Sickle Cell & Muscle Imbalances
I've been assessing how living with sickle cell anemia has effected me emotionally, physically, psychologically, and spiritually over the past few years. One of the ways I found I've been affected physically is by the muscle imbalances present in my body.
“Muscle imbalances can be characterized by either side-to-side (right versus left) or front-to-back (agonist versus antagonist) differences in muscle length or strength. Most musculoskeletal pain syndromes are caused by front-to-back differences, or imbalances of muscles surrounding a joint, rather than side-to-side differences. - See more at: http://www.muscleimbalancesyndromes.com/what-is-muscle-imbalance/#sthash.JGvNVIsz.dpuf”
Lower Crossed Syndrome
- Tight lower back muscles
- Weak/underactive abdominal muscles
Upper Crossed Syndrome
- Rounded Shoulders
- Neck shifting head forward
How having sickle cell relates to muscle imbalances:
While a lot of muscle Imbalances can be attributed to bad everyday habits we've developed (like sitting too long, or being hunched over at your computer) while investigating my lower crossed syndrome I found another cause connected to my sickle cell experience, the powerful pain killers I've been taking for most of my life. See the thing with our abdominal and pelvic floor muscles is that they are directly connected to our digestive system and anything that shuts down or shocks our digestive system shuts down our abdominal muscles. Things that cause this to happen include antibiotics, inflammation, very poor diets, and in the case of someone who has had intense pain crisis for most of their lives its the pain killers too powerful to be sold over the counter. So my core muscles are weak and under active causing my lower back to compensate by becoming over active and tight and the rest of my body works to balance itself . To compensate for my pelvic tilt my head comes forward to keep my vision aligned with the horizon and due to that same imbalance my knees lock when I stand causing tightness.
How muscle imbalances affect my everyday life with sickle cell:
Having healthy circulation i a major part of thriving with sickle cell. However muscle imbalances disrupt normal circulation. For example, since I have lower crossed syndrome I've assessed that I lock my knees in standing position which causes poor blood flow in my knee area. When I have a crisis I experience pain in the areas that I have over active muscles: lower back, knees, back of my neck in a addition to the typical joint and stomach pains.
I remember being younger and wondering why parts of my body looked the way they did, I remember being at a sickle cell summer camp and wondering why a lot of children an anterior pelvic tilt. I'm not saying we shouldn't take killers at all (sickle cell pain is excruciating) but we should be looking deeper into how our experience has affected us and taking steps to heal.
Over the next few posts I'll be sharing the what I'm using to manage and heal my muscle imbalances.
General Information:
http://www.muscleimbalancesyndromes.com/what-is-muscle-imbalance/