The Importance of Structural Balance for the Body
In order to obtain optimum health, the body has to have a balance between 3 important factors. If one is compromised, it will influence the others. This concept is similar to Chinese medicine in which all the body parts are linked together by acupuncture meridians or paths of energy flow. More and more enlightened health practitioners are finding everything is connected. An example is the recent finding that periodontal disease can be a cause of heart problems. We will soon be entering the era of dental physicians. Your body must be balanced in the following 3 areas:
Mental-emotional status: If a person does not have this balance in their life (i.e. too much stress, mental emotional problems), this will affect a person’s optimum health. Psychologists, Counselors, and Psychiatrists all concentrate their treatment on this factor.
Body chemistry: If the diet is poor and lacking in essential nutrients, optimum health will not be attained because of poor body chemistry. This also applies if the person has a chronic infection, intestinal parasites, is toxic with chemicals or any other substance. Medicine and alternative health experts have developed considerable expertise in treating body chemistry. It is a very important factor to total health, but only a part of the whole.
Body structure: The muscles, joints and skeleton need to function together properly to establish a healthy body structure. This means a certain balance between the body structures must exist. Following Wolf’s biologic law, “form follows function”, balanced people are also the best athletes, their coordination and muscles work the best and they are as well the most beautiful people. Structural symmetry is important to optimum balance.
What happens when, as a result of a bad bite, genetics, maldirected growth, habit patterns, lack of exercise and poor posture, the body structure is not balanced? The body will try to compensate, but usually after a while this results in problems with the structural components usually identified by injuries and pain. The problem is magnified when the person attempts athletics.
Posture is very important and there has been considerable research done on this. Remember what your mom told you about standing up straight? If you stand properly your chest is positioned so the lungs can expand optimally and body organs are stimulated. Exercise is also very important. Exercise should be divided into strength building and aerobics, although the best exercise combines both. This is why athletics is so important especially to young growing children, it helps them develop proper body structure. It can encourage proper breathing and development of the nasal passages. For optimum development of the body, legs and feet, running is very important. Correct running posture will encourage optimum function. If a child does not have proper running form, coaching can correct this.
Pete Egoscue, an ex-marine who rehabilitated himself from debilitating injuries teaches a body posture technique with exercises which can be very valuable. He has written books and has a clinic in Del Mar, California and other places. You can research his techniques on the internet.
Other Ways to Develop Better Body Function
There are many methods to help develop and guide the body. Particularly, there is a technique for body strengthening and posture often used by dancers, actors and artists called the “Alexander Technique”. Nicholas Tinbergen, from Denmark, won the Nobel Prize in 1973 by demonstrating the power of this posture changing technique. He improved the total health and performance of many children, autistic as well, by teaching them how to use their body properly. It is acknowledged that as a result of practicing this method, tremendous improvements can be made in a person’s health.
Chinese martial arts disciplines such as Tai chi and Chi Qong also develop body posture and guide proper function.
Much research has demonstrated that if the body structure is not properly aligned, the most common causes of problems are the relation of the lower jaw to the upper jaw and temporomandibular joints, and the posture of the feet and leg length. These can be corrected and interrelated by aware health practitioners.
In order for the sensing and balance mechanism to function properly, the head needs to be held in a certain posture. If the lower jaw position, dictated by the bite is wrong, the head posture is often wrong. Penfield’s mapping of the brain demonstrated that approximately 38 percent of all the neural input of the body goes through the temporomandibular joint and oral area. As we know, this area is very important to normal function. It has been researched that when this area is not functioning properly, a phenomenon called dysponesis, or confused neural communication occurs. This distress can cause improper functioning of internal body organs and structures throughout the body.
As an example: When I first started working with this concept and with TMJ treatment in the early 70s, I had some female patients who noted on their health histories that they could not get pregnant. Upon changing their jaw position, thus relieving their stress, they often soon became pregnant. Unfortunately, this was found out by accident at first.
In 1977, Dr. Aelred Fonder wrote a book called “The Dental Physician” in which he studied the records of 100 patients. He recorded symptoms throughout their body before treatment and then corrected their jaw position. Their total symptoms resolved at the 94 percent level. Realize that these were patients who had problems with their jaw position in relationship to the rest of the body. This should however emphasize the importance of proper body structure balance to health. If you have a health problem, do you know how much an imbalanced body structure is contributing to it?
Chiropractors make a living with the body structure by adjusting it and aligning it and thus they correct many symptoms. Unfortunately, to maintain this correction most believe a structural adjustment once a week is necessary. It is, unless a permanent change in the cause of the imbalance mechanism is made. The answer is the body structure must be evaluated for total balance and then structural balance accomplished often through a change in bite or a change with foot orthotics and then with proper nutrition and muscle strengthening and balancing exercises. This is done by getting the jaw position correct, and getting leg length and foot position correct with orthotics and/or a heel lift. This work can be facilitated by a health care specialist. A dentist or orthodontist if they have the knowledge, can adjust the jaw position. Presently in my search for structural balance, I work with multiple health practitioners who are very familiar with these concepts.
An important thing to know is just because the teeth look straight does not mean that they hold the jaw position correctly when related to the function of the rest of the body. Often orthodontics has been done and the teeth look good, but they are not holding the lower jaw where the body structure needs it to be for optimum function of the rest of the body.
It is important to realize the teeth are merely a template to hold the correct jaw position, and even crooked teeth sometimes can achieve this. Unfortunately, traditional dentistry has not embraced this concept. They believe that the bite and jaw position is local and not related to the rest of the body. Considerable research has been done in the U.S. and abroad on this concept.
Many muscle testing techniques have been developed by health practitioners to help them further evaluate the structural balance problem. John Beck M.D., an orthopedic physician has developed a testing technique which allows him to determine whether the jaw position, TMJ area, or feet are causing a structural mal alignment and nerve dysfunction or whether the problem is just outright nerve dysfunction due to a local factor.
What if the TMJ is the cause? It can be. When it is damaged by trauma, i.e. usually the result of an accident, or microtrauma, which is constant pressure from muscle spasm or improper usage such as poor head posture. The ultimate answer is to restore proper balance to the body structure and let the injured part heal. A proper dental orthotic appliance can facilitate this. Surgery is rarely indicated. Interestingly, TMJ patients have a characteristic type of pronated and flat foot called Morton’s foot, once again making us aware that this is not just a local problem as traditional dentistry says it is. This type of foot often causes many leg muscle dysfunctions as well. Often to restore balance, orthotics on the feet as well as changes in the bite are needed. The bite changes need to be then made permanent with orthodontics or reconstructive dentistry.
Once structural balance is restored, the pain is reduced or resolves. The person then needs to learn how to live with and maintain this new balanced body structure. This is where the importance of other health modalities and proper exercise is of value.
As we have noted, it has been demonstrated and verified by research that an improper jaw position can result in weakness of muscles around the body. As a result of this research, Dr. John Stenger has studied football players, and their skeletal dysfunctions. He has found that restoring good skeletal balance can result in a significant reduction in injuries in these athletes. He has also found that an improperly adjusted mouthpiece can cause skeletal imbalance. He has worked with the University of Notre Dame football team and has done studies at other colleges resulting in a reduction of their injuries.
What this means is, not only a proper mouthpiece, but proper foot orthotics, if needed, can be of much value to these athletes. In summary, proper structural balance will result in optimum body function as well as minimize injuries from normal living and athletics.
Charles M. Hulsey III, D.D.S., M.S.
About Dr. Hulsey:
Dr. Hulsey founded the Holistic Dental Association in 1978, has lectured across the country and taught week long seminars in his office to orthodontists.