So far this week, three different people have walked into the office with new, mysterious pain in the shoulders, neck, and chest post-vaccine. These symptoms have lasted for days to weeks even months, much longer and intense than the typical side effects. All three had been to the hospital and had full cardio and respiratory workups and have no organic disease. To include NO BLOOD CLOTS. So, what is it then?
Well, I’ll tell you. Inflammation; and that’s a good thing, well kind of. Here is the science lesson, vaccines work by tricking the immune system into thinking you have a disease so it knows how to react when you get exposed to said disease. The immune response is regulated through inflammation. Now the tricky part of inflammation is that it isn’t graded; it’s on or off. Inflammation anywhere is inflammation everywhere and sometimes it does not turn off when it should. The body almost gets stuck in an inflammation response.
Pain and disease are also caused by inflammation. What’s been happening is that people who are having these types of side effects already have issues in this area of the body. The funny part is that in most cases it was not intense or you may not have known it was an issue yet. The most common areas are discs, knees, shoulders, or back. The surge of inflammation following administration of the vaccine is setting it off. Out of control inflammation can also cause de novo problems such as costochondritis. Painful inflammation of the ribs and chest that impact breathing.
What do you do about this increase in inflammation? First few days nothing. The reaction is the desired result for the vaccine to be effective. Longer there are things that can help reset the inflammation loop and alleviate the symptoms. Costochondritis responds really well to dry needling. The laser was invented to treat acute inflammation. Chiropractic, PT, massage, and acupuncture all work marvelously in treating bad joints.
I am NOT making any comment about vaccines, vaccine safety, or whether or not you should get it only explaining the reason for these side effects.
