and your true place in nature. If it is true health that you are after my starting advice is to work towards finding out how holistic or reductionist, vitalistic or mechanistic your health care providers are in their thinking. That way you’ll know if you’re playing the long or the short game with your health.

Andrew Richards (Chiropractor)