Research / Concern Specific Articles

CRANIAL OSTEOPATHY and CRANIOMANDIBULAR DISORDERS

Mon, 31 May 2010 14:54:21 -0400

BY CHIS HARRIS

As a cranial osteopath, the discovery that there are enlightened dental practitioners who have a similar understanding of the complexity and delicacy of structure together with the physiological functioning of the face and jaw came as a huge relief. The importance of the link between cranial osteopathy and dentistry cannot be overstated.

Cranial osteopaths understand that the bones of the face, in common with those in the rest of the skull, are free to move minutely, which they do in a rhythmical fashion. This small but vital tide of motion is usually called the Involuntary Mechanism or IVM for short. Osteopaths have been helping patients with subtle manipulation of this since Dr Sutherland first explored the concept in the early part of the last century. If this movement is interfered with significantly then there can be wide reaching effects not just in the local area but in the whole body. The relationships allowing motion between the bones of the face are particularly complex: studies in this field show that amongst other mechanisms, an ingenious system of shock absorbers exist that allow the strong forces of chewing to take place without disturbing the rest of the skull. Some of the bones involved are particularly delicate, and are not resilient to forces for which they were not designed, such as those involved in some dental work. Trauma is the most common way to upset the way the body works. Facial trauma is particularly poorly tolerated, and the most common form of facial trauma is dental work. This may be starting to sound like all dental work is traumatic and unnecessary, which is patently ridiculous. Anyone who has ever experienced the pain of an abscess under a tooth knows this without a shadow of a doubt. Much dental work is skilfully performed with the minimum of stress. However, some of the procedures are poorly tolerated by the body, as any cranial osteopath will tell you.

Here are some common problems. Extraction of teeth, particularly wisdom teeth, put very strong forces through some delicate bones with complex functional relationships. If these are disturbed, sinus, ear problems, headache, migraine, neck and back pain can result. Sometimes this occurs not for some time after the procedure, perhaps even years later. Any rigid appliance that goes across from one side of the mouth to the other in the upper jaw can interfere with an important articulation in the midline of the face leading to similar problems. Orthodontic work if performed without an understanding of the principles laid out here can be particularly severe in its consequences, and very often unsuccessful to boot. Moving teeth within their sockets involves strong forces over a protracted period. Temporomandibular dysfunction is a common feature, together with the above-mentioned symptoms around the head but also very often other problems throughout the body. These can include painful joints, irritability, poor concentration and lowered immunity. One typical clinical example familiar in essence to many of my colleagues would be the teenage girl who develops painful periods and extreme moodiness after braces are fitted. Osteopathic palpation will usually reveal a compression affecting healthy functioning of the pituitary gland and therefore hormonal balance elsewhere as well. A dental physician familiar with this work would also make the connection. Sadly this type of problem is often missed and the individual is not able to thrive in the way she otherwise might. In short, cranial work is very often indicated after dental work, and sometimes both before, during and after.

Now perhaps the reader is thinking that cranial osteopathy is solely involved in mopping up problems caused by albeit occasionally necessary dental intervention. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is much fertile ground for co-operative work to the great and sometimes lifelong benefit of patients. Inevitably problems such as temporomandibular dysfunction, overcrowding of teeth and poor facial development are associated with pre-existing stresses and compressions within the cranial mechanism. If these are treated alongside the dental work it will greatly speed and enhance good results - not just with the teeth too. Craniomandibular dysfunction is strongly associated with many other issues. Dyspraxia and dyslexia in children, visceral and musculo-skeletal problems in adults, to name just a couple. The wholistic perspective espoused by the BSSCMD and inherent in osteopathy, leads to a greater understanding and often effective treatment. A significant and growing number of dental physicians work alongside cranial osteopaths with these issues in mind. This co-operative mutual understanding can be beneficial in many other ways. As the saying goes, prevention is better than a cure.

In terms of time treating relative to health benefits accrued, the cranial osteopaths’ most useful work by far is with the newborn. Study of the mechanics of birth and babies’ anatomy show that they are well adapted to withstanding the rigours of the process. Nevertheless the forces involved are strong and retained compressions and distortions do cause problems. These can be corrected much more easily and fully when the work is done in the first few weeks. There exist other windows of opportunity for hugely useful treatment. During pregnancy, appropriate osteopathic intervention will in my opinion increase the likelihood of a straightforward delivery. Also when the child is young, growth spurts, inevitable knocks and bumps and eruption of teeth all change mechanics in the body and can cause problems. Judicious cranial treatment in effect removes any braking forces from growth and development. Bodies, bones of the face included, reach far more of their genetic blueprint’s potential. Hard to treat occlusal/dental problems become far less likely. Dental intervention is therefore less often necessary, and less radical when it is. In short, the greater understanding that the BSSCMD is enabling will help practitioners help patients achieve more of their full, truly remarkable potential as human beings.

On a personal note that is why I am involved in what I do. It is why osteopathy has held my otherwise fickle attention for fifteen years. It is also why I am lucky enough to love my work.

http://jawache.com/Cranial-Osteopathy.asp

Mobility of our Bones - NPR

Mon, 31 May 2010 12:28:14 -0400

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The Mobility of Our Bones
More posts are forthcoming but I wanted to share some new information and pose a question.
The new information is from an NPR story. A couple of doctors performed CT scans on 60 human skulls of people ranging in ages. Upon grouping the skulls they found there to be a relationship between the age of the person (at time of death) and the appearance of the skull. The older people had facial bones that were saggier. The findings seem to indicate that it not just your skin that sags and makes you look older but also your bones.
I wonder if this means anything for craniosacral therapy. One technique of craniosacral therapists is to gently manipulate the skull via the cranial sutures that fuse the skull together. However, some critics of this particular alternative health therapy argue that the skull does not allow movement and that the fused sutures create immobility.
The doctors that looked at the skulls were looking mostly for difference in facial features (They were from a background of plastic surgery) and so there actually may be a difference in the cranial structures. Would a full study with findings that facial bones are ever shifting support craniosacral theories? Jaw bones are certainly different than skulls and are designed to have mobility, but the slow shifting of its placement might be affect the placement of a cranial bone.
There are other criticisms of craniosacral therapy besides the question of cranial movement but if there were a strong study showing cranial shifting over time then that would go a long way toward resolving that particular criticism at the least.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/alternativehealth/archives/202569.asp?from=blog_last3

(NPR story following)

As Our Skin Sags With Age, So Do Our Bones
by DEBORAH FRANKLIN

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Researchers say it's not just loose skin that makes us look old; it's our bones. These skulls from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History show the loss of definition in the lower face.

April 19, 2010
Dr. Howard Langstein does face-lifts for a living, and he's the first to say that there are some facial droops that even repeated nips and tucks won't fix.
"If you simply pull the skin tight, it has a pretty unnatural look," says Langstein, a plastic surgeon at the University of Rochester. "The look we're born with — cherubic face, puffy cheeks — that's the look of youth."
To figure out why so many people with face-lifts look "windswept" instead of youthful, Langstein and a colleague, medical resident Dr. Robert Shaw, collected three-dimensional CT scans of the skulls of about 60 adults. The idea was to look deep beneath the sagging skin and soft tissue, and focus instead on the underlying bone. When they grouped the scans according to age — young, middle age, and 65 and older— and took careful measurements of the various dimensions of the face, a pattern emerged: It's not just skin that droops with age, they discovered. Facial bones shift and wither with time, too.

University of Rochester Medical Center
CT images showing the differences in angle and length in the lower jaw of a young female (left) and an older female (right).

"We saw changes around the eye, and then in the cheek area and in the jaw," says Langstein. "And if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. When people age, the eyes appear hollow, deep-set. And, in fact, that's what we found. The cheek bones right beneath the eye socket descend somewhat and come back in. As a result, they don't give as much support to the lower eyelid."
The same was true of the jaw, he says. "If you think about the aged face, there's sort of a lack of definition in the jaw line. And that's what we saw in the CT scans." As the jawbone became thinner, the chin receded, so that the scans of the oldest people looked a little slack-jawed.
"It's one of those things that, in retrospect, you sort of say, 'Duh, I should have known that!' " says Langstein. "Nothing stays the same on the body. Everything ages."
The Skeletal Evidence
Langstein could have asked David Hunt. Hunt works as a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C., where he oversees the roughly 30,000 human skeletons in the Smithsonian's collection.
When you see that many bones, Hunt says, you get a pretty good sense of how bone changes over time. He points to one classic-looking skeleton, dangling from a stand in his lab. With its chiseled jaw and perfect teeth, the skeleton is clearly a young adult, he says. In our high-flying 20s, our insides, as well as our outsides, look their best.

Nate Lavey/NPR
These skulls from the Smithsonian show a range of definition: from minimal loss in bone volume (left), to moderate (center) and dramatic (right) changes in cheek and jaw definition.
Hunt says a 20-year-old's bone is "really pretty stuff. It's smooth, and it's solid, and it's hard, and it's dense." But bone is not just a hunk of calcium; it's alive and constantly, throughout life, being eaten away and rebuilt, bit by bit. In fact, every dozen years or so, each of us has a whole new skeleton. That's good, Hunt says. And bad.
By middle age, the texture of that bone is rougher. Eye sockets start to sink, the jaw recedes. You can get all the exercise and drink all the milk you want, Hunt says, and you're still going to get some bone loss in your face, simply from aging.
"Nothing stops it," he says. But the guy who's seen 30,000 skeletons does have some tips for how to slow down that facial bone droop: Hang on to your teeth.
Hunt olds up a skinny, toothless jawbone that looks like the yellowing, withered-away blade of an old ice skate.
"Mainly what you're seeing here is the impact of tooth loss," he says. "The body takes away those no-longer used sockets where the teeth used to be."
Hunt says that thanks to decades of better dental care, antibiotics and fluoride, the teeth and skulls of baby boomers look a lot younger than those of our grandparents in middle age. Yet another reason to keep flossing — and smile.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125387566&sc=fb&cc=fp

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

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Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy

310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468

info@marklevine.ca

www.marklevine.ca

Physical Therapists Strongly Recommend Tummy Time for Improving Infant Development

Mon, 17 May 2010 17:06:20 -0400

Physical Therapists Strongly Recommend 'Tummy Time' for Improving Infant Development

NaturalNews) In 1992, the "Back to Sleep" campaign led by the American Academy of Pediatrics was aimed at preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). According to their statistics, the program seems to have been successful. However, what appears to have been ignored until recently is a new epidemic of developmentally delayed children -- including those with plagiocephaly (a flattening or deformation of the head). Although the "Back to Sleep" program convinced parents of the importance of putting newborns and infants to sleep on their backs, this recommendation may have been misunderstood. As the American Physical Therapy Association points out, the back-lying position is for when kids are sleeping and unsupervised, not all the time.

Some health authorities have questioned whether stomach-lying is the true cause of SIDS. An alternative explanation is that babies may be really dying because they are inhaling toxic chemicals from their sleeping environment (mattresses). When on their stomachs, they are inhaling these chemicals directly, as opposed to being on their backs and breathing the air above them. Dr. Jim Sprott has done some extensive research on this proposed cause of SIDS and has published a book about it (http://thecauseofsids.org/). He notes that SIDS is very rare and even unheard of in other countries that do not use mattresses for their babies (e.g., hammocks). He notes also that SIDS was not really heard of until mattresses started being filled with toxic chemicals as well. Other potential suspected causes of SIDS include nutritional deficiencies, vaccines, pesticides, and second-hand smoke.

No matter the cause of SIDS, one thing is for sure: Without ample "tummy time," kids will not develop properly. A national survey of 400 pediatric physical and occupational therapists by the non-profit children's health advocacy group "Pathways Awareness" found that two-thirds of therapists reported increases in motor delays in infants who spend too much time on their backs. These delays can be: developmental (muscle and bone disorders), cognitive and organizational skills delays, eye-tracking problems, and behavioral issues to name some of complications that can arise.

One of the biggest problems is that it's not just when they're asleep that babies are being kept on their backs. It appears to be occurring all the time. New parents are now using car seats often that also serve as infant carriers, many of which fasten directly into strollers and swings without having to remove the baby from the seat. In other words, the new generation of babies is spending way too much time strapped into things that keep them on their backs. Little ones love to explore their environment. Without ample tummy time, this exploration process is becoming severely hindered, and so is their development as well.

As mentioned previously, a misshapen head (plagiocephaly) can be a common result of too much time spent on the backside of the body. However, it should be noted that many newborns can have some degree of head shape irregularity. In most cases, the head will resume a symmetrical shape by 6 weeks of age. Abnormal head shape beyond this period may indicate a condition that requires repositioning and orthotic treatment. Premature infants are at higher risk for plagiocephaly, as they tend to spend extended periods of time in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) on a respirator with their heads maintained in fixed positions.

Although many new parents are concerned often with just the basics, such as sleeping, eating, changing, and nurturing, babies need simple movements and changes of position too. Just holding and soothing a baby in different positions can help them get used to tummy time. Pathways Awareness has developed "Five Moves for Baby's First Workout," a guide that includes photos, tips and suggestions for integrating tummy time into an infant's day. They recommend babies start with tummy time for just a few minutes (or even just a few seconds) per day, eventually building up to an hour a day, in spurts throughout the day, by three months. Parents can visit (www.pathwaysawareness.org) for more information.

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has also put out a brochure called; "Tummy Time Tools" (http://tinyurl.com/6eknkj) , which offers parents with ideas and activities to make sure a baby gets enough time on the tummy throughout the day, while awake and supervised. These activities include handling, carrying, diapering, positioning, feeding and playing with their baby.

Deformational plagiocephaly is typically diagnosed during a regular physical exam by a pediatrician or craniofacial physician. Measurement techniques and a visual exam of a baby's head can determine the asymmetry of the skull and facial features. Physical therapy may be recommended for infants with moderate deformational plagiocephaly or torticollis (wryneck). A typical treatment plan may involve repositioning the infant's head away from the asymmetry and tilted position, gentle stretching and massage. Physical therapists develop at-home therapy programs that instruct parents in proper positioning techniques, along with exercises to facilitate symmetrical movements and developments.

A common recommendation is to reposition the child's head during sleeping (such as rotating the head away from the flattened or asymmetrical side). Also, periodic changes in the orientation of the baby to the room are suggested. For example, the baby's body or crib can be periodically turned to face the door at a different angle. This will require the baby to look away from the flattened side when they want to see parents or others in the room. Supervised tummy time is also used to prevent unwanted pressure on the back of a baby's head and helps a child to develop proper head and neck control.

A cranial remolding orthosis (also called a "cranial helmet" or "band") may be recommended. Remolding helmets usually have a hard outer shell and a foam inner lining. The theory of how they work is that they apply gentle, yet persistent, pressure to the infant's head, inhibiting growth in the prominent areas and allowing for growth in the flat regions. Cranial remolding orthoses are believed to be most effective with infants 4-18 months of age. During this time, an infant's skull is more malleable to allow for rapid brain growth. The average helmet treatment usually lasts 3-6 months, depending on the age of the infant and severity of the condition. Frequent monitoring is required with this intervention. Parents should remember that using such a device is a personal choice. If parents do decide to use a cranial helmet, they should be sure to check the chemical toxicity or allergy potential of these devices. Gentle manual therapy (hands-on) techniques, such as craniosacral therapy and myofascial release, may be beneficial in a child's treatment as well.

Developmental delay, including plagiocephaly can be a confusing and fearful obstacle for many new parents. The good news is that it's often a treatable as well as preventable condition.

References:

(http://tinyurl.com/5czkey)

(http://www.cqs.com/sids.htm)

Levy Thomas, Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, & Toxins - Curing the Incurable.
Xlibris, 2002.

(http://tinyurl.com/55r4fe)

(http://tinyurl.com/5l9osf)

(http://tinyurl.com/69hgxm)

Influence of supine sleep positioning on early motor milestone acquisition. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2005; 47(6):370-6; discussion 364 (ISSN: 0012-1622)

(http://tinyurl.com/6eknkj)

Richardson BA. Sudden infant death syndrome: A possible primary cause. Jour Forensic Science Society 1994;34:199-204.

Sprott TJ. The Cot Death Cover-up? Auckland: Penguin Environmental-NZ, 1996.

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About the author
Dr. SAM (Samuel Arthur Mielcarski), DPT, is an expert in the field of rehabilitation. He is currently licensed as a physical therapist in Georgia and Florida. He has over 13 years of clinical rehabilitation and health-coaching experience, combined with additional training, education, and practical experience in integrative bodywork, nutrition, natural hygiene, exercise/fitness, mind-body integration, performance enhancement, and personal training. He is the author of the recently released: "Revolutionary Rehab Manual: A Common Sense Approach to Health and Healing." Details can be found at: RevolutionaryRehab.com. He can be contacted via email at DrSamPT@gmail.com or through his main website: www.DrSamPT.com.

http://www.naturalnews.com/023969.html

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

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Creative Commons Licence
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Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy

310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468

info@marklevine.ca

www.marklevine.ca

Why Worries About Baby are Bad for Baby

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:07:40 -0400

MARCH 31, 2010
By SUE SHELLENBARGER

As sharply higher numbers of women work through pregnancy, many hear the same advice: Relax. Don't stress out or you will harm your unborn baby.
Contrary to old beliefs, however, research shows that ordinary day-to-day job and home stress isn't likely to cause low birth weight or other problems for most women. Traffic delays, work deadlines and other everyday hassles aren't likely to pose a threat to unborn babies, researchers say, and pregnant women who feel they are coping well tend to do just fine.

Instead, new studies are revealing a link between a certain kind of stress and some developmental delays in the baby: worrying excessively about the pregnancy itself.

This "pregnancy-specific anxiety" was linked to lower cognitive-development scores in babies at 12 months of age, based on a study published recently in Child Development by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, echoing other research. Women who experience this kind of anxiety worry excessively about potential problems with fetal development, miscarriage or giving birth.

Researchers don't yet understand the basis for this finding. Women may become excessively anxious about their pregnancies because they sense that something actually is amiss, which could account for the developmental delays. Or, a mother who is anxious and negative during pregnancy might tend to provide less nurturing and stimulating care after birth.

Whatever the cause, many obstetricians are urging pregnant women to stop obsessing about stress, and seek out more support from family and friends. "Most of my patients are so anxious it's outrageous," says Laura Riley, medical director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital. "It's amazing how many people will come to my office and say, 'I've read that stress is very bad for pregnancy, and I'm all stressed out."' She tells patients, "Now you're all stressed-out about being stressed. This is just not helpful."

Some obstetricians are sending expectant moms to prenatal-care groups where they can get stress relief the old-fashioned way: by talking to other pregnant women. In a program called Centering Pregnancy, about 10 expectant mothers who are all at the same stage of a healthy pregnancy receive prenatal care in a group. In periodic two-hour sessions scheduled with the same frequency as standard one-on-one prenatal checkups, the women first get private screenings for blood pressure, weight and other health indicators, then gather for discussion.

A midwife or obstetrician also often gives a brief talk on a scheduled topic, answers questions and corrects misinformation.

In the process, "you create more of a support group" for mothers, lowering their stress, says Peter Bernstein, a specialist in maternal fetal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, New York.

An estimated 300 medical-care facilities are offering Centering Pregnancy groups, says Sharon Rising, executive director of Centering Healthcare Institute, Cheshire, Conn., a nonprofit promoting group care.

A study of 1,047 young mothers, published in 2007 in Obstetrics & Gynecology, found those who received prenatal care in a Centering Pregnancy group had one-third fewer preterm births, compared with others who received standard care.

Melisa Williams has had plenty of reasons to stress out over her first pregnancy. Several of her family members had miscarriages. She has read media stories about the hazards of stress during pregnancy, describing how "it could really take a toll on the baby," says the New Yorker. And she has battled a lot of back pain. Co-workers at her retail store job have constantly warned her to take it easy. Assigned by her obstetrician to a Centering Pregnancy group, she says the sessions "helped me to relax." Hearing other mothers talk with the midwife about back pain and other problems, she says, "it helped me know I wasn't the only one going through that."

While most pregnant women face moderate stress, a smaller slice have unrelenting, chronic strain. Women facing more difficult circumstances, such as extreme poverty, racism or serious family problems, have a higher risk of preterm birth or developmental problems. Also, research shows that going through a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, during the first trimester also raises the risk of premature delivery or low birth weight.

In coping with all kinds of stress, family and friends can help a lot. Social support—kind words, nurturing friends and surroundings that prompt smiles and laughter—is emerging as a powerful antidote to pregnancy stress.

A 2008 Swiss study that subjected 60 pregnant women to stressors, such as a simulated job interview and a math test before a camera and an audience, found those who reported more "daily uplifts" in their lives, such as smiling, laughing and receiving compliments, were less likely to react negatively to stress. Positive social experiences seem to act as a buffer, the study found.

Researchers increasingly believe that how individual women react to stress is a major factor in its effects. A study led by researchers at Michigan State University has linked a hostile attitude in and of itself—that is, the tendency in a pregnant woman to feel angry, suspicious, cynical, tense or nervous a lot of the time—with an increased risk of preterm birth.

In the study of 2,018 women, published in 2008 in the journal Social Science & Medicine, women's tendency toward hostility was measured by responses to a series of questions about their feelings and attitudes.

Researchers say building "stress resiliency"—a habit of staying calm and optimistic, and continuing to care well for yourself through periods of heavy stress—is a key to healthy birth outcomes. Michael Lu, an author and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of California, Los Angeles, encourages women to start building resiliency against stress even before they become pregnant—forming good exercise, nutrition and sleep habits, and learning how to solve problems and face adversity without stressing out.

Learning to savor life's joys, be grateful, and look at seemingly negative events from a positive angle, he says, can set the stage for a pregnancy immune to the hazards of stress.

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

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Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy

310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468

info@marklevine.ca

www.marklevine.ca

'Concussion' underplays severity of injury- doctors

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:08:37 -0500

CTV.ca News Staff    Updated: Mon. Jan. 18 2010 7:12 PM ET

Parents and doctors often underestimate the severity of concussions among children, Canadian researchers contend, and they think the best solution is to scrap the word and replace it with "mild traumatic brain injury."

Carol DeMatteo, an occupational therapist and associate clinical professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., says children diagnosed with concussions are treated differently from kids with other mild brain injuries.

In a study to be published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, she found that kids with concussions spend fewer days in hospital, and return to school sooner than kids with head injuries not diagnosed as concussion.
"Even children with quite serious injuries can be labelled as having a concussion," DeMatteo said in a news release.

"Concussion seems to be less alarming than 'mild brain injury' so it may be used to convey an injury that should have a good outcome, does not have structural brain damage and symptoms that will pass."

Despite the perception that concussions are benign, they are actually an injury to the brain that can leave patients with a severe headache, amnesia and sometimes a loss of consciousness. While most patients recover, concussions can have lasting effects. Some patients develop "post-concussion syndrome," a poorly understood complication that causes symptoms to last for weeks and sometimes months.

There also is evidence that people who've had multiple concussions, such as boxers and football players, can experience cumulative neurological damage. Some have even suggested that repeated concussion increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

And yet, many patients, their parents, and even their doctors think of concussions as benign, found DeMatteo, an associate member of the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster.

She decided to launch her research after hearing a parent say: "My child doesn't have a brain injury; he only has a concussion." The remark so struck her, she used the phrase to title her study.

For the research, DeMatteo and a team analyzed medical records for 341 children admitted over two years to McMaster Children's Hospital with traumatic brain injuries. Among the group, 300 children had a severity score recorded and, of that group, 32 per cent received a concussion diagnosis.

The researchers found that despite the severity of the injury, children with the concussion label were discharged earlier from hospital. They were also more than twice as likely to return to school sooner following hospital discharge.

"Our study suggests that if a child is given a diagnosis of a concussion, the family is less likely to consider it an actual injury to the brain," DeMatteo said.
"These children may be sent back to school or allowed to return to activity sooner, and maybe before they should. This puts them at greater risk for a second injury, poor school performance and wondering what is wrong with them."

DeMatteo points out that the other problem with the term "concussion" is that it can be vague. Concussions are usually diagnosed through symptoms since they are an "invisible injury"; a CT scan of the brain will typically find no abnormalities.
DeMatteo believes that using the term "mild traumatic brain injury" instead of "concussion" would help people understand that a concussion is an injury to the brain, not just the head.

She also thinks "concussion" should be scrapped for more specific descriptors of the injury, so that patients can better understand their injuries and doctors could accurately describe them.

© 2010 All Rights Reserved.
Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

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Creative Commons Licence
Some Rights Reserved

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy

310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468

info@marklevine.ca

www.marklevine.ca

Craniosacral Therapy Brings Relief to Fibromyalgia Patients

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:34:54 -0400

posted:10/3/2009

Craniosacral therapy—a light-touch technique that addresses the cerebrospinal fluid—is practiced by dedicated therapists and also incorporated into massage sessions by therapists trained in the technique.

New research shows that craniosacral therapy can benefit fibromyalgia patients.

Fibromyalgia is considered as a combination of physical, psychological and social disabilities, according to an abstract published on www.pubmed.gov. "The causes of pathologic mechanism underlying fibromyalgia are unknown, but fibromyalgia may lead to reduced quality of life."

The double-blind longitudinal clinical study showed that fibromyalgia sufferers who received craniosacral therapy experienced lessened pain, anxiety and depression, and improved quality of life and sleep patterns.

According to the researchers, "Approaching fibromyalgia by means of craniosacral therapy contributes to improving anxiety and quality of life levels in these patients."

Eighty-four patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia were randomly assigned to an intervention group (craniosacral therapy) or placebo group (simulated treatment with disconnected ultrasound). The treatment period was 25 weeks.

Anxiety, pain, sleep quality, depression and quality of life were determined at baseline and at 10 minutes, six months and one-year post-treatment.

"State anxiety and trait anxiety, pain, quality of life and Pittsburgh sleep quality index were significantly higher in the intervention versus placebo group after the treatment period and at the six-month follow-up," www.pubmed noted. "However, at the one-year follow-up, the groups only differed in the Pittsburgh sleep quality index."

http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=7899

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

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Creative Commons Licence
Some Rights Reserved

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy

310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468

info@marklevine.ca

www.marklevine.ca

How I Discovered Craniosacral Therapy

Fri, 16 May 2008 20:38:53 -0400

By Mark Levine

I first came upon Craniosacral therapy 17 years ago by accident; I had just graduated from massage therapy college and was working in a clinic with an experienced, curious physiotherapist named Iris Weverman. Iris had heard about Craniosacral therapy and was about to take the first Upledger course. She brought the textbook and videos to the clinic to study at lunch. I watched the videos and was non-plussed; it looked to me like the laying on of hands.

I have no problem with the laying on of hands, but the textbook described all sorts of detailed bio-mechanical concepts of proprioception, motion and cranial bone movement. I was skeptical because all I could see from the video was John Upledger putting his hands on someone and not moving them for a long time, then saying something reassuring like “There, that’s it” “There’s a good release”. Hardly spectacular or forceful or meaty or obvious enough for a freshly trained Registered Massage Therapist. I thought it was hooey.

Then, the first day back after taking the course, Iris offered me a session at the end of clinic hours. It was the most amazing hour of bodywork I had ever experienced.

After the first few minutes, during which Iris put her hands on the back of my head, and my critical mind nattering in the background “what hooey...” I began to experience a state of deep relaxation, in which I felt the extraordinary sensation of my body correcting itself from the inside out.

I felt my body deeply relaxed, and my mind very awake; the intersection of a lucid dreamlike state in my imagination with my proprioceptive and nociceptive senses fully facilitated by an induced state of extreme parasympathetic dominance was like no other form of bodywork I had ever tried, and I had tried many.

