What is retracing? Retracing is the process that the nervous system goes through when the nerve has been damaged and needs repaired. In order to understand retracing we have to recognize the process of momentum as well. Momentum is the possession of motion: requiring effort and time to stop it. Chiropractically, momentum is the progress of disease or health both requiring time and effort to stop it. What i mean by this statement is that both damage and healing take time to develop in the body and both take time and effort to work properly. A lot of patients feel better immediately after receiving a single adjustment and may even see symptom relief after a few adjustments. This is the power of relieving pressure on the nervous system. But this is not an instantaneous fix due to the fact that underlying problems take longer to heal. The momentum created by a consistent repetition of adjustments starts the body headed in the right direction for healing to actually occur but if this momentum is instantly cut off or disrupted the body will return back to the state of most frequent memory. In most cases that means the troubled state of bad structure and misalignment that in our office we are working to disrupt and break. This is the reasoning behind our frequent repetition to break these abnormal patterns in the body and create the new normal by gaining momentum with frequent adjustments. The longer the body can stay free of interference, the greater opportunity it has to heal- to bounce back from disease, recover, regain that natural state of ease, and restore health. This is the process of retracing.
When a nerve has been damaged for a substantial period of time due to subluxation (structural damage in the spine) it is subject to abnormal function. It only takes the weight of a dime to reduce nerve transmission by 60% . A decrease in 60% of vital information to an organ is not going to allow that organ to function properly because it is not receiving the full and correct information to do its job. Can this cause organ disease and dysfunction over time with this dysfunction continually happening over months and years? Absolutely it can and will. So if we are experiencing agonizing pain and dysfunction outwardly then can you imagine the type of pressure and damage that your actual nervous system has been subject to? Only 10% of our nervous system tells us pain and it is usually the last symptom to show up and the first one to go away. Our nerves, in most cases, travel long distances to reach tissues throughout the body and damage occurs the entire length of the nerve, if given long enough. Retracing is the act of healing the nerve. Just as the nerve has been damaged, it is going to heal, but it will heal in sections at a time. It cannot heal all at once and the entire length, it is too much tissue to repair. This is why it is common for us to see symptom resolution in some areas of the same nerve, but areas seem to be plateaued with not a lot of change, especially in large nerves (sciatic nerve). It took time to create damage to the body and it will take time to heal that damaged tissue. Momentum of healing is the primary source of healing the body correctly and educating abnormal structure to normal in an attempt to prevent further damage.