1. Having the mother’s pelvis region out of alignment when giving birth to a child.
The first thing you have to understand is that when the pelvis region is misaligned, the entire abdominal area is affected. If the hips move down on the left or right side, this movement can be as little as 1mm, inside the human body (which requires perfect alignment to function correctly) can have a dramatic effect. The muscles and skeleton frame in the entire body is affected, so are the organs in the body.
The abdominal muscles tighten on one side and are slightly relaxed on the other side; this allows the organs inside to change position and shape. This has quite an effect on the organs in the pelvis cavity; Bladder, Large Intestine and in the female it alters the shape of the uterus and vagina.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine having the vagina slightly twisted out of shape is one of the main causes of excessive pain during sexual intercourse and contributing factor to a lot of problems during menstruation, plus health problems in the uterus.
When an expectant mother has her hips out of alignment, other than the back pain she all ready has, the forming child will be extra weight forward of the heart, this will increase the back pain and cause the expectant mother to “slouch”. The uterus is then being forced even more out of its original position and shape.
There is a ‘birthmark’, on all M.E. / C.F.S. suffers who are born with this “pressure on the nervous system”. Which appears just above the hairline at the back of the skull. These birthmarks can also show that the uterus is not perfectly shaped so the child can be touching the side of the uterus during development.
When the mother’s vagina is twisted out of shape, this will not allow for a quick exit of the child during childbirth. When the contractions start, inside this slightly out of shape uterus, the unborn child is not being pushed out by even pressure from the uterus muscles, the bone structure of the unborn child is being pushed out of shape. Most of the bone structure returns to its normal position except for the coccyx and the pelvis.
The head of the unborn child is forced into the birth passage, which is slightly twisted and not expanding evenly, because of the pelvis region being out of position. This is forcing the child’s head back and down onto the neck during contractions.
This can explain why giving birth to a child today, can take up to 40 odd hours compared to 70 years ago when birth took 3-4 hours.
Mothers that give birth very quickly on the first child do not seem to have the ‘twist’ in the vagina. But still have the uterus muscles contracting incorrectly.
When a mother has a caesarean operation and the child still ends up with M.E./ C.F.S. later in life, it still points to the same idea. When the contractions start, a Paediatrician will allow for a period of contractions to see if the mother can have a natural childbirth. In this period of contractions before the caesarean, the child’s skeletal frame is being push out of alignment. This allows a pressure to be placed on the nervous system, which builds up, as the child grows.
2. Damage to the coccyx or pelvis.
This is the most common cause of ME/CFS in people who are born without this ‘pressure’ in the bone or muscular structure. Because any damage to the coccyx or pelvis area will place pressure into the skeleton and tightness in the muscular structure, very quickly. This pressure can take 8 hours or 60 years to reach up under the skull, depending on how aligned your body structure is at the time of injury. This pressure at the beginning can be relatively small and can increase ten folds before settling up under the skull.
The coccyx is the small, tail-like bone that is just above your anus sanctum; it is made up of 3 to 5 small bones. The coccyx bone forms the end of your spine. It is basically the bones left over from our tails that we lost during evolution, so it plays a major role in our balance. If the coccyx is broken, push out-of-place (inwards / outwards or left / right) it will, over time, slowly move the pelvis region out of position effecting the alignment of the spine and pull the bodies muscular system in the front and the back of the body out of position. When the muscles are pushed out of position they will tighten in on themselves and this will pull vertebra’s out of position increasing pressure in the structure of the spine and in muscles further up the back. This creeping effect up the back will eventually cause the head to be pulled back and down, placing pressure on the Brain Stem and the Central Nervous System. Where the vertebra’s in the spine have moved, they are now also restricting the normal function of the autonomic Nervous System. The same effect will happen if the pelvis region is misaligned and the coccyx is straight.
Both areas of the body can be easily pushed out of alignment by impact to those areas. The force of the impact does not have to be great; a small fall on your backside is enough.
But the smallest misalignment over a period of time can cause the above problem to start happening. If the misalignment is corrected near the time of impact, the pressure disappears.
3. Stress that tightens the muscle structure that then pulls the skeletal frame out of position.
When the Bone Structure is out of alignment, it pushes the muscles out of its position and then muscles of the back tighten into the center of themselves. As the muscles harden because of the lack of blood flowing through, they then become extremely sensitive to anything else that will affect them. Stress in everyday life, which our body should be able to deal with, (because we have come accustom to having a certain amount of stress in our lives) suddenly causes the muscles to tighten even more. This will and does pull the vertebra’s of the spine further out of position, placing more pressure on the Central Nervous System affecting the Autonomic Nervous System.
Now add the extra stress of your working life, plus the every day environmental stress on top of all this and the muscles will tighten inwards towards the center of the muscles even more. This will also eventually end up pulling the head back and down even harder on to the neck, placing pressure on the Brain Stem.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine the liver controls the Trapezius Muscles. Anger is associated to the liver (the emotion at the base of stress is anger). This causes the liver to work harder; this results in the Trapezius Muscles tightening. The end result is the skull being drawn, back and down.
