The Thermodynamic Subluxation
SUBLUXATION
Peter J. Fox
DC
Would it surprise you to learn that chiropractors and ecologists use some of the same tools in their work? Both are able to utilize thermography as a measure of the health and functional status of the systems they work with. The biggest difference between the two applications is that one uses a scanner mounted under an airplane to measure forests and fields, whereas the other uses a handheld scanner to measure the human body.
The Physics of Life Force
Both professions measure the amount of radiant heat to assess how energy is flowing through the systems they are examining. Ecosystems that score well tend to be more energy rich. They have greater diversity of species and more intact food webs. They are full of “vital life force” energy. And the source of that “vital life force” is the sun.
By scanning several ecosystems and comparing them, you can determine which are under stress. Stressed ecosystems leak energy, so they appear hotter when scanned. A healthy ecosystem cycles energy through more food webs, so its scan looks cooler.
This happens because maximizing the use of incoming solar energy is the primary task of an ecosystem. Ecosystems successively evolve to higher and higher levels of complexity to do this. Over time, a simple ecosystem evolves into a stable climax ecosystem able to make maximal use of the energy it receives.
Ecosystems leak energy via a loss of biomass, species diversity, or a collapse in food webs. There is less energy moving through fewer cycles, even though the sun’s input stays the same. It is almost as though the ecosystem has been “subluxated.” Something is interfering with the flow of energy, of “vital life force” within the system. The end result is a reversion to a simpler form of the ecosystem with a decreased functional capacity.12-3
Your Purpose
Ecosystems are dissipative structures. This means that they convert high-quality energy to low-quality energy. So are humans. All living things on planet Earth act individually, and collectively, as dissipative structures. This is how life is able to satisfy the requirements of the second law of thermodynamics. Another description of this law is the arrow of time. Time moves in one direction, and things decay as time passes.
Living things are able to grow, adapt, evolve and reproduce because they borrow solar energy. We borrow solar energy in a highly ordered form and return it in a more random form as radiant body heat. That is why thermography can measure functional status in both humans and ecosystems.2-3
When our sympathetic system engages during a low-resource state, we perceive the world through the lens of the fight or flight response.
Orienting to the Flow
The autonomic nerve system (ANS) also functions as a dissipative structure. It fulfills this role by orienting the organism to the energy flows in its environment. When energy is available, we need to gather it. When it isn’t, we need to rest to preserve it. The sympathetic ANS mobilizes energy, the parasympathetic ANS preserves it.
To further complicate matters, there is competition for energy among individuals and species. We need to be energy rich to come out ahead in the hunt for it. Opportunity is relative. One man’s opportunity is another man’s crisis, and it all depends on resilience.
Because of this, the central nerve system (CNS) monitors both the internal and external environment. Information from the internal environment is interoceptive data. Information from the external environment is exteroceptive data. The CNS must interpret the significance of the external environment relative to the body’s internal resource state, to arrive at the most adaptive course of action.4
Adaptive Lenses
This process of perception, interpretation, and adaptation must be rapid to be effective. We do this in the context of CNS and ANS states. I refer to these states as lenses because they influence the adaptive process by altering how we perceive and interpret the world.
When our sympathetic system engages during a low-resource state, we perceive the world through the lens of the fight or flight response. If the sympathetic ANS engages while we are resourceful, we might see challenge as a game, or opportunity. We might engage the parasympathetic system in response to danger during a low-resource state by freezing. How we perceive the combinations of internal and external environments influence how we see the world.
Ideally, as children, we learn to rapidly choose the optimal lens for each situation. This happens through play and modeling the behavior of others around us. But what happens when we learn maladaptive strategies or default to the same lens repeatedly?5
Subluxation
What is the real fixation?
Historically, subluxation is described as a vertebra fixated in malposition. Thermodynamically, subluxation occurs when we make an error in perception, interpretation, or adaptation relative to our environment, then misallocate resources when attempting to adapt to it. The source of the thermodynamic subluxation is a fixation in a perceptual lens, often coupled with an exteroceptively focused CNS. This results in poor adaptation and has a cascade of consequences.
From Thermodynamics to Spinal Mechanics
Humans are born neurologically immature. Our musculoskeletal system functionally matures over a period of several years. This occurs through reflexive coactivation of opposing muscle groups. This creates joint stability and the ability to generate power for movement.
The two opposing groups are the Systemic Local Muscle System (SLMS), and the Systemic Global Muscle System (SGMS). The muscles of the SLMS are deep. They provide inner support and control of the axial skeleton around the body’s center of gravity. They create a stable base of support that allows for effective and powerful movements of the larger, and more superficial, SGMS.
