Cranio Sacral Therapy and Kinesitherapy
By Boris Prilutsky
Director & Certified Senior Instructor
Cranio-sacral therapy is a sort of therapy, which is applied to all structural regions that are located between the cranium region and the sacrum region. In eastern- European countries, a similar method is simply referred to as `comprehensive treatment for the correction of biomechanics'. In the former Soviet Union, on the other hand, a method similar to the ones mentioned above, used to be called Kinesitherapy. Kinesitherapy is a therapy, which is governed by movement. There are two types of Kinesitherapies:
Active Kinesitherapy [such as therapeutic exercise, functional activity treatment, gate trainings, etc].
2. Passive Kinesitherapy [such as clinical rehabilitative massage, scapula manipulation, spinal mobilization (please do not confuse this with spinal adjustment), spinal tractions, post-isometric relaxation techniques, and passive exercise (mobilization) of different body regions].
What brings all of these methods together both in their uniqueness and similarity, are the goals and approaches set forth by them all. The goals of these therapies are to utilize these methods for the correction of body mechanics, to strengthen and stabilize body-regions (joints) or in other words, we can say, to utilize Kinesitherapy in cases of:
(a). Back and limb disorders.
(b). Headaches.
(c). Management of stress-related phenomenon.
(d). Prevention of the developments of support and movement system diseases.
(e). Prevention of the development of diseases of internal organs and other body systems
The holistic approach to the human body makes the philosophies of all these methods similar.
I believe that most back and limb disorders (in non-injury cases), are results of biomechanical disturbances. Therefore, treatment of back and limb disorders, by therapeutic exercise (and other active methods of Kinesitherapy) cannot be really affective until these disturbances are first corrected by passive treatment.
Biomechanics are the rules of the human body's movements. Disturbances of the body's mechanics lead to pathological movements. These pathological movements actually are compensatory. In most cases, the pathological movements cannot be corrected by our conscious, volunteered movements (such as therapeutic exercise, gate-training etc.). This means that the existence of compensatory movements (or static biomechanical disturbances), will be vast at the time that therapeutic exercise or other active Kinesitherapy is performed. For these reasons, it is pretty difficult to expect good results from this kind of therapy, when no previous correction of the biomechanics took place.
Fifteen years ago, I was part of a research team lead by Dr. Y. Kanter (a former USC Medical School professor). The research group was searching for different, effective ways to treat and prevent Osteoporosis. My project in this research focused on beneficial, physical treatment methods for this skeletal disorder. At that time (even today), physicians all over the world recommended weight-burning exercise to women, as a way for treating and preventing Osteoporosis.
I was provided with a database that maintained that mechanical stress on the bone caused the creation of static electricity in bone tissue. The database also stated that this creation of static electricity stimulated the absorption of calcium in the bone tissue.
One hundred and twenty women (thirty-five to fifty-five years of age) participated in this research. They were divided into four groups. One group was a control group. The second group received Estrogen replacement treatments. The third group received Estrogen replacement treatments, and weight burning exercise. And finally, the fourth group received only special weight-burning exercise. All the women initially, received bilateral bone density tests on the femoral necks, and wrists. Bone density tests were also performed on the lumbar spine region. Seventy-five percent of the participants demonstrated different bone mass between their two femoral necks.
We conducted static-biomechanical tests for all of the participants who demonstrated difference of bone mass between their femoral necks. These tests consisted of initially weighing the participants on medical scales, and later weighing the same participants on two scales with a midline body position fixation. One hundred percent of these participants demonstrated static-biomechanical disturbances. I will supply an example on static-biomechanical disturbances for better understanding.
This is an example of one of the participants. She weighed one hundred and forty pounds. When the same participant was placed on two scales, one of her lower extremities transmitted weight-pressure, which was twenty pounds more than the other side (one leg transmitted sixty pounds, and the other transmitted eighty pounds). We later found out that the femoral neck of the side that transmitted more weight, had a higher bone mass than the one that transmitted less weight. We also noticed that the femoral neck of the side that transmitted less weight was semi-Osteoporotic.
Having looked at this example, we understand more clearly that if this woman were to receive weight-burning exercise for Osteoporosis treatment, or prevention (with no previous biomechanics correction), we could not expect good results from the therapy.
