Stop Looking at the Crack!: A Hypothesis on the Source of Chronic Degenerative Pain and the Failure of Modern Medicine

By Alan Hessler MAPT COMT

Do you suffer from chronic pain? Have you been to numerous physicians and medical providers, endured costly tests and scans, taken extensive medications, and attempted exhaustive treatments, all with little improvement and no real answers as to why you keep having pain? This book attempts to address the real reason behind why we experience recurrent pain in our bodies, using simple analogies, accepted medical principles, and some common sense. The human body responds to the same laws of physics as every other structure in the universe. And so when the foundation of a building or a house or any structure is crooked, then cracks begin to develop in the walls. When the front-end alignment of your vehicle is askew, then the tires begin to show signs of uneven wear. Today's medical system solely focuses on these cracks in the walls or rubber and tries to fix them with drugs, injections, or even surgery, all with very poor results. Yet when someone is able to identify and correct the underlying problem, which is often nowhere near the site of symptoms, then the pain will not only be resolved but will also never return!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781642989632

Book preview

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Stop Looking at the Crack!

A Hypothesis on the Source of Chronic Degenerative Pain and the Failure of Modern Medicine

Alan Hessler MAPT, COMT

Copyright © 2018 Alan Hessler

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2018

ISBN 978-1-64298-965-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64298-963-2 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Occam’s razor:

"With all things given equal consideration,

the simplest explanation is usually correct."

To my amazing wife, LeAnn, and my three wonderful sons, Bryce, Hayden, and EJ, without whose love and support I would be nothing.

To the thousands of people that I have treated over the years, most especially the ones that I have been unable to help. Please know that my failures with you contributed to a massive learning curve that eventually led to these discoveries and that having any person entrusting me with their care has been and continues to be one of the great honors of my life.

Foreword

My story begins in the year 2001, five years after graduating summa cum laude. I was a practicing physical therapist and had begun to notice that much of what I had learned in school, specifically regarding the treatment of musculoskeletal pain, simply did not work. Standard theory dictated that if someone had pain, a combination of stretching, strengthening, medication, and modality applications (e.g., heat/ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation) would fix them. As I treated my patients at that time, I noticed that they would feel somewhat better but that few would experience complete resolution of their symptoms. The regular patient would be treated two to three times per week for perhaps two to three months with an approximate overall 25–50% improvement rate. This became extremely vexing for me as a clinician. I did everything that I was taught in school and yet still did not see the results that I was expecting.

Then a breakthrough came.

I began treating a twenty-three-year-old healthy woman of normal weight for chronic pain in the arches of her feet, known as plantar fasciitis. She had already tried treatment that included multiple medications and a series of cortisone injections to no avail. After treating her for three times a week for one month, using the standard treatments of massage, stretching, foot strengthening, and modality applications to her feet, there was absolutely no improvement. She had returned to her physician for a previously scheduled follow-up appointment with my recommendation to discontinue further treatment as she was not improving. The physician, however, asked if I would continue to work with her for one more month. The patient also expressed a desire to continue as she felt that I was her last hope before surgery. Frustrated, I reluctantly agreed.

I decided that I must try a new approach as my current treatment plan was obviously unsuccessful. I had to try to think outside of the box. At her next visit, I performed another physical assessment of her, only this time I did not just focus on her feet. During this reassessment, I had noticed that one of her legs was slightly longer than the other. Curious, I continued my examination to further explore the source of this leg length discrepancy. That was when I noticed that her sacrum (tailbone) also seemed to be slightly askew. I described my findings to the patient and asked her if I could try and correct this abnormality, explaining that I had no idea if it would have any effect on her symptoms. The young lady agreed, and I performed a mobilization technique to the tailbone that seemed to restore a more symmetrical alignment. To my surprise, this also resulted in what seemed to be symmetrical leg lengths afterward. I prescribed some gluteal strengthening exercises as part of her home program and did not render any treatment to her feet that day.

I anxiously awaited her next visit to find out if the out of the box thinking had any effect on her symptoms. To my astonishment, she reported that she had been nearly pain-free of her foot symptoms ever since her last session. I questioned her thoroughly to make sure that this was not simply wishful thinking or an attempt to appease my desire to help her, and I became satisfied that she was genuine in her response. I also performed a thorough palpatory assessment of previously noted trigger points in her feet that were previously painful, and I found they were no longer painful or tender to the touch. Further examination of her leg lengths and sacrum revealed that they no longer appeared askew and were fully symmetrical. I increased her gluteal strengthening exercises and told her to return later in the week. At her next visit, she again indicated that her pain had still completely subsided. My examination revealed that both sacrum and leg lengths were still symmetrical. I incredulously discharged her three visits later as she was consistently without pain for those next two weeks.

What ensued was a complete paradigm shift for me as to why we as human beings experience musculoskeletal pain. I became determined to find a permanent and complete solution as to why people begin experiencing idiopathic pain, or pain that begins for seemingly no reason. I wanted to find the source of not just foot pain but pain in every part of the body. I wish I could say that every patient that I have treated since that young woman showed that rapid of a recovery with the attainment of a properly aligned body part. Some people would recover that quickly, whereas some would only get 25 percent better or 50 percent better or no better at all. (After all, Edison didn’t create the light bulb on his first try!) However, what I can say with certainty is that since that experience, my patients consistently began to show much greater than just 25–50 percent improvement. They also showed this improvement much more quickly than my previous usual scope of treatment of two to three months.

As I continued to refine my methods over the next ten years, patients would show both higher and faster recovery rates. My current treatment average has improved to 6.2 visits for chronic low back pain and to 6.8 visits for chronic neck pain. My patients usually feel a 90+ percent recovery (neck patients require an extra visit or so to first properly align the lower spine) even after decades of suffering. What’s more, they no longer have to continually visit the doctor or chiropractor every week/month or usually ever again!

That episode in 2001 started me on a long journey, which continues to this day, as to why people begin to experience idiopathic pain or pain that begins for seemingly no reason and as to why some people would get completely better versus some better