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VOLUME 31, NUMBER 13
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Alternative Health News
Allostatis: A New View of Stress and How it Affects the Body
Stress is often blamed for all biological mayhem. This is really an unfair characterization, as stress can elicit many positive health outcomes. Along these same lines, massage therapy is often touted as a great reliever of stress.
Massage Brings Relief to People Suffering from Headaches
With the common stressors in daily life, complaints of tension and migraine headaches are not uncommon.
NCB Promotes New CEO
The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork recently announced the promotion of Steve Kirin from Chief Operating Officer to CEO.
Weaving Eastern & Western Medicine Together: Q&A with Beijing's Dr. Kezhen Zhang
Dr. Kezhen Zhang M.D., is currently the founder and president of Beijing Taijitang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.
Three Essential Herbal Products For Your First-Aid Kit

There are three Chinese patent medicines that belong in everyone's first aid kit. All three are for topical application, and all three provide extraordinary benefits unavailable from any domestic over-the-counter.


Healing the Qi: The Boston Marathon Bombing
On Monday, April 15 2013, locals and visitors from around the globe gathered for the world's largest marathon in the city of Boston. With 23,000 participating in the race and many more on the sidelines, the marathon represents a Boston institution.
Ethical Considerations for Pediatric Massage
The practice of massage therapy is generally regulated throughout the U.S. with many states having standard guidelines and a method of licensing/registering massage therapists and practitioners.
Freeing the Heart: The Importance of the Vagus Nerves/Cranial Nerve X
In my clinical work involving clients who typically present with chronic somatic problems, it is truly a joy when markers emerge that reflect, "the means by which" their healing experiences occurred.
Obesity is a Shen Problem
The expressions "obese" and "obesity" are not pejorative terms. They are scientific terms, determined solely by the Body Mass Index scale, which combines a person's height and weight in a mathematical formula. A number of 30 and above denotes "obesity."
The Physiology of Anger
Most of us recognize and have felt anger at some point in our lives. Anger can be seen as a natural response to some kind of pain, whether emotional or physical.
Study: Acupuncture for Acute Low Back Pain More Effective Than Drugs
New research by Korean doctors of Oriental Medicine suggested that an acupuncture method could reduce acute lower back pain faster and more effectively than conventional drug injections.
Using My Massage Therapy Skills to Help Save a Career
I always like to bring you a real case and a real story. I know you, too, will someday probably have that same type of client that needs your help with treatment. This time, I am helping an oral surgeon save his career by saving his hands.
Debunking the Myths and Telling the Truth About Mineral Oil
Mineral oil, for several decades now, has been given an undeserved and totally erroneous reputation concerning its use in formulating many products and as a primary lubricating ingredient in massage lotions and creams.
The Monkey on Your Back
Many practitioners run their clinic without any extra help—at least initially. I've always been pretty good at multi-tasking. Having nine kids taught me how to wear multiple hats and juggle a lot of responsibilities. Running a clinic is similar.
Grant Program Supports Massage Students
Biotone and Biofreeze recently announced the creation of the Helping Hands Gifts for Growth Grant Program to support the massage therapy students in their educational pursuits.
Extraordinary Vessels and Emotional Healing
In addition to the 12 primary Organ-related meridians in the body, there are other energy circulation channels that have been mapped out by Traