The Chiropractic Stress Evaluation
TECHNIQUE
Howard F. Loomis
Jr. DC
"Very often the cause goes undetected and only the effect (symptom) is treated."
You might ask why do chiropractors need a stress exam? First, I believe our profession desperately needs a simple, convenient, noninvasive test with which the public can easily identify. Second, stress is something that everyone experiences to a greater or lesser extent, and the public does not associate chiropractic with treating stress. In a word, “marketing” would be reason enough.
Let me say the same thing only differently. Most chiropractors see a cross-section of the public seeking relief from symptoms that medicine has been unable to effectively relieve. That requires a “triage system,” if you will, to identify whether structural, emotional, or visceral stress is depleting a patient’s energy and is responsible for his or her symptoms. These symptoms are inconvenient and preventing the patient from performing normal, everyday functions. Very often the cause goes undetected and only the effect (symptom) is treated.
I am sure you remember the Gallup-Palmer College Inaugural Report of 2015. Part of that survey asked people to describe their frequency of using chiropractic services.
“Which of the following statements best describes your experience with a chiropractor?”
• 49% answered, “I have never been to a chiropractor.”
• 25% answered, “I have been to a chiropractor, but it was more than five years ago.”
• 12% answered, “I have been to a chiropractor within the last five years.”
• 14% answered, “I have been to a chiropractor within the last twelve months.”
That means that 86% of Americans do not seek chiropractic care on a regular basis.
So maybe we need a chiropractic stress evaluation just to educate the public on what we have available for keeping them healthy by recognizing the effects of stress before a chronic degenerative process can be diagnosed that requires medical intervention.
Where do the other 86% go for treatment of symptoms?
Who is your major competitor? I am sure you know it is the pharmacy or over-the-counter shelves of favorite retailers. What are their best sellers? Pain relievers, antihistamines, laxatives, antacids, and proton pump inhibitors. It has not escaped your attention, but your patients do not know that pharmaceutical remedies do not restore normal function to relieve symptoms. In fact, they block normal physiological defense processes from occurring. That is why they all have side effects. They treat the effect and not the cause. What profession trains its students to find the cause of a patient’s symptoms, rather than searching for a remedy to block the symptoms? If you could identify the cause of a patient’s symptoms (stressor), you could guide the patient to remove or reduce the stressor and determine the best treatment to restore normal function, thus preventing potential future side effects and a chronic degenerative condition. Once the cause is known, the treatment becomes obvious.
Another reason for a chiropractic stress evaluation:
The American Medical Association has noted that stress goes unnoticed as the basic cause of more than 60% of all human illness and disease. Thus, it is behind the initiation, exacerbation, and maintenance of most killer diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, mental illness, etc. This was the subject of the National Geographic presentation “Portrait of a Killer” that aired on December 9,2013.1 believe it is still available online.
Hans Selye once said, “It is not stress that kills you; it is your reaction to it.” In other words, symptoms of stress appear when the body does not have adequate energy to meet the many demands being placed on it. Let’s discuss that because it is the basis of my chiropractic stress evaluation.
Chiropractic is applied basic science:
I suppose there are as many definitions of chiropractic as there are chiropractors, or at least as many national and state laws and organizations. However, if we look at the primary basic sciences and determine the stressor to the tissues involved, we would have an excellent overview of where and why the symptoms were occurring.
• Anatomy - musculoskeletal symptoms - opposing gravity to move
• Neurology - neurological symptoms - emotional and cognitive functions
• Physiology - visceral symptoms
All Symptoms are Caused by Stress
Stress is a specific physiological cascade of events to meet energy demands for increased need, be it mechanical, emotional, or visceral. We have all studied the “fight-or-flight” response for emergencies. However, the everyday, walking-around truth is when the brain recognizes it lacks adequate glucose to meet its energy demands, it strongly stimulates both the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system to elevate available glucose levels.
Immediate Systemic Changes:
• Increases arterial blood pressure - How many of your patients have high blood pressure? Do you check a patient’s blood pressure on every visit?
• Increases rates of cellular metabolism throughout the body - How many of your patients are on thyroid medications?
• Increases mental activity - How many of your patients have difficulty sleeping and struggle to relax and become serene? Which of your patients routinely use “sleeping pills?”
• Increases blood clotting - How many are on so-called “blood thinners” or take a baby aspirin daily?
Immediate Musculoskeletal System Changes:
• Increased blood flow to active muscles.
