Trophic Cascades
I will use an ecological example to explain why I think joint workspace is pivotal for the health and longevity of an ecosystem.
Trophic Cascade Occurring In Yellowstone
For 70 years, Yellowstone National Park had no wolf packs due to hunting, the government’s predator control act, and other factors. The last Yellowstone wolf was killed in 1926.
In the decades that followed, scientists observed the ecological degradation of Yellowstone. Elk and deer herds increased their numbers because there was no predatorial pressure from wolves. Despite the presence of bears, mountain lions, and coyotes, their numbers grew so great that they virtually grazed away all of the vegetation.
The herds overgrazed grasslands, aspens, cottonwoods, and willow trees. This overgrazing left no trees for the beavers, and fewer dams were built, which reduced ecological niches for birds, fish, otters, and other animals.
Further, because the forests, trees, shrubs, and grasses had been so overgrazed, the river banks and soils eroded, which caused the rivers to meander more and thus eroded the banks even more.
The reintroduction of the grey wolf back into Yellowstone in the 1990s caused what is called a trophic cascade. An ecological process that starts at the top of the food chain and tumbles its way all the way down to the bottom.
The wolves hunted the elk and deer, thus changing their behavior. The herds no longer stayed out in the open grazing; they moved around the park and hid in the forests to avoid interactions with the wolves. Being on the move gave the opportunity for trees, shrubs, and grasses to regenerate.
More trees meant more wood for the beavers, who built their dams. This brought back an ecological niche for birds, fish, and otters. (See the video in references for other animals that benefited as well.)
The trees, shrubs, and beaver dams also changed the behavior of the rivers. The banks and soil were more stable, causing less erosion, which also kept the river from meandering and causing less erosion.
The wolf's reintroduction wasn’t just the mechanism that changed other animals’ behavior; it also altered an entire ecosystem and its geography.
Today, Yellowstone has 10 wolf packs and 9 beaver colonies, and scientists are still watching the cascade unfold and recover.
Life propagates organization that somehow links matter and energy in new ways to reproduce itself and, literally, to construct itself. - Stuart Kauffman
Joint Workspace
So why am I talking about Yellowstone wolves and beavers?
From a joint perspective—our ecosystem—we can witness the same ecological degradations when a joint has lost workspace and the propagation of the top-down cascading effects in recovering the ecosystem when joint workspace is reintroduced.
Imagine a joint with no workspace and its downstream implications for connective tissue architecture, muscle mass, bone mass, other joints, and other ecological niches.
In the short term, we may not see the large-scale effects of a lack of joint space but fast-forward ten years, and everything is different.
Here are three examples from my practice demonstrating a lack of joint space:
These cases not only have top-down effects but bottom-up implications as well. This cycle, if unbroken, will lead to further degradation of the internal environment as time passes.
Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis)
Shattered elbow that can’t extend the last 50 or so degrees of range of motion.
Cervical spinal fusion
A lack of joint workspace leads to overstressing another ecology, like connective tissue architecture, similar to the elk overgrazing on the grasses and trees. If there is less or no space to move, then we can’t access new architecture, which degrades other ecological niches of connective tissue.
If a joint can’t explore new space, it will be unable to train new lines of tissue, resulting in biological accommodation, and biomass hypertrophy will slow or halt.
If we reintroduce joint workspace, we can witness the cascade of biological and neurological events similar to the trophic cascade in Yellowstone from the top down.
Top-Down Propagating Effects of Reintroducing Joint Workspace Into the Ecosystem
Increase more capsular and joint workspace → increase access to more connective tissue architecture → more CT architecture can absorb and dissipate forces → create new lines of tissue → increase CT architecture and muscle (biomass) → create and improve ecological niches.
The joint space will change environmental conditions, allowing other systems, like connective tissue architecture and muscle, to adapt. In turn, these systems will alter those same conditions.
In Closing
Nature is a great resource guide. Any question I ever have, the answer I’ll find in nature — you just have to know where to look and how to ask.
Yellowstone National Park and our joint systems are both ecosystems. Each contains elements that affect one another’s behaviors and niche environments. Reintroducing a key element, be it wolves or joint space, can create multifaceted effects and change an entire ecosystem’s health.
Resources:
Odem, Eugene, and Gray Barrett. Fundamentals of Ecology. Brooks/Cole, 2005.
Kauffman, Stuart. A World Beyond Physics. Oxford University Press, 2019.