The answer is in your body. The problem with injuries is that it can be a sign or the end result of a problem that is away from that area.

For instance, having a right rotator cuff injury can be caused by a right ankle that is locked or is not moving properly. Usually the body adapts to that right ankle so that the person can walk properly. What this does is it puts more stress on all the structures on the right side. They are being pulled or altered so that the person can walk properly.

You can say that the right ankle becomes an anchor. So everything that is connected to that right ankle such as muscles, fascia, nerves and blood vessels get pulled to that right ankle.

So after a few months to years of adapting with no check up or treatment, the body is overworked and tires out, thus losing that adaptive capability. This leads to that right rotator cuff injury that I mentioned from the start.

The other problem is that people do not get treated in the early stages of the injury, such as a soreness of the right shoulder blade from that adaptation. The normal response is to grin and bear it. This again leads to the right rotator cuff injury.

What I can do as an Osteopathic Student is to loosen and reset the position of the bones of the right ankle. This will with time reset the whole right side of the body. Once the body takes hold of its proper position that I put it in, the body goes into a self healing mode called autoregulation. This one of the four tenets of Osteopathy, which I will talk about on another blog.

Our bodies have the capacity to heal itself. The problem is that it needs someone to help it kick start the healing process. That is what I am trained to do. I reposition the body to its normal position. That is why Osteopathic techniques are called Normalizations.

One last thing, some injuries can be caused by our organs being pulled or pushed out of its proper position. This can happen because as I mentioned above that many structures of the body are connected to that right ankle.

The anchoring forces that affect the right side via the muscles for example affect those organs as well such as the liver. These muscles attach to the liver via the fascia, such that the liver gets pulled down onto the diaphragm. In turn the liver can adhere to the diaphragm which is above it, the diaphragm then adheres to the lungs. The lung's pleural lining blends in with the fascia of the rotator cuff muscles and pulls on them. The result is a rotator cuff injuries through the liver.

One thing you will see with Osteopathic Manual Practitioners, is that they will focus on areas that you think are not related. So the next time you see an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner and they treat an area away from the injury, they are actually treating the cause of your injury.

I hope that you found this blog helpful in telling you why injuries do not go away or keep coming back after a while. Remember that some injuries are caused by imbalances in the body, and not just accidents or trauma. Take care and have a great day.