Wisdom Wednesday: Mercury in Retrograde

On Thursday, July 26, Mercury entered what's known as apparent retrograde motion, a phrase often shortened to "Mercury in retrograde" or simply "Mercury retrograde."

This phenomenon occurs when the super-speedy planet appears to be moving across the sky in a different direction than it normally does.

It's an optical illusion created when Mercury catches up to and then passes Earth in its orbit around the sun. It's all about perspective.

Since Mercury moves so quickly, a "year" on that planet (the time it takes to complete its orbit around the sun) takes approximately 88 Earth-days. So Mercury's apparent retrograde motion relative to Earth happens three or four times a year, and tends to last approximately three weeks each time. This time, it will last until August 19.

As NASA and countless astronomers have pointed out, there's absolutely no evidence that astrology can tell you anything about the future, how you should behave, or what your personality is based on the position of Earth relative to the stars when you were born.

My Take:
Last week was a real anomaly in my office. The previous week I had three new patients with seemingly simple, but very chronic back issues. Their symptoms dated back years. During consult and examination, I wondered why these three simple cases had not resolved on their own. (Cases of acute low back pain resolve much more quickly with spinal manipulation, but they will eventually resolve without treatment as well) I had the nagging feeling I was missing some factor is each case.



Last week all three patients returned to my office and not one of them showed any symptomatic improvement. I went to the front desk and in jest, asked if Mercury was in retrograde. And naturally, the answer was yes.

Of course, that did not help me resolve any of the three cases. The first muscle tested with possible neuropathy. Although he had no obvious symptoms of neuropathy, I had eliminated inflammation, injury reflexes, subluxation of the spine and extremities, and any gait mechanism. So I placed him on inositol and we’ll see if he is improved this week.

The second brought x-rays for my review as requested. She had a grade II spondylolisthesis of L4. That’s a fracture that typically occurs in adolescence only to become symptomatic as the disc below degenerates, allowing the vertebral body to slip forward. A grade II indicates it has displaced 50% of the vertebral body width. I altered the way I adjusted her and I’m fairly certain she will gradually improve.

The third was much like the first patient with resolution of inflammation, an IRT (injury reflex) and the gait. Her pelvic misalignment even held. However, when I remarked that her subluxation was now at the level of L4, she responded by telling me that was the level of greatest degeneration. I confirmed this when she sent me the imaging studies and she reports a good reduction in symptoms for the first time in 20 years following her second visit.

Bottom Line:
Simple mechanical problems like acute low back pain are generally quite easy to resolve. When they don’t, it’s not because Mercury is in retrograde (although I have to wonder how I attracted three anomalies in less than a week), it’s because of an unknown factor. Chronicity (symptoms lasting more than six weeks) is a red flag for unknown factors. Fortunately, in a least 2 of these 3 cases, I was able to identify and treat that factor.

Source: July 26, 2018 Business Insider