A history that took several visits to fully uncover.
A man in his late 30s came to see me, referred by his girlfriend, for a sacroiliac (SI) joint problem that had caused hip and lower-back pain since he was 18. He’d found a chiropractor who could get the joint to go back in, but he had to keep going back consistently just for temporary relief.
When I took his history, one thing stood out: an unusually long list of head injuries, including being kicked in the face by a horse as a teenager, multiple concussions from his head repeatedly striking the windshield of a skid loader during snow-removal work, a pipe striking his chin, a metal bar flying into his nose, and a 2×4 falling on his head from a second story. He kept remembering more of them at each visit.
What I found
On examination, very few of his muscles were responding normally — broadly weak and slow to contract, despite his being a physically strong manual laborer. I considered his cranial bones significantly restricted, consistent with that extensive head-injury history.
What I did
I adjusted his cranial bones, along with the rest of his body.
What changed
At his follow-up three months later, he reported a night-and-day difference — his back and the rest of his body felt significantly better. He also mentioned losing 20 pounds without changing anything else, which he attributed to the treatment; my sense is that once his muscles were responding normally again, his body simply started functioning more efficiently.
A history like this — repeated head trauma over decades — is unusual, and I don’t think every SI-joint or lower-back problem traces back to old head injuries. What this case illustrates is why I take a detailed head-injury history seriously, including injuries that seem unrelated to the current complaint or happened years earlier.
Related reading
Read about cranial adjusting and concussion recovery, or see more real patient cases.