Understanding Joint Manipulation

Curious about the ‘clicking’ sound during joint manipulation?

This technique involves gently tensing a joint and applying a quick, subtle movement to release tension. The outcome often includes a faint ‘popping’ noise reminiscent of knuckle cracking. Our use of this technique stems from its proven ability to enhance joint mobility and relieve pain.

For example, if one lumbar vertebra is less mobile than the others, joint manipulation can alleviate the restriction, reducing the workload on neighbouring joints. Additionally, this technique may stimulate the release of endorphins, providing pain relief and boosting the body’s immune response.

However, not everyone is comfortable with or suitable for spinal manipulation. To ensure your safety and well-being, we conduct thorough screenings and have various alternative techniques and skills to employ that are tailored to your unique needs. Your journey back to health is our priority.

We provide care for individuals of all ages, from newborns to the elderly. Given the uniqueness of each person, treatment options may well vary significantly across different age groups.

For infants, gentle techniques like cranial approaches or soothing massage are typically employed; for a healthy athlete in their 20s or 30, stronger direct techniques might be used, or functional exercises to improve movement or posture. When it comes to the elderly, we tailor treatments by avoiding stronger techniques when unsuitable.

Our approach is individualized, ensuring the best-suited treatment for each person.

Our osteopaths are trained in medical acupuncture, also called dry needling. This is similar to, but not the same as, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) acupuncture.

In dry needling, fine surgical steel needles are inserted in order to relieve tension in the myofascial system, the muscular and connective tissues that make up the body. By releasing trigger points in one area, it helps relieve tension in related areas.

Dry needling also stimulates local blood flow and helps relieve pain. The needles are usually left in for a few seconds to a few minutes and are not normally painful.

In TCM, the philosophy is that the body contains lines (or meridians) of flowing energy, known as chi. Chi is thought to be a kind of life force and it is believed that blockages in these energy lines can affect the health. By removing these blockages using the strategic positioning of acupuncture needles, these blockages can be removed and health then follows.

Where medical acupuncture is usually used to relieve pain and muscle tension, Chinese acupuncture is used for a variety of other health concerns. We do have a network of other therapists, including a TCM practitioner, so if you would like to see one, just ask.

Chiropractors and osteopaths have a degree of overlap, especially in terms of spinal manipulation techniques (the ‘clicking’). However, they are very different; chiropractors see dysfunction in terms of spinal misalignment, whereas an osteopath may see spinal adjustment helping, but this is not always the case.

In an example of knee pain, a chiropractor would say that the knee pain is caused by nerves becoming impinged where they exit the spine, so causing knee pain. If that is the case, spinal adjustment is the solution. An osteopath may think knee pain is caused by such nerve root impingement, but this is not always the case – perhaps there is damage to the knee, or perhaps the ankle needs releasing to help the knee work better.

There’s a joke amongst osteopaths that whatever question we are asked, an osteopath begins by answering ‘it depends’ because for us, we focus very much on individual care, working out what is causing your problem and tailoring treatment individual to you.

Physiotherapists tend to focus just on the musculoskeletal system, whereas an osteopath is more holistic, taking into consideration lifestyle factors such as work/life balance, diet, exercise and mental health.

Physiotherapists tend to use more exercise-based therapy and be less hands on than an osteopath, whose work is more direct, using combinations of massage, joint articulation and manipulation as well as medical acupuncture.

Finally, physios tend to focus just on the affected body part (say a knee) whereas an osteo will look at the rest of the body, say the ankle or hip as well, and look at how they may affect the knee mechanics.

One of the more common questions we get asked is about joint manipulation – the clicking we do to release joints. These can often be in the spine and can seem a little startling.

In joint manipulation, the aim is to first tension a joint and then put a quick, small movement through it to release the tension, with the result often being a small ‘popping’ noise, the same as when someone clicks their knuckles. We mainly use this technique because the evidence shows that it can free a joint up and help it move better. In the case of the spine, for instance, if one of the five lumbar vertebrae isn’t moving as well as the others, this technique can help free it up, so the other joints don’t have to do so much. The technique can also release endorphins which can help with pain and trigger the body’s immune system.

That said, some people don’t feel comfortable or are not suitable for spinal manipulation. This is why we ask lots of screening questions as we go and also why we have lots of other techniques and skills we can use to get you back into health.