In most cases, Static disturbances (such as those described above), are the result of biomechanical disturbances of the cervical spine region. These disturbances could be treated successfully by clinical orthopedic massage, cervical traction, spinal mobilization and post-isometric relaxation techniques. By the way, in a few comprehensive treatments, the static disturbances can be corrected.
The example mentioned above, supports the idea that our body is one biomechanical system, where every body part or region is functionally related to, and dependent on another. It does this by illustrating the connections of the neck biomechanics and the static of our body. My belief is that if a person suffers from pain in any level of the back or neck, he must receive comprehensive, passive Kinesitherapy (clinical massage, spinal traction, scapula manipulation, spinal mobilization and post-isometric relaxation techniques) with a combination of active Kinesitherapy, on all the regions from the cranium to the sacrum including the hip-joint regions.
The spine is the most interesting and complicated biomechanical system. Any minor biomechanical disturbance (on any level of the spinal regions) immediately causes biomechanical reorganization of the spine. If for some reason, for example, one of the spinal movement segments will demonstrate hypo-mobility (blocked segment), the other spinal movement segments that are located directly above and below the blocked segment, will immediately demonstrate hyper-mobility. As a result, this will demonstrate similar changes in the occurrence of the biomechanics on all levels of the spinal column.
We can view the spine as a collective part of the central nervous system, because of the location of the spinal cord and the position of the spinal nerves (which initiate innervations to all our body parts including internal organs and other systems). Therefore, spinal diseases (such as degenerative disk disease, spondylarthritis, herniated disk, spondylosis, etc.), not only produce back pain, neck pain, headaches, irradiating pain to the extremities and overall weakness, but also can also possibly disturb the functions of the internal organs and system that are innervated from the affected spinal movement segment.
Additionally, wrong spinal mechanics, cause disturbances of the flow movement of the cerebral spinal fluid. Intensity of the flow movement of the cerebral spinal fluid, is an extremely important factor in the aging process of the central nervous system, and of course the aging process of our body as a whole.
After we discussed in general the connection between biomechanical disturbances and our health, it will be appropriate to discuss the causes of biomechanical disturbances.
1. Hypertonic muscles, demonstrate some stress expressions. Most of us carry stress in our necks and upper back area. Some of us carry stress in our stomach area, while others carry their stress in the lower back area. Spastic muscle phenomenon, in some regions, automatically causes limitation of movement in this area, and causes compensatory movement by other regions. Chronic, stress-related spastic muscle phenomenon, leads to muscle/tendon strain and a chronic inflammatory condition, (which produces pain, and limitation of the range of motion). In these cases, passive Kinesitherapy is a great tool for stress management, treating mechanical pains (a located chronic pain, which is not backed by x-rays and other tests), improving the flow movement of the cerebral spine fluid, and the prevention of the development of back and limb disorders.
2. Continual work posture (over a desk/computer, or a job that requires the constant overuse of a particular body part,) causes biomechanical disturbances. If passive Kinesitherapy does not treat these disturbances, they may add up to pathologies of the support and movement systems.
3. As children grow, they tend to suffer from growing pains (these occasional pains result from the excessive stretching (strain) that the skeleton exerts on the soft tissue when it grows slightly faster than it). Usually, they try to move in ways that won't trigger the pain. In avoiding pain, they create habitual compensatory movements, which they tend to carry through life. If these pathological movements are not corrected by passive Kinesitherapy, then it is very possible that back and limb disorders will result.
4. Injuries, and painful pathologies in the spine and joints always lead to biomechanical disturbances. In these cases passive Kinesitherapy methods should be utilized for pain management, biomechanical corrections and as a stimulator for the healing process. The utilization of active Kinesitherapy will cause the stabilization of joints and other regions of the body.
5. Internal organ diseases, can possibly initiate dystrophic developments in the spinal movement segment that are located on the level of the sick organ. As a result, a general biomechanical disturbance will occur. In these cases, and cases such as those mentioned above, passive Kinesitherapy will contribute not only to the health of the spine, but also to the health of the internal organs and systems.
As we can see, our body is not only one biomechanical system, but in general, is also one system which consists of various organs, systems, and other parts which are related to and dependant on each other. Therefore, we cannot view a disease of some part or organ of our body, as a separate problem. We must view the disease as a disease of the whole body. Methods such as massage therapy, spinal mobilization, scapula manipulation, and spinal tractions, are great preventive tools. They could also be successfully utilized as individual methods of treatments, or with the integration of any other conventional methods of treatments.