In this extraordinary state of deep relaxation, I felt a series of strong soft tissue discomforts and releases – alternations of aching, nauseating, lancinating pains, warming, fasciculations, pulsations, becoming less viscous - connected to just about every trauma I had ever experienced.

As Iris moved her hands onto different areas of my body and left them there for minutes at a time, warming, slightly motion testing with 5 grams of pressure in rhythmical ways, I became aware of an intricate interweaving of sensations, images, memories, and realizations, all of which carried the gravity of something objective, something remarkably truthful, as though I was being shown all this content for an Important Reason by an Authoritative Source.

The soft tissue releases seemed to occur precisely as I turned my attention to the sensation, image, memory or realization. I recapitulated memories about which I had not thought for a long time. I felt like crying, and did.

In particular, I recapitulated a cycling accident I had three years previous, in which I sustained a head injury – I had lost consciousness for 40 minutes – and multiple fractures. In the span of what must have been only a few seconds (but felt like minutes), I recalled and felt the experience of impact into the telephone pole in great detail.

Since the time of the accident, I had struggled with retrograde amnesia about the events around the time of the accident. And now, in the blink of an eye, with Iris’s gentle hand supporting me and moving the very tissues in which the kinetic forces of the accident had been absorbed in me, the memory of exactly what happened became conscious. I even remembered what happened during the time I was unconscious, including things I heard which I verified later. This memory recall was most unexpected.

And at the end of that extraordinary hour, I felt completely different than at the beginning of it. I felt like Gumby in a heat wave, as though someone had just pointed out the fact that, until now, I had been tightly wrapped in Saran Wrap, and then gave my body permission to unwrap.

I was euphoric: flexible, coordinated, awake, more acutely sensitive to all of my sensations, emotionally open, optimistic, calm, blissful. And I felt like stretching a lot. I felt as though I knew myself much better than an hour previous.

On my drive home, the car seemed to weave back and forth (even though it wasn’t actually); steering seemed difficult. I even thought that something was wrong with the front end of the car. When I got home I fell into a very deep sleep, and I slept for a long time.

The next day I felt as though I had been hit by a truck, or at least that I had just smacked my head into a telephone post at high speed on my bicycle. All the same disturbing neurological deficits that I had experienced chronically for several months following the accident were back – acutely.

I lost cognitive ability, experiencing a distressing ‘brain fog’ including photophobia and phonophobia, memory loss, paresthesiae and a lack of co-ordination and strength in my whole left side (it was a right sided head injury). Suspecting that this was the ‘healing crisis’ I had been warned about, I drank a lot of water and went back to bed.

By evening I began to feel better, although I still felt achy and flu-like. The next day was better and on the afternoon of the third day I experienced an all-at-once profound sense of psycho physiological integration as I rode my (same) bicycle past the same point where I had the accident.

As I rode past the pole, I felt a strong feeling of suddenly re-inhabiting the left side of my body after having vacated it three years earlier. A sustainable version of that free body sense and euphoric feeling was back, I felt better than I had in years. These gains have stayed with me, and subsequent sessions have only deepened the experience.

I of course wanted to study this remarkable therapy, and dove right in to the primary texts by John Upledger, and soon took the first course with Robert Harris. The precision and simplicity of the approach, the demonstrability of the effects, and the degree to which the techniques respect and leverage the exquisite sensitivity of our autonomic nervous system impressed me.

I began to practice more and more of it, offering it as an adjunct to my then normal massage therapy practice. I took more courses and began reading the early 20th century texts of the original cranial osteopaths; Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, Dr. William Garner Sutherland, Dr. Harold Magoun, Dr. Robert Fulford, and so on. The more I read, the more this approach made eminent sense to me, and I began to use it a lot more, joining several study groups at the same time, and taking more courses. For about 5 years I became a Craniosacral therapy education junkie. I then began as a teaching assistant with the Upledger Institute and co-taught the first four Craniosacral courses numerous times.

And then I discovered working with babies, also by accident. A friend with a colicky baby had been close to insanity with sleep deprivation and asked if Craniosacral therapy could help. The literature cautions that a practitioner ought to develop a sufficiently educated touch by working with adults first because a baby’s Craniosacral system is so very sensitive. I felt experienced enough to try, and my friend’s desperation was obvious.

I spent about 45 minutes gradually stretching and expanding the baby’s Craniosacral system with great gentleness. The baby was in a full blown scream at first, but much to her parents’ (and my) surprise, she settled down after a few minutes.

The effects were nothing short of miraculous. This baby had been strung out for 3 months with colic, screaming for 4 hours a day, and the parents at their wits end. Within a day after the session, nothing. Not a peep. And it lasted. We did 3 more sessions over the next month to make sure everything was ok, and the baby is now 12 years old, much happier.

This gratifying experience launched a new direction in my practice, and I began studying the works of Dr. Viola Frymann, I took the (now offered) Pediatrics course from Upledger, (and have since also co-taught it.) My practice quickly morphed into doing Craniosacral therapy exclusively, primarily with babies.

Working with babies and children and their mothers and fathers is a wonderful practice. There is a saying: ‘As the twig is bent, so grows the tree’. It is an extraordinary privilege to work with families to help unwind bent twigs. Each situation is new and varied and offers me a learning opportunity. I usually work with the parents of young children first, so that they can have a felt experience of what first looked like hooey to me, so that they can trust that a) I’m actually doing something more than the laying on of hands (which is great in itself), and b) that it doesn’t hurt, and c)so that they can learn some basic exercises they can do with their children.

Currently, about 70% of my practice is focused on treating pediatric concerns (neo-natal to teens), and about 30% is adult (over 18).

The 10 most common reasons for visits to my clinic by infants and younger children are:
Traumatic Birth (forceps, suction, Cesarian, Premature)
Neonatal Trauma (Accidents, Infections, Surgery, Separation)
Nursing Difficulties (Poor Latch, Tense Jaws, Mother’s Pain),
Torticollis (Turning mostly to one side)
Positional Plagiocephaly (Oddly Shaped & Partially Flattened Head)
Sleeping Difficulties
Colic, Tense Baby & Failure-to-Thrive Syndrome
Mother / Child Relationship Challenges & Post Partum Depression
Seizures & Motor Problems
Chronic Ear Infections

The 10 most common reasons for visits to my clinic by older children, teenagers and adults are:
-Head Injuries & Concussion
-Headaches & Migraine
-ADD / ADHD / Aspergers / Autism
-TMJ (Jaw Joint) Pain / Vertigo / Tinnitus / adjunctive to braces and appliances
-Whiplash, Back & Neck Pain
-Orthopedic & Sports Injuries
-Post Surgical Recovery
-Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia
-Addiction Issues
-Stress, Emotional & Existential Crises

And the 11th most common reason for visits to this clinic concerns Wellness, Personal Development & Curiosity. High level wellness implies personal development and curiosity about novel body / mind experiences, and Craniosacral therapy certainly offers a novel mind/body experience.

After 17 years in practice, 16 years since first encountering Craniosacral therapy, and 7 years subspecializing in pediatrics, I now have a busy home-based practice focusing primarily on perinatal and pediatric concerns of an international clientele. I have informal associate arrangements with an osteopath and a foreign trained pediatrician, both of whom sometimes work out of my office.

So what exactly is Craniosacral Therapy? It is an extremely gentle hands-on body-mind technique for evaluating and treating a variety of soft tissue, neurological and psychosomatic problems.

Whereas the focus of traditional massage therapy is on stretching and increasing the range of motion of muscles through a variety of manipulations that increase circulation of blood, the focus of Craniosacral therapy is on increasing flow of the cerebrospinal fluid of the central nervous system through a light touch - of about 5 grams - on mobile cranial bones, spinal and pelvic joints.

Clinically, Craniosacral therapy is predicated on at least 3 surprising and medically contested assertions; 1) that cranial bones move, even into adulthood, and 2) that there exists a palpable, rhythmical alternation of cerebrospinal fluid pressures, the patterns of which are biologically significant, and that 3) it is possible to intervene therapeutically in both 1) and 2) with less than 5 grams of manual force.

Craniosacral therapy occupies a middle ground between the physically manipulative approaches to bodywork such as Chiropractic, Physiotherapy and Massage Therapy on the one hand, and Energy work such as Therapeutic Touch, Reiki, and Chi Gong on the other.

Craniosacral therapy is much lighter in touch than most physically manipulative approaches, and yet is also a manipulative science that uses direct hands-on mobilizations of connective tissue and joints (albeit very light) in specific directions, which is not characteristic of the various practices described as Energy work.

Craniosacral therapy shares many of the theoretical constructs of manual practices of Osteopathy, which traces its history back to the early 1900’s, and myofascial release and the strain / counterstrain techniques of positional release.

Craniosacral therapy really describes an approach to bodywork which is gentle and non invasive, and the term commonly includes related modalites such as visceral manipulation, fascial release, gentle joint mobilizations and acupressure.

It has been variously called osteopathy, osteopathic manual practice, cranial osteopathy, osteopathy in the cranial field, sacro-cranial therapy, sacro-occipital technique (S.O.T.), bio-cranial therapy, craniostructural integration, cranial-sacral therapy, and so on.

While there are subtle theoretical differences among these various names, I would argue that these apparently differing names are really proprietary or ‘brand’ names given to the same body of work by different teaching institutes. While there are differences in the depth, quality and duration of training among these various schools, ranging from a single weekend course to a 5 year doctoral program, it has been frequently noted that the most experienced practitioners from these different schools practice in essentially the same way.

The common link among the various modalities of the Craniosacral approach is a light touch involving only a few grams of pressure, sustained over a long period of time. This method of proprioceptive (in contradistinction to tactile) palpation can be taught to anyone willing to be still enough to attend, to listen, to the subtle but definite motions involved.

Specifically, Craniosacral therapy addresses the meninges or dural tube. These structures, together with cerebrospinal fluid and the bones of the cranium and face, the spinal column and sacrum, have been described as the Craniosacral system.

Because the dural tube is continuous from the sacrum to the brain, and because connective tissue is continuous throughout the body, stress anywhere in the body can restrict normal motion of the dural tube, resulting in inefficient movement, a deficit of coordination, mental and emotional disorders, and pain, sometimes quite distant from its source.

The great value of this approach is that it is entirely safe and free from the potential dangers of more invasive forms of bodywork. Also, one can deeply relax into a slow stretch or joint mobilization without fear, which allows for significant, painless gains in movement.

It also allows for a truly holistic approach to the interaction of mind and body, since deep relaxation encourages one to be internally objective in the self-assessment of emotional contributors to pain and loss of function. These reasons are as true for infants as for adults.

The only contraindication to craniosacral therapy is recent cranial surgery, or cerebral bleeding such as an aneurysm.

A full case history is taken on the first session, including postural assessment, range of motion testing, orthopedic and neurological testing, and subtle fascial palpatory testing. This work is done through the clothes and does not require that a person disrobe. The session involves having various body parts gently stretched, held and mobilized extremely slowly, almost imperceptibly.

People often enter a dream-like state of profound psychophysiological relaxation in which sensations, images, memories, thoughts and feelings become amplified. Non-ordinary states of consciousness, including the dissolution of physical boundaries, seeing of colors, and extremely pleasurable wave-like feelings of energy, lightness and wholeness are often reported. Some people become very quiet, and others talk, while others again experience or express strong emotions such as grief, fear, and excitement.

Like with yoga and other transformational arts, emotions frequently well up during sessions, and part of the process is simply acknowledging what is happening by making it safe to encounter the emotions, and by offering verbal support and validation in its expression. Upledger has termed this phenomenon SomatoEmotional Release, emphasizing that emotions often accompany somatic releases, and are in fact the often ‘missed factor’ in the perpetuation of somatic pain and dysfunction.

Usually there is a profound change felt after the first session; people usually feel much more relaxed and simultaneously aware of both subtle body sensations and energy in their environment. Sometimes people feel perceptually altered, as though one area of the body is larger or more sensitive, or balance is off. One usually feels like stretching after a session. Often people are profoundly fatigued, or alternatively, highly energized. Babies usually will sleep for longer than usual. Occasionally, symptoms are exacerbated for a few hours to a few days in what is often termed a 'healing crisis', after which symptoms usually improve.

The theories proposed to explain the Craniosacral rhythm and its relationship to self healing have received a great deal of attention in the last few years, and have ranged from traditional mechanistic understandings focused on a pressurestat model of cerebrospinal fluid balance and its relationship to normal neuromuscular function, to those associated with transpersonal psychology and theories radically unconnected to the mainstream of scientific understanding.

What mechanisms or principles truly inform such phenomena is fertile ground for further research.

Craniosacral therapy is taught as a postgraduate course to Doctors, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, Physiotherapists, Dentists, and Psychotherapists by the Upledger Institute, an educational and treatment centre founded by the American Osteopathic physician John Upledger. A doctoral level program is also available in Ontario through the Canadian College of Osteopathy and now, a number of independent colleges and teachers. It is a method rapidly gaining currency and attention.

References: A Selected Bibliography

Barral, Jean-Pierre
Visceral Manipulation, Eastland Press, 1988

Frymann, Viola M.
The Collected Papers of Viola M. Frymann, DO : Legacy of Osteopathy to Children American Academy of Osteopathy, 1998

Fulford, Robert C.
Dr. Fulford’s Touch of Life, Pocket Books, 1996

Gehin, Alain
Atlas of Manipulative Techniques for the Cranium & Face, Eastland Press, 1985

Magoun, Harold I.
Osteopathy in the Cranial Field, Third Edition, Journal Printing Company, 1976

Sutherland, William G.
The Cranial Bowl, Free Press Company, 1939
With Thinking Fingers The Cranial Academy, 1962

Upledger, John E.
CranioSacral Therapy, UI Publishing, 1983
CranioSacral Therapy II, Beyond the Dura, UI Publishing, 1987
SomatoEmotional Release And Beyond, UI Publishing Inc., 1995
A Brain Is Born, North Atlantic Books, 1996

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

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Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy

310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468

info@marklevine.ca

www.marklevine.ca

Craniosacral Therapy for Newborns and Infants

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:19:17 -0400

By Dr. John Upledger, DO, OMM

Part I

CranioSacral Therapy has proven effective in identifying a number of disorders affecting children, inlcuding dyslexia, hyperkinetic behavior and motor-control problems. It's also good at alleviating such conditions when they're caused by restrictions in the dura mater membranes of the craniosacral system. I believe the few minutes necessary to conduct a craniosacral system evaluation in the delivery room, or shortly after birth, is a worthwhile investment in any child's future health and well-being.

In 1977, we did a great deal of clinical work at Michigan State University (MSU) to discover how the newly discovered craniosacral system affected patients. For research purposes, I had to develop a standardized evaluation tool. By that time, I had done enough hands-on work that it was fairly simple to come up with the 19-step protocol, which was used by four different examiners to see whether or not the findings were in agreement. The examiners were unaware of each other's findings until each statistician had completed his work. Using this protocol, we examined 25 nursery-school children and found an 85- percent agreement among the four examiners, which took their individual subjective findings out of the realm of chance. Clearly, we were dealing with a craniosacral system that could be evaluated reliably using only the hands of a trained examiner. Based on this study, I considered the evaluation protocol a valid research tool.

I went on to use this protocol on 203 grade-school children. An independent statistician-psychologist correlated my results with the childrens' academic and behavioral performances, and with the medical/obstetrical history of each mother and child. Statistical data analysis revealed that the process was capable of identifying children suffering from dyslexia, hyperkinetic behavior, seizures and motor-control problems. It also could identify babies delivered by Caesarean section or forceps, and those who had suffered oxygen deprivation at the time of delivery.

Based on those results, we opened a clinic at MSU for brain-dysfunctional children. We also received funding to research relationships between autism and craniosacral system dysfunction. The clinic opened in late 1977, and the autistic research was carried out from September 1978 through June 1981. All of this work led to the following impressions and conclusions regarding the effects of craniosacral system dysfunctions on central nervous system (CNS) function.

Maternal Illness or Toxicity During Pregnancy

Maternal illness or toxicity during pregnancy usually results in a generalized tightness of the fetal dura mater, which makes the membrane less able to comply with the rhythmic volume changes of cerebrospinal fluid flowing within the craniosacral system. Frequently, this is a consequence of a maternal viral infection during the last six months of pregnancy. (Maternal bacterial infection is a less likely cause.) We've also seen cases in which tight membranes seemed related to the mother's respiratory difficulties, such as asthma, or to toxin problems, whether from a single experience or ongoing exposure. The toxins could be taken in as food, drink, medicines or street drugs, or inhaled as air pollutants or airborne allergies.

Usually, such a generalized tight-membrane syndrome manifests as gross dysfunction of the child's central nervous system: Sensory and motor deficits, while extremely variable, are obvious. Most often, CranioSacral Therapy greatly affects or completely corrects these problems. The treatment is particularly effective when applied during the first few weeks of an infant's life. If allowed to persist, the noncompliant-membrane syndrome may be severe enough to become a strong contributing factor to the development of autism. Other problems, such as maternal injury, emotional upset or fetal malposition in the pelvis over a prolonged period, are more likely to produce specific clinical symptoms related to craniosacral system dysfunctions that can be discovered quite easily. Proper application of CranioSacral Therapy - the earlier the better - usually is quite effective.

Craniosacral System Dysfunctions Related to the Delivery Process

Delivery of the newborn involves passage of the child through a convoluted birth canal. I believe vaginal delivery represents a child's first CranioSacral treatment, spinal mobilization, myoneural system treatment and sensory-stimulation session. In my opinion, all of these serve to prepare the infant for the rapid transition from life inside the womb to the outside world. Nature seldom makes design errors, and I certainly don't believe the birth canal is one of them.

The bones of the vault of the fetal/newborn skull are hard places in the membrane. There is ample room between their edges for overriding and changing of the head's shape so it can pass through the birth canal. This passage represents a "manipulation" of the skull bones by the birth-canal walls; it ensures their proper mobility, so that after delivery, the bones are able to comply with the motion of the craniosacral system.

Cases of skull-bone overriding usually self-correct as the child's head expands and reshapes after exiting the birth canal. Should this not occur within minutes, a CranioSacral therapist can correct these situations easily. Left uncorrected, override problems can contribute to seizure tendencies. We often find a persistent override between the parietal and frontal bones in spastic conditions such as cerebral palsy. When corrected, these conditions usually improve or disappear entirely.

The squeezing of the child's head during delivery also may act as a circular wringer that encourages the permeation of cerebrospinal fluid into and throughout the brain tissue, down the spinal canal and throughout the subdural spaces. This squeezing motion helps the venous blood drain from the skull vault, so that as soon as the head is delivered from the birth canal, fresh arterial blood can enter the vault and further activate the circulatory systems of the brain. It also offers the first scalp massage.

Most infants are delivered face-down, with the mother in the supine position and the child's occiput coming out under her pubic bones. Many well-meaning delivery attendants feel a need to speed up the process. Obstetrical lore contends that when the head comes out, we must hasten to complete the delivery, since the birth canal may be squeezing the umbilical cord against the infant's body. This cord compression is thought to potentially occlude blood flow to the infant, which may result in brain damage due to hypoxia. In other words, the attendant's good intention translates into grasping the child's head and pulling; in doing so, the head can be hyperextended, which may create a "jamming" of the skull's occipital bone forward into the V-shaped receiving-joint surfaces, located on the superior surface of the 1st cervical vertebra (atlas).

When there is danger of injury, the soft tissues of the body contract or splint. If splinting occurs with the child's occiput jammed in this forward position, it will stay that way. In that case, the contracture of soft tissues at the juncture of the skull base and the top of the neck may compromise areas of the jugular foramena on the right side, the left side or both. If the jamming is more severe, it may compromise the foramen magnum.

The jugular foramena allow several important structures to pass out of the skull, including the jugular veins that drain most of the venous blood from the head into the neck. The foramena also afford passage to the IXth, Xth and XIth cranial nerves. The glossopharyngeal (IXth) and vagus (Xth) cranial nerves work jointly to help control swallowing, airway function, and the larynx, pharynx and esophagus. The glossopharyngeal nerve also works along with the hypoglossal (XIIth) cranial nerve to control the tongue and oropharynx. Additionally, the vagus nerve helps maintain a normal heart rate and is involved in stomach and bowel function. When dysfunctional, the vagus nerve can contribute to a sense of dizziness.
The hypoglossal (XIIth) nerve exits from the skull through the hypoglossal canals, located beside and beneath the joint surfaces of the occiput as it articulates with the atlas. Consequently, jamming can easily result in tongue control problems, such as tongue thrust. The spinal accessory (XIth) cranial nerve innervates some of the major muscles of the neck; when dysfunctional, it may create spasm of the sternocleidomastoideus and/or the portion of the trapezius muscle in the neck. This may continue after birth due to ongoing compression/irritation of the nerve as it exits the jugular foramen, which may then produce a torticollis.

We call this type of craniosacral system dysfunction "occipital base compression." If both sides of the occipital base are severely compressed, it's common to see colic; food regurgitation; esophageal reflux; respiratory difficulties; rapid heart rate; and compromised bowel function (constipation or diarrhea). There also may be spasm of the neck muscles. If left uncorrected, the situation may result in hyperactive child syndrome and attention deficit disorder. When the occipital base jamming is less severe, or only on the right or left side, any combination of these symptoms may be present.

Fortunately, occipital base compression can usually be corrected by a skilled CranioSacral therapist in a matter of minutes, if the child is treated during the first weeks of life. Treatment is most effective when performed during the first few days of life - or even in the delivery room, after the umbilical cord has been cut and the child has been suctioned and wiped clean. The sooner the child is seen, the less treatment normally is required.

If neck-muscle spasm is allowed to persist, it can cause temporal bone dysfunction in the craniosacral system. This has been shown to be a strong contributing factor in children with dyslexia and other reading problems. Interestingly, correcting these dysfunctions in school-age children often allows them to catch up to normal reading levels in a matter of weeks, unless psychological and/or emotional scars are in the way. If they are, psychoemotional therapeutic modalities must be incorporated into the treatment program.

John Upledger, DO, OMM
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Massage Today - May, 2003, Volume 03, Issue 05

Page printed from:
http://www.massagetoday.com/archives/2003/05/08.html

Applications of CranioSacral Therapy in Newborns and Infants, Part II

Editor's Note: Part one of this two-part series appeared in the May 2003 issue.

John E. Upledger, DO, OMM

Forceps and Vacuum Extraction

Once an infant's head is delivered and free from the pressure of the birth canal, we can focus on what occurs as the rest of the child's body is delivered. The trip through the birth canal involves a brilliantly orchestrated series of twists and turns for the child's torso and pelvis, which essentially mobilizes each joint in the spine and pelvis and stretches all the related musculature and soft tissue. Nature intended this to be a process that relies more on pushing from uterine contraction than pulling from externally applied forces.

When those assisting the delivery process apply excessive traction to the child's head to "assist" the body through the birth canal, significant strains of muscles, ligaments, fasciae and joints may occur. The body's response to a strain is tissue contracture. There also may be small amounts of blood extravasated, which act as irritating stimuli that may later induce fibrotic changes in soft tissues. These phenomena may occur within the craniosacral system and in the paraspinal and pelvic tissues.

Wherever strains and extravasations occur, they can interfere directly or indirectly with proper functioning of the craniosacral system. Strains should be released; contracted tissues should be relaxed; fluid exchanges in tissues where extravasated blood has spilled should be encouraged; and all joints should be mobilized as soon as possible after delivery.

If these issues are not addressed, they can cause a wide variety of craniosacral system problems, spinal problems (that I believe can manifest as scoliosis in later life) and pelvic imbalances (that could easily interfere with the proper functioning of pelvic organs). It is easy to correct the majority of these problems immediately following delivery, and it is essentially risk-free when the work is done by a competent CranioSacral therapist. It requires only minutes to carry out the evaluation and treatment early in the child's life; it seems a shame not to do so as soon as possible.

Other causes of craniosacral system dysfunction that relate to delivery include abnormal presentations, such as eith the face, arm, leg and breech. Each of these presents abnormal stresses, strains and pressures upon the child's body, which may manifest as unique craniosacral system problems. The system must be evaluated to determine the dysfunction, and the natural self-corrective mechanisms must be supported to attain full function and efficient craniosacral system function.

Forceps and vacuum-assisted deliveries often impose the excessive "pulling" forces that induce strain patterns in body tissues. Forceps, which are applied asymmetrically, often result in a misshapen head that is beyond the child's self-corrective abilities. These problems can be resolved by a skilled CranioSacral therapist as soon as possible after delivery.
My own experience with children delivered by vacuum extraction has firmly molded my opinion in opposition to this practice. The vacuum or suction on the child's head creates a negative force inside the head that can result in the suction of abnormal quantities of intracranial fluids into the top of the skull vault. This "edema" may result in long-lasting craniosacral system dysfunctions relating to loss of flexibility of the meningeal membranes, and probably some fibrous changes in tissues that are meant to be pliable and compliant.
The "vacuum-extracted" children we have worked on at our clinic require a great deal of CranioSacral Therapy (CST), even when therapy begins during the first year of life. The problems are correctable, but if another choice of delivery is available, it would be better to avoid the risk imposed by applying such strong vacuum forces to the top of the delicate fetal head.

Cesarean Section

I was surprised during my early work to see the strong positive correlation between the presence of significant craniosacral system dysfunctions and delivery by Cesarean section. It was quite puzzling, until I remembered occasions during C-sections when I saw amniotic fluid spout up into the air a few inches as the incision was made into the uterus. This suggests the sudden reduction of pressure inside the uterus where the child has been living for the past nine months. Fetal physiology could be severely challenged by this sudden change in pressure. It seems comparable to a scuba diver surfacing too rapidly and suffering the "bends."

From a craniosacral point of view, this sudden reduction in external pressure might result in a rapid expansion of the fetal head. This, in turn, could easily result in intracranial membranous strain; micro tears in the meningeal membranes; and tiny capillary bleeds. As these extravasated red blood cells degrade, they undergo biochemical changes in which they become bile salts, which are irritants to brain tissue and membranes. This tissue irritation results in fibrous change in the form of gliosis in the brain loss of compliance in membranes; and small but significant intermembranous adhesions. These conditions may cause craniosacral system dysfunctions that could require extensive therapy.

Postpartum Events That May Relate to Craniosacral System Dysfunction

The most common postpartum event we have seen relating causally to dysfunctions of the craniosacral system is the suctioning of the mouth and nose. The newborn's hard and soft palate, and nasal structures are extremely delicate at the time of birth. The suction bulb or tube easily insults the soft tissues, causing them to contract. When it persists, this contracture compromises hard-palate and nasal-bone mobility that, in turn, causes craniosacral system dysfunction.

Hard palate problems usually result in sphenoid and/or temporal-bone dysfunction. These problems can easily lead to eye-motor system dysfunction and severe irritability of the child. Other symptoms are often sensory and very difficult to evaluate since a newborn cannot provide verbal reports of sensation. Therefore, it is up to the astute CranioSacral therapist to locate the system dysfunctions without much feedback besides crying and other signs of discomfort. Occasionally, the suctioning is done rather roughly, and actual bony dysfunction of the hard palate, zygomata and/or mandible can occur. These problems are more flagrant, and therefore more easily discovered during the evaluative process. What is discovered must then be addressed.

Other postpartum craniosacral problems are usually seen as they relate to injuries, like dropping the newborn. These are all individual and unique problems for which each child must be evaluated. The CranioSacral therapist must address what he or she finds.