• Increased glycolysis in muscle tissue resulting in increased muscle strength.
Immediate Visceral Organ System Changes:
• Decreased blood flow to organs that are not needed for rapid activity. Which systems would that be?
• Decreased digestive secretions and peristalsis - How many patients have digestive or bowel elimination problems?
• The cells send their amino acids to the liver for conversion to glucose. How many of your patients are protein deficient? Are you familiar with the symptoms of a protein deficiency?
Sitting Stress Evaluation:
Here is a scientifically valid, “no new equipment needed” procedure that takes less than two minutes to perform. It is not technique-specific and can be done prior to or after treatment. I have used this procedure in my office since 1968 on every patient every time I treated one. While moving through the following procedure, recall that the body struggles to maintain the head with eyes level to the horizon, directly above the sacrum. While standing behind the seated patient check the following points:
1. The Universal Stress Point
Palpate across the shoulders above the supraspinatus and upper trapezius muscles. When you feel involuntary muscle contraction, this patient is under stress (energy deficient). Every patient, including you, knows where that area is and knows it is caused by stress. We love to have that area massaged.
2. Vertebral Prominens Test
A physical sign involving pain when pressure is applied to the spinous process of the vertebra prominens (VP), usually C7 or Tl. Observed by Franklin Mohan, MD, and reported in the Canadian Family Physician, Dr. Mohan stated that he used the sign for 20 years to screen for symptoms of mild depression that are usually accompanied by medically unexplained (non-disease) structural symptoms.
The functional symptoms varied from patient to patient, but the vertebral prominens was painful in patients with depression. It was painless for patients who were not depressed. Interestingly, after treatment for depression, the VP was still sore. Is the spinous process painful (chronic) or not painful (acute)?
3. Shoulder Fixation Test
Stand behind the seated patient and reach your left arm around the front of the patient’s neck. Roll your left thumb behind the head of the right clavicle above the sternoclavicular articulation. With your right arm, passively abduct the patient’s right arm past 90 degrees. It has been my clinical experience that shortening of the ligaments that connect the sternum and clavicle resulting in loss of range of motion accurately reflects the state of chronicity present in the structural components of the body.
Specifically, the sternoclavicular joint reflects the body’s struggle against gravity and mirrors the state of the integrity of the sacroiliac and iliofemoral joints, which transfer body weight down the lower extremities.
When unrestricted movement occurs with or without some discomfort, the test is graded as mild.
When movement occurs with an audible “clicking,” the test is graded as moderate. This is due to shortening of the ligaments.
Lack of movement at the sternoclavicular joint implies a severe restriction.
4.Palpate for flattening of the normal thoracic kyphosis
A flattening of the thoracic spine as the patient leans forward at the waist with the head in flexion. The so-called Pottenger’s saucer was named for Francis Pottenger, MD, and is a transitory loss of normal thoracic kyphosis due to involuntary muscle contractions. Its presence is associated with dysfunction of the digestive and metabolic organs as well as headaches.
Hemipelvis
With the patient seated on a level surface, examine to see if there is an unlevel pelvis—one iliac crest lower than the other. This structural misalignment has a profound effect on bowel and urogenital dysfunction as well as structural misalignments and spinal subluxations. It is also the cause of symptoms referred to as restless legs syndrome.
Conclusion
If you are interested in increasing the 14% reported by Gallup to Palmer College, you might consider incorporating the chiropractic stress evaluation. This evaluation informs your patients in less than a minute or two if their symptoms are arising from an energy deficiency that is acute or chronic; mild, moderate, or severe in nature; and related to digestive, metabolic, bowel, or urogenital problems complicated by structural dysfunctions!
Howard F. Loomis, Jr., DC, has an extensive background in enzymes and enzyme supplements. He is the founder and president of the Food Enzyme Institute. His extensive knowledge of physiology, biochemistry, and enzymology has made him a soughtafter speaker and a prolife writer. The Food Enzyme Institute offers seminars to healthcare practitioners around the country.
Dr. Loomis published ENZYMES: The Key to Health in 1999. He also co-authored and published The Enzyme Advantage: For Healthcare Providers and People Who Care About Their Health in 2015, and The Enzyme Advantage for Women in 2016, with respected medical journalist Arnold Mann.
Contact info: 478 Commerce Dr. Suite 201, Madison, WI 53 719. customerservice(xffoodenzymeinstitute.com, 800-662-2630.
