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The Sixth Principle

6. Dr. Lamb's  Principle of Persistent Compression and Traction

I believe that persistent compression will be shown to be a major medical principle within the area of chronic pain and arthritis. The whole idea of persistent compression is probably best explained if I give you an example.

Let us pretend there are two identical automobiles that are two rear-wheel sedans. These two well-made cars are each owned by a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Payne. Mr. and Mrs. Payne live in the same house and work at the same office. Both the husband and wife weigh 200 pounds each .

Mr. Payne travels to work alone but he places 300 pounds of sand in the trunk of his sedan for traction in the snow. Mrs. Payne commutes with five other friends who each weigh 200 pounds. Therefore, Mr. Payne has 500 pounds of weight in his car and Mrs. Payne has 1200 pounds of weight in her car.

The Question is:

The answer is a bit of a trick. We will assume that everything is equal in car part reliability in both cars. We will assume the same distances were traveled by both cars. Many will guess that it is Mrs. Payne’s car’s shocks that wear out first because she has the most weight in the car (1200 pounds). This extra weight will apply undo pressure and wear on the shock absorbers of her car and they will therefore wear out faster. This is not true because the car is designed to sustain the intermittent weight of six passengers or 1200 pounds.

Others will say it is Mr. Payne’s car’s shocks that wear out first because he has an unbalanced car with his body weight of 200 pounds in the front and 300 pounds of sand in the rear trunk. This is not true either. This is because the difference of 100 pounds in a 3000-pound car is negligible.

The answer and explanation is that Mr. Payne’s car’s shock absorbers do wear out first. The key is to realize that Mrs. Payne’s passengers will leave her car when they get to work and therefore her car’s extra weight moves from 1200 pounds to zero weight at rest…AT REST. 

The "rest part" is very important. Mr. Payne’s car drives to work and he gets out of his car but he leaves the 300 pounds of sand in his trunk to lay there all day and night indefinitely. Mr. Payne’s car suffers a mild but persistent compression of the rear shock absorbers. This results in the shock losing the ability to fully lubricate itself and it’s surfaces, resulting in steel grinding into steel and therefore eventual breaking down.

Interestingly, 300 pounds is not the car’s maximal carrying weight. The key to the shock failure is the persistence of compression at rest with no chance for proper shock lubrication.

The same principle applies to our body’s joints. Instead of a car shock wearing out, we wear out the cartilage on our joint surfaces. I have already explained that our bodies’ muscles are forever tightening. This tightening causes joint compression especially at rest or while sleeping. 

The result is that cartilage prematurely wears out in our joints and the disks in our spine degenerate from constant compression at different levels of the spine. This leads to arthritis of our joints and spine. Traditionally, physicians name this arthritis as osteoarthritis. 

I believe however, a more appropriate name for osteoarthritis or degenerative arthritis could be compression arthritis, as it describes the cause as persistent compression.

Unlike a car shock absorber, however, the body does have potential for repair because it is living tissue. So, if we stretch the muscle shortening, we can then stop the compression and perhaps allow for the prevention or even the reversal of arthritis in our joints and spine. 

However, remember that rheumatoid arthritis is different but still has a compression component to its arthritis and may also benefit from muscle therapy. 

It is important to recognize that persistent compression occurs commonly within our spines, resulting in persistent disk compression and ultimately disk degeneration, herniation and eventually spinal arthritis, all of which are very painful and disabling. The spinal problems can then pinch, compress, or even crush a nerve or nerve root, causing further pain in our legs and arms and head as I described in Cannon’s law. 

So I want you to remember that our spine and limbs are being compressed by our muscles leading to joint wear or arthritis that can cause other nerve problems and other pains elsewhere in our bodies.