The Injury Ripple Effect

When we injure ourselves, the focus is immediately put on the area affected. We break our arm, we get a cast. We scrape our knee, we put a band-aid on. We sprain our ankle, we put a brace on. We lift something heavy the wrong way and hurt our back, we take pain medication. But a question still remains. How does that injury affect the rest of the body? The trust is that any injury has a ripple effect on the rest of the body. The injury is not contained within itself, rather it impacts other areas of the body as well because the body needs to compensate for the injured part. It’s this compensation that creates misalignment and the potential for future problems.

Rehabilitation after an injury should encompass not only the affected area, such as the knee or shoulder, but the whole body. Granted, the initial emphasis needs to be made on the knee or shoulder, but rehabilitation does not end with the injury. True rehabilitation ensures that the impact on the body from the injury has been addressed, even if it is minor. Imagine how the body will be impacted in the long run if countless injuries over the years have never been corrected? Would we be out of balance because we subconsciously shifted our weight to our left side ever so slightly? Would we be more prone to falls later in life because this occurred? Would this have been avoided had we taken proactive steps to protect our body from daily living over the years?

Consider looking at your body as an intricately connected system, like that of a clock. If even one small piece is affected, it impacts the other parts. The time is no longer accurate. Everything is off. We are that clock. One piece not working as it should does affect the whole.