Topic: Valleix Phenomenon
The cliche “what goes around, comes around” and physics principle discovered by Sir Isaac Newton in the 1600s, Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” best describes the topic of this weeks Mally Minute.
While we can recite these phrases, there are basic principles here that apply to the body.
Many health care professionals see the symptom complex as identifying the precise location of the causal connection. This is analogous to the problem being the dashboard of your car when the gas light comes on! Ludicrous as it seems, I am not denigrating, moreover educating that the root of a weed, or tree is seldom directly beneath itself. The same holds true in the human body.
A review of peripheral neurology discloses the efferent nerves that provide impulses from the spinal cord to muscles and organs (carried away from the CNS) and the afferent nerves providing impulses (sensory data) from the periphery back to the CNS. Let’s focus on the latter also referred to as The Valleix Phenomenon.
Compelling as it seems, from our professional academic training, most clinicians focus on the efferent messages from the spinal cord to the periphery, such as radiculopathy, sciatica, and IVD (disc protrusion or prolapse). However, many patients have an equal and/or opposite reaction of returning impulses afferently, due to a peripheral entrapment often confusing to the practitioner and therefore most often over-looked and never treated.
The New England Journal of Medicine research states that MRIs on the general population revealed 80-85% of asymptomatic tested had positive MRI findings of bulging discs. Countless times in my 40+ years of practice and teaching I have seen and treated a multitude of patients suffering from poor outcomes as the treating physician was a unilateral “efferent” only thinker.
Of the nearly 30 entrapment neuropathies in the Upper Extremities and approximately 20 in the lower extremities, the Valleix Phenomenon plays an integral role in understanding and applying the opening cliché and physics principle of Sir Isaac Newton. If a patient presents subjectively complaining of low back pain and sciatica coupled with MRI findings of disc bulges at L4-5 and L5-S1 could it be possible the patient has an afferent causal connection? For example, Dennis a chiropractor in Michigan presents at my seminar in Lansing. He had idiopathic foot drop for seven years with associated low back pain, positive EMG findings and suggestion that his bulging disc at L4-5 and L5-S1 were the culprits. However, if so, why has he suffered and tried ALL conservative measures and failed to respond?
Let me explain. Afferent impulses from an impeded deep peroneal nerve entrapment distally behind the lateral malleolus from a severely sprained ankle was his arch nemesis. Here the Valleix Phenomenon refers to afferent impulses along the distal to proximal branch of the sciatic nerve facilitating and mimicking what others mistreated for nearly a decade. His response to one calcaneus correction using the Mally Method overwhelmed the patient and his 55 other colleagues in the audience. They all observed the patient stand and walk with immediate 60% improvement in gait and by the end of the day his seven year “idiopathic” foot drop and low back pain was completely eradicated.
If you want to get rid of a pesky weed, it’s your choice, either pull it from the top or get rid of it’s “root”. Let’s help patients by addressing the core issue. The Mally Method at ExtremityExperts.com shows you how. To patient health and your success.
