Ligament Stretch Syndrome: The Toilet Bowl of Adrenal Exhaustion
By Dr Arlo Gordin
Many people suffer from stressed-out, tired adrenal glands, a very common problem. The typical symptoms can include fatigue, headaches, pain and aches, inflammatory conditions (problems that end in “-itis”, bronchitis, dermatitis, colitis, etc.), low blood sugar, rashes, swellings, allergies, asthma, or numerous others. Low adrenals often cause, underlie, or aggravate many health problems.
Of those many people with worn-down adrenals, a minority has a condition known as “ligament stretch syndrome”. This problem gets its name from the effect it often has on the joints. When the adrenal hormones are so low that they leave the joints and ligaments (tissues that hold the bones of joints in place and allow for their determined range of movement) undernourished, a person will fail a test from Applied Kinesiology, the chiropractic specialty that developed muscle-testing as a health analytic method. The doctor tests the muscle strength in an arm or leg, then gives a quick tug on the arm or leg tested. On instantly re-testing, the muscle strength is greatly reduced. Very few people weaken after such a small quick jerk across the joints, only the ones with “ligament stretch syndrome”.
If you have ligament stretch syndrome then you score below the typical and common low adrenal patient. At that point you really have hit the toilet bowl of adrenal gland exhaustion, decreased function, and reduced hormone output. Any of the typical low adrenal health conditions exist for the ligament stretch patient, but special patterns of symptoms tend to be found. As a “ligament stretch syndrome” patient you may have some of these following described symptoms, usually not all of them. Fatigue can be present and can be extreme; like your engine never really gets going. Because the joints are poorly kept up with hormones, you could feel that you can’t do normal physical or athletic activities. The result is new pain and a sense of injury. “I can’t play racquetball, or I’ll hurt a wrist or ankle.” “I can’t work out, or I’ll hurt my back or knee (or whatever!)” These migrating multiple pains could cause you to be so careful of physical activities, so that both family and friends begin to think you're losing it. You may consider that you've become a hypochondriac, but all of the pains and symptoms that are real; the little things that shouldn’t cause pain, could make you miserable. And your injuries don’t heal well. The ligament stretch syndrome patient often has multiple areas of pain, multiple areas of chronic injury.
You may feel constantly mis-aligned or out-of-adjustment. But this is the patient who complains that chiropractic adjustments don’t “hold”. Even worse, adjustments may have caused pain (a great adjustment doesn’t hurt a patient, not usually, unless ligament stretch syndrome is present). So some feel a need for an adjustment, but what’s the use? I feel I need one, it might hurt me, so I can’t have one...what a hassle!
A terrible hopelessness affects many of these patients. They feel that they can never get well. It’s a hopeless type of depression. Their inflammatory conditions can be horrible. Patients with fibromyalgia (the horrible pain in joints and muscles) almost always have “ligament stretch syndrome”, as do people with severe auto-immune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Headaches can be of the more severe types, often migraines. Poor immunity and frequent colds or infections can result.
What a mess! These patients are the doctor’s and chiropractor’s nightmare: non-recovery and constant severe complaints. Until the research uncovering ligament stretch syndrome was made, these patients had no likely hope of health. And they are magnets for medications and the prescription pad: pain killers, anti-inflammatories, migraine drugs, arthritis meds, even anti-depressants. Some "self-medicate" abusing alcohol or other substances.
The treatment for this condition is specific. The patient must take the correct adrenal nutrient, often trickling the dose every waking hour, at first. The adrenals must be “kick-started” in this way or they usually won’t “wake-up” at all. The average patient will complete this hourly dosage in one week; some will take longer, and some shorter. When they pass the ligament stretch test, they’re off the hourly adrenal. Now they’ve graduated up to terrible adrenals, still lower than most patients with low adrenals! (At this point adjustments become painless and more helpful.) And still more adrenal repair needs to be done.
If you have this problem, you must learn all the information on low adrenals and low blood sugar, and do everything possible to help them repair, and eliminate all things possible that tear them down. Diet, stress management and supplementation are positioned at the top of the list of useful things. Watch our videos on YouTube to learn in detail about adrenals: Energy, Blood Sugar is the one that explains adrenal health, disease and recovery in detail.
With the breakthrough of understanding the diagnosis and treatment of this condition, some of the most tortured patients that ever cross a doctor’s door can be miraculously helped, brought to a high level of physical and mental health and well-being. Severe asthma, pain syndromes, allergic, headache, migraine, auto-immune patients can most frequently be brought "back to life".
Testing for whether this problem exists is easy and fast. We test/screen it on every new patient. Because when it is present, if not treated first, we'll be banging our heads on the door of failure.
If you sense that this information sounds like you, do yourself the greatest health favor ever, and have it checked. If it tests positive and you do the things that reverse it, you may likely find the light of health shining on you in ways you've forgotten or lost hope of attaining.