By Eulalee Thompson, Staff Reporter 
Tanya Ellis - Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
THE MOSTLY-RURAL habit of carrying pails of water, for long distances, on the head, has been identified by chiropractor, Dr. Michael Harvey, as a major cause of back problems in Jamaica.
The habit, he says, is a particular health risk for small children.
"I particularly discourage parents from asking their young boys to carry heavy pails of water and (I ask them) to sleep only on a firm mattress or if none is available, on the floor, for firm support.
"Eight, 10 and 12-year-old Jamaican children frequently present at my offices in Kingston and Negril with advanced stages of degenerative spinal arthritis. Such findings in children are virtually non-existent in the First World," he said.
The U.S.-trained chiropractor has been practising here since 1998 and says that back troubles or spinal subluxation (a spinal bone which has moved out of position compressing a spinal nerve) is an "endemic" health problem here.
Most of Dr. Harvey's 40 and 50-year-old patients have back and neck problems that started in their childhood. Emotional and chemical stresses, lifting heavy loads, falls, motor vehicle accidents, and sports injuries can contribute to back and neck problems.
HEAVY LOAD
Here in Jamaica, Dr. Harvey's clinical experience points to the major culprits of spinal and back problems as: children being asked to carry heavy loads long before the closure of their bones' growth plates, constantly falling in the numerous potholes on the highways, sleeping on foam mattresses, hard physical labour and
accidental injuries.
By the time most patients begin to feel back and neck pains, Dr. Harvey says that the problem the spinal subluxation would have been present for many years, even decades.
As a chiropractor, his job is to realign the spine, shifting in place the bone (vertebra) that has moved out of place. Using this non-invasive 'treatment', without pharmaceuticals, he moves his hands over the misaligned vertebra, twists the patient's spine, and gently readjusts the out-of-place bone. The adjustment, he says, frees up the nerve so that it can once again accurately carry a directing mental impulse from the brain. This 'free' nerve allows the body to heal itself from within.
SPINAL ADJUSTMENTS
"Depending on the severity of the patient's condition, he is placed on a programme of regular chiropractic adjustments until the spine is stabilised, followed by a periodic maintenance programme," he said.
Decades of damage to the spine may require more than one year of spinal adjustments but less severe cases may be corrected within a few months.
The bones of the spine, extending from the skull to the small of the back, protects the spinal cord and work in harmony to support the body's function. However, when one of these bones move out of position, affecting the spinal nerve, the structural weakness sets in train a series of events which Dr. Harvey said could lead to degenerative spinal osteoarthritis (degenerative disc disease or spondylosis).
"The degenerating disc will spill out some of its inner jelled nucleus, a herniation occurs which is discal pressures against the spinal cord. It is graded I through V, based on its severity,"
he said.
Dr. Harvey recommends routine chiropractic check-ups and even says that the best time for the first check-up is right after birth as often the first spinal subluxation occurs when the obstetrician is taking the baby, by the head, from the birth canal.
How's your spinal health?
Send comments to: eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.