Craniosacral System Evaluation and Protocol

I have spoken a lot about CST and its uses in the delivery room and during the early stages of the newborn child's life. In closing, I would like to describe the initial evaluation and protocol as I do it in the delivery room or the nursery.

First, I simply hold the skull vault of the child's head in one hand and evaluate for tightness and/or asymmetry over the whole skull-vault surface. Then I insert one finger of the other hand into the child's mouth and try to induce the sucking response. If it occurs, I enhance it in synchrony with the child's own rhythm. This enhancement is done in the form of gentle finger pressure on the roof of the mouth with each suck. If no sucking occurs, I will gently and rhythmically press on the roof of the mouth. As this rhythmical hard-palate pressure is continued, I can feel the skull vault expanding slowly. In this way, and by gently sculpting with the skull-vault hand, skull asymmetries and overriding can usually be corrected.

Next, I release the occipital base by laying one or two fingers under the back of the neck. These fingers support the upper cervical vertebrae in an anterior position while, with the other hand, I very gently urge the occiput to "back off" of the atlas. Once this is accomplished - and it seldom takes a full minute - I keep my occiput hand where it is. I move the other hand down to the pelvis and gently traction between the occiput and pelvis. This technique is used to release strains induced by "pulling" the newborn through the birth canal.

Frequently, I feel a sort of unraveling process along the spine as I do this technique. I believe many cases of scoliosis are headed off right here, just as many cases of hyperactivity and learning disabilities are avoided by the occipital-base release and the skull-vault molding.
I move both hands to the pelvis and, holding one half of the pelvis in each hand, I release and balance this region. I release the shoulders and rib cage by holding one half of the upper torso in each hand and releasing and balancing, just as I did with the pelvis. This total evaluation and protocol should not take more than five to 10 minutes. If specific problem areas do not resolve, the child should be seen again for re-evaluation and therapy within 24 hours.

This rather innocuous session with a newborn may head off problems later in life. It is a worthwhile, minimal-risk investment in a child's future.

John Upledger, DO, OMM
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Massage Today - June, 2003, Volume 03, Issue 06

Page printed from:
http://www.massagetoday.com/archives/2003/06/13.html

******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy for Colic

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:27:51 -0400

By Mark Levine

Colic. Your beautiful baby screams incessantly, fists clenched, rigid body, obviously in pain. You try rocking, singing, gripe water, perhaps changing your diet or the baby’s.

You are an otherwise capable parent reduced by sleep deprivation and tension to feelings of failure, panic and tears. Additionally, post partum depression may be triggered or worsened by the stress of a high needs baby. A mother experiencing a post partum mood disorder may feel unable to cope. Parents are often at the breaking point before they seek help.

Much of the literature and advice from doctors, family and friends often is vague. Cause is usually ascribed to an immature digestive tract, and parents are advised that the baby will eventually grow out of it.

Research from various state-of-the-art manual therapies has shown that colic can often be a functional problem, the result of compression of a cranial nerve.

Because of the pressure exerted on the skull as it passes through the birth canal, a particular cranial nerve, called the vagus, is often compressed where it passes through the base of the skull to the neck. When it is working properly, this one nerve serves to relax almost all of our body’s organs, and encourages proper function of the organs. When it is compressed it stops working properly.

Human digestion, regardless of maturity, happens only when we are relaxed. When the vagus nerve is compressed, it keeps a person stuck in the fight-or-flight stress reaction. Even adults will develop gas, discomfort and poor assimilation if eating while stressed. So colic can happen when babies can’t relax because of a nerve compression.

What really happens by letting the baby ‘grow out of it’ is that the baby’s nervous system eventually learns that the cumulative stress of being continuously in the fight-or-flight reaction is ‘normal’. Research has also shown that, left untreated, colicky babies are therefore at higher risk of stress related and sleep disorders, immune dysfunctions such as chronic ear and respiratory tract infections, injuries and school age diagnoses of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

Perhaps more importantly, letting the baby cry and waiting for the baby to outgrow the colic undermines development of the parent-child bond during the critical first few months. How a parent interacts with his or her baby is now believed to influence how the baby’s brain develops. A responsive parenting style is one of the keys to a baby’s healthy emotional development. Most parents agree that responding quickly to the baby’s cues is their most important job in the early months.

Advising ‘waiting it out’ does nothing to empower parents to help their own children when they are so clearly attempting to communicate that something is wrong. For the baby, this can create a preverbal pattern of parental distrust. “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree”.

Fortunately, specific treatment is available in the form of a gentle hands-on therapy which has proven to be remarkably safe and effective with colic and other pediatric concerns such as nursing and sleeping difficulties, vomiting, seizures, eye problems, chronic infections, torticollis (wry neck), and oddly shaped heads. This approach is called Craniosacral therapy.

Cranio what? Craniosacral therapy is a light touch manual therapy which addresses restrictions in the bones and connective tissue wrappings around the brain and spinal cord which impede fluid movement and neurological function. It is practiced by specially trained massage therapists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, medical doctors, and dentists.

Craniosacral therapy involves slow and extremely gentle mobilizations focused primarily on bones of the skull, face and mouth (the cranium), and the tailbone (the sacrum), as these are the bones to which our central nervous system is anchored. It is a remarkably effective holistic approach for working with a wide variety of physical, neurological and emotional issues in both children and adults.

Mothers and fathers often arrive at the clinic suffering from the anxiety of not knowing how to calm their babies. After an hour’s treatment session, during which they learn simple manual techniques to help both themselves and their babies, parents usually leave with the babies relaxed and quiet, or asleep.

The success rate for colic is high. Results are usually evident with the first session, and more lasting effects are cumulative from subsequent sessions. A treatment program typically involves 3 to 12 weekly or biweekly sessions.

For older children and adults, Craniosacral therapy is also helpful with concussions, migraines, learning disabilities, motor co-ordination problems, dizziness, and TMJ (jaw joint) pain.

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

c

Creative Commons Licence
Some Rights Reserved
2004

This article was originally published as handout for mother and infant workshops by Mark.

Colic is Here! - babyboomba.blogspot.com

Fri, 16 May 2008 13:17:28 -0400

April 15, 2008

Something I wanted to get out of the way before I start this blog: Mr. Hubster's clean laundry is still sitting in his hamper UNFOLDED. Read all that blog written 7 days ago. We’ll see if my 2 week prediction works. 1 more week to go.

As promised a billion times, the post about colic is here. What makes me an expert? Because Buddy was blessed with this trait for 4 months. Mind you, I’m only an expert in my own situation.

What is colic?
Many people think that colic is just endless crying. It is, but there’s a reason for it.

"Severe abdominal pain caused by spasm, obstruction, or distention of any of the hollow viscera, such as the intestines. Often a condition of early infancy, colic is marked by chronic irritability and crying."
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/colic

How did it start?
Buddy was extremely mild mannered for the first week. We don’t think we even saw his eyeballs until the third day. He slept for most of the time. Then a week came. The crying started. It wasn't general crying from hunger or a diaper change. It was constant crying and screaming around the clock.

The hospital emergency room.
One night at 1 am while doing a diaper change, his belly looked like the bottom of an hour glass. Though only on one side. We brought him to Emergency. They took him in right away since he was only 19 days old. After an x-ray to determine that nothing was lodged in his GI tract, they determined that the bloating was a huge gas pocket. The crying continued ALL night.

How did we know it was colic?
Well it was quite obvious. After every feeding, he would get extremely fussy, pull his knees to his chest (from the gas pains) and start the crying. It was confirmed by the ER Doctor and our aunt who works at a High Risk Birthing Unit. Besides the colic, he was generally fussy. Setting him down in a swing would last 3 seconds before he would start screaming.

Our (My) daily cycle:
Feed, Cry from gas for 3 hours. Get hungry again. Feed. Cry from Gas for 3 hours. Get hungry again. Feed. Cry from Gas for 3 hours. Get hungry again. I’ll let you figure out the rest. This lasted all day and into the night. Mr. Hubsters wore out the carpet by walking the same path endless hours trying to calm him down.

We tried:

* 3 types of Gripe Water (even scoping special West Indian Stores): None Worked
* Massage as led by a book: Kind of worked
* Swaddling: Buddy hated it like the devil
* OVOL: it was like a second bottle
* Shhhhhh in the ear: nope
* Researching: gave me relief knowing I wasn't the only person on earth dealing with this
* Yoga Ball: this was the only surefire way to make him stop crying. The only thing is, we would have to bounce on it 3 hours at a time. That ball was attached to us like underwear. Thankfully, I lost weight at the same time.

At the 5 week mark, I was ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. One can say that when enduring endless screaming and crying 24/7. Everywhere said that this colic thing can last up to 6 months. There was no way I was going to live with this for another 5 months.

So I did lots of research. I found that there was treatment for infants with colic. It’s called Craniosacral Therapy. Huh? Yes, lots of people were looking at me like I was from Pluto. “You’re bringing your 5 week old to an Osteopath ? What is that? And are you crazy?”. I replied "live in my house fo 24 hours or even better 1 hour and then ask me that question again."

Not many people know about this type of care. It is recommended that EVERY infant do this! We found an amazing expert who specializes in Craniosacral and Osteopathic Manual Therapy. His name is Mark Levine. We brought Buddy to do 4 sessions with him. Half an hour each session over the span of 2 weeks. After the end of it all, Buddy was a like a “new man”. Or course, he wasn't 100% cured from colic. But his fussiness had dramatically changed. He can now sit content in a swing for 14 minutes. That was a great accomplishment.

How we kept our sanity
We didn’t. But if you are going through this, remember it does stop as their digestive systems matures. He was over it by 4 months. We were also lucky to have my mom help out ALOT. I won’t sugar coat it either. The general fussiness still lingers. Because of colic, the baby is constantly attached to you as you try to calm him. As a result, I think that this developed in him a greater separation anxiety. And that’s what we are dealing with now! And we have achieved our latest accomplishment: self-soothing to sleep which you can read about here in my "coming out of zombie land" blog.

Click here to visit Mark Levine: www.marklevine.ca - He is located in Richmond Hill, Ontario and I would HIGHLY recommend him even if your baby is not colicky. He also works on mom too! I talked with several other parents who swear that every baby should be “adjusted”!

Click here to visit Fussy Baby: www.fussybaby.ca – an excellent resource for any parent dealing with fussy, colicky and high-need babies. This website is founded by Holly Kehler Klaassen from Vancouver, British Columbia and provides a wealth of information on how to deal with your little one! Join her Facebook Group here.

Both are Canadian Resources!

Posted by boombalady at 10:01 AM
Labels: colic

http://babyboomba.blogspot.com/2008/04/colic-is-here.html

Craniosacral Therapy and Nursing

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:45:38 -0400

Could CranioSacral Therapy Help Your Nursling?
By Dee Kassing

Editor’s note: Although this article was written for lactation consultants, it may also provide parents with additional tools for breastfeeding problems.

In recent years, there have been frequent references to CranioSacral Therapy and other bodywork for infants who are having difficulty breastfeeding. John Upledger, D.O., first discovered the craniosacral system with its rhythm unique from other body systems. Although Dr. Upledger was the first to develop CranioSacral Therapy and many therapists have been trained in his methods, other practitioners have developed variations. Any of the methods might be helpful to a baby.

When choosing a therapist — who could be a certified massage therapist, a physical therapist, a chiropractor, etc. — be sure to ask how much training and experience in working with infants the therapist has had. Some chiropractors are also accredited in pediatric chiropractic. This is a different type of bodywork but can also be very helpful to infants. Adult chiropractic applied to babies would be dangerous, so again, it is necessary to ask about the chiropractor's training and experience.

Signs a baby needs help
It is important for the lactation consultant to be able to recognize symptoms in the infant that can show a need for bodywork therapy. Some of the symptoms are very noticeable, and others are quite subtle. For some involving motion, the key will be if the symptom appears consistently.

Although some symptoms will be obvious while baby is at breast, others will be more noticeable when baby is laid flat on his back on a firm surface such as a changing table. I try to examine baby on a firm surface after he has finished the first breast, but before the second. When baby is very hungry, he will not lay calmly for me to observe his natural position and how he moves. But if I wait until he has finished the second breast, he may be asleep.

Furthermore, if he gets impatient and upset with me during the examination, mom can calm him by offering him the second breast. In my attempt to be thorough, I will start at the top of the head, describing things to watch for, and work my way down through the body.

Sometimes, looking at the center of the top of the head, you will be able to notice that one side of the skull is slightly elevated compared to the other side. This can happen in babies who did not experience vacuum extraction but can be even more prominent if vacuum extraction did occur. Look at baby's skull and feel carefully (feeling can be particularly important if baby has a lot of hair) for ridges.

Notice if the baby's head appears cone-shaped. During birth, the bones of the skull need to slide over each other so the baby can fit through the birth canal. After birth, the bones are supposed to slide back into their proper position, but sometimes they need gentle help to accomplish this.

Why is this important? Fascia is connective tissue that unites skin to the underlying tissues. Fascia also surrounds and separates many of the muscles and sometimes holds them together. Ligaments are bands of tissue that bind bones together or support organs.

The head is made up of a number of bony plates. Ligaments hold the bones of the head in position. Fascia connects skin to the bones of the head, connects the bones to the dura mater covering the brain and spinal cord, and surrounds other structures in the face and head. The hard palate is formed by two palatal bones, and the soft palate is muscle covered by mucous membrane.

Because of connective tissues such as ligaments and fascia, the structure and alignment of the palate are influenced by the alignment of the other skull bones.

If there is misalignment and imbalance of the skull bones, this can affect the function of the palate, tongue and other structures of the head. This can cause the palate to be too high or uneven or the facial muscles to be too tight.

Imbalance of the structures of the head, as well as trauma from the birth process itself, can cause constant irritation to the nervous system. This constant irritation may also cause hypersensitivity, which can sometimes be the underlying cause for babies who gag and cannot accept anything in the center or back of the mouth.

If baby spent a lot of time during labor banging the top of his head against the cervix, you may see the side bones of the head bulging out over baby's ears.

You may see the back of baby's head protruding farther than normal. This may cause the baby to be unable to look forward while lying on a firm surface, such as when he is in his car seat. If baby turns his head easily to both sides but seems reluctant to look straight ahead, it may be that the shape of his head causes him to flex his neck too much when facing forward. This can sometimes interfere with breathing.

The skull protruding improperly may also cause tenderness, so the baby prefers to rest on either side of his head rather than on the back of his head. Baby does not usually lie on the back of his head during breastfeeding, but the fascia and ligaments attached to the protruding bones may be stretched too tight and not allow other structures to work efficiently.

Notice baby's eyes. Although baby may at times have one eye open wider than the other, this should be transient. If baby consistently has the same eye wider than the other eye, this can indicate an imbalance in the facial muscles.

Baby's lips should appear soft and relaxed. If baby's lips are frequently pursed while he is resting or even sleeping, this can indicate that there is too much tension in the facial muscles.

When baby extends his tongue, the tongue should remain round. If the tongue consistently appears very pointy when it is extended, this can also indicate too much tension. If the tongue consistently pulls off to the side when baby extends it, this will make it difficult for baby to correctly trough the tongue during breastfeeding. For babies with more severe problems, the tongue may even be held to the side of the mouth while it is still completely within the oral cavity.

When baby opens his mouth, his jaw should drop straight down towards his navel. If the jaw consistently opens even slightly toward the left or the right, this can make it difficult for baby to maintain a seal around the breast and to milk the breast appropriately during downward strokes of the jaw. Some moms report that baby hurts them more on one breast than the other when the jaw pulls to the side.

Moving the head
Watch how baby is able to move his neck. He should be able to easily turn his head completely to each side, so that the cheek is flat on the firm surface and the ear disappears, while his body stays straight. If he cannot turn his head completely to the side, this can indicate that something in his neck is uncomfortable. If he can only turn his head to the side while his body "corkscrews" in the opposite direction, there may be a vertebra that twisted and is riding on a nerve.

Likewise, if baby prefers to consistently turn his head to one side and rarely turns it in the opposite direction, this can again indicate that something in his neck is not moving freely. Babies who can only turn their head in one direction frequently cause a lot of pain and/or trauma to one nipple.

While baby is turning his head, watch where his chin ends up. Some babies must lift their chin so their head tips back when they turn in one direction, but their chin runs into their shoulder when they turn in the other direction. This indicates an imbalance that needs to be relieved.

While the baby is resting on his back looking at you, notice his shoulders. They should appear level. One shoulder should not consistently be higher than the other.

While baby is lying on his back, he should be able to lie with his torso in a straight line. Some babies look like a crescent moon. If baby is "curved" and you gently straighten him out, but he springs right back into that crescent moon pose as soon as you let go of him, he needs some attention from an appropriate practitioner. Baby's hips and shoulders should appear level most of the time while he is resting.

If you are working with a baby who is having trouble breastfeeding and you see any of these postural symptoms, suggest to the mother that she consider taking her baby to a craniosacral therapist or pediatric chiropractor.

© Dee Kassing

Dee Kassing, BS, MLS, IBCLC, gives “special thanks to David Bemis, D.C., who has taught me so much”. Dee may be contacted at Deekassing@aol.com.

http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/5-bf/511-craniosacral-therapy-breastfeeding.htm

******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and Breastfeeding - When It Can Help

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:25:25 -0400

by Dee Kassing, BS, MLS, IBCLC
with special thanks to David Bemis, D.C., who has taught me so much.

In recent years, there have been frequent references to CranioSacral Therapy and other bodywork for infants who are having difficulty breastfeeding. John Upledger, D.O., first discovered the cranial-sacral system with its rhythm unique from other body systems. Although Dr. Upledger was the first to develop CranioSacral Therapy, and many therapists have been trained in his methods, other practitioners have developed variations. Any of the methods might be helpful to a baby. When choosing a therapist, who could be a certified massage therapist, a physical therapist, a chiropractor, etc., be sure to ask how much training and experience in working with infants the therapist has had.

Some chiropractors are also accredited in pediatric chiropractic. This is a different type of bodywork, but can also be very helpful to infants. Adult chiropractic applied to babies would be dangerous, so again it is necessary to ask about the chiropractor's training and experience.

It is important for the lactation consultant to be able to recognize symptoms in the infant that can show a need for bodywork therapy. Some of the symptoms are very noticeable and others are quite subtle. For some involving motion, the key will be if the symptom appears consistently. Although some symptoms will be obvious while baby is at breast, others will be more noticeable when baby is laid flat on his back on a firm surface such as a changing table. I try to examine baby on a firm surface after he has finished the first breast, but before the second. When baby is very hungry, he will not lay calmly for me to observe his natural position and how he moves. But if I wait until he has finished the second breast, he may be asleep. Furthermore, if he gets impatient and upset with me during the examination, mom can calm him by offering him the second breast. In my attempt to be thorough, I will start at the top of the head, describing things to watch for, and work my way down through the body.

Sometimes, looking at the center of the top of the head, you will be able to notice that one side of the skull is slightly elevated compared to the other side. This can happen in babies who did not experience vacuum extraction, but can be even more prominent if vacuum extraction did occur. Look at baby's skull and feel carefully (feeling can be particularly important if baby has a lot of hair) for ridges. Notice if the baby's head appears cone-shaped. During birth, the bones of the skull need to slide over each other so the baby can fit through the birth canal. After birth, the bones are supposed to slide back into their proper position, but sometimes they need gentle help to accomplish this.

Why is this important? Fascia is connective tissue which unites skin to the underlying tissues. Fascia also surrounds and separates many of the muscles, and sometimes holds them together. Ligaments are bands of tissue that bind bones together or support organs. The head is made up of a number of bony plates. Ligaments hold the bones of the head in position. Fascia connects skin to the bones of the head, connects the bones to the dura mater covering the brain and spinal cord, and surrounds other structures in the face and head. The hard palate is formed by two palatal bones, and the soft palate is muscle covered by mucous membrane. Because of connective tissues such as ligaments and fascia, the structure and alignment of the palate are influenced by the alignment of the other skull bones.

If there is misalignment and imbalance of the skull bones, this can affect the function of the palate, tongue, and other structures of the head. This can cause the palate to be too high or uneven, or the facial muscles to be too tight. Imbalance of the structures of the head, as well as trauma from the birth process itself, can cause constant irritation to the nervous system. This constant irritation may also cause hypersensitivity, which can sometimes be the underlying cause for babies who gag and cannot accept anything in the center or back of the mouth.

If baby spent a lot of time during labor banging the top of his head against the cervix, you may see the side bones of the head bulging out over baby's ears.

You may see the back of baby's head protruding farther than normal. This may cause the baby to be unable to look forward while lying on a firm surface, such as when he is in his carseat. If baby turns his head easily to both sides, but seems reluctant to look straight ahead, it may be that the shape of his head causes him to flex his neck too much when facing forward. This can sometimes interfere with breathing. The skull protruding improperly may also cause tenderness, so the baby prefers to rest on either side of his head rather than on the back of his head. Baby does not usually lie on the back of his head during breastfeeding, but the fascia and ligaments attached to the protruding bones may be stretched too tight and not allow other structures to work efficiently.

Notice baby's eyes. Although baby may at times have one eye open wider than the other, this should be transient. If baby consistently has the same eye wider than the other eye, this can indicate an imbalance in the facial muscles.

Baby's lips should appear soft and relaxed. If baby's lips are frequently pursed while he is resting or even sleeping, this can indicate that there is too much tension in the facial muscles.

When baby extends his tongue, the tongue should remain round. If the tongue consistently appears very pointy when it is extended, this can also indicate too much tension. If the tongue consistently pulls off to the side when baby extends it, this will make it difficult for baby to correctly trough the tongue during breastfeeding. For babies with more severe problems, the tongue may even be held to the side of the mouth while it is still completely within the oral cavity.

When baby opens his mouth, his jaw should drop straight down towards his navel. If the jaw consistently opens even slightly toward the left or the right, this can make it difficult for baby to maintain a seal around the breast and to milk the breast appropriately during downward strokes of the jaw. Some moms report that baby hurts them more on one breast than the other when the jaw pulls to the side.

Watch how baby is able to move his neck. He should be able to easily turn his head completely to each side, so that the cheek is flat on the firm surface and the ear disappears, while his body stays straight. If he cannot turn his head completely to the side, this can indicate that something in his neck is uncomfortable. If he can only turn his head to the side while his body "corkscrews" in the opposite direction, there may be a vertebra that twisted and is riding on a nerve.

Likewise, if baby prefers to consistently turn his head to one side, and rarely turns it in the opposite direction, this can again indicate that something in his neck is not moving freely. Babies who can only turn their head in one direction frequently cause a lot of pain and/or trauma to one nipple.

While baby is turning his head, watch where his chin ends up. Some babies must lift their chin so their head tips back when they turn in one direction, but their chin runs into their shoulder when they turn in the other direction. This indicates an imbalance that needs to be relieved.

While the baby is resting on his back looking at you, notice his shoulders. They should appear level. One shoulder should not consistently be higher than the other.

While baby is lying on his back, he should be able to lie with his torso in a straight line. Some babies look like a crescent moon. If baby is "curved" and you gently straighten him out, but he springs right back into that crescent moon pose as soon as you let go of him, he needs some attention from an appropriate practitioner. Baby's hips and shoulders should appear level most of the time while he is resting.

If you are working with a baby who is having trouble breastfeeding, and you see any of these postural symptoms, suggest to the mother that she consider taking her baby to a CranioSacral therapist or pediatric chiropractor.

Permission is given to reproduce this article under the following conditions:

1. Permission and authorship of the article are retained in all reproductions and publications.
2. The content remains as is.
3. No fees are charged for reproductions in any form.

The author may be contacted at Deekassing@aol.com or (USA) 618-346-1919.

******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and Breastfeeding Considering Craniosacral Therapy in Difficult Situations

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:21:03 -0400

When a baby is unable to nurse or nurses so poorly that he causes pain to his mother, he presents a true challenge. A mother who experiences pain or who perceives that her baby is not breastfeeding effectively is a mother who is at risk of prematurely weaning this baby (Riordan and Auerbach 1999).

After working through all of the usual avenues of information and resources that can help in this kind of situation, some Leaders have found a new therapy, called CranioSacral Therapy (CST), can be helpful. CST is a light-touch manual therapy used to encourage the body's self-correcting mechanisms. Generally using about five grams of pressure, or about the weight of a small coin, the practitioner evaluates the body's craniosacral system. This system plays a vital role in maintaining the environment in which the central nervous system functions. It consists of the membranes and fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord as well as the attached bones-including the skull, face, and jaw, which make up the cranium, and the tailbone area, or sacrum.

Since the brain and spinal cord are contained within the central nervous system, the craniosacral system has powerful influence over a wide variety of bodily functions (The Upledger Institute 2001). The extremely light touch used in this therapy means that at no time should CST treatment cause damage.

Doctors of osteopathy, chiropractors, and others are trained in cranial osteopathy. There are many different types of health care professionals who have taken CST courses including medical doctors, nurses, doctors of oriental medicine, osteopaths, psychologists, massage therapists, dentists, physical therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, occupational therapists, and some lactation consultants.

Babies who seem unable or unwilling to nurse at birth and babies who are unable to nurse properly may benefit from CST. A thorough evaluation by a health care professional should be done to determine possible causes of the problem. These may include birth injuries, congenital or neurological problems, illness, or the lingering effects of drugs used before the baby's birth. The history may reveal that a baby was deeply suctioned, fed artificially (with tubes or artificial nipples), or experienced other interventions that could cause oral aversion (Healow and Hugh 2000). It is crucial to investigate all aspects of the infant's health when determining the cause of breastfeeding problems.

If none of these factors seems to be the cause of the problem, then circumstances surrounding the birth may be the cause. Even a normal birth can cause trauma to the baby's head or spine. If the birth history includes a precipitate (very fast) birth, a cesarean birth, the use of a vacuum extractor or forceps, an unusual presentation, or a baby with a large head, this may indicate that birth trauma has occurred. These kinds of events during the birth can result in undue pressure placed upon cranial nerves, particularly those that control the mouth. The three nerves of the cranium that affect breastfeeding are the glossopharyngeal nerve (which controls the muscles of the pharynx), the vagus nerve (which controls the muscles of the soft palate), and the hypoglossal nerve (which controls the tongue muscle). Compression of any or all of these nerves can cause dysfunctional nursing (Hewitt 1999).

Craniosacral Therapy can also be beneficial for babies who do not open their mouths widely enough to latch on effectively, and for babies described as "arching or hypertonic." These types of babies are difficult to nurse. They cause pain or trauma to the mother, and often grow poorly due to inadequate milk transfer at the breast. When babies do not open their mouth widely to latch-on, it is often possible to remedy the situation by assisting the mother with proper positioning and latch-on (Eastman 2000). If the use of proper techniques does not help, a Leader may want to suggest that the mother consider looking into CST.

Arching or hypertonic babies are considered "tight." The behavior seems to be a temporary condition that improves over time rather than permanent neurological impairment. The breastfeeding relationship often suffers or is ended early due to the difficulty of nursing these babies. The behavior is considered by some to be a sign of difficulties with the nervous system, possibly caused by pressure on the nerves that occurred during the birth. CST is often dramatically effective in reducing the hypertonic behavior and encouraging the baby to nurse more efficiently by relieving pressure on nerves caused by the malposition of the cranial bones (Hewitt 1999).

The routine use of epidurals, mothers birthing in a supine position, the use of vacuum extraction and forceps, and the high rate of cesarean birth, may cause babies to be at risk for craniosacral problems. Of course, it's necessary for babies' skulls to mold, enabling them to pass through the birth canal. The skulls do correct themselves after the birth, although many can use assistance in achieving a well-balanced, optimal shape. A CST practitioner will gently examine the baby's head for overlapping cranial sutures, unevenness (one side of the head not matching the other), and "missing" or unusually large or small "soft spots." The techniques used in CST to encourage the body to correct itself are also evaluative techniques that inform and guide the practitioner (The Upledger Institute 2001).