SLMS muscles require a lot of neural horsepower be devoted to interoceptive processing to function well. They are also less active during times of pain, injury, fatigue, or stress. During times of stress the SGMS tends to dominate control of movement. The crude movement strategies of the SGMS often lead to musculoskeletal dysfunction.
The optimal scenario is the balanced function of both systems. Here we have finely controlled delivery of power for safe and effective movements. However, when that doesn’t happen, what does the dysfunction look like? 6 7
Segmental Dysfunction
Allow the CNS to focus on the outside world for long enough and the inside world crumbles predictably. From a spinal perspective this looks like fixation and hypomobility at the transition zones of the spine. The sagittal curves of the spine shift away from optimal. Extension and rotation are reduced in the thoracic spine. Flexion begins to dominate globally.
In other words, the elements of the vertebral subluxation complex develop within the spine. This happens over an extended period of time as the result of errors made in the CNS as it attempts to optimize its orientation to the availability of energy flows. This may not be the case in all instances. An optimally adapting CNS may be damaged by overwhelming external forces. The spine may be damaged by accident or injury and exert a negative influence on the CNS. Either way, we need an access point to the CNS where we can positively influence dynamic adaptability.67
Enter the spine and chiropractic. Whether your method of application is an HVLA Gonstead thrust, or barely perceptible NUCCA adjustment, you are restoring interoception and stimulating spinal proprioception, in a high resource environment for the patient. Although a brief article is not the place to flesh out all the details of the thermodynamic effects of the chiropractic adjustment, I have more fully explored these details elsewhere.8
Why does this matter?
The second chapter of D.D. Palmer’s 1914 book is titled, “Chiropractic, a Science, an Art, and the Philosophy Thereof.” It is a very confusing chapter to the modern reader. In summary, Palmer states that a vitalistic application of biology and ecology are the scientific foundations of chiropractic. The chapter is as much an argument against mechanism as it is a description of the science of chiropractic.9
I have to wonder how the profession might have developed differently if the first adjustment had happened after World War II. This was the time frame when Schrodinger and Ilya Prigogine began describing the biophysics of life. A late 1800s conception of vitalism is no longer necessary to have a working understanding of how energy flows through living systems in an organizing fashion.2
I see an exploration into the biophysics of the subluxated state as an opportunity to integrate the leaps in knowledge that have occurred since World War II in the chiropractic profession. The thermodynamic subluxation concept is an opportunity to advance the science and philosophy of chiropractic in a manner that is congruent with chiropractic’s founding principles and current science. It is a potential bridge between chiropractors, and between chiropractic and the other sciences.
References
1.Life as a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics, E.D. Schneider, J.J. Kay, Mathematical and Computer Modeling: An Inter-
SUBLUXATION national Journal Archive Volume 19 Issue 6-8, March 1994 Pages 25-48
2. WHAT IS LIFE?, Erwin Schrodinger, First published 1944
3. Thermodynamic Function of Life, K. Michaelian, Instituto de Fisica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Cto. de la Investigacion Cientlfica Cuidad Universitcirici, Mexico D.F., C.P. 04510
4. A thermodynamic model of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, Giorgio Recordati, Centro Fisiologia Clinica ed Ipertensione, Universitci ’ di Milano ed Ospedale Maggiore, IRCCS, Via F. Sforza 35, 20122 Milan, Italy, Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical 103 (2003) 1-12
5. Oken BS, Chamine /, Wakeland W. A Systems Approach to Stress, Stressors and Resilience in Humans. Behavioural brain research. 2015;0:144154. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2014.12.047.
6. Key, Josephine & Clift, Andrea & Condie, Fiona & Harley, Caroline. (2008). A model of movement dysfunction provides a classification system guiding diagnosis and therapeutic care in spinal pain and related musculoskeletal syndromes: A paradigm shift-Part 1. Journal of bodywork and movement therapies. 12. 7-21. 10.1016 j. jbmt. 2007.04.005.
7. Key, Josephine & Clift, Andrea & Condie, Fiona & Harley, Caroline. (2008). A model of movement dysfunction provides a classification system guiding diagnosis and therapeutic care in spinal pain and related musculoskeletal syndromes: A paradigm shift—Part 2. Journal of bodywork and movement therapies. 12. 105-20. 10.1016j. jbmt. 2007.04.006.
8. The Thermodynamic Subluxation: The Intersection of Chiropractic and Ecology, Dr. Peter J. Fox, 2017
9. Palmer, D.D. (1914). The Chiropractor. Los Angeles, CA: Press of the Beacon Light.
Dr. Peter J. Fox, Chiropractor, is a 2008 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and author of The Thermodynamic Subluxation and Operating System Nature: The Birth of The Tradition, both available on Amazon. Developing frameworks that can bridge chiropractic to other natural sciences is his passion. He currently lives and practices in the Detroit area. Reach him at [email protected].
