That is the craziest thing I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot of
stuff.
Can you be more specific???

In spruce, damage affecting roots (construction, salts, compaction, etc.) shows
in the branches being fed by those roots and may follow a spiral pattern up the
tree. This is because the water conducting system of these trees tends to twist
inside the trunk, and anything absorbed (or not absorbed in the case of
water/nutrients) by a root on one side of the tree is translocated in a spiral
pattern.
As far as I know, this applies only to spruce.
sed5555