CranioSacral Therapy is an option when traditional techniques for correcting latch-on problems are not completely successful. It is common for babies to need continued treatments over a period of weeks, even when the initial CST work greatly improves the situation. If basic issues such as positioning, latch-on, and milk supply have not been properly addressed, adjunct treatments like CST are unlikely to help. It is important to remember that even after CST treatments, mothers and babies may need additional breastfeeding help.
How can mothers find CranioSacral Therapy practitioners?

Information is available from the Upledger institute at www.upledger.com/ (click on the "Locate a Practitioner" button) or from the International Association of Healthcare Practitioners at www.iahp.com/pract.htm#directory (look for the practitioners who have taken the courses symbolized as CSI, CSII, SER, ADV, CSP). It is important to know whether a CST practitioner is specifically trained and experienced in working with babies. A mother can ask for a detailed explanation of what the treatment involves, the level of experience and training the practitioner has, and what the possible results might be, before considering treatment. Some mothers have found CST helpful when they are experiencing low milk supply and other lactation-related problems; experiencing CST herself may help a mother feel more confident in choosing that treatment for her baby.

CranioSacral Therapy offers a promising approach to solving difficult breastfeeding problems. It helps bring mothers and babies closer to the loving relationship that breastfeeding can be.

Editor's note: When a Leader feels that a helping situation with a mother and baby requires skills beyond what she possesses, she should refer the mother to the appropriate health care professionals in her community.
References

Eastman, A. The mother-baby dance: positioning and latch-on. LEAVEN Aug/Sept 2000; 63-68.

Healow, L.K. and R. S. Hugh. Oral aversion in the breastfed neonate. BREASTFEEDING ABSTRACTS 20(1): 3-4.

Hewitt, E. G. Chiropractic care for infants with dysfunctional nursing: a case series. Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics 4(1): 241-244.

Mohrbacher, N. and Stock, J. BREASTFEEDING ANSWER BOOK, Revised Edition. Schaumburg, Illinois: La Leche League International, 1997.

Riordan, J. and K.G. Auerbach. Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, 2nd edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 1999.

Upledger, J. E. Your Inner Physician and You. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1997.
Upledger Institute Web site: http://www.upledger.com

Carol Brussel, BA, IBCLC
Denver CO USA
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 37 No. 4, August-September 2001, pp. 82-83.

Carol Brussel lives in Denver, Colorado, USA with her husband, David, and her children, Joey, 14; Leo, 11; and Laura, 8; and assorted pets. She is a board-certified lactation consultant in private practice, a volunteer with the Denver Mothers Milk Bank, and a retired LLL Leader. She writes and speaks about breastfeeding topics.

Last edited Thursday, March 7, 2002 9:01 PM by njb.

http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVAugSep01p82.html

*******************************
For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Breastfeeding Support

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:12:57 -0400

This is a wonderful 47 page pdf document offering a wealth of breastfeeding support information.

Craniosacral Therapy and GERD

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:30:11 -0400

Dee Dee Dockins fed her baby boy Jonathan a specially made formula that helped ease his reflux disease. He recently had surgery for a heart condition.

In her worst moment, Dee Dee Dockins wished someone -- anyone -- would take her baby away.

That was after losing her first child -- a girl -- at 3 days old. After waiting for three years to try again, only to find out her second baby suffered from a heart defect as well. After a traumatic pregnancy. After watching her newborn son's heart beat outside his chest for four days. After the heart surgery that saved 6-month-old Jonathan's life.

After they finally returned home to Jackson. After she discovered that life can always get worse.

Reflux.

The word sounds innocent enough. There are regular advertisements on TV for medications to prevent and ease it; no big deal.

Dee Dee and Jamey Dockins had never given the disease a thought. But it was reflux, not their baby's four-pronged heart defect, that eventually brought the Jackson couple to their breaking point.

Jonathan Dockins got upset while laying on his stomach due to his health problems.

Dee Dee Dockins never considered herself motherhood material; she was a career woman.

At 35, she and husband Jamey lost their first baby -- a girl born with severe birth defects. After three years trying to come to terms with that loss, Jonathan was conceived.

Twenty weeks into her pregnancy, the couple was told Jonathan had an abnormal heart. At 28 weeks, the 38-year-old Dockins began having contractions and spent the next month at St. John's Hospital in St. Louis.

On one side of a piece of notebook paper, she made a list of items she needed for a baby shower. On the other side, she planned her baby's funeral, just in case.

On Oct. 13, 2005, Jonathan Lee Dockins was born, then immediately rushed to Children's Hospital and put on life support.

He was two weeks premature and born with a ventricular septum defect. Basically, blood pumped in and out of his heart on the same side. A hole in his tiny heart basically kept him alive, allowing the blood to pass in the right side, over to the left side to be oxygenated, and back out the right side. His heart worked most of the time, but when Jonathan became upset, the hole in his heart constricted and the blood could not be oxygenated. On Feb. 13. -- at 4 months old -- Jonathan had open heart surgery to fix the defect.

The surgery was more complicated than the pediatric cardiologist originally thought. Jonathan's heart was rotated. The working side was on top, so the surgeon was forced to cut through it to reach the troublesome right side. Afterwards, his heart was so swollen it didn't fit into his chest. The Dockins watched their child's plastic-wrapped heart beat outside his chest for four days. But Jonathan made it through, and his doctors began calling him the "miracle baby."

After surviving the heart surgery, the Dockins were certain they were on the path to normalcy. But then they hit another roadblock, unexpected and yet somehow more severe than even the heart defect.

Dee Dee Dockins has come to despise infant/parenthood magazines.

The stories in those magazines; the smiling babies on the cover are something she knows nothing about.

"People say, 'Oh, is your baby a little fussy?' No, a baby with reflux screams in pain. A baby with reflux would rather starve itself than eat, defying one of nature's basic instincts," Dockins said. "This isn't just babies spitting up or having a little heartburn. It's a real problem."

A problem that can be difficult to diagnose, has no established cause, and seems to be growing among newborns in the United States.

"We had seven different opinions on what he has," said Dockins. "With reflux, everyone is just stabbing in the dark."

The National Institute of Health lists spitting, vomiting, coughing, irritability, poor feeding and blood in stools as symptoms for gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in infants. The NIH estimates that more 50 percent of all babies experience reflux in the first three months of life. Most symptoms disappear between 12 and 18 months of age.

But among a smaller group of babies, the symptoms can be more severe. Poor growth due to inability to hold down food. Refusing to feed due to pain. Blood loss from acid burning the esophagus. Breathing problems.

Jonathan Dockins falls into the latter category.

The family tried medicines like Prevacid and Prilosec. They tried a variety of diets. They bought a Hoover spot remover to clean up Jonathan's violent projectile vomiting.

But no matter what Dee Dee and Jamey Dockins tried, their baby either would not eat or could not keep what little he ate in his stomach. Jonathan was starving himself.

He spent 44 days of the first three and half months of his life in a hospital. Twenty eight of those days were because of reflux. The remaining 16 were because of the heart defect.

He screamed almost constantly. He didn't sleep; neither did his parents.

Eventually, they were forced to put him on a feeding tube.

"I reached a point where I wanted to say, 'Someone else please take this baby,'" said Dockins.

Today, Jonathan Dockins looks a healthy, happy baby. Almost like the kind you see on the cover of those parenthood magazines.

The seven-inch-long purple scar that splits his small chest is hidden behind a striped blue jumper. He eats without a feeding pump now, though the task is still troublesome. The best chance of him keeping food down comes during his sleep, so his parents get up for three feeding sessions throughout the night.

But today, at least, he smiles.

The change in Jonathan came suddenly, after a visit to a local chiropractor.

Over the years, Dr. Roy Meyer has seen more and more infants and children in his practice, for all sorts of reasons -- diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome and reflux included.

Over a stretch of three or four visits, Meyer treated Jonathan with several techniques, including mayofacial release and CranioSacral therapy (therapy that works with a physiological body system called the craniosacral system, which includes membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord).

The mayofacial release was intended to ease the stress of tissue pulling down the baby's diaphragm. Meyer said it's important that all potential medical problems be evaluated before such work is done on an infant, but believes his treatment has helped children who suffer from both reflux and colic.

"It worked marvelously well for this child," said Meyer. "He had this problem every day of his life since he came onto this planet."

The day after Meyer's treatment, Jonathan stopped vomiting.

The Dockins believe that treatment helped their son, though there's a chance he's simply begun to outgrow the problem.

Either way, they're thankful. But Dee Dee Dockins' frustration over getting a diagnosis, finding treatment and dealing with peoples' ignorance of how severe reflux can be has not faded.

"Every doctor we talked to had a different opinion. My advice to other parents is don't settle on one diagnosis. Find some information on your own," said Dockins. "And forget the guilt. There may be days when you don't want to be around your baby, but that's okay."

By the numbers: Reflux statistics

About one third of the adult population experiences reflux at least once a month and about 10 percent of the population experiences reflux weekly or daily. As well, at least 50 percent of infants are born with some degree of reflux simply from immaturity of the lower esophageal sphincter. Most of these infants will not have complications and will outgrow it before they are a year old. It is estimated that about 3 percent will not outgrow it and will experience the more serious complications related to GERD. -- www.infantrefluxdisease.com 
Story from the Southeast Missourian
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1151760.html
Putting out the fire
Monday, May 8, 2006
CALLIE CLARK MILLER

******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Evaluation of Existing Research on the Influences of Craniosacral Therapy on the Health and Development of Infants and Young Children

Mon, 12 May 2008 22:21:30 -0400

Tracy L. Masiello, Ph.D., and Jennifer Pace, B.A.

The inﬂuence of craniosacral therapy was examined in studies including 69 children with and without disabilities or delays. Craniosacral therapy is a light touch intervention used by trained practitioners to address restrictions in the membranes and cerebrospinal ﬂuid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

The reports included mostly case studies to determine the beneﬁts of the practice on the health and development of infants and young children. Despite the fact that positive results were reported in all studies, methodological and procedural problems raise questions about the efﬁcacy of the practice with infants and young children. The need for better designed and implemented studies is indicated. (emphasis added)

Purpose
The purpose of this practice-based research synthesis
is to ascertain claims about the inﬂuences of craniosacral therapy on the health and development of infants and young children.

The practice is characterized by light touch used to manipulate the cranial system, which includes the soft tissue and bones of the head (the cranium area), the spine (the sacral area), and the pelvis. Craniosacral therapists speciﬁcally target membranes around the bones of the craniosacral area and the cerebrospinal ﬂuid in order to alleviate restrictions believed to be negatively impacting the nervous system.

Proponents of craniosacral therapy claim that the practice will prevent or improve conditions such as hyperactivity, Down’s syndrome, autism, dyslexia, cerebral palsy, disrupted sleep patterns, breastfeeding difﬁculties, colic, ear infection, aphasias, seizures, and other health-related problems (Blum, 1999; Green, Martin, Bassett, & Kazanjian, 1999; Hewitt, 2004; Holtrop, 2000; Joyce & Clark, 1996; Katz, 1998; Van Loon, 1998).

Despite claims supporting the use of the practice, questions have been raised regarding the extent to which craniosacral therapy actually “works” to improve child health and development (Rosenbaum & Law, 1996).

In response to such questions, as well as to an increasing interest in ﬁnding effective alternative health interventions for children, this synthesis examines existing research on the use of craniosacral therapy with infants and young children.

The conduct of the synthesis was guided by a frame-
work that focused on the degree to which variations in
craniosacral therapy were associated with variations in
health and developmental outcomes for infants and young children (Dunst, Trivette, & Cutspec, 2002). This approach to synthesizing research evidence differs from more traditional approaches to integrating research ﬁndings by its explicit focus on disentangling and unpacking the characteristics, features, and elements of environmental variables (Babbie, 1995; Bronfenbrenner, 1992) that are associated with behavioral or developmental differences.

Background
Cranial manipulation has its roots in the work of Dr.
William Sutherland who in the early 1900s recognized
that bones in the skull can move along the suture lines.
He performed experiments on himself using helmet-like
devices to apply different types of controlled and sustained pressures to different parts of his head. An observer recorded any noted personality changes, head pain, or coordination problems that he exhibited in response to the different pressure applications. Based on these experiments, Sutherland developed cranial osteopathy, a method for intervening in health problems through manipulation of the bones of the skull. Cranial bone manipulation has since been used by osteopaths to address cranial “deformities” or injuries (Arbuckle, 1948).

In the 1970s, osteopath John Upledger reﬁned Suther-
land’s techniques into the current practice of craniosacral therapy (CST). CST is described as a gentle form of touch to manipulate the bones of the skull in a manner that affects the membranes and ﬂuid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The underlying theory of the practice is that there is a cranial “rhythm” to the ﬂow of the cerebrospinal ﬂuid within the craniosacral system and that any restrictions or changes to this rhythm can negatively affect a person’s health. Improvement of the cranial rhythm and ﬂow of the craniosacral system is expected to positively
inﬂuence health and development.

Description of the Practice
While there is not a standard accepted deﬁnition of
craniosacral therapy provided in the literature, proponents of the intervention describe the practice in rather similar, albeit general, ways. Therefore, for the purpose of this research synthesis, CST refers to a light touch intervention that is done by the hands of a trained practitioner in order to address restrictions in the membranes and cerebrospinal ﬂuid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The amount of pressure applied by the practitioner’s touch is between 5 and 10 grams (about the weight of a nickel). Practitioners are typically health-care professionals such as chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, and physicians.

Search Terms
Identiﬁcation of relevant studies was accomplished
using the following search terms: craniosacral therapy,
cranial adjustment, cranial manipulation, cranial integra-
tion, cranial osteopathy, skull, sacrum, cerebrospinal ﬂuid, cerebrospinal pulse, intracranial pressure, central nervous system fascia, cranial bone, and cranial suture.

The terms
physical therapy, massage, chiropractic, osteopathic, manipulation, and adjustment were searched in conjunction with the preceding search terms. The terms child(ren),infant(s), and toddler(s) were used to limit the search results.

Sources
A computer-assisted bibliographic database search
was conducted using Psychological Abstracts online
(PsycINFO), Educational Resource Information Center
(ERIC), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), MED-
LINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Co-
chrane DSR), Cochrane Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (Cochrane DARE), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Dissertation Abstracts International, OCLC PapersFirst, OCLC Proceedings- First, National Technical Information Service (NTIS), REHABDATA, CIRRIE, InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP, Social Sciences Index, Education Index, WorldCat, and Academic Search Elite.

A Web search using Google
was also conducted. Hand searches of key journal articles and reference sections of craniosacral investigations were reviewed for other relevant empirical work.

Selection Criteria
The primary inclusion criterion was that studies inves-
tigated the inﬂ uences of craniosacral therapy on the health or development of infants or young children. Therefore, the search was limited to studies investigating outcomes for children 6 years of age or younger.

Exclusion criteria. It was necessary to exclude cer-
tain studies during the initial phase of the search process.

Studies were excluded if it seemed that the participants
received cranial manipulations that were distinct from
craniosacral therapy, such as cranial osteopathy or chi-
ropractic adjustments (Colin, 1998; Marohn, 2002). In
addition, studies were excluded if the investigator did
not report outcomes of the therapy. If reports contained
multiple case studies, only the case studies of children
age 6 and younger are included in the synthesis.

Search Results
Twenty studies in 17 reports met the inclusion crite-
ria. Table 1 includes selected characteristics of the study
participants. Table 2 includes investigator descriptions of
the craniosacral intervention, length of the intervention,
research design, and outcome measures. (omitted from this excerpt)

Participants
The 20 studies include 69 participants. Most study
participants were 2 years of age or younger and four studies have participants older than 2 years of age. Participant diagnoses varied considerably across children. Twelve participants had medical diagnoses or health problems (e.g., gastroesophageal reﬂ ux, ear infection, projectile vomiting) while 52 participants had an identiﬁed disability (e.g., Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy). Five participants had other health-related difﬁculties (e.g., ineffective suckling, “wobbly” muscle tone).

Practice Characteristics
Nine of the investigators (45%) provided detailed
information regarding specific characteristics of the
cranial manipulation used with participants. Speciﬁcally,
they indicated that particular bones were manipulated
and reported the direction of the manipulations. All nine
investigators targeted the occiput and sphenoid bone for
intervention. Other targeted areas of the craniosacral
system varied across participants.

Eight investigators (40%) provide nonspeciﬁc infor-
mation regarding the actual practice of the therapy, either simply stating that cranial corrective procedures were used with participants or that they “worked on” certain regions of the craniosacral system. Three investigators (15%) provide no information regarding the craniosacral manipulations of participants.
Only four investigators (20%) reported the length
of each craniosacral treatment (range: 20-50 minutes).
Fourteen investigators (70%) reported the total number
of craniosacral treatments participants received (Range:
2- ~88 treatments).

Treatment ﬁdelity. No treatment ﬁdelity measures
were reported in any study, nor was any variation in the
degree to which craniosacral therapy was experienced by study participants measured objectively. The fact that no treatment ﬁ delity measures were reported makes it difﬁcult to ascertain whether children in any one study experience the same level or intensity of intervention or to ascertain the extent to which the investigators implemented the therapy treatments according to preset speciﬁ cations for the treatment (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996).

Research Designs
Nineteen of the investigators (95%) describe results
of case studies. One investigator reports results from
a randomized clinical trial in which children received
craniosacral therapy or acupuncture (Duncan, Barton,
Edmonds, & Blashill, 2004).

Outcomes
All investigators measured participant health improvements or developmental gains as a result of CST. In 15 studies (75%), treatment outcomes were determined by investigator observations of improvement, with 10 of those 15 studies using parent observations as additional measures of treatment effect. One investigator reported a lactation consultant’s observation as a third measure, while another used an oculist’s report. Two investigators stated that they conducted physical exams, while one investigator reported using unspeciﬁed tests. Four studies used parent observation of improvement as the only outcome measure.

Synthesis Findings
Table 3 shows the findings from the studies as
described by the investigators. Investigators reported
improvements in child health, including decreases in gastroesophageal reﬂux, vomiting, ear infection, and seizures. Increases in vision, muscle tone, and hearing were also reported by some investigators. Positive developmental outcomes were reported by several investigators, including improvements in language development, motor functioning, and socio-emotional behavior.

Despite these reported benefits, a number of pro-
cedural and methodological problems, lack of detailed
information regarding what is included in craniosacral
treatments (i.e., the speciﬁc characteristics of the cranio- sacral treatments), lack of appropriate controls, the use of pre-experimental research designs, lack of statistical analyses, and other factors (e.g., rival explanations) call into question the claim that craniosacral therapy is the source of the reported beneﬁts. The failure to employ research designs and methodological procedures that permitted simultaneous establishment of the beneﬁts of craniosacral therapy and control over extraneous explanatory factors renders results from the studies uninterpretable.

The research designs used in a majority of the studies
failed to control for extraneous factors (see Rival Explanations) that could explain any positive ﬁndings reported by the investigators (Cook & Campbell, 1979). All but one of the studies failed to utilize random assignment and control groups or other types of research designs, and all studies failed to employ design features necessary to rule out rival or alternative explanations for observed or reported ﬁnd-
ings (Yin, 2000). For example, although the investigators
make claims regarding the beneﬁts of craniosacral therapy, little or no data was collected to support these claims, making it difﬁcult to determine the validity of their ﬁndings. Without adequate and appropriate statistical analyses it is impossible to determine if observed effects are signiﬁcant, nor can it be determined whether or not the craniosacral characteristics lead to same or similar outcomes across studies. Only one investigator conducted a randomized clinical study; however, only outcomes reported by parents are provided and no statistical analyses are reported. In addition, the investigators provide inadequate information and details regarding the interventions and outcome
measures, making it nearly impossible to replicate their
results in future research.

As a whole, the studies fare poorly in terms of the
kind of scientiﬁc rigor needed to conclude that observed
effects are due entirely or even partly to craniosacral
therapy. In the absence of adequate controls, the claim
that craniosacral therapy is the primary source of these
beneﬁts is questionable.

Rival Explanations
Several threats to internal validity constitute possible
explanations for observed effects (Campbell & Stanley,
1963; Cook & Campbell, 1979). Investigator bias is a
potential problem that plagues most studies (79%), as
the source for determining outcomes is based on the
investigator’s observations. Every investigator was aware of the anticipated outcomes for the treatment and served as the practitioner administering the therapy. Such research methods allow for investigator expectancies to inﬂuence how child outcomes are interpreted.

Respondent bias and selection were common threats
in most studies. All participants were selected for par-
ticipation in the studies when their parents brought them
to the practitioner for the speciﬁ c purpose of receiving
craniosacral treatment. Such convenience sampling
increases the likelihood that respondent bias inﬂ uenced
parents’ observations of the treatment’s effects, since the parents are likely to have an expectation of improvement. It has been demonstrated that when individuals expect to witness improvements, they often will report the presence of such improvement (Pratkanis, Eskanazi, & Greenwald, 1994).

Instrumentation is a potential problem in all of the
studies because no reliable instruments or procedures were used by any investigator to assess outcomes. Of the six studies that did use a measure of determining outcomes other than investigator and/or parent observations, no indication is provided regarding whether or not the instruments were reliable or appropriate. For example, one investigator
reported using tests in conjunction with his observations
to determine outcomes; yet the tests were not identiﬁed
nor described, rendering it impossible to ascertain their
reliability or validity.

Maturation is a threat in four studies. In these stud-
ies the treatment was implemented over extensive time
periods, ranging from 10 to 40 weeks. Biological or psy-
chological changes in the participants are likely to occur
during that time period. For example, the fact that one
participant began to sit up at 7 months of age and began
to walk at 11 months is consistent with typical patterns
of infant motor development (Gall et al., 1996) and thus
not necessarily attributable to the CST treatments that the child received.

Multiple treatment interference is a threat in 11 stud-
ies (55%), as the participants in those studies received
other treatments during the same time period in which
they were receiving craniosacral therapy. Compensatory
equalization of treatments is a threat in the one study
using a group design because the non-CST group was
administered a treatment (acupuncture). This is a potential threat because treatments are essentially compared to each other rather than testing one treatment with a no-treatment group, making it difﬁcult to discern if observed effects are due to CST.

Conclusions
The ﬁndings from this practice-based research syn-
thesis indicate that while the study investigators reported
child beneﬁts, there is a lack of sufﬁcient evidence due to methodological ﬂaws across the investigations to support claims about the effectiveness of craniosacral therapy with infants and young children. The lack of treatment ﬁdelity measures, poor study designs (e.g., no random assignment to groups, no control groups), lack of statistical analyses, and possible threats to internal validity, lead to the conclusion that the empirical evidence to support the use of craniosacral therapy with children is meager at best. The lack of detailed information reported by investigators regarding what is included in the craniosacral treatments also calls into question the use of craniosacral therapy as a recommended practice. Consequently, the use
of craniosacral therapy is not warranted as an evidence-
based practice inasmuch as the research that is available is inconclusive regarding its effectiveness to produce hypothesized beneﬁts.

A Bottomlines (Vol. 3, No. 3) companion report de-
scribes the major ﬁndings from this research synthesis in
non-technical, user-friendly language. The Bottomlines
summarizes what we know about the use of craniosacral
therapy with infants and young children and is written speciﬁcally for parents and practitioners. Both the Bridges and Bottomlines reports are available to readers in electronic versions at our Web site (www.researchtopractice.info).

Implications for Research
Research methods are available to investigators that
could conclusively evaluate the effectiveness of cranio-
sacral therapy. Well-designed studies that include, for
example, random assignment to experimental and control groups or single-participant research designs and the use of outcome measures that are valid and reliable would provide the kinds of evidence needed to support or refute claims about the effectiveness of CST. In addition, carefully implemented interventions would allow craniosacral therapy to be evaluated more objectively.

In the current synthesis, evaluating inﬂuences of
craniosacral treatments proved to be a difﬁcult chal-
lenge because the investigators did not often describe
speciﬁc characteristics of the craniosacral treatments.
More speciﬁcally, investigations of carefully designed
and implemented craniosacral interventions would in-
clude, among other things, the following information in
empirical reports: (1) detailed information regarding what
is included in craniosacral intervention sessions or treat-
ments (i.e, the speciﬁc characteristics of the craniosacral
intervention); (2) the length of each craniosacral treatment in terms of minutes, days, and weeks; (3) the qualiﬁcations of staff implementing craniosacral treatments; (4) data collection using reliable and valid instruments and measures; (5) information regarding the implementation of any pretests/posttests; and (6) treatment ﬁdelity measures. The inclusion of the above information would allow for more objective analysis and easier replication of investigations. In well-designed studies, the characteristics and consequences of the use of craniosacral therapy with young children could be better ascertained.

References
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Authors

Tracy L. Masiello, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist at the
Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute in Asheville, North Caro-
lina (tmasiello@puckett.org). Jennifer Pace, B. A., is a
Research Assistant at the Puckett Institute (jpace@puckett.
org).

Excerpted from Bridges
Volume 3, Number 3 December 2005

Bridges is a publication of the Research and Training Center on Early
Childhood Development, funded by the U. S. Department of Education,
Ofﬁ ce of Special Education Programs, Research to Practice Division
(H324K010005). The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the
Research and Training Center on Early Childhood Development, an
organizational unit of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at the
Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, and do not necessarily represent the
views of the U. S. Department of Education. Copyright © 2005. The
Puckett Institute. All rights reserved.

******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and PTSD

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:34:45 -0400

By Mark Levine

They say it feels like a heart of darkness.

The events of the last few years, perhaps beginning with 9/11 and culminating most recently with tsunami and hurricanes of biblical proportions, rumors of global viral pandemics and ongoing intensification of 21st century violence, have served to spur renewed interest in the long term nature and healing of trauma.

For example, some 30 years after the Viet Nam war, many of its veterans remain dazed, drug addled and depressed, anxious and unable to sleep, still lost in the violent nightmare so clearly depicted in the film Apocalypse Now Redux.

Their suffering is symptomatic of an increasingly recognized psychosomatic syndrome called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Survivors, and we as witnesses of the worst of our brave new world, both near and vicarious, also suffer PTSD.

The news routinely carries reports of trauma: Car accidents, disasters, random and premeditated violence claim and maim many lives. Most of us numb to such reports, but those who survive such misfortune suffer most from a dreadful sense of constant alarm.

Imagine being anxious 24 / 7. The body will simply not allow the mind to relax, and vice versa, in case ‘it’ happens again, and traditional therapeutic approaches are usually of little help.

Part of the problem involves our old notions of a body-mind split: In our currently crumbling health care system, if you are physically injured there is excellent emergency medical aid and physical therapy available. If you are mentally or emotionally dysfunctional as a result of trauma, anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drugs are usually prescribed, and referrals are sometimes made for talk therapy with a psychologist or psychotherapist.

Unfortunately this divided approach leaves most PTSD victims feeling alienated, unable to digest their experience. They often become convinced that healing is not possible because neither approach addresses the soul angst which trauma leaves in the centre of ones consciousness. Neither physical nor mental approaches alone allow a trauma survivor to both recognize and communicate to someone else the depth of such an existential crisis.

Body centred approaches to the treatment of trauma have arisen out of a more realistic model of human experience which recognizes that body and mind are not split, and that the body stores and involuntarily recycles reflex reactions to trauma. Approaches based on this model have had tremendous success in helping PTSD victims regain their equilibrium.