4. Not maintaining a straight posture.
As we evolved and started straightening our spines, we formed a straight back posture. Our organs moved into new positions, instead of hanging downwards like any four-legged animal our organs became stacked on top of each other. An increase downward pressure was placed on the spine and our neck muscles changed to take the weight of our head. Our entire structure is designed for us to be upright; straight back, square shoulders and head upright and facing forward. In today’s world the posture is a forgotten concept, people do not attempt to carry themselves correctly or sit correctly. Our environment at work or at home is not designed to help maintain a good posture. Computers, hand-held computer games, sofas, chairs, car seats, foot wear, parents not telling their children to sit up, teachers not telling their students to sit up, all this and a lot more.
Having your hips out of alignment makes it very hard to keep a good posture, because the pressure this misalignment causes travels up the back, pushing the person forward and forcing their shoulders forward. They feel this every time they relax, they slump forward and drop their shoulders forward and stick their chin out.
50 years ago when parents forced their children to sit up and at school they were made to sit up, even if they had a misalignment of the skeleton, paying attention to their posture would reduce the movement of this pressure up the spine so they would not feel the side effects until much later in life. This again shows why C.F.S. was first diagnosed in patients over the age of 40. But today, because nobody is worried about the posture, younger and younger people are getting diagnosed M.E./ C.F.S.
When this pressure is removed from the Bone and Muscle Structure a person finds it very easy to get back and maintain a good posture without much difficulty. This of course requires training to move the Muscle Structure back into its correct position, so it can support the Bone structure and hold the Bone Structure in its correct position.
5. Damage to toes, feet, ankles and knees.
The toes align the feet in their correct position, the feet align the ankles in their correct position and the ankles align the knees, the knees align the hips. The hips are the base support for the spine, the spine is the base support for the arms and neck, the neck is the base support for the head.
This means that if you have injured your toe and this injury leaves the toe out of alignment, this in turn would affect the foot and this in turn the ankle and so on until the pressure the toe injury put in the body, which increases as it travels up the body, ends up under the skull placing pressure on the Brain Stem and Central Nervous System causing M.E./ C.F.S. and many more problems in the body.
There is a simple idea in Traditional Chinese Medicine; the Skeleton and Muscle Structure pushes upwards.
6. A fall or an injury that pushes the skeleton out of alignment or causes damage to a muscle group that moves them out of alignment.
A fall or injury, even a small one, which misalign the skeleton or damages a muscle group in the legs, torso or neck will eventually cause pressure in the skeleton and a tightness in the muscles. This will make its way up the body and in up under the skull. Bones that have been broken and not reset properly will cause muscle groups to tighten up. Same with bones that have been shortened because of injury, they will tighten muscles groups above them and so on until that tightness ends up under the head and effecting the Brain Stem and Central Nervous System. In Traditional Chinese Medicine muscles that over lap each other are considered one muscle, muscles that run parallel to each other, support each other.
7. Beds and furniture that push the skeleton frame out of alignment.
Beds that are too soft or who have had other people sleeping in them are not good for the Bone or Muscle Structures. A soft bed has the tendency to pull the body structure out-of-place whilst you sleep, a bed that has had other people sleeping in them has curves and dips which will push a structure out of position, old mattresses will do the same (a good mattress should be flipped and rotated every 3 months, it also has a life span of only 5 to 7 years, then you’ll need to change it). Remember that you spend more than 8 hours per day in your bed and if the bed does not support your structure then this will cause pressure / tightness in the structure and that tightness will eventually work its way up under the skull.
Sofas that are too soft or not posture supporting will over a period of use, will also misalign your hips and cause a pressure/ tightness to move up though your body and in under the skull.
Any chair that is not supporting your posture will eventually push your skeleton out of alignment. Computers that are not set up correctly, keyboards not placed at elbow height, screens not placed above eye level, all this will misalign your posture while you work on your computer. Sitting hunched over staring down into your computer will eventually misalign your spine and back muscles.
8. Work environments and sports, which alter the skeletal shape.
The same idea as with household furniture is used in the office. Your office desk is to be at elbow height when you sit down. Your chair should be posture supporting; straight back that swivels but does not recline. Your computer should be set up the same way, keyboard at elbow height and the screen just above eye level. Remember you are spending at least 8 hours at your desk at work. Having your Bone Structure out-of-place and doing repetitive movements like twisting and turning at your desk will cause permanent wear on the vertebra’s. This damage cannot be repaired, so the pressure in your Bone Structure cannot be removed.
People that are doing hard impact and repetitive movements in sports, with a misalignment in their Bone and Muscle Structure, will cause irreparable damage to both Muscle and Bone Structures. This damage will constantly be pushing pressure up under the skull. Damage to the body is what stops the majority of people reaching high levels in their chosen sports or upon reaching a high level, then ‘burning out’ and not being able to continue. The problem today with people starting a sport, is the person that is teaching them cannot tell if their Bone Structure is out of alignment when they first start. Some of the most damaging are gymnastics, all forms of modern dancing, handball, snowboarding and all contact sports. To attempt any type of repetitive sport with a misalignment in the Bone Structure will cause permanent damage to ligaments, discs, muscles and bone.
Under the ideas in Traditional Chinese Medicine, permanent damage prevents the practitioner from removing the pressure from under the skull completely, so a full recovery is not possible.