Hip Osteoarthrits Research Study

A Software Engineers Approach to Fault Finding

I am a software engineer by profession so my approach to a problem starts with the recognition that symptoms can often be greatly separated from the underlying cause. A small fault in one specific location can cause a cascade of problems in other seemingly unrelated areas. If you limit your investigations to the obvious symptoms you may never find the root cause and therefore fail to develop a lasting solution.

In some ways the human body is not unlike a computer system, in that it has layers of software (the brain/nervous system) controlling sophisticated hardware (the body). However, unlike a computer, our bodies can compensate for damage/failures by recruiting other components to keep things running. For example, if one muscle is failing to do its job its neighbors can often take over, even though that means they are now doing tasks for which they were not designed. In some cases, the body may even lay down new bone to stabilize a joint.

These compensations may not be a problem in the short term, but if they are allowed to continue for long enough, they begin to cause problems of their own. The body attempts to further compensate for these new problems, and in doing so, a cycle of increasingly inappropriate "corrective" actions and dysfunction can develop. In order to put things right, this cycle must be broken, but it can very hard to work out how to do this, and where to begin.

Debugging A Complex System

When debugging a system my approach is often to reverse engineer the problem - to construct a model to find different sequences of events that could potentially result in the observed symptoms. A steady process of checking assumptions and testing eventually leads to elimination of all but one of the "fault paths".

That is the approach I took when debugging my own system (my mind and body). It allowed me to cope with the complexity of the problem and untangle the spaghetti-like web of dysfunction and damage caused by faulty interaction between mind and body.

I think the resulting model will be useful to others with similar problems. It may even help resolve some seemingly very different issues. SI joint syndrome, knee, spine, foot and shoulder OA, sciatic pain and perhaps hip impingement.

Testing the Model

It's one thing to prove that my model accurately predicted what was wrong with me, and how to put it right. It's quite a leap to assume that it will work equally well with everyone. It's vital to test the model with a wide variety of different people in order to find flaws, omissions and false assumptions.

This is where I come a little unstuck. I don't have 'patients' to test out my theories. As I'm not a a health professional or a student at a research university there is no mechanism available for me to verify my findings. The only way forwards - and it's not ideal - is to conduct my own internet based studies using volunteers as my 'guinea pigs'.

Would you like to volunteer?

I am interested in establishing whether my model can predict whether your symptoms are due to muscle imbalances and if they are can it predict which corrective exercises are needed to resolve the problem and eliminate all symptoms.

Have you been diagnosed with hip osteoarthritis?

If so and you'd like to explore the possibility that your problem is caused by a muscle imbalance then please drop me a line. I'll ask you a few more questions - nothing personal! - and if you seem to fit the criteria I'll give you a few little corrective exercises to try. Nothing strenuous, nothing that hurts, nothing that can do harm. And you never know - it might do a lot of good!