A large-scale treatment program in Florida for Viet Nam Vets suffering from PTSD is one such example, which has yielded remarkable results using a technique called Craniosacral Therapy. Men and women who were convinced that they were doomed to a life of suffering claim dramatic recovery after only a few weeks of therapy.

Craniosacral Therapy offers an holistic alternative to the artificially separated worlds of traditional physical therapy and psychotherapy by combining the gentle techniques of Osteopathy, (a form of manual therapy practiced by European therapists and American Osteopathic Physicians since the early 20th century), with sensitivities of energy work, such as Therapeutic Touch, and the non-directive facilitation of emotional release from Gestalt and Depth psychologies.

The hands on part of Craniosacral therapy is extremely gentle and slow, differentiating it from traditional Physiotherapy, which focuses on pain management strategies and exercise, and Massage Therapy which can be quite deep and forceful, and Chiropractic, which produces the characteristic ‘pop’ of a spinal adjustment in a fraction of a second. A Craniosacral session usually lasts an hour or more, taking many minutes to gently unwind a restricted area or a single stuck joint.

Interestingly, because this approach is so remarkably gentle, it has been highly successful at resolving many of the PTSD - like symptoms in both mothers and infants who have been traumatized in childbirth.

The great value to sufferers of PTSD of such a slow and gentle physical approach is a re-patterning of the central nervous system. During the session, the hands-on work is combined with questions from the therapist around sensations and feelings and images, giving an individual time to notice that unconscious anxiety is in fact stored as muscle tension. One can consciously choose to re-run the images of the trauma in the caring safety offered by the warmth and stillness of the therapist’s hands. This process gives new information to the body that the danger really is past, and that it’s now OK to relax.

Craniosacral therapy is one name given to a family of related bodywork techniques, such as Cranial therapy or Cranial work, SacroCranial therapy, Cranial Osteopathy, Sacro-Occipital Technique, Biocranial therapy, or CranioStructural Integration. The differences among these techniques are mostly theoretical and usually for proprietary teaching purposes.

However, not all practitioners of this family of techniques are prepared to deal with PTSD. Some practitioners approach these methods primarily as a physical manual therapy, akin to a slow version of the traditional chiropractic adjustment. Others de-emphasize the manual aspects, using no force at all and focus on psychotherapy or more esoteric elements of energy work and psycho spiritual counseling.

Even similarly trained practitioners apply the same techniques in very different ways. The experience, interests, educational depth and personal development of the practitioner, rather than his or her particular techniques, makes the biggest difference, so it’s best to interview prospective practitioners about their work.

Craniosacral therapy is most widely practiced in Ontario as a postgraduate specialization of massage therapists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, naturopaths, dentists, psychologists and medical doctors.

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

c

Creative Commons Licence
Some Rights Reserved
2001. Revised 2005

Car Seats and Flat Head Syndrome

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:41:06 -0400

Car Seats are for Cars
By Catherine McKenzie
Issue 136 - May/June 2006

"You know, you’re the only mother here who doesn’t carry her baby in a car seat," commented the receptionist at my midwife’s office.

My daughter was several weeks old at the time, and I’d left her seat in the car, mainly because I didn’t feel like lugging it up the stairs to the clinic. I looked around the waiting room and realized that we were the odd ones out.

It seemed true wherever we went. At the library, the shopping mall, the drop-in center for parents, the babies were all in infant seats—parked next to waiting-room chairs, snapped into matching strollers, clipped onto shopping carts, or carried by handles and trailing a woolly blanket.

No longer just a safety device for automobiles, portable infant car seats are now an important part of “travel systems”—sets including an in-car base, a stroller, and a car seat that snaps into both. They’ve been called the SUVs of the stroller world, and a quick glance in any baby store will show you how popular they’ve become.
Infant seats, whether sold as part of a travel system or alone, now sometimes include a cold-weather boot, a head hugger, and a car base. Most can be used only until the child reaches 20 pounds, which may be as early as three or four months. They often cost as much as longer-lasting, convertible car seats, which can be used in both rear- and front-facing positions and can accommodate children weighing from 5 to 40 pounds. That doesn’t discourage most families, however, who consider the infant seat an essential item for a baby’s early months.
Many parents don’t think twice about using an infant seat as an all-purpose baby carrier. But is there any harm in relying so heavily on a single piece of baby gear? Do the portability and convenience come at a price? As it turns out, there are good reasons why you should consider leaving the car seat in the car.

The Rise of Flat-head Syndrome
Medical professionals have begun to notice an alarming rise in the incidence of a skull deformity in infants called “flat- head syndrome.” Plagiocephaly, the medical term for this flattening of the skull, can occur as a result of consistent pressure on a particular spot. It is a cosmetic condition, but one that can be permanent if left untreated.

The increase in plagiocephaly is frequently blamed on the fact that babies are now placed on their backs to sleep, a position that has been shown to prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). If a baby’s head is always in the sameposition, the pressure can deform the skull. However, back sleeping is not the only factor. Extended periods of time spent in a baby seat can also contribute to this condition, as can long periods in strollers, swings, and other devices that put babies in a back-lying position.

Timothy R. Littlefield, MS, is affiliated with an Arizona clinic that treats plagiocephaly. In an article in the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics, he notes that 28.6 percent of infants who attended the clinic between 1998 and 2000 spent 1.5 to 4 hours daily in car seats or swings, and nearly 15 percent were in them for more than four hours per day. Another 5.7 percent of infants were allowed to sleep in these devices.1 Littlefield observes that cranial distortion resulting from overuse of car seats and swings is more severe and complex than in children who develop plagiocephaly from back-lying on a mattress. Consequently, he recommends reducing the time spent in car seats and swings, if possible.2
Concern over plagiocephaly also led the American Academy of Pediatrics to suggest in 2003 that infants “should spend minimal time in car seats (when not a passenger in a vehicle) or other seating that maintains supine positioning.”3 When infants must be in a back-lying position, moving their heads occasionally can help reduce pressure and avoid developing a flat spot. The simplest and most effective prevention, however, is to decrease the cumulative time infants spend on their backs.

Poor Positioning For Infants
Plagiocephaly is not the only problem associated with heavy use of car seats. According to Dr. Jeanne Ohm, executive coordinator of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (www.icpa4kids.com), many infants in strollers or car seats constantly tilt their heads to one side or the other. “That’s a good indication that their upper cervical spine is out of alignment,” says Ohm. Short periods spent in a car seat are fine, but “keeping them in that position where it’s easiest for their head just to fall off to the side—that leads to further spinal stress later on in life.” Ohm prefers to see parents carry infants in their arms and use different types of carriers. “Offering a variety of carriers supports correct postural development for the child.”

Physical Strain for Parents
An infant car seat can weigh nearly as much as the newborn inside it. Yet it’s common to see people walking around a shopping mall or grocery store holding a car seat by the handle, the baby strapped inside. This can be hard on anyone’s back, but new mothers are particularly vulnerable.

A woman “maintains [the hormone] relaxin in her system for a good nine months after birth, and relaxin makes the joints loose,” says Ohm. “That’s something you need for birth to be able to open up the whole pelvic opening, but it’s a weakening factor, in a sense, if you’re going to do some heavy lifting.”

Infant seats are designed to be portable, but they are still awkward to carry, according to Ohm. “You have to hold it away from your body so your leg isn’t kicking it, so your whole upper spine is tilted over.” Ohm often sees new mothers with injuries from this kind of lifting and discourages them from doing it unnecessarily.

If a parent does want to keep his or her child in the car seat while out on a trip, using a compatible stroller or universal car-seat carrier (a stroller frame that accommodates different brands of car seats) is much easier on the back than trying to carry the seat by the handle.

Adds to the Burden of Baby Baggage
It’s not the babies themselves who so weigh down new parents in the early weeks after birth—a newborn weighs, on average, less than eight pounds. Instead, it’s the bulky diaper bag, the stroller, the spare clothing—all the trappings that modern parents feel obliged to carry around. The infant car seat has become part of that baggage.

One of the main reasons that parents buy portable car seats is so they can remove a sleeping infant from the car without waking him or her. There are certainly times when this is handy, but the strategy can easily backfire. I remember several shopping trips that began with my daughter asleep in her car seat, but only ten minutes later she was awake and screaming to be held. I would end up carrying her and the car seat—separately—for the rest of our trip. I discovered that it was often simpler to wake her and put her into the sling, where she would frequently fall back to sleep again anyway.

Besides, an infant seat is usually an inefficient way to transport a baby. Placed on the floor of a doctor’s waiting room, it is at the perfect height for being accidentally tripped over or kicked. It’s downright hazardous when placed on a chair or table—something most manufacturers advise against. Outside the car, the seat becomes just one more thing to lug around. Leave it in the back seat and you may find yourself feeling remarkably light and free.

Lack of Touch
Recently, friends of ours came over for dinner with their six-week-old son. He had been sleeping in the car, so they left him in the car seat and set it down near the dining table. When he woke up, they amused him by rocking the seat and dangling toys in front of him. We decided to go out after dinner, so they clipped the seat into their compatible stroller, and we went for a walk. Finally, when it was time for them to go home, they put the seat back in the car and drove away. Their son had spent the entire three hours of their visit in his infant seat.

Spending excessive amounts of time in an infant seat deprives a baby of touch and stimulation. Imagine, for a moment, what would have happened had our friends left their baby seat in the car. Their son would have been held in someone’s lap, jiggled, walked around, perhaps put on the floor with a few toys. In all likelihood, he would have been talked to more and made eye contact with the people around him. It would have been a little less restful for his parents, but more interesting for him.

Andrea, a mother from Oakville, Ontario, was given a travel system when her first son was born. “It was a neat gadget to have,” she says, “so we used it a lot in the first couple of months. It was convenient to take him in and out of the car without disturbing him.” But by the time Andrea’s second son came along, she and her husband had mastered the use of their baby sling. “We made a conscious choice to carry him often to promote attachment,” she says.

Andrea’s decision may have been an intuitive one, but it is well supported by research. In a Columbia University study, researchers gave either a baby seat or a soft, wearable infant carrier to mothers of low socioeconomic status who had recently given birth. After 13 months, the researchers found that the babies who had been transported in wearable carriers were significantly more likely to demonstrate a strong attachment to their mothers. 4

Car seats are very good at doing what they are supposed to do: protecting children in the event of an automobile accident. But there is no evidence to suggest that staying in a car seat after the ride is over offers a child any benefit. Using a car seat as a baby carrier for hours each day, as many of the parents in Timothy Littlefield’s study did, is a practice well worth questioning.

Catherine McKenzie is a freelance writer and La Leche League leader. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and daughter

NOTES
1. Timothy R. Littlefield, "Car Seats, Infant Carriers, and Swings: Their Role in Deformational Plagiocephaly," Journal of Prosthetics & Orthotics 15, no. 3 (2003): 102-106.

2. Ibid.

3. John Persing, MD, et al., American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, Section on Plastic Surgery and Section on Neurological Surgery, "Prevention and Management of Positional Skull Deformities in Infants," Pediatrics 112, no. 1 (July 2003): 199-202.

4. E. Anisfeld et al., "Does Infant Carrying Promote Attachment? An Experimental Study of the Effects of Increased Physical Contact on the Development of Attachment," Child Development 61, no. 5 (Oct 1990): 1617-1627.

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/child_health/car-seats.html

Craniosacral Therapy and TMJ Pain

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 23:09:59 -0400

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction affects large numbers of people in this country. Over the years, medical professionals have employed various methods to relieve the myriad of symptoms patients experience in the jaw, face, head, neck, upper back and shoulders. Increasingly, a gentle and noninvasive manual technique called craniosacral therapy is being used to alleviate the pain of TMJ. This technique offers the hope of lasting relief from pain by addressing the underlying causes of TMJ dysfunction.

Determining the primary cause of the patient's pain represents the challenge of treating TMJ. John E. Upledger, DO, OMM, founder of The Upledger Institute Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, FL, explained that the core problem must be resolved in order to provide lasting relief to people with this condition. "The bottom line could be anything from childhood anxiety that perpetuates into adulthood and causes them to clamp their teeth together hard. Or they could have a little off bite, or they could have a bad low back and that ultimately transfers back up into their head and throws their temporomandibular joint balance off," he said.

Upledger explained that the pain caused by the core problem surfaces at various times and for a multitude of reasons.

"TMJ is going to manifest whenever you have a psychological, emotional or physiological situation that is difficult. It's like an alarm system going off, and any number of things can cause the alarm to go off."

The Mechanisms of Craniosacral Therapy
When treating people with TMJ, physical and occupational therapists capitalize on the body's innate healing powers. "We deal with the restoration of function, and that in turn allows the body to heal itself and the symptoms to disappear," Upledger explained. "We focus on the dysfunctions that we find, and if those dysfunctions are properly corrected, symptoms dissolve because they are secondary effects."

In addition to enhancing the body's natural healing process, craniosacral therapy balances the autonomic nervous system. Balancing this system decreases muscle tension and provides persons with TMJ with more rest, maintained Susan Steiner, OTR/L, who is in private practice in Providence, RI. "You get a physiological response of decreased muscle tone by doing craniosacral therapy," she said. "Most of the symptomatology [of TMJ] comes from increased muscle tone around the jaw."

Court Ruling on Craniosacral Therapy
A unanimous court ruling established that dentists in Colorado are allowed to use craniosacral therapy in the scope of their practice for treatment of temporomandibular joint disfunction. The state Court of Appeals decided in favor of the dentist in the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners vs. W.M. Raemer, DDS, on March 22, 1990. The ruling stated that, among other things:
1. TMJ dysfunction can be treated effectively with craniosacral manipulation;
2. Any treatment which releives pain or corrects a physical condition occurring in the teeth, jaws or adjacent structures constitutes dentistry (based at least on the Colorado statute);
3. Craniosacral manipulation and the treatment of TMJ dysfunction constitutes the practice of dentistry.

Craniosacral therapy provides fast relief to TMJ sufferers, Steiner explained. "Most people notice improvement within two sessions. They don't have to invest a whole lot of time before they see results." In addition, she added, PTs and OTs arm patients with techniques they can use at home to continue to decrease muscle tone around the jaw.

According to Steiner, patients notice a change in their everyday activities soon after receiving craniosacral therapy. They begin to forget to wear their dental appliances, or are able to eat foods they haven't been able to eat for a long time, she explained. In addition, most patients are able to significantly cut back on the number of therapy sessions they attend. "After 8 to 12 visits, their condition is pretty much under control," she said. At this point, some patients don't need additional therapy, while others are advised to continue to receive therapy on a maintenance level to avoid acerbating their condition.

The fact that craniosacral therapy is not invasive is another attribute of the manual technique, Steiner pointed out. "We use 5 grams of light touch. It's a very gentle technique for someone who's in a lot of pain, vs. other modalities where [therapists] actually enhance pain by poking, prodding and pressing in a painful area," she noted. "We go in non-invasively with light touch to decrease pain in a gentle way."

Craniosacral therapy has psychological benefits as well.

SomatoEmotional Release

SomatoEmotional Release is a therapeutic technique used in advanced forms of craniosacral therapy at the Upledger Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, to help rid the mind and body of the residual effects of trauma.

Work done by John E. Upledger, DO, OMM, and Zvi Karni, PhD, DSC, revealed that the body often retains the effects of physical and emotional trauma in what is called an energy cyst.

Upledger and Karni discovered that clearing negative memories and emotions, while helpful in resolving disturbances, did not always lead to complete rehabilitation. Adapting to an energy cyst requires effort, even for a healthy body. The body may then need additional energy to perform normal functions. The adaptive pattern of the body becomes less effective over time. As a result, symptoms begin to surface, and with time, become more difficult to suppress.

SomatoEmotional release is used by therapists to help release adaptive patterns from the mind and body of patients.

Because TMJ pain is often present in the mouth, people with the syndrome may not be able to fully use this part of their bodies. Steiner maintained that returning function to this body part is important for a patient's emotional state. "A lot of people with TMJ haven't been speaking up. They're withholding something, or there's something about expression that's being clamped," she noted.

Helping people to become whole again is another psychological benefit of craniosacral therapy. "It allows someone to become more integrated and more comfortable with themselves and the world around them," Steiner maintained. "It's one of those kinds of benefits that you can't get on a doctor's prescription."

Treating the Whole Person
A holistic approach is followed in craniosacral therapy. "We look at the entire person, emotionally as well as physically," Steiner commented. "That means from their feet to their head no matter what their symptom is." It is important to remember that a person seeking treatment for TMJ dysfunction is often dealing with a number of problems from pain, muscle imbalance and physical misalignment to emotional issues around the chronic pain, she added.

The holistic nature of craniosacral therapy, Steiner believes, unites the modality particularly well with occupational therapy.

"Craniosacral therapy has a strong connection to the profession of occupational therapy because our mission is to improve independence for the whole person."

Any type of therapist administering craniosacral therapy may be called upon to meet the emotional needs of TMJ patients. Upledger explained that there are two psychotherapists on staff at the institute. However, in most cases, the therapist helps patients deal with the emotional aspects of their condition. "If the therapist simply becomes a listening post and helps patients ventilate, they will ultimately solve their own problems," he pointed out.

Patients should understand that they may experience emotions when receiving craniosacral therapy. "When somebody receives gentle touch and has to lay still for an hour, they have to be with themselves for that hour. It may bring up something for people in their own personal discovery that is a bit surprising or is some kind of reality check for them," Steiner said. She believes that personal exploration is a positive component of craniosacral work, but acknowledges that it makes some patients uncomfortable.

The therapist should avoid being frightened by the emotional aspects of craniosacral work. "If [a patient] is in a session and he or she begins to ventilate a huge emotional discharge and this scares the therapist, then that fear will broadcast into the patient," Upledger said.

The therapist is also advised to practice caution concerning the patient's medical status. "We're changing fluid pressures inside the skull at a very subtle level," Upledger said. Therefore, therapists should avoid performing craniosacral therapy on patients who may be negatively affected by changes in the hydraulic forces in the skull. Patients recovering from a brain hemorrhage, for example, require special care from the therapist to avoid reinstituting the hemorrhage process, he cautioned.

Opening the Mind to TMJ
The bias of the medical professional affects the way that person interprets symptoms. According to Upledger, this thought process perpetuated the belief that TMJ syndrome did not exist, and to some extent, still affects the way people with these symptoms are diagnosed. "No matter what your specialty is, if you reach far enough you can come up with a reason why [the symptoms are present]," he maintained. "But that doesn't make it true, it just makes it plausible to somebody who's noncritical."

To challenge this mind-set, Upledger developed the TMJ Evaluation & Treatment Plan poster and accompanying booklet titled A Holistic View of Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome. Speaking about the educational materials, Upledger said they are "meant to cause a holistic thought process in the therapist. No matter what your profession is, you should have your mind open to [the causes of TMJ]."

Being open to working with other medical professionals is also recommended. Upledger explained that the therapists at the institute often work in concert with dental professionals. "There are some TMJ dental specialists who work with craniosacral therapists. A lot of dental work may result in craniosacral system dysfunction which then contributes to the ongoing problem of TMJ."

Steiner's TMJ clients may see a variety of other medical professionals while they are under her care. These include chiropractors, acupuncturists, massage therapists and psychologists.

While awareness of craniosacral therapy is growing, some medical professionals still need to be informed about the manual technique's beneficial effects. "We're still at the grassroots level in getting the work out," Steiner pointed out. "We're still in the mode of educating doctors and dentists about [this treatment]."

Upledger agrees that expanding medical professionals' knowledge of TMJ is helpful. "TMJ is a very widespread syndrome. People need to recognize that it can have a multiplicity of causes," he said.

Reminding therapists of the importance of craniosacral therapy is also a key issue, Steiner maintained. "I think it's really crucial that manual therapy modalities have a role in the therapy professions because they are a very successful way of preparing the body for function."

Cover Story
Printed with permission from PT & OT Today
Vol. 4, No. 30
July 22, 1996

Healing Hands: CranioSacral Therapy Helps Relieve the Pain Associated with TMJ
by Jill Flanagan

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For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and TMJ Primary Problem or Tip of the Iceberg?

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 23:06:02 -0400

The diagnosis of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome came into its own in the 1980s, and still remains popular today. A myriad of mechanical devices have been placed in people's mouths to alleviate the painful symptoms of TMJ dysfunction. The success rate of the singular use of such devices, however, leaves much to be desired. All too often, symptomatic relief is only partially achieved, and leaving treatment dependent upon the ongoing use of the intraoral devices. In other words, when the "splint" comes out, the symptoms return.

My own experience with TMJ dysfunction leads me to believe that the condition is often a secondary or tertiary manifestation of another problem somewhere in the body. Underlying problems that contribute to TMJ dysfunction and secondary symptoms are frequently found in the craniosacral, nervous, musculoskeletal, myofascial and masticatory systems.

TMJ syndrome may also be secondary to - or receiving significant contributions from - previous or current traumatic injuries anywhere in the body, and/or from stress. In addition, there may be systemic disease processes in the background, along with allergic and/or nutritional factors that can significantly contribute to the presenting TMJ syndrome.

I have assigned the majority of contributing factors of TMJ dysfunction and the resulting syndrome to the following major categories: craniosacral system dysfunction; stress; neurogenic problems and dysfunctions; posttraumatic problems and residua; structural/somatic problems and dysfunctions; degenerative problems and diseases; and dental problems. I'll discuss several of these categories, including suggestions for the efficacious use of different treatment modalities.

Craniosacral System Dysfunction: The craniosacral system is composed of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. It extends from the bones of the skull, face and mouth - which make up the cranium - down to the sacrum or tailbone area.

The bones of the skull most directly involved with the temporomandibular joints are the temporal bones and the mandible. In the case of TMJ dysfunction, the temporals are the most likely offenders directly related to craniosacral system dysfunctions.

The temporomandibular joints are located two-to-four centimeters anterior to each temporal bone's axis of rotation. Because of that articulating relationship, they are commonly involved in TMJ problems. Since the joint surfaces of the temporal bones are located in eccentric positions, when the temporal bone or bones are restricted into asymmetrical positions in relationship to one another, they provide malaligned joint surfaces for the temporomandibular joints on both sides. This malalignment results in mandibular imbalance and undue wear and stress upon the joints.

Temporal bone dysfunction can result from almost any problem within the craniosacral system, be it osseous or membranous. Only a thorough evaluation of the craniosacral system and the whole-body contributions to craniosacral system dysfunction will yield the primary cause of the problem. This can be accomplished through CranioSacral Therapy, a gentle method of releasing restrictions in the craniosacral system.

Remember, temporal bones can also be forced into abnormal positions when the muscles and ligaments that attach to them present with abnormal strains and tensions. CranioSacral Therapy aims at releasing temporal bones to restore normal function, regardless of the primary cause of the TMJ dysfunction.

The mandible, the other bone that contributes directly to the temporomandibular joints, is a single bone with one joint on each end. Therefore, you cannot distort one joint without causing a problem with the joint at the other end of the mandible. CranioSacral Therapy uses techniques to release and balance the joints at both ends of the mandible. It also releases undue muscle and ligament tensions upon this lower jawbone.

The hard palate is at the mercy of the sphenoid bone with which it articulates at both sides and, via the vomer, in the middle. Since the sphenoid is a major player in the craniosacral system, it is also important to evaluate the system's effect on the function of the hard palate. Distortions in sphenoid function or position often cause hard palate malalignment, which results in malocclusion of the teeth and secondary temporomandibular joint problems.

Within the domain of CranioSacral Therapy, we also have the balancing of all of the muscles of mastication. This means that bruxism, disc position and TMJ compression are all addressed effectively.

Stress: Stress can be caused by a number of factors. Physiological stress might be imposed by problems such as gallstones, kidney dysfunction or arteriosclerotic heart disease. Stress also can be induced by poor posture secondary to a shortened leg, for example. Psychoemotional stress, yet another category, is due to life frustrations, neuroses, or harbored destructive emotions like chronic anger. Environmental conditions - breathing polluted air or working in a noisy environment - produce stress as well.

No matter what the cause or type, stress exacts a toll from the body, as vital energy is required to cope with these conditions. While it's well-known that chronic stress may cause a range of health problems, stress has not been thoroughly considered as the root of TMJ problems (surprisingly). Teeth or jaw clenching is a natural response to increased stress, which compresses the temporomandibular joints and, in turn, causes the joint surfaces to be placed in jeopardy.

When excess stress is a factor in TMJ dysfunction, we must consider the use of stress management techniques. Among these modalities are therapeutic massage for relaxation and release, CranioSacral Therapy to reduce sympathetic nerve tone; SomatoEmotional Release to alleviate traumatic tissue memories and psychoemotional problems; hypnotherapy and/or biofeedback to develop conscious control of muscular hypertonus; and psychotherapy or counseling. Depending on the patient and the availability of therapeutic modalities, any or all of these techniques should be considered along with similar ones.

Dental Problems: I hesitate to discuss how dentists should treat TMJ syndrome. I only know that when direct orthodontic, occlusal and/or surgical interventions are put into play before the craniosacral system is functioning at its optimal level, the dental work must often be redone. Why? Because the involved structures change in response to the craniosacral work and other types of bodywork.

In CranioSacral Therapy, we specifically mobilize teeth in their sockets and encourage them to find their natural position in the mouth. When this happens, it changes the occlusion more toward what nature intended.

Dentists should not be excluded from being a part of the therapeutic team; however, they must recognize that occlusions, temporomandibular joint vitality, bruxism and compressive forces related to the masticatory system will most likely be changing as a result of the non-dental work. Therefore, the interventions imposed by dentists should be temporary and complementary to the holistic approach.

These examples show that TMJ syndrome may be the primary problem, or it may be just the tip of the iceberg. The condition is a part of the whole person, and the whole person must be evaluated to solve it.

John Upledger, DO, OMM
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Massage Today - August, 2002, Volume 02, Issue 08

Page printed from:
http://www.massagetoday.com/archives/2002/08/20.html

******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and Asthma

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 21:15:36 -0400

The article "Case Study in Pediatric Asthma: The Corrective Aspect of Craniosacral Fascial Therapy" appears in the current issue of "Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing." The case study by Dr. Barry R. Gillespie reveals how this therapy corrected asthma symptoms for a 9-year-old boy. "This child is not unusual," Dr. Gillespie said. "In treating asthmatic children like this boy since 1980, I've found that this therapy reduces and potentially eliminates asthma symptoms in children."

King of Prussia, PA (PRWEB) January 22, 2008 -- As a 9-year-old boy with asthma, he struggled to keep up. His symptoms first appeared when he was only two months old. Although many specialists tried multiple medications to treat his pediatric asthma over the years, a cold always triggered asthma. He had pneumonia five times. When he played soccer, even for short time, he was out of breath. In second grade he missed 13 days of school because of asthma.

His mother "couldn't take it anymore." Even with coddling and "cocooning" her son in the winter, he was only getting worse. There were too many sleepless nights and long days of worry.

Asthma and Children Fact Sheet
Then came December 27, 2006, when his mother called on Dr. Barry R. Gillespie for help. After five weeks and seven craniosacral fascial treatments by Dr. Gillespie, the boy's asthma doctor re-examined him. She found his lungs to be clear of any wheezing or other obstructions, and she recommended no need for further medication for his childhood asthma.

One year later, on December 27, 2007, his mother summed up her son's life. "We are so grateful that his asthma hasn't returned and he is free of treatment. A highlight of the turnaround took place on one of the coldest days of the past winter. He chopped wood outside and played football with his dad without a sign of pediatric asthma. This fall his soccer coach (his dad) was amazed at his stamina throughout the game. And this year for the first time he has not missed a day of school."

