Between the ages of 15 and 35 I believed I had bad knees and weak ankles.  My body type is similar to my dad’s, and he always had knee and ankle problems, so I assumed I inherited my bad knees and weak ankles from him.  As a teenager, I had endured multiple sprains and strains, which resulted in years of taping, a cast on one knee, and multiple cortisone injections, only to be told afterwards by the doctor, “Learn to live with it.”  Gradually, my knees and ankles got worse.

In my mid-thirties, a chiropractor explained to me why my knees and ankles never healed fully after enduring multiple injuries to them in my teens and twenties.  “You’ve healed cuts and other injuries, haven’t you?  Why haven’t your knees and ankles healed then?” he asked me somewhat sarcastically. “Are we not self-healing organisms?”  I explained the family history and my many injuries, justifying my chronic pain.  He corrected my “wrong” thinking, then explained why some joints get worse instead of heal.  “It’s simple mechanics.  The joints are unable to heal due to their chronic misalignment.  It’s like driving your car with a misaligned front end and expecting the tires not to wear unevenly and prematurely.  Correct the alignment and mobility of the pelvis and spine, and the knees and ankles should heal.”

I received specific chiropractic adjustments regularly for the next two years to correct old neck and pelvic problems, and my knees and ankles healed fully and are no longer painful.  They function better now at age 52 then they did in my teens.

Through the years, I’ve heard things from people like, “Well, my doctor said that cartilage doesn’t heal”, or “Herniated discs can’t heal”.  Nonsense.  The body can heal ANY tissue, and there are examples to prove it time and again.  Joints and discs can’t heal, though, when they are continually under duress from faulty mechanics (misalignment).  So what’s the wise thing to do?  Make sure your spine and pelvis are balanced and free from vertebral subluxation.  Then marvel at the body’s ability to heal itself.