Sacred Sacrum

The sacrum, also known as the tailbone is quite a remarkable bone in the body. We usually only think about it when we’re sitting down, but here I’ll give a brief dive into the beauty and function of its sacred landscape.

The sacrum is located at the very end of our spine and held floating by many ligaments in the center of the pelvis. Its ability to move within the pelvis is actually what allows babies to come into the world. It plays an important role in allowing us to stand straight and walk on our two legs. For the majority of us, this bone consists of five vertebrae fused together, and at the very tip of it is a different bone called the coccyx, which has its own remarkable function. If we focus just on the bony aspect of the structure, we can see how beautifully it’s placed in the midline of the body. Ligaments, which connect bone to bone, are wrapped all around it. The hip bones therefore, have their own relationship with the sacrum, and the lumbar spine has its own relationship to the sacrum. Even the skull, has a relationship with the sacrum. The back of the skull, called the occiput, has a ligament that connects all the way down to the second part of the sacrum. What a remarkable relationship! Things that are happening in the skull affect what’s happening in the pelvis, and things that are happening in the pelvis affect what’s happening in the skull. 

The sacrum has motion in several ways and here are examples of a few. 

-When we walk, our sacrum moves side to side along a diagonal axis.

-when we breathe, the diaphragm in our belly, increases the pressure within our abdomen, and as a result, our sacrum tilts backward to allow for space and synchronized function to occur.

-Lastly, the fluid that bathes our brain and spinal cord fluctuates up and down the spine on its own accord and influences the motion of the sacrum, getting it to float anterior and posterior in its own rhythm. 

And now we ask the question as to the purpose of this motion. Why do we need the sacrum to move while we walk? Is it just a biomechanical tool that helps our skeleton stay upright or is there more to it? 

Through the spaces of the fused vertebrae of the sacrum, nerves come outwards like thread coming through a needle, to innervate all of our pelvic organs. These nerves go to the last part of our gut, uterus, the prostate, the bladder, and more. For those of you who know what the vagus nerve is, the sacrum is in charge of its parallel function but in the lower half of the body! The vagus nerve is responsible for our ‘rest and digest’ functions to our upper organs, such as the heart, lungs and stomach. Therefore the sacrum is responsible for the ‘rest and digest’ functions of our lower organs, such as the colon, rectum, bladder and more.

The motion of the sacrum nourishes the nerves that comes from the spinal cord through the holes between the vertebrae into the organs. It’s motion or lack of motion play a role in the integrity of function of these nerves. Symptoms like constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, urinary urgency, diarrhea, interstitial, cystitis- are a few examples where the sacrum would be a place of evaluation and treatment by an osteopath.

Very common presentations of a sacrum dysfunction occur…

-after a concussion. Where the impact to the skull affects the function of the occiput, and therefore affects the function of the sacrum.

-A fall on the tailbone, while doing gymnastics, dancing, skateboarding, and anything else you can think of where one would land directly on the tailbone. Many times individuals have significant injury to their tailbones, but at the time of impact there was not known medicine or even importance or value placed in its significance and long term effects. 

-for those females with very painful menstruation. This is a clue that the integrity of the natural motion of the sacrum has been impacted. Once the sacrum is treated by an osteopath the ligaments that hold the uterus to the pelvis from within the pelvis have more balance and homeostasis in their monthly function.

-Orthodontic dental work causes a lot of intracranial tension, and as a result is very likely to cause restriction in the sacrum as well, do to its relationship again, with the occipital bone in the head. This one I see quite often in teenagers who start getting dental work done, and start experiencing headaches. As an osteopath, I evaluate head to toe and many times find the sacrum to be completely locked in place.

These are just a few examples to get you thinking like an osteopath. Allowing you to gain a “zooming out” perspective. To bring into your world view the relationship of the cranium with the sacrum. Also, to get you to appreciate the nerves that come out of the sacrum, and their relationship with the organs in the pelvis.

In Osteopathy, we learn and mirror the beauty of the natural world and see it reflected within the human body. We navigate the landscape of the bony structures, ligaments, nerves and more and are completely immersed in their holistic relationship with one another. No structure is made by accident, no relationship in the body is a coincidence.

So get that sacrum moving by mindful whole body breathing and walking, or even better, by dancing! 

And look out for those injuries which may impact the function of the sacrum.