Asthma is the most common disease in children ("Asthma and Children Fact Sheet" by the American Lung Association, 2004). Some nine million children in America under 18 have been diagnosed with asthma, and the number grew from 3 percent in 1981 to 6 percent in 2002 (from the National Health Interview Survey).

The results for this boy and how they came about through craniosacral fascial therapy appear in "Explore: The Journal Of Science & Healing." The article "Case Study in Pediatric Asthma: The Corrective Aspect of Craniosacral Fascial Therapy" was written by Dr. Gillespie.

"This child is not unusual. In treating asthmatic children like this boy since 1980, I've found that Craniosacral Fascial Therapy reduces and potentially eliminates asthma symptoms," Dr. Gillespie said. "The outcome for asthmatic children who no longer need to live with the effects of this at times life-threatening disease inspires me. I am dedicating my life to helping as many children as I can to become healthier, happier children and adults." A copy of the article and more information about the therapy and about Dr. Gillespie are at http://www.healingyourchild.com.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

For more information also please contact:
Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and ADHD

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 20:59:57 -0400

An increasing number of children are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and treated with brain-altering medication. Learn the role bodywork can play in this common condition and five massage techniques to help those affected.
Bodywork for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Bodywork is perfectly suited for reducing the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a condition typically appearing in young children, although teenagers and adults may also be affected. Someone with ADHD has difficulty controlling their behavior and/or paying attention. It is estimated that between 3 and 5 percent of children have ADHD, or approximately 2 million children in the United States.

Symptoms
The principal characteristics of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Symptoms begin over the course of many months, often with impulsiveness and hyperactivity preceding inattention, which may not emerge for a year or more. A child who "can't sit still" or is otherwise disruptive will be noticeable in school, but the inattentive daydreamer may be overlooked. The impulsive child who acts before thinking may be considered a "discipline problem," while the child who is passive or sluggish may be viewed as unmotivated. Each of these children may have different types of ADHD.

All children are sometimes restless, sometimes act without thinking and sometimes daydream. When the child's hyperactivity, distractibility, poor concentration, or impulsivity begin to affect performance in school, social relationships with other children, or behavior at home, ADHD may be suspected. Because the symptoms of ADHD vary so much, ADHD must be diagnosed by a professional. Primarily consisting of stimulants, pharmaceutical intervention is the first choice in treating ADHD. In an effort to control affected individuals, an increasing number of school age children are regularly medicated.

The Brain
The suggested etiology of ADHD consists of many proposed theories. Whether stemming from genetics, environment or trauma, most experts agree the brains of individuals with this condition function differently than those unaffected. Research scientists have learned a great deal about ADHD by using modern brain imaging technology. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) researchers found that children with ADHD had 3 to 4 percent smaller brain volume in several regions, than age and gender matched controls. According to Jay Gordon, MD, a "deficiency in central nervous system dopamine probably causes many, if not most, of the problems associated with ADHD.” It is no surprise that the most popular medications for this condition increase dopamine levels within the brain.

The Autonomic Nervous System
Two structures comprise our nervous system, the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system assures proper functioning of involuntary actions, such as heart rate, dilation of blood vessels and our body’s secretion of chemicals. The autonomic nervous system has two sub-divisions, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic system provides us with adrenaline (the fight-or-flight response), while the parasympathetic is responsible for relaxation.

The sympathetic portion of the autonomic nervous system appears to be the predominant force in ADHD, overriding the balancing role of the parasympathetic system. Bodywork can be a critical component of ADHD recovery because it accesses and initiates the parasympathetic nervous system response.

Proof
At the Touch Research Institute in Florida, a study was conducted to investigate the effect of massage therapy on ADHD. Thirty ADHD diagnosed students aged 7 to 18 years participated in the study where one group received massage therapy for 20 minutes twice per week over the course of one month. The researchers reported that the ADHD students in the massage group demonstrated improved short-term mood state and longer-term classroom behavior.

Methods
While there is no specific ADHD massage technique, certain methods will have a greater effect than others. The important concept to grasp is that stimulating the parasympathetic relaxation response is desired when working with this population. Clues for the therapist indicating parasympathetic response are slowed breathing, reduced heart rate and increased digestive sounds.

Since many styles of bodywork initiate relaxation, the following five suggestions for ADHD are not all inclusive:

1. Swedish massage, particularly effleurage and other slow stroking movements have a sedating effect, leading to activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.

2. Because they encourage stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, avoid fast and firm strokes, as well as percussive massage techniques.

3. Cranial-sacral therapy will free up any restrictions in the cranium or sacrum that could contribute to ADHD. Additionally, the movements used in this modality initiate the parasympathetic response.

4. Rooted in Osteopathic medicine, myofascial release bypasses the muscles by focusing on the fascia as one, large, connected system. Exceedingly gentle, the unwinding technique in myofascial release activates the parasympathetic system. Similar to cranial-sacral, this will free any restrictions inhibiting energy flow, leading to tension release.

5. Watsu is a deeply relaxing style of bodywork performed in a warm water pool. While specific training and equipment (a pool!) are needed to perform this therapy, it has been reputed to calm the uncalmable.

The diagnosis and treatment of ADHD is controversial, as parents are refusing to accept the habitual medicating of their children. Many have posed the hypothesis that ADHD is a natural evolution of our brains to keep up with the speed at which technology powers our world. Living in a calm and peaceful environment is now an exception, rather than the norm. Bodyworkers have the ability to introduce calm and peace to a client, regardless of their environment. By focusing ADHD treatment on the parasympathetic nervous system, massage therapy can be a crucial component of therapy for this condition.

References:

Khilnani S, Field T, Hernandez-Reif M, Schanberg S., Massage therapy improves mood and behavior of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Adolescence, 2003 Winter; 38(152):623-38.
Osborn, Karri, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Soma Brings Peace of Mind to Families, Massage and Bodywork, June/July 2004.
Soma Brings Peace of Mind to Families
Osborn, Karri, Sea of Calm: Water Therapy Touches Young Spirits, Massage and Bodywork, Feb/March 2003.
www.nimh.nih.gov, Attention Deficit Disorder, National Institute of Mental Health, 2/17/06.
www.realbodywork.com, The Nervous System, Sean Riehl, 2003.
www.drjaygordon.com, Attention Deficit Disorder, Gordon, MD, J., 2005.

by Nicole Cutler, L.Ac.

Posted by Editors at May 15, 2006 11:05 AM

http://www.integrative-healthcare.org/mt/archives/2006/05/bodywork_for_at.html

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Attention Deficit Disorder

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 20:25:15 -0400

By Mark Levine

ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder, is widely recognized to be diagnosed and medicated far too frequently. Based on my experience, understanding and observation, I would add my voice to the increasingly common consensus that there are actually 3 distinct categories of phenomena associated with what is usually diagnosed as ADD. only one of these three categories is actually Bona Fide ADD and therefore potentially amenable to treatment with Ritalin or other pharmaceuticals. The other categories of cause are not actually ADD, and therefore imply other interventions.

1. Bona Fide ADD / ADHD is within the Autistic spectrum; a complex neurological disorder related to Asperger’s Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Tourette’s Syndrome. These disorders have genetic roots and perhaps some connections to diet, allergies, immunization reactions and other immunological factors. This class of causes responds well to a mix of behavioral interventions, dietary changes, supplements, Craniosacral therapy, and there may be a role for antidepressants or amphetamines such as Ritalin.

2. Some childrens’ distractibility and oppositional behaviors do not have the same neurological basis as #1. These children may be reacting to dysfunctional family dynamics or unimaginative and overly intellectual educational systems, failures by parents and teachers to provide appropriate physical and emotional warmth, boundaries, rhythm, movement, models to imitate, and a sense of wonder. It has been said that ‘it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society’, and perhaps many children inappropriately diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Ritalin are actually reflecting the anxieties of our time through their naturally more sensitive natures. If this is true, it implies that we as adults must radically change the way we make a living, consume and parent; that our children benefit when we actually take charge of their development, and spend more outdoor play time with them, in the natural world, with less stimulation from driving, the shopping mall, jolly jumpers, exersaucers, walkers, television, video and computer games, and more still time with them, near them, letting them simply be.

3. Trauma, particularly traumatic births (interventions such as forceps, suction and emergency Cesarian sections) and childhood concussions, can lead to the development of many of the behaviors commonly associated with ADD. A program of Craniosacral and Osteopathic Manual therapy, administered by a highly experienced physical therapist, as soon as possible after the trauma, has proven to be of tremendous value in treating this category of ADD-like symptoms.

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

c

Creative Commons Licence
Some Rights Reserved
2001

Star Children and Difficult Children

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 20:23:48 -0400

For roughly the past twenty years now (and occasionally well before that) more and more children are being born who are different – different from what parents and teachers are used to seeing and expect to see.

For a long while these children were considered, and treated, as special cases, strange aberrations from ‘normal’ children. By the larger and ever-growing numbers we see today, it is clearly not a matter of individual cases, but that a new generation of souls we have never met before is coming to earth – children who have great maturity, are dissatisfied with the adult world as it is today, and are coming to earth with a powerful spiritual impulse. We cannot close our eyes to this event any longer.

The look in their eyes
The first and foremost thing that can strike parents at the children's birth is the very early eye contact – this usually happens immediately after birth. This cannot be attributed to the influence of the environment, the time is too short for that. And the look these new children give you – I suggest calling them ‘star children’; in the USA they are usually called ‘indigo children’ – is not the look of a baby but of a mature, self-aware and wise person. We can tell the difference, surely, between a self-aware look and one that only ‘looks out’ at the world. Self-awareness in the gaze is something unmistakable. And we can see not only self-awareness in it but also dignity. Later on this will characterize the child's whole behaviour.

The gaze will reveal something else, too, if you learn to understand it: that the environment, that is, adults, are transparent to it. ‘Seeing through’ things is a capacity all babies have, but with star children an adult can perceive this ability in the child's look. This ability does not get lost later on, however; the child can also express later on what it ‘sees’ in the adult.

A special consciousness of self
Right from the start these children have their own individual character which they champion very strongly – they know who they are. All children are becoming more and more individual, of course, as seen and reported by kindergarten teachers, school teachers and parents, but with star children this occurs with consciousness, consciousness of self. They know they are different from the ‘normal’ run, who still form the majority in schools and kindergartens; the ‘new ones’ unfailingly recognize one another and form groups together. If the teacher has not put himself in the picture the two types can easily antagonize one another. Star children speak very early in the first person without at the same time losing their extraordinary sensitivity, as is the case in this connection with ‘normal’ children. They continue to perceive everything in the adults and give early expression to what they have seen. They also, at an early age, and in no uncertain terms, say what they want and what they don’t want. You cannot simply order them about but have to talk to them about what you intend. If you don’t do this they will put up stubborn resistance – they want to be treated with respect. If you want them to do something, you have to talk it all over with them. A discussion is appropriate even if they are too young to have any understanding of what is being discussed, for in this case too it makes them feel appreciated and respected. And if there is a possible lack of ‘intellectual’ understanding this is often (also with mentally retarded people) replaced, as is well known, by a feeling understanding.

Despite their marked individual characteristics star children show soul/spiritual qualities in common which distinguish them from ‘normal’ children. These will make it impossible for an expert to misjudge the situation. Namely that we are perceiving an invasion not of ‘science fiction beings’ from other planets, but of human souls who, in a spiritual sense, have come of age. Having now reached maturity they are arriving from their own star – one that is not sense-perceptibly visible, but a star similar to the one that appeared to the three wise-men at the birth of Jesus, and led them on their way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem: the guiding star of a true, supersensible astrology.

Respect and honesty
We ought right from the beginning to treat these children differently, according to their maturity – mature but not precocious. Once the beginning has been spoilt and the environment or the teacher stick to their usual, conventional ‘methods’, it will become more and more difficult later on to deal with the growing child.

Where these children are concerned there exists no such thing as an authority depending on position (as parent or teacher) – and right from the start this is so, whilst they are still very small. On the other hand there is on their side an appreciation and love according to ‘deserts’. With pretence you get nowhere – every lack of sincerity, any attempt to fake it is spotted as quick as lightning, rejected and despised. What are really appreciated are honesty, the admission of possible shortcomings or mistakes, and originality. They themselves are original and honest and stand no lies; dealing with them is direct and uncomplicated if you have won their confidence. They know for sure whom they can confide in and whom not. They disapprove of any proceedings done as a habit or ritual, and find new, usually more effective, ways to learn or proceed. You cannot punish them, for the punishment doesn’t help, and leads at most to their rejecting from then on the person who set the punishment; it is taken as a sign of weakness, an incapacity to deal with them – which in fact it is. You cannot arouse a guilty conscience in them or feeling of shame – not from outside – as an ‘educational’ aid.

Attention problems?
Star children usually have surplus vitality and mental energy which shows a similarity to children who are ill. They are often classified as having the syndromes ADD (attention deficit disorder) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder). In actual fact, though, they only pay attention to something that really interests them, but then they can become strongly engrossed in it. If something doesn’t interest them they easily become bored and get restless. It depends on the environment, on their teachers, whether an interest can be awakened in them for the subject or theme. If this is successful then the child will have no attention problems – nor will the teachers for their part have any problems with the child. But if it doesn’t succeed then the child will become very restless and will hardly be got to concern itself at all with the object of the lesson.

High intelligence and sensitivity
These new children are usually highly intelligent, and in all kinds of intelligence tests they range far above the average in their age group – unless they adamantly refuse to be tested at all. But originality can hardly be tested.

They are very sensitive as well, in both directions: both concerning themselves and with regard to their fellows. If they have not already been ‘spoilt’ by the environment they show sincere compassion, and their actions are prompted by love – this is particularly noticeable. What upsets them most is experiencing that others are not prompted by love. As they are so sensitive they can do with an emotionally stable, secure adult environment, one that radiates security – a rarity. They easily become frustrated, often because they cannot put their many original ideas into practice. They suffer failure badly, which often produces a block, and then they relinquish their plan. Learning by heart, memorizing is not desirable; they like learning by experiencing things and experimenting. Not a few of them have spiritual experiences which they also discuss among themselves, and they are very interested in experiences of this kind. If they are not understood they withdraw, and are indignant if someone obviously acts without love. If there is someone who is ill or unhappy they quietly form a comforting circle around them, and usually achieve success – with no words spoken, nor do they make plans to do this beforehand.

They know that they themselves and also all other people are spiritual beings. They clearly ‘see' the spiritual element in people, that is, they perceive its quality, and they take reincarnation for granted. They often seem to know what earlier incarnations they had – but as the thoughts and feelings of other people are accessible to them it is not easy to distinguish (especially in a New Age environment) what is their own experience and what are other people's thoughts. Every hidden intention and every secret thought lies open to these children. This ought to determine the basic nature of conduct in their environment.

We need to work on ourselves
What is known about star children could lead to a change of attitude in the adults in their environment, although knowing about something is not yet being able to do something about it. Adults certainly ought to acquire new abilities if they want to give the new generation a positive welcome. Without this, star children will, to begin with, be difficult children, and possibly addicts or criminals later on. They want to change the world through their spiritual impulses, give it forms springing from compassion and love. This will not succeed if the adult world, which they will inevitably come into contact with, does not change accordingly. Without inner change, through our very lack of understanding, and misunderstanding, we shall make the star children into broken people, shattered in their innermost being with regard to the mission with which they came to earth – we can hinder them in their mission to turn the world into a better place, rob them of the meaning of their existence. The great rejoicing with which these children are welcomed, with reason, in New Age circles, will prove to have been a vain expectation, if adults stick to their habits of doing nothing about their own spiritual development. What spiritual children actually require is a spiritual adult. If we are pessimistic in the face of this possibility (and there is sufficient cause for it) we can explain the general bankrupt state of the world.

A protest of the human soul
Nowadays intense spirituality on the one side and the intense practice (not theory) of materialism on the other are clashing with one another. The result is such a rapid and complex increase in the number of ‘difficult’ children that the ‘experts' can hardly keep up with analysing the various typologies and syndromes. But it is more or less public knowledge that frustrated spirituality (creativity) turns to rebelliousness, behavioural disturbances, addiction and criminality, as well as mental and physical illnesses. That there are ‘difficult’ children, and what they can become should the occasion arise, is largely due to the way star children react if they have lost their mission, the meaning of their existence. The scene in families, kindergartens, schools and therapeutic education institutions today can be looked at as a protest of the human soul. There is a broad palette: It extends from children with speech and behavioural disturbances, through dyslexia, attention problems, hyperactivity, lack of interest, to autism. The majority today will perhaps accommodate themselves to the normal world of adults by adjusting, through outer or inner pressure (to avoid isolation and to obtain love from the environment); in the not far distant future this may well succeed less often and with greater difficulty. And this is our hope. Today we can still treat the childhood ‘drop-outs’ as abnormal creatures and push them into a corner of civilization; but with their growing numbers this will no longer be possible. The question is: Who will understand the protest? Who will restore to health this perverted creativity and originality? How can this primary impulse of a spiritual culture assert itself? At the least we should not misunderstand the spiritual impulse that is overtaking us and try not to channel it into civilization's dustbin.

From Star Children by Georg Kuhlewind, translated from German by Pauline Wehrle, copyright Verlag Freies Geistesleben und Urachhaus GmbH, Stuttgart, 2001, published in English by Temple Lodge 2004.

Georg Kühlewind (1924 – January 15, 2006) was a Hungarian philosopher, writer, lecturer, and meditation teacher who worked from the tradition of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science. Setting aside his early interest in music and psychology, he pursued a successful professional career as a physical chemist. Meanwhile, he continued to deepen his spiritual practice and insights. A prolific author (most of whose works are still untranslated from German), Kühlewind spent much time traveling the world, lecturing and leading workshops and seminars in meditation, psychology, epistemology, child development, anthroposophy, and esoteric Christianity. He was the author of numerous books.

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For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral Therapy and Autism Shelter From The Storm

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 20:21:30 -0400

By Mark Levine

The first time I saw Bob Dylan perform live several years ago, I wondered why he never looked at the audience, why he never said anything to us or even to Joni Mitchell, with whom he was double billed. He’s famous for ignoring his audience, for seeming to be in his own world.

I went to see Dylan again last week for the second time, while I was writing this article. This time he stood sideways to the audience while his band faced us, again never said hello, never introduced anyone in the band, rocked a little in the corner when he wasn’t singing, never said goodbye, and when the band exited stage right, he exited stage left. It suddenly dawned on me that he’s probably slightly autistic.

Some measure of autism seems to be more the rule than the exception in the realm of those acknowledged to be masters of their craft: Glenn Gould, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, David Byrne, Andy Warhol and Bill Gates have all demonstrated the traits of mild autism.

Socrates, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Mozart, Beethoven, Newton, Thomases Jefferson and Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Marie Curie, Henry Ford, Neitzsche and Jung, Einstein and Wittgenstein, Jane Austen, J.R.R.Tolkein and James Joyce were all, according to their biographers, fascinated by the focus of their interest, often to the point of obsession, and probably would have been diagnosed with autism if the category existed at the time.

Even fictional characters - Lisa Simpson and Spock come to mind - have been endowed with the autist’s intellectual intensity and integrity. In 1975, when The Who created the rock opera Tommy, Elton John’s portrayal of an autistic Pinball Wizard was as an exotic neurological curiosity. In 1988, When Dustin Hoffman portrayed the autistic Raymond Babbitt in ‘Rain Man’, there were very few people in the world who knew anything about autism.    By 2002, when Sean Penn played Sam Dawson in ‘I Am Sam’, most people had heard about it. In a few short years, autism has emerged from relative obscurity into one of the defining phenomena of the 21st century. Everyone now knows someone with autism.   This fact alone speaks for itself.

The assessment, diagnosis, epidemiology, best practices for intervention - and even if intervention is appropriate at all - concerning autism are the closest thing we in the cloistered world of health care have to a post-modern philosophical debate.   Even its classification and nomenclature have changed markedly over the last few decades. It was only very recently that the Ontario government reclassified autism as a neurophysiological disorder, rather than a psychological disorder - and therefore insurable under OHIP for services related to its treatment.

What is Autism?
ASD, or Autistic Spectrum Disorder, is the currently accepted umbrella term for what has historically been variously described as PDD (Pervasive Development Disorder), Asperger’s Syndrome, Minimal Brain Dysfunction, non-verbal learning disability, ‘idiot-savants’, high functioning autism, ‘gifted’, ‘heavy’ autism, Kanner Autism, non-verbal autism, and so on.

ASD is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder which is characterized most generally as a difficulty in recognizing or engaging in a socially understood mode of communication concerning ‘I-Thou’ relationships.

ASD implies awareness of the world without the benefit of a ‘normal’ heuristic, without a comfortable reliance on unexamined high-level assumptions about the nature of reality and the interpretability of communication, assumptions which allow us ‘neurotypicals’ a wide-screen view of implied meaning in our interactions with others. An autistic mind meets the world fundamentally mentally, thinglike, unassociated a priori. Where an autist has made sense of the world, it is because he or she or someone has a bolted it together logically.

It has been postulated that ASD is an extreme version of the typical male brain pattern.   Interestingly, four times as many males are diagnosed with it than females - though females diagnosed with it are usually more deeply involved cases. Those ‘in the spectrum’ have difficulty with verbal communication, unwritten social rules, complex or subtle emotions, reciprocity; the so-called ‘right-brain’ ‘touchy-feely’ ‘yin’ sorts of empathic cognition typically associated with female consciousness. Like many men, autists lack a theory of other persons’ minds.

There is also often a remarkable facility with, and obsessional interest in, the typically male ‘left-brain’ functions such as memory recall, (often either photographic or eidetic), logical analysis, precision, and consistent axiomatic systems such as mathematics, engineering and computer science.

So while there is a kind of blindness to the intuitive apprehension of other minds, there seems to be a correspondingly greater affinity for and comfort with the monologue of ‘I-It’ relationships with things, technology, concrete thinking, literal linguistics and formal logic. There is also a remarkable phenomenological honesty in the ASD community. Someone lacking a theory of mind has no need of learning deviousness, manners or social graces. This is often the root of many awkward social situations, and marginalization.

Behaviors that count as autism admit of a remarkably broad range. As a spectrum disorder, ASD shows up as everything from pedantry to genius, from celebrity to the institutionalized, from hyperlexia to silence.   It shows up as full on freight train symptomatic to being barely distinguishable from one who gets lost in his work.   Perhaps we’re all a little autistic.

“Autism is an engima.” said my friend Paul in response to my reflections about Bob Dylan’s autism, just as the poet was about to walk on stage. Paul’s 19 year old daughter is profoundly autistic. “It is such an enigma. And what people don’t realize is that the spectrum of what is autistic is even broader than what is normal.”

Any of the following, in any degree or nuance, can count: social retreat, abnormal responses to sensory stimulation, failure to make eye contact, be interested in or attach emotionally to parents and peers, abnormal verbal skills typified by repetitive sounds and echolalia, or pedantic idiosyncratic use of language (poetry?), obsessive interest in specific objects or subjects, perseverance of activity, an insistence on rigid routine and predictability, emotional lability in the face of novel or unplanned experiences, clumsiness, tactile defensiveness, and stereotypical body movements, or ‘stimming’, such as rocking, flapping, bolting, jumping, hitting or flicking one’s self, chewing, bruxing, and facial tics.

A Short History

The term ‘autism’ was coined in 1912 by a Swiss psychiatrist named Eugene Bleuler to describe the quality of self absorption amongst children diagnosed with what was then thought to be schizophrenia. In the mid 1940’s Dr. Leo Kanner, an American psychiatrist, was the first to describe a cluster of child patients who had similarly odd behavioral patterns.   About the same time the Austrian psychiatrist, Dr. Hans Asperger, described a group of people who shared many of the same characteristics of autism, but who were able to communicate well verbally.

Since 1997, when Dr. Asperger’s writings were translated, this description has become widely known as Asperger’s syndrome. Like ‘autism lite’, these individuals are often hyperlexic and display extraordinary mental capacity within narrowly defined areas of interest.

Some have argued that the population historically pegged as ‘geeky’ or ‘nerdy’ are actually experiencing varying degrees of Asperger’s syndrome. Dr. Asperger described his patients as ‘little professors’, as they could go on and on about their special area of interest - most often math, computers, engineered devices, linguistics, or any rule governed system - without the slightest nod to the response of their audience, or unwritten social rules of engagement. Silicon valley, for example, is chock full of ‘Aspies’.

Epidemiology

Interestingly, someone diagnosed with ASD is 7 times more likely to have one or more parent occupationally involved in mathematics, computer science or engineering than the neurotypical population. One or both of the parents of a child diagnosed with ASD often exhibit similar, but milder, ASD-related behavior, and anecdotal evidence often points to a lineage of oddness and narrowly focused brilliance in the extended family.

Exactly how big is autism? The American Center for Disease Control released statistics in 2004 that the incidence of ASD has risen a whopping 600% over the last 10 years; that 1 in 166 children are now diagnosed with it, and that 1 in 6 are diagnosed with a related neurodevelopmental disorder.

Estimates now stand at some 600,000 people worldwide as having been diagnosed with ASD, half of whom are of school age. This is approximately the entire population of Mississauga, Ontario’s 3d largest city.   While many in the spectrum are high functioning, many will require varying degrees of help into adulthood, even for basic activities of daily life.

When one considers the human and financial cost of this situation to caregivers, family, friends and the educational system, these are staggering statistics. In October of 2006, Jon Stewart hosted an A-list fundraiser for autism education called "Night of Too Many Stars", sponsored by Chevrolet and Intel. This kind of hollywood hoopla is usually reserved for structurally entrenched global problems such as poverty and AIDS.

Who is Normal?

Autism is now so pervasive it has spawned its own political economy. While most people with autism are frustrated by living solipsistically, disconnected in an apparently fragmented world, many feel quite comfortable with their way of being and do not regard their cognitive style as a problem at all. And while a majority of the autism support community - families primarily - are stressed, impoverished by the high cost of special education, and polarized by the need for fundraising and advocacy into seeing autism as catastrophic, more serene voices can also be heard that question basic presuppositions about normalcy, brain function, psychology and the very purpose of education.

There is a large and growing community which seeks to de-pathologize, dignify, celebrate and redefine autism as simply a different way of legitimately apprehending reality.   According to the argument, the only real therapy for autism is applicable to the neurotypical population, ‘the larger phenotype’, facilitating a greater tolerance for neural and behavioral diversity.   See, for example, neurodiversity.com, aspiesforfreedom.com, taaproject.com.

Also I often hear, especially from those with an explicitly spiritual world view, reference to ‘Indigo children’, an anti-label understanding of ASD behavior which relates spiritual, psychic, psychological and physiological concepts into the proposition that children otherwise labeled as autistic or ADD/HD actually represent an evolutionary quantum leap. Moreover, the argument is that the dramatic increase in highly individuated children who ignore social norms in favor of following the dictates of their own precocious intellect may represent an adaptive mutation, conferring survivability for an increasingly chaotic planet, teetering as we are on the edge of profound ecospheric and social change.

Research

An enormous literature, much of it speculative, some of it scientific, has grown up around ASD. A good deal of progress has been made on differentiating it from disorders which often accompany autism but which are not necessarily pathognomic, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, fragile x syndrome, Rett’s syndrome, seizures, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder, dyspraxia, aphasia, dyslexia, digestive and autoimmune disorders, sensory integration issues, depression, and so on.

Interestingly, synaesthesia - the neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled, and perfect pitch - the ability to produce or identify a note by name without the benefit of a reference note - often also accompanies ASD.

Recent research has shown that the the average brain size of someone with ASD is significantly larger than the neurotypical population. While of normal size at birth, there is a rapid growth in the frontal lobes by the age of 2, and the average brain size of a 4 year old diagnosed with ASD is comparable to that of a neurotypical 13 year old. This brain size difference disappears by adolescence. Chronic brain inflammation is common. Further, there are significant differences in the wiring of the ASD brain; while there is more white matter generally, there are more short neurons within disparate parts of the brain, and the longer neurons that interconnect these various parts are far fewer than in the neurotypical population. Not surprisingly, functional MRI studies show a lack of synchrony amongst disparate brain functions.   There is much debate as to whether these are symptoms of an as yet undiscovered underlying pathology, or whether these findings are the pathology itself.

What Causes Autism?

As far as what actually causes autism, we are no better off than the proverbial blind men of India inaccurately describing an elephant according to what part of the elephant they were touching. At one point Bruno Bettleheim claimed that bad mothering - the ‘refrigerator mom’ was the cause. A study recently released from Cornell University positively correlates television watching with ASD. Some research points to hypoxia at birth resulting from early cord clamping protocols, and febrile events, especially those following from adverse reactions to vaccinations, have also been implicated as etiologic factors. Cambridge University professor of psychiatry Simon Baron-Cohen (Borat’s real-life cousin!) postulates that an increase in social mobility and the entrance of women into engineering and mathematics - historically exclusively male preserves- have allowed individuals with similar inclinations towards systematizing to find each other in what he describes as ‘assortative mating’ and thereby having children with amplified genetic tendencies to autism.

Much remains to be seen. Current theories are numerous, with the leading contenders involving a complex interplay between genetic predisposition and mutations, gastrointestinal and autoimmune disorders, cumulative heavy metal toxicity, and sociological factors.

This particular aspect of the debate is, not surprisingly, also the most contentious; exactly who ought to carry financial responsibility for ASD is punted about as a political football as the epidemiological curve of autism has approached an asymptotic vertical.

The pharmaceutical industry in particular has been on the defensive over strong anecdotal evidence and underfunded but persistent research which points a causative finger at thimerosal, a mercury based preservative in multi-dose vaccines. Thimerosal was banned more than 20 years ago by most of the developed world. The Canadian government is quietly phasing it out gradually; stores of thimerosal containing vaccines were allowed to be used up, and many of the vaccines for influenza and hepatitis-B still contain it. The American FDA categorically rejects the proposition that thimerosal causes autism, but many states have already imposed their own bans.

Working with Autism

So what is done with autism? The lion’s share of funding, both public and private, currently goes towards paying for long term special education services, especially for an intensive one-on-one form of behavior modification called Applied Behavioral Analysis, or ABA. Occupational and speech therapy, sensory integration therapy, dietary restrictions and supplementation, homeopathic remedies, botanicals and pharmaceuticals are also common. While it is outside the scope of this article to describe the details, suffice it to say that, like all aspects of this issue, there exists a wide variety of approaches and models, and much debate as to usefulness.

One of the hallmark sensory integration issues of ASD is exquisitely sensitive reactions and aversion to touch. Most find normal tactile contact uncomfortable if not intolerable, preferring instead the repetitive shocks of stimming, or the self-controllable deep pressure of lodging one’s self into tight spaces. Many have found craniosacral therapy to play an important role in integrating proprioceptive and tactile sensory overload, reducing anxiety, increasing body awareness and facilitating learning. As a practitioner specializing in pediatric craniosacral therapy, a large portion of my practice is dedicated to working with those diagnosed with ASD.

Families attending to the practical realities of someone with ASD are almost universally overtaxed, filled with the tensions of watching out for even the basic safety of an unpredictable mind. For this reason I usually end up working with family members as well on the reduction of stress related tensions.

It is in this sense that I see the value of my work as multi-layered. Wholly apart from any hands on help, many of the families say that just being able to talk to a health care practitioner who knows something of the terrain of ASD, who can bear witness to the paradoxical mash up of suffering and joy that is ASD, and can hold a conversation about a very complex set of concerns, is therapeutic in itself. Bodywork helps too.

I often find myself in the role of explaining to parents that there is a real 3D person inside that collection of disturbing habits, and that the habits are really disturbing only to the parents. I also find myself explaining to parents that many of the disturbing behaviors are actually age appropriate normal behaviors, and would be there with or without autism. This is especially true with teenagers and the terrible twos.

What happens during a session is as wide ranging as the individuals I work with and their moods; While the primary focus of craniosacral therapy is a stretching of the dural membranes via mobilization of the cranial bones to which they are internally attached, the reality is that one modality melds into another intuitively; sometimes I’m doing very gentle energy work and the person is hovering between sleep and wakefulness, sometimes I’m doing a long lever mobilization as the child giggles hysterically, now an acupressure point, visceral work, myofascial and positional release.

A trained and sensitive therapist can usually detect a rhythmical increase and decrease in the volume, warmth and pressure of the cranium in anyone. The cranial bones of someone with ASD feel remarkably restricted in movement, as though pressure from the inside prevents alternation of cranial size. This palpatory finding, which has been widely noted for the last 40 years, makes sense in light of the recent MRI findings about brain size differences in ASD. A good session ends with a more pliable and less viscous feeling in the cranium. Behavioral differences are immediate, with a decrease of stimming, greater receptivity to communication, generally a slower and more coherent presence.

One young man with Asperger’s syndrome with whom I worked had an ability to describe his sensory experience with remarkable precision. He said that after a session he was able to take note of his environment - the colour of the walls, the artwork, the quality of silence in the room, and that this was a function of his being much less distracted by the muscular tension - especially jaw tension - that he usually experienced interacting with what is to him a confusing world.

Typically I cannot work directly with the ASD individual for much time in the first few visits; usually there is too much novelty in terms of schedule and stimulation to allow for lengthy time on the table. I usually work with the parents first. This helps the parents to trust what I do, to know that it’s not painful, that it really feels like something (since it doesn’t look like much from the outside), and it provides them with a felt experience of some of the basic techniques I subsequently teach them to do daily with their children. It also provides the child with an example of the routine to be followed, promising that it will be his or her turn at a certain time in the session. Usually by the second or third session, the child scampers up onto the table and is willing to stay still for the duration, much to the parents’ surprise.

Touch is just one tool among many. I use precise concrete language, avoiding metaphors, slang (though some Aspies I know are the keenest punsters and get the worst of my jokes. Some are sublime artists.) I sometimes write out the plan of the session with the times I expect the child to lay still on the table. I am careful to turn off the background music I usually have on in the clinic, and turn off extraneous lights.

Unlike most of the rest of my practice, which tends to be time limited, I tend to work with ASD families over the long term, with frequency of visits dependent on the family’s resources. Typically this works out to a cluster of 3 to 12 weekly sessions until a pattern of trust and recognition is established, then biweekly or monthly sessions indefinitely, with clusters of greater frequency during stressful periods, growth periods (during which stimming usually increases), and after fevers or traumas.

I believe that what is most important about working with autists is affirming and searching out the whole person so labeled.   Working with the stigma and other peoples’ negative reaction is usually reported by autists as the worst part of being autistic.   I assume that everyone is of high intelligence, capable of the transcendental, and my real job is to figure out how to facilitate communication. My task is to offer shelter from the storm of the neurotypical world, to learn how to be sensitive, not so thick and gross and presuppositional, to slow down enough to feel out what someone else is feeling; to behold along with someone, for example, how light can be laid bare, tinkly, silent and full of obvious holographic import. And sometimes, if I’m very steady, I swear I can sense the dawning reciprocity of a theory of mind.

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

c

Creative Commons Licence
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This article was published in Massage Therapy Today, a publication of the Ontario Massage Therapist Association, May 2008

Cranosacral Therapy and Autism Blog Entry

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 16:33:55 -0400

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Overview

Osteopathy is a system and philosophy of health care that places emphasis on the musculoskeletal system, hence the name - osteo - refers to bone and path refers to disease. Osteopaths also believe strongly in the healing power of the body and do their best to facilitate that strength. During this century, the disciplines of osteopathy and allopathic (traditional) medicine have been converging. Osteopathy shares many of the same goals as traditional medicine, but places greater emphasis on the relationship between the organs and the musculoskeletal system as well as on treating the whole individual rather than just the disease.

Osteopathy was founded in the 1890s by Dr. Andrew Taylor, who believed that the musculoskeletal system was central to health. The primacy of the musculoskeletal system is also fundamental to Chiropractic, a related health discipline. The original theory behind both approaches presumed that energy flowing through the nervous system is influenced by the supporting structures that encase and protect it - the skull and vertebral column. A defect in the musculoskeletal system was believed to alter the flow of this energy and cause disease. Correcting the defect cured the disease. Defects were thought to be misalignments - parts out of place by tiny distances. Treating misalignments became a matter of restoring the parts to their natural arrangement by adjusting them.

As medical science advanced, defining causes of disease and discovering cures, schools of osteopathy adopted modern science, incorporated it into their curriculum, and redefined their original theory of disease in light of these discoveries. Near the middle of the 20th century, the equivalance of medical education between osteopathy and allopathic medicine was recognized, and the D.O. degree (Doctor of Osteopathy) was granted official parity with the M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) degree. Physicians could adopt either set of initials.

Dr. John E. Upledger, an osteopathic physician and surgeon, developed a light-touch manipulative therapy called "cranio-sacral therapy" in the early 1970s. Osteopathy is a similar therapy in which gentle manipulation is given to various parts of the body to free restrictions of motion. Both osteopathy and craniosacral therapy are practiced by health practitioners worldwide.

Some of Upledger's techniques are based on the work of Dr. William Sutherland, whose work, known as "cranial osteopathy," involves manipulation of the bones of the cranium. Sutherland believed the bones in the skull evolved to provide opportunity for movement and that, when their movement becomes restricted for various reasons, head pains, coordination difficulties, and other problems may occur.

In 1975, Upledger and other scientists at Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine investigated Sutherland's theory that skull bones move in response to hydraulic pressure of cerebrospinal fluid. The team concluded that the skull's sutures are not hardened structures, but are elastic, containing nerve fibers, blood vessels, and elastic tissue. Upledger refined his work on the bones of the skull, face, and mouth (collectively, cranium) to include the bones from the spinal cord down to the sacrum and coccyx, all of which he includes in the craniosacral system. He also views the brain and spinal cord as connected by a hydraulic system encased in three tough membranes which are separated from one another by fluid-filled spaces. According to Upledger, movement of the fluid up and down the spinal cord creates movement in the membranes which, in turn, affects connective tissue in the body. An imbalance in the craniosacral system can affect the development of the brain and spinal cord, which can result in various bodily dysfunctions. Craniosacral therapy provides a way to examine movements in the various parts of the system and to free them from restrictions by means of gentle pressure from the therapist.

Advantages/Disadvantages
Pain is the chief reason patients seek musculoskeletal treatment. Pain is a symptom, not a disease by itself. Of critical importance is first to determine the cause of the pain. Cancers, brain or spinal cord disease, and many other causes may be lying beneath this symptom. Once it is clear that the pain is originating in the musculoskeletal system, treatment that includes manipulation is appropriate.

Therapy Outcome:
The key to treating autism is early evaluation.

In addition to conventional measures - CranioSacral Therapy can play an important role in a comprehensive therapeutic approach.

Upledger has conducted studies on children with autism to determine if there is any correlation between restrictions in this population. He believes children who are considered "classically autistic" in behavioral terms show similar patterns of restriction in the craniosacral system. Upledger investigated its effects on autistic children in Michigan in the 1970s. He spent approximately six months each year for three years searching for etiologic factors in autistic behavior. His research included physical examinations, hair analysis, blood electrophoretic studies and craniosacral system evaluations.

His studies concluded that CranioSacral Therapy was beneficial in treating Autism. When it was used to restore the mobility of the craniosacral system, typically autistic behaviors - including head banging, thumb sucking, toe walking and self-mutilation - were either alleviated or diminished. In 2000, Dr. Upledger presented his findings before a U.S. Government Reform Committee meeting on Autism.

Required Training:

It is best to use a certified Osteopath, Physical Therapist or Chiropractor who specializes in cranial sacral therapy on children. Some experience with children with autism is recommended but not necessary.

Intensity of Therapy
Therapy is generally done once per week.

Treatment Costs
There are no material costs

Service Providers

http://www.iahp.com/pages/search/

Suggested Websites
American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. 5550 Friendship Blvd., Suite 310, Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7231. (301)-968-4100. Website: http://www.aacom.org

American Osteopathic Association. Website: http://www.am-osteo-assn.org

Upledger Institute, Website: www.upledger.com Phone: 1-800-233-5880

Suggested Reading
CranioSacral Therapy, John E. Upledger, D.O., O.M.M., and Jon Vredevoogd, MFA

CranioSacral Therapy 2: Beyond the Dura, John E. Upledger, D.O., O.M.M.

Introduction To Craniosacral Therapy, Don Cohen, D.C.

References:
Autism Research Institute

Upledger Institute

posted by R Amin @ 5:54 AM 1 comments
1 Comments:

At 9:11 AM, Michael said...

My autistic son began cranial sacral therapy two years ago with an Upledger certified therapist. Almost immediately we observed a significant change in behavior and verbal ability. At the beginning of treatment, he only spoke in two-word combinations. Within a month (for us, three visits), he began speaking in full paragraphs and ceased avoiding eye contact. Although this is just anecdotal evidence, I believe that some autistic children can benefit greatly from this therapy.

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Craniosacral Therapy Early Research in Israel

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 23:15:57 -0400

ABSTRACT
In this article, a case of a child who was cranially treated for damage to the skull caused by a past accident, and the substantial improvement that has since taken place, are described.
(*) Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. In 1975-1978, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Biomechanics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
(**) Department of Biomechanics, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA. In the summer of 1979, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Introduction  Cranio Osteopathy - a sub-specialty of the Osteopathic Profession finds its roots in the work and publications of William Garner Sutherland whose first book on the subject entitled "The Cranial Bowl", appeared in 1939. Since that time an increasing number of Osteopathic Physicians have developed interests and skills in the field of cranial osteopathy. Lately, more concern has been given to the better understanding of the physiological process which takes place during and after the cranial treatment. Since cranial osteopathy is a mechanical therapy and the input of the physician to the patient are - stresses and deformation, an investigation into the mechanical aspects of brain physiology must be pursued. Problems such as the mobility of the skull bones, the deformability of the cranium, the circulatory motion of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), internal pressure distribution and the intercompartmental permeability and transfer effects, have evolved and are presently the subject of a more intensive study (1,2,3). More attention is also being given to the input-output correlation of treatment to certain physiological effects by the monitoring of some electromechanical parameters recorded over the body. The latter are in one-to-one correspondence with definite mechanical cues that the physician sensitively picks up with his hands as a measure and indication of treatment progress. These cues serve as a basis for the physician's subjective impressions and act as guidelines in the treatment (4).
The collaboration between cranial osteopaths from the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University (MSU), Lansing, Michigan, and bioengineers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, which started in the summer of 1975 at the Department of Biomechanics, Michigan State University, has been prolonged and extended to a bi-national and bi-institutional activity upon the return to the Technion of its members after three years of work in the United States. Moreover, since there has been no osteopathic activity in Israel, the initiation of cranial therapy had to be based on the visit of a distinguished member of the community of cranial therapists to the United States.
Dr. John E. Upledger, F.A.A.O., an Associate Professor at the Biomechanics Department, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan, made a recent summer visit to Israel as guest and Visiting Professor of the Biomedical Engineering Department of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Presently, he is a leading figure in cranial osteopathy in the United States. In the past few years, Dr. Upledger's primary activity has been in the treatment of brain dysfunctioning children, particularly autistic. Dr. Upledger's summer visit was devoted to the treatment of injured children, to meetings with members of the TIKVA, Association for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Brain Injured Children and Adults in Israel, and to a cranial survey of the longtime coma cases hospitalized in the country's principal rehabilitation hospital--Loewenstein Hospital, Ra'anana. In view of the encouraging preliminary results seen at the time of this first visit, continuation of the activity in this field in Israel has been planned and will hopefully be carried out in the near future in collaboration with the organizations mentioned above.
In the following, we describe in detail the case of L.M., a seven-year-old child, who was treated by Dr. Upledger first on two occasions in Europe, while on his way to Israel, and later during his stay in the United States. Results from study at the Loewenstein Hospital form a subject by itself and will be reported separately.
The Case of L.M.
L. is seven years old, graceful and very pretty. As she goes off to school each morning her parents feel all the joy of her enthusiasm and motivation. Maybe this year L. will learn to read at her special school and in two years be integrated back into the regular school system.
Four years ago L.'s troubles began after she fell from a swing and hit her head severely. Within a month, L. developed grand mal seizures, which progressed to petit mal and to the petit mal syndrome. After about six months of illness, she made a spontaneous recovery and was completely well for several months. Thereafter, she fell ill again with periodic attacks for which she was treated with a combination of anticonvulsant drugs for three weeks. Her allergic reaction was so severe that her parents could not continue, with a clear conscience, to give her drugs. After a brief visit abroad to the Kingston Clinic in Edinburgh, the child remained well for about a year. However, L., a very robust athletic child, managed to climb and fall a second time, jarring the base of her spine. Her convulsions returned and the medication given did not control her seizures, and even aggravated her condition.
Two years ago, a graduate student of osteopathy, who as a tourist, visited Israel, met the family, examined L. and briefly worked on the child's spine which, according to his findings, had sustained some damage due to the accident. His opinion, however, was that the child also needed cranial osteopathy, in which field he was not qualified. Shortly after the osteopathic treatment, L.'s condition improved considerably. Her sleep was much quieter and her body seemed to gain more strength. Her attacks, whenever they occurred, no longer involved the loss of breathing power and the child now remained conscious during seizures. This was a clear indication to the parents that continued treatment along these lines was imperative and could lead to a cure for the child or at least to a significant improvement in her condition. Economic considerations, however, did not permit pursuance of the treatment at that time.
Several months later, a new drug became available in Israel which proved helpful for L. but did not solve the problems which had developed over the four years of her illness. L. had become high strung and was easily enervated. Her powers of concentration tool a sharp dip downward and displayed a hyperactive tendency which made a normal school framework impossible for her. It was thought that she also suffered from some organic disability, thought the child seemed otherwise intelligent and gifted.
At this stage, the parents contacted Dr. Upledger at Michigan State University to whom they were referred to as an expert in cranial osteopathy. To save the parents and child the long and arduous journey to Michigan, Dr. Upledger agreed to see and examine the child while on a lecture tour in England and France before his planned arrival to Israel. Immediately examining L., Dr. Upledger found that the child had sustained damage to the skull. This injury is usually amenable to the type of treatment he specialized in.
The treatment, normally a 30 to 60 minute long session of CranioSacral manipulative therapy to bring about adjustments, and an immediate effect on the release of spinal fluid blockage and the regulation of the CSF pulse. The parents had expected that the treatment might shock the child and drive her into further convulsions, but the opposite occurred. The following improvements became apparent within a short period:
1. L.'s phlegmatic handgrip turned into a strong, firm grip.  2. A slight waddle, noticeable in the child's walk, disappeared completely and the child became the graceful walker she used to be.  3. Sleep became sounder and the child no longer jumped up to run about the house with nightmares.  4. Overall quieting of the nervous system with far less sensitivity to sudden noise, loud bangs and strong lights.  5. The intellectual facilities took a sudden swing upward, the child's eliciting interest in books, ability to hear a children's story to its end, and no lack of concentration in school.  6. Improved sense of poise and relation to her surroundings.  7. Aggressiveness to other children greatly diminished, L. now seeking her own peer group and able to keep newly made friends.  8. Greater vocalization and far less mental confusion in moments of distress.
Undoubtedly, L. has made a substantial progress following the recent CranioSacral treatments but the road to normalcy is still ahead. The child still requires drugs and there are significant side effects due to them. Furthermore, in the autumn, her seizures returned during a two-week period of cutting new teeth. Nevertheless, the overall effect of the cranial treatment still persists and is noticeable by the parents, friends and family. L. should, of course, be kept under continued cranial therapy. It is hoped that a solution to this will be found in the near future preferably by the establishing of a continued activity of cranial therapy in Israel rather than arranging for the patients to be transferred to the United States.    
Acknowledgement  In the preparation of the manuscript, the authors acknowledge with thanks to Mrs. P.M., L.'s mother.    
References
1. Livingston, R.B., Woodbury, D.M. and Patterson, J.L:  Fluid compartments of the brain; cerebral circulation, in Ruch, T.C. and Paton, H.D. (eds.): Physiology and Biophysics, 19ed., W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1965, pages 935-958.  
2. Marmaron, A., Shulman, K. and LaMorgese, J:  Compartmental analysis of compliance and outflow resistance of the cerebrospinal fluid system / J. Neurosurg. 43, 1975, pages 523-534.  
3. Agarwal, G.E.:  Bluid flow--a special case, in Brown, J.H.U., Jacobs, J.E. and Stark, L. (eds): Biomedical Engineering, F.A. Davis Co., Philadelphia, 1971, pages 69-81.  
4. Upledger, J.E. and Karni, Z.: Mechano-electric patterns during CranioSacral osteopathic diagnosis and treatment. Journal American Osteopathic Association, 1979.  
******************************

For more information, please contact:

Mark L. Levine, B.A.(Hons), R.M.T.
Pediatric & Family Craniosacral Therapy
310 Kerrybrook Drive
Richmond Hill, Ontario
L4C-3R1

905.780.2468
info@marklevine.ca
www.marklevine.ca

Mark Levine is clinical director of Mark L. Levine, B.A.(hons), R.M.T., Pediatric + Family Craniosacral Therapy, providing craniosacral and osteopathic manual therapy services to infants, children and adults for a wide variety of physical, emotional, neurological and trauma related concerns.

Craniosacral therapy and Fibromyalgia

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 22:53:58 -0400

Are you having difficulties finding the right fibromyalgia treatment for you? Are you sick and tired of having to endure side effects as a result of your fibromyalgia medication? If so, then you might be interested in investigating craniosacral therapy. Craniosacral therapy, an offshoot of osteopathy, is a relatively new treatment technique that many fibromyalgia sufferers have benefited from. Using gentle palpations, craniosacral therapy promises to help reduce your symptoms of pain, headache, and fatigue and help you get back to enjoying life again.

What is Craniosacral Therapy?
Craniosacral therapy is an alternative treatment technique that is very similar to osteopathy and physical therapy. Craniosacral therapy is non-invasive and uses gentle palpations on your skin in order to restore health, reduce pain, and increase resistance to disease. Craniosacral therapy was created in the 1970s by Dr. John Upledger, based on theories developed in the 1930s by William G. Sutherland. It is now widely used in North America.

The Theory of Craniosacral Therapy
Craniosacral therapy is based on the idea that the craniosacral system is directly related to your overall health. The craniosacral system includes your brain and spinal cord, as well as the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds them. Craniosacral therapists believe that the cerebrospinal fluid emits a measurable pulse as it rises and falls (called the cranial rhythmic impulse), much like your heart and blood vessels do. A healthy pulse should measure between 10 and 14 cycles per minute. However, if this pulse is somehow interfered with, it will cause a number of nasty health problems, including chronic pain disorders like fibromyalgia.

Craniosacral Palpation
In order to treat disease and improve the overall function of your central nervous system, craniosacral therapists locate and measure your cranial rhythmic impulse. This can be measured by placing the fingertips over specific areas of the body. Once your therapist has located the blockage in your rhythmic impulse, he can begin to restore it. This is done through a series of extremely gentle palpations. Your therapist will palpate specific areas of your skull, focusing on the connections between your skull’s bones. By palpating these bones, he will be able to restore a healthy cranial rhythmic impulse, thus reducing symptoms.

Benefits of Craniosacral Therapy in Fibromyalgia Sufferers
There has been no extensive research on craniosacral therapy in treating fibromyalgia. Many studies suggest that craniosacral therapy is helpful for the first few sessions, but after that, it offers no significant improvement in fibromyalgia sufferers. However, craniosacral therapy is highly regarded by many fibromyalgia sufferers. A large percentage have tried craniosacral therapy at least once, and have found it to be extremely effective at reducing their symptoms of fibromyalgia syndrome. Craniosacral therapy is purported to:

* reduce widespread pain
* reduce the number of chronic headaches
* increase range of motion
* decrease chronic fatigue
* improve mood

The Treatment Session
Craniosacral treatment sessions generally last between 40 minutes and one hour, depending upon your specific needs. It is usually performed in a quiet office or clinic and should be done by a trained professional. You are fully clothed during the session. You will be asked to lie down on a treatment table. Your practitioner will place her fingers over specific points on your body to measure your cranial rhythmic impulse. She will then begin to palpate your body. She will gently touch the bones in your skull as well as your spine, neck, and head.

During the treatment, you may experience a variety of different sensations. These include:

* extreme relaxation (you may even fall asleep)
*
* temperature changes throughout your body
* increased energy
* immediate pain relief

After the Treatment
What can you expect to feel after the treatment? Well, it really depends upon the individual, but people often report feeling immediate and continuous pain relief. This pain relief can build up for as long as two weeks after your session. Some patients also feel uplifted and energized in the weeks following treatment.

Finding A Practitioner
If you are interested in trying craniosacral therapy, it is important to find a good, certified practitioner. Most practitioners are already licensed in some form of medical or alternative care, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, or osteopathy. Here are some suggestions on how to find a good craniosacral therapist:

* Ask around. Word of mouth is often the best way to find a good practitioner.
* Speak with your health care professional. He might know someone who is experienced in the field.
* Contact your local fibromyalgia support group. These organizations often have access to databases of medical and alternative practitioners.
* Contact a school that licenses people in craniosacral therapy, such as the Upledger Institute.

http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_craniosacral.html

Craniosacral Therapy and Tinnitus

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 21:45:42 -0400

By Julian Cowan Hill R.C.S.T.

This section is dedicated to Tinnitus with the clear message that there is something you can do about it! Julian Cowan Hill explains how to let go of tinnitus, having relieved his own symptoms and those of many of his clients.

Tinnitus commonly appears after an intense or long-term period of exertion, excitement, stress, challenge or change. Consequently most people start noticing symptoms after a period of stress, losing a loved one, an operation, working overseas, taking drugs, a long legal battle, etc. (download the paper on tinnitus for more details at the end of the section).

Challenges like these cause your nervous system to go into an adrenal state of red-alert, known as “fight or flight.” This makes your nervous system hypersensitive and causes dramatic changes throughout your body. The way you hear changes radically too. Whether it is skiing, stress, anger, casual sex, exhaustion, or emotional upset, adrenal situations make your ears ultrasensitive giving rise to tinnitus.

To demonstrate this shift in auditory perception, do you remember the last time you woke up in the middle of the night, after a nightmare? There you are breaking out in a sweat with your heart thumping away. You think you can hear someone outside your door. You’re frightened. Suddenly there is a creak on the landing. You jump out of your skin.

In this fearful state the tiniest sound like a creak doesn't sound tiny at all, and causes a big reaction. Even though the noise is feint, you perceive it as loud, and it causes your system to jump, breathing to quicken, mind to start racing, etc. This vital survival mechanism can literally save your life. Imagine if it had been a murderer with a knife out on the landing, being able to hear him/her meant you could prepare to fight or take off at top speed in the opposite direction. Your nervous system was doing what it has evolved to do, keep you alive. If there is any danger you need to know about it. That's why in certain situations your hearing needs to become ultra-sensitive, and can be a vital life-saver.

However, everyday things can cause a stress response to occur, such as having a depressing bank balance, or worrying about your next door neighbour. Unlike the noise in the night, these stressors can last months and years, and can eventually lock you into an oversensitive state for much longer.

In this state, ears not only pick up external noise, but now, because they are registering more than normal, they start hearing the nervous impulses along the auditory nerve inside your head. In most cases, tinnitus is nothing more than hearing the noises of your nervous system. It results from hypersensitivity listening in to the inner world of the nervous system. You have become so reactive that you have begun to monitor the background nervous impulses that normally are ignored. People with tinnitus often spend months or years in a heightened state of nervous arousal, so that eventually their hearing becomes so sensitive they end up listening to nervous impulses all the time.

So how do you help tinnitus?

Your nervous system needs to come out of "fight or flight mode" and switch off. It needs to feel that there is no danger in the outside or inner world and that there is nothing to worry about. In a nutshell, your system needs to feel safe and secure, without too much stimulation and able to manage what comes its way. When you achieve this, your hypersensitivity will to return to normal so you will stop picking up impulses inside your head.

As people let go of tinnitus, what usually happens is that, first you will stop reacting negatively to the tinnitus, ie it will stop getting to you so much. Then you will start forgetting about it, and eventually it will start to subside. It will become easier and easier to pay less attention to it, which is what will allow it to fade into insignificance.

The way to do this depends on what put your nervous system into an overamped state in the first place. The most common culprit is unresolved shock and trauma in your system from an operation, crash, upheaval etc. which will need to be addressed directly with treatment. For more details go to the shock and trauma section. Unfortunately, many people don't recognise that they are in a traumatised state, and stay locked in it for decades. This creates perfect conditions for tinnitus to appear.

Whatever the cause, it will be important to teach yourself to feel your body again, and become aware of where the stress and tension is holding on. You probably cannot relax properly at the moment because you only have a limited sense of what is going on below the neck. If you don't know what's going on in your body, how can you let go of it? Craniosacral Therapy helps you get in touch much more thoroughly so that you can let go and release subconscious tension. It teaches you how to divert the focus away from thinking and into feeling. This is not about generating thoughts in your head, its about lying back and letting the information come from your body back to your head. See the awareness building exercise download below and try it out. Its also quite interesting to try this technique out after you have had a session and notice how things feel different.

Most tinnitus people need a few sessions of Craniosacral Therapy just to start being able to feel again. Chronic stress and overwhelming situations are very good at shutting down the nervous system so that you cannot feel much at all. Part of treating tinnitus comes with opening up your nervous system again so numb areas in your body are replaced with feeling.

Craniosacral therapy is one of the best treatments for easing you out of this heightened state of red-alert, and helping you reconnect with your body. As you start to let go of all the years of built-up overwhelm in your system, you start to feel lighter, carry less baggage and as a result your level of hypersensitivity gradually reverts back to normal. This sends tinnitus on its voyage back to oblivion.

Julian Cowan Hill had tinnitus for 16 years himsself before it became severe. He knows what it is like to live through the nightmare state of hyperarousal. A course of regular Craniosacral Therapy gradually transformed his own tinnitus to the state it is today _ almost imperceptible. It is there but he has to really concentrate in a quiet place to notice it.

He has worked on over 250 people with tinnitus and has gained a lot of experience patterns of behaviour that accompany tinnitus. People in a state of red-alert generally feel a bit driven and unsettled, and as a result are often impatient and unable to follow things through properly. For this reason Julian asks tinnitus people to commit to at least 6 treatments. This allows time for you to actually start feeling the benefit. One session is rarely enough to cause any long-lasting changes.

Please note Craniosacral Therapy tends to work gradually. This is not a quick fix. Most importantly, if you are a person who likes pushing yourself to the limits drinking a lot of alcohol, coffee, driving 150 miles for a game of golf, running two businesses in your spare time, worrying about and looking after everyone else except yourself, then your nervous system is unlikely to let go. Julian can help you each time you see him but he cannot change the way you treat your nervous system in between sessions! If you really want to let go of your tinnitus do follow some of the guidelines on how to manage your tinnitus at the end of the paper on tinnitus, below.

How to Improve your Tinnitus by Reducing Adrenaline
By Julian Cowan Hill R.C.S.T

What is tinnitus?

Most people get tinnitus if you put them into total silence! Heller and Bergman proved this back in 1953 when they found 93% of people taking part in a test reported hearing noises, even though they were in total silence.

Ears work all the time and only relax as long as they have latched onto a harmless background noise. So if you put people in silence, their ears will listen out harder and harder until they find something else to pick up. If there is nothing there, ie silence, most people’s sense of hearing will intensify until it becomes so sensitive, it starts picking up internal nervous information. That’s what tinnitus is- hypersensitive listening that detects the noises of the brain. Your ears have become too sensitive.

If you have tinnitus, the first message is to AVOID SILENCE. It activates a stress response in your system, and increases your internal auditory sensitivity.

So why are you listening constantly to your tinnitus when most of the population is blissfully unaware of it? Why has your hearing become too sensitive and latched onto the noises of your brain?

The answer is because, behind the scenes, your central nervous system is idling in a constant state of red-alert. For some reason your whole system has locked itself into a state of emergency, as if it senses that there is some threat or danger there all the time, even though you know mentally that things are OK. Adrenaline* is the hormone that keeps your system locked into this state. (NB I use the term adrenaline to refer to a group of hormones released by the adrenal glands, eg cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, etc.)

Below I will explain how your system gets into this state in the first place and how to recognise this pattern in yourself. The key to understanding tinnitus is adrenaline. If you have high levels of adrenaline coursing through your body, this prepares you for emergency. Your heart beats faster, your oxygen intake goes up, your senses become alert and specifically for tinnitus, your sense of hearing becomes acute.

On adrenaline you become much more reactive to the world around you and are constantly ready for action. The adrenal/stress response is purely and simply a survival mechanism that has evolved into our nervous system. When danger appears, we don’t have to think about it, we just automatically go into emergency mode, or the “fight or flight” response as it is called. To get out of danger we need to see, smell, feel and hear the slightest thing at lightening speed because it can save our lives. When the lion appears, if we notice it in time we can run away!

Tinnitus is bound up with this response. This is why most people start complaining about noises in the head after periods of high levels of adrenaline. (More later) Too much adrenaline over a long period of time gives you tinnitus.

Listening sensitivity can be heightened by other things too. If you are hard of hearing or deaf, every time you strain to hear you are heightening your sensitivity. As you can no longer get enough information from the external world, your brain tries harder to increase its receptivity by turning up the inner recording volume. This is why many people with hearing loss often experience tinnitus.

Tinnitus reminds me of an old fashioned tape-recorder when you set the recording volume too high. As a result, you not only hear the intended noise, but you also pick up masses of buzzing and humming coming from the machine itself. Tinnitus is where you hear the noises of the brain on top of sounds coming in from the outside world.

For those of you who are deaf, don’t strain to hear. This only makes your listening even more sensitive and prone to tinnitus. Get the appropriate hearing apparatus so your internal hearing sensitivity can relax and calm down.

You can also make your ears sensitive by sticking things down them. Because they are one of the most delicate parts of the body, just thinking about a doctor sticking a cold, metal implement down there can make you wince. If you have experienced syringing, you don’t need me to tell you how hyper-aware your ears become as you monitor every tiny movement and feeling. Even though you trust the doctor, a part of you becomes very wary. You feel every movement, and hear the tiniest noise. This intense focus is ideal for generating tinnitus sensitivity. So avoid physical contact with the ear canal as much as possible.

How to get tinnitus!

I was the perfect candidate for developing very severe tinnitus. My childhood was full of stress, ear-infections, grommets, antibiotics and hearing loss. By adulthood I was moderately deaf, straining to hear as a result. Further stress and the onset of candidiasis (from the antibiotics) made things worse. I had my ears syringed a couple of times and used to use cotton buds to clean them. (NB Earwax is the very antiseptic substance needed to protect your ears from infections!) On top of that I drank stimulants like coffee and alcohol that sent my adrenaline levels into orbit, thus heightening my sensitivity. Every one of these factors contributed to developing tinnitus. There are many other factors that contribute, not mentioned here.

I converted my own tinnitus from a devastating, sleep-disturbing level to almost imperceptible and irrelevant one by reducing all the factors that have led to hypersensitivity. I have reduced stimulants, and a couple of years of craniosacral therapy have helped stabilise my adrenaline levels. If you can reduce your adrenaline levels you will be well on your way to mastering your own tinnitus.

Rather than wait for a magic pill to arrive, (I wish the researchers every success), I have got on with letting go of the tinnitus pattern with a great deal of success. I have learnt, after 20 years of personal experience, how to undo this pattern. This is why I want to share this with you. I know what it is like to be bugged all the time by noise.

Why is adrenaline so important to undoing tinnitus?

Adrenaline helps us survive in dangerous situations. As I mentioned above, a heightened sense of hearing will very often save our lives. Think of a shooting scene in an action film. The villain is just out of sight. He’s got a gun. The hero is bracing himself for attack. All the loud music has suddenly gone quiet. All we can hear is breathing. Everyone in the cinema is listening to the tiniest sound. A crunch of gravel under foot, a sudden gasp just out of sight. The film direction is imitating exactly what happens to our own perception under stress. Our focus intensifies and locks onto the slightest piece of information.

Suddenly the villain knocks into something. Everyone in the cinema jumps out of their skin. The hero in a split second, on the strength of this tiny piece of auditory information, will either attack or run for his life. His ears will literally determine whether he lives or dies. This is the classic fight or flight response of the nervous system that is hardwired into each one of us. It has survived millions of years of dangerous situations to create the body you are alive in right now. It is this survival response that causes to you to start tensing up with suspense as you watch the film. The adrenaline makes your ears hyper-vigilant.

The best way to make a film less scary is to turn off the sound. Your ears play an enormous part in the stress response. Stress plays an enormous role in the way you hearing. This explains how you can fall asleep in the middle of a noisy party one day, and yet be woken up by a feint tap at the window in the middle of the night.

Research shows that acute stress and adrenaline can literally divert blood flow from the cochlea and make you deaf! At a minute level, the expression “too much sex makes you deaf” is certainly true if you indulge in highly exciting, adrenal charged interactions!

Adrenaline causes you to become sensitive to nervous impulses that you normally would not pick up. This is the inescapable fact that everyone with tinnitus needs to understand. I have yet to meet someone with tinnitus who is not running on high adrenaline levels.

If your adrenaline levels drop, your sensory perception will become less acute, and your tinnitus will ease.

What Tinnitus People Have in Common

Analysing the case histories of over 200 people, tinnitus is closely linked to an “adrenal” lifestyle, and emerges shortly after dangerous, challenging or overstimulating events. I have written a list below of the common situations in life where tinnitus tends to emerge.

Think about your life. When did you first notice tinnitus? Which of the following situations was the trigger for your tinnitus?

Physical trauma, e.g. car crash, broken bones
‘Upheaval’ in your personal life, e.g. splitting up, divorce
Spending time abroad in unfamiliar surroundings
War, fighting, struggle or combat of any kind- court cases
Surgical procedures and/or anaesthetics
Major dental intervention
Frequent/persistent drug use – recreational or medical
(particularly aspirin, amiltryptaline and
commonly prescribed benzodiazepines)
Hearing loss, ear infections or syringing
A severe impact to the head or jaw problems
Chronic worrying
Motherhood stress- listening out for a baby crying for months on end
Overwork, tiredness, exhaustion
Extreme physical exertion, too much exercise etc.
Too much excitement or stimulation

Consider that symptoms may appear months after the challenging situation…

Tinnitus is a symptom that your nervous system is overexerted. The alarm bells are ringing for a reason. Take away the reasons and your alarm bells will stop ringing. If you get a pill which switches off the alarm bells, this is as useful as putting a muffler over a burglar alarm. Its great for not hearing the alarm, but what about the problems in the first place that are causing the alarm to ring? Tinnitus often won’t let go of you until you let go of some major patterns in your life. I can help you discover how you are holding onto patterns of imbalance and help you let go of them. However if you continue to drive your life in the adrenal lane then you will have to continue to live with your tinnitus for the time being!

How adrenal are you?

The best way to start helping yourself is by recognising all the tell-tale signs that things are not happy or comfortable behind the scenes with your central nervous system. Clients are not usually aware of how hyped-up they are. Becoming aware of this is very important.

Tick how many of the following adrenal symptoms apply to you:

Wake up early feeling groggy and not refreshed
Wake up frequently during the night
Burn brightly outwardly, but you are constantly tired inside
Easily activated, irritable, reactive, oversensitive
Impatient
Easily distracted
Cerebral and analytical
Prone to anxiety
Controlling
Driven, over-ambitious, always do too much, action orientated
Tend to bite off more than you can chew
Short-tempered
Sensitive digestive system, bowel movements from one extreme to another
Crave sugar, or need sugar boosts throughout the day
Sensitive or Dependent on stimulants like coffee, alcohol, chocolate
Run at high speed - deadlines dominate
Always on the go - get bored easily - can’t bear ‘nothing to do’
Never satisfied: “grass is greener”
Doing too much for no apparent reason – hate being “left out”
Never have enough time
Poor circulation in extremities
Stiff neck and shoulders - tingling hands and wrists
Low energy and tired – crave mindless distraction
Keep on going, collapse in a heap, out like a light
Poor sleeper – should have had a sleep during in the day

Does this sound like you? If some of these resonate with you, then you are likely to be highly adrenal, and will need help to let go with cranial work. At first it is much easier to let go with someone else’s help.

How do you reduce your adrenaline level?

Most people with tinnitus have a system in overwhelm. By that I mean, at some stage along the line, their life experiences have been too much for their nervous system to cope with. This experience doesn’t just vanish into thin air. It gets stored up in the nervous system as “shock”. Unresolved shock and trauma from overwhelming past experience is the most common cause of high adrenaline levels/tinnitus in all my patients.

In any overwhelming situation the central nervous system invests a lot of energy in managing ‘traumatic history’. It could be something that happened in childhood, it could be a car crash five years ago. You won’t be aware of this because patterns of shock and trauma are managed at a subconscious level. The way you feel will be normal to you.

In fact most people feel more or less OK. Our nervous systems do a very good job of managing unprocessed trauma in the background. You may have an easy life, and yet still have adrenal symptoms outlined in the list above. You may just have moderate to low energy or the odd nightmare, or some inoffensive symptom, but there is still a sense of not being quite right.

Cranial contact can help develop your sensitivity and put you in touch with what is going on behind the scenes. A common symptom of trauma is that people will not be able to feel certain parts of their body. They may develop hot and cold areas, numbness, tingling, or a sense of expanding and contracting. Sometimes they can feel very disconnected or shaky.

The moment you slow down, and start paying attention to how your body feels, this is where transformation can take place.

It is vital for you to get in touch with the felt sense of your body. You need to stop spending so much time in your thoughts, analysing everything, and start learning to feel. Most tinnitus people are out of touch with their bodies which is the only place where stress etc. can be discharged from.

At first it can be a challenge to slow down sufficiently to feel what is really going on inside. To let go of your tinnitus start focussing more closely on how you feel. Cranial work is excellent at putting people back in touch with how they feel.

When you release a pattern of trauma this can relieve the need to be pumping so much adrenaline into your system. In turn this can lead ultimately to switching the alarm bells off!

Cranial work is one of the best ways of getting in touch with how you really are. You can build up the sense of internal security and comfort in your nervous system. As each pattern is digested and processed freely by the nervous system, you become more able to just be who you are without needing to process so much in the background.

Your alarm bells are ringing. Your body is trying to get you to listen to it. You can’t let go of what you don’t know about!

Advice on how to manage your tinnitus

Reduce stimulants like coffee, chocolate, tea & alcohol. These all raise you adrenaline levels – and therefore make you more sensitive to tinnitus!

Use craniosacral therapy as a means of monitoring your own process and getting in touch with what you need to let go of.

Start becoming aware of physical sensations and emotions in your body by learning yoga, meditation, tai chi etc. Try and get out of the thinking part of your brain, and connect with the information your body is giving you, ie the feeling part of your brain. Tinnitus people tend to be very out of touch with this.

Bring in as much peace, comfort and physical relaxation into your life. Put your central nervous system first for a change. If your tinnitus is bad, do something to relax yourself, and take your focus away from it.

Take responsibility for your own symptoms. Start being honest and use your tinnitus as a “healthometer”. It will soon tell you if you are doing the right thing because it will calm down.

Take a long-term view. Don’t expect to change the way you are overnight.

Avoid silence or anything that makes you focus on your hearing in a negative way. Listen to pleasant sounds.

Start becoming aware of your adrenaline levels. Learn to lower it and you will be well on your way to improving your health overall, as well as your tinnitus.

Be wary of complaining about tinnitus with others. Grumbling only strengthens the emotional grip tinnitus has over you and can heighten your sensitivity to it. Whenever you catch yourself grumbling, replace it with a constructive relaxation exercise.

http://www.cst.eu.com/tinnitus.html

Craniosacral Therapy and Sinus Problems and Allergies

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 21:00:45 -0400

Sinus, Allergy,
And Brain Therapy
© 2005 Dr. Barry R. Gillespie

Brain Therapy is a unique integration of craniosacral therapy along with TMJ-dental and fascial therapies for improved health

The American society is plagued by sinus problems.

If you watch some television advertisements, it is a wonder how anyone can survive through the allergy season without medication. We as healthcare professionals can offer assistance to our suffering clients.

This article will describe how our craniosacral, fascial, and muscle touch therapies (Brain Therapy) can help people with sinus/allergy conditions.

I grew up with clogged sinuses. I had continual post-nasal drip as a teenager.

During the allergy season in New England, I took medication daily. I was “allergic” to ragweed, dust, and other elements that are common allergens in our society today.

When I graduated from periodontal school in 1975, I developed headaches and continual sinus infections.

Realizing that the medical model would never get at the root cause of my problem and only mask it with medication, I discovered that certain touch therapies (craniosacral, fascial, and muscle) and dietary modification could turn the tide for me.

It has been nice to be able to naturally breathe freely year-round without medication for the last thirty years.

Craniosacral Therapy For The Sinus Sufferer

The craniosacral concept is important for a sinus sufferer.

I have found the common trait is that the sinus bones are very tight and out of alignment. A key therapeutic concept is that all of the large bones need to move freely before the smaller sinus bones can open up.

If a client presents with sinus difficulty, it is almost second nature to start working here where the problem is. But since the large bones are not moving freely, the sinuses can never open up fully.

The frontal bone is a key bone because nine facial bones hang from it. If this bone is not moving well, the sinuses cannot function well. The sphenoid bone drives the sinuses also into flexion and extension in a similar manner. These small bones are my last area in treating a client, after the brain is moving well and all of the other structures are opened up.

When a client with a sinus condition opens, I tell him that the sinuses will drain. The body is in a continual state of detoxification through the breathe, skin, bladder, colon, and sinuses. If they drain for days, clients tend to think they are getting worse; but in reality, their bodies are throwing off poisons that have accumulated over time.

Detoxification can be an unpleasant but vital function for clients.

Sinus Conditions and Myfascial Therapy

In the 1970s I thought sinus problems were just localized. But I noticed that when a client also received muscle and fascial therapy in the neck, their sinus condition would improve more quickly.

After five years of seeing this phenomenon, I concluded that the majority of sinus people were predisposed with neck muscle and fascial strain that was pulling on the sinus bones. The fascia can pull at 2,000 pounds per square inch from one part of the body (neck) to another (sinus).

An old whiplash injury can create soft tissue strain in the neck that can now be restricting the sinuses. The myofascial element is important for sinus physiology.

If you are eliminating a lot of mucus from your body, you must stop putting it into your system. Many sinus sufferers consume foods that can create mucus like dairy and wheat (gluten) products.

The majority of people in the world are intolerant to dairy products. The average American consumes about 666 pounds of dairy products a year. That is almost two pounds of mucus, ingested daily, into the body that must be eliminated. An excellent website to discover the hazards of dairy products is www.notmilk.com.

Clients, who have sinus difficulty, need to make wise choices in their diet.

Brain Therapy And Allergies

As I worked with children with asthma and sinus conditions over a number of visits with Brain Therapy, their parents would say that some, if not all, of their allergies would go away. It never made sense to me that anyone could be allergic to dust. Dust is everywhere; everyone should be able to handle it physiologically.

I then began to look at the concept of allergy in another light.

The children with asthma had bodies that were so tight, they simply did not work that well. Because of poor physiology, the child’s body was easily triggered into an attack by the cat dander, dust, and other irritants.

When the craniosacral work opened the central nervous system, the fascial work relaxed the web, the muscle work brought blood and lymph to the tissues, and the body’s mucus cleared up through diet, the child’s body started to work better.

The dust was no longer a factor, and he could have a pet in the house. I concluded that he did not have a true allergy but impaired physiology causing an “allergy”.

This is not true in all cases – some people maybe deathly allergic to peanuts, shellfish, and the like. But as you do Brain Therapy with your child clients, notice as their bodies are working better how they may become less reactive to offending natural substances.

http://www.brain-therapy.com/sinus-allergy-art.html

Craniosacral Therapy and the Elderly

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 21:48:39 -0400

Study shows craniosacral therapy increasingly used by elderly
01-29-2007

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Craniosacral therapy, a light-touch, hands-on therapy, is an increasingly popular alternative modality that may provide substantial benefits to older adults, according to a study by a researcher at RTI International.

The author of the exploratory study, published in the January issue of The International Journal of Healing and Caring, said that the use of craniosacral therapy to manage pain, facilitate rehabilitation, and reduce agitation and hypertension, among others, appeared promising and should be further investigated.

"This study does not establish effectiveness of craniosacral therapy for any specific medical condition, but it does suggest that the therapy may provide substantial benefits to older adults," said Edie Walsh, Ph.D., RTI health services researcher. "In the future, clinical studies could be conducted to determine the effectiveness of craniosacral therapy for treating specific clinical conditions."

Craniosacral therapy detects and corrects imbalances in the membranes and fluids that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord and releases restrictions in the connective tissues throughout the body. Patients seek the therapy to treat ailments such as migraines, neck and back pain, orthopedic problems, stress and tension-related problems, autism and chronic fatigue.

As part of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 advanced cransiosacral therapy practitioners from 14 states and a variety of professions, including massage, physical and occupational therapy. The author also reviewed information on 52,000 individuals trained in craniosacral therapy by the Upledger Institute, the main training program for craniosacral therapy in the United States.

The practitioners reported that after craniosacral therapy treatments their older clients frequently experienced substantial pain reduction and were often able to discontinue or reduce their reliance on pain medications. Physical and occupational therapists reported that the diminished pain allowed their clients to more fully participate in rehabilitation exercises.

"According to the practitioners, most older patients seek the therapy to relieve pain," Walsh said. "Craniosacral therapy is particularly suited to older adults because it applies very little pressure and allows clients to remain clothed, avoiding the physical and social challenges associated with undressing."

The popularity of the therapy continues to increase. Over the past 20 years, the Upledger Institute has increased its introductory level classes from less than 40 to more than 200 each year and the number of other training programs has also increased.

RTI News Media Contacts
Email: news@rti.org
Lisa Bistreich: 919-316-3596
Patrick Gibbons: 919-541-6136

http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?database=1news.db&command=viewone&id=2343&op=t

CranioSacral Therapy vs Cranial Osteopathy

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 15:11:48 -0400

Massage Today
October, 2002, Vol. 02, Issue 10

By John Upledger, DO, OMM

CranioSacral Therapy, which I developed in the 1970s, is compared frequently to cranial osteopathy, developed by Dr. William Sutherland. Although Dr. Sutherland's discovery regarding the flexibility of skull sutures led to the early research behind CranioSacral Therapy - and both approaches affect the cranium, sacrum and coccyx - the similarities end there.

What was to become cranial osteopathy began as the idea of an osteopathic student in Kirksville, Missouri, in the early 1900s.

Dr. William Sutherland saw that the bones of the skull were designed to allow for movement in relationship to one another. It was a radical idea that flew in the face of American and British anatomy textbooks, which taught that skull bones fuse together before adulthood.

To test his theory, Dr. Sutherland filled a skull with dry beans and added water. This caused the skull bones to move along the suture lines, and ultimately to disarticulate. He also performed makeshift experiments on himself with helmet-like devices that imposed variable controlled and sustained pressures on different parts of his head. His wife recorded personality changes, head pain and coordination problems he displayed in response to different pressure applications.

Based on his experiments, Dr. Sutherland developed a system of examination and treatment for the bones of the skull that became known as cranial osteopathy. Because so little was known about how it worked - and patient results seemed miraculous at times - Sutherland's system acquired an esoteric reputation.

Conversely, the origin of CranioSacral Therapy can be traced to the accidental discovery of the craniosacral system during a seemingly routine surgery in 1970. At the time, I had a unique view of the dura mater, the outer layer of the meningeal membrane in the neck. Ordinarily compromised as part of surgical procedure, the dura mater was deliberately left intact during this surgery to prevent any risk of meningeal infection.

My task as a surgical assistant was to hold the dura mater still while the surgeon scraped a calcium plaque off its surface. No matter how I tried, I was unable to do it. The membrane continued to move rhythmically at a rate of about 10 cycles per minute. Neither my colleagues nor any medical text I consulted could explanation this phenomenon.

Still curious about what I had seen, I enrolled two years later in a seminar that explained Dr. Sutherland's ideas and taught some of his evaluation and treatment techniques. Coupling my scientific background with tactile sensitivity, I surmised that the rhythmical motion I had seen during surgery could have been caused by a hydraulic-type system functioning inside a membranous sac encased within the skull and canal of the spinal column. After further study and research, I refined Dr. Sutherland's techniques and successfully incorporated them into my private medical practice.

In 1975, I was invited by Michigan State University to lead the world's first task force to study and verify the mobility of cranial sutures and bones. For the next five years, I led a team of anatomists, physiologists, biophysicists and bioengineers, and together we researched the basics and potential for performing therapy on the craniosacral system.

Through an extensive series of studies and experiments, we demonstrated how the craniosacral system could be used to assess and improve numerous health problems involving the brain and spinal cord. Yet this was a very different approach than that used in cranial osteopathy. Here we were focusing not on the bones of the skull, but on the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

We verified that the craniosacral system does indeed operate like a semi-closed hydraulic system. Pressures build as the amount of cerebrospinal fluid increases in the system, forcing the fluid to move up and down the spinal cord. When the fluid moves, the membranes containing it also move, normally at a rate of 6-12 cycles per minute.

CranioSacral Therapy practitioners are trained to gently monitor this rhythm to detect and release imbalances and restrictions in the membranes that could potentially cause sensory, motor or neurological dysfunctions. As such, CranioSacral Therapy is never intended to cure disease, but simply to facilitate the body's ability to self-correct. It offers a comprehensive, whole-body structural and functional evaluation protocol.

Even today, the focus of cranial osteopathy remains on manipulating the sutures of the skull. With CranioSacral Therapy, the bones of the skull are involved in that they serve as "handles" for the practitioner to use to access and affect the membrane system that attaches to those bones.

Another major difference between the two approaches is in the quality of touch. In general, the manipulations used in cranial osteopathy are often heavy and directive. Practitioners of CranioSacral Therapy usually use a light touch, scientifically measured to be between 5 and 10 grams. That's about the weight of a U.S. nickel resting in the palm of your hand. This gentle quality often belies the effectiveness of the therapy. Most patients report feeling nothing more than subtle sensations during a typical session.

Yes, CranioSacral Therapy and cranial osteopathy are quite different. Yet they remain linked in history by two osteopaths who trusted their observations and continued undaunted in their quests to prove their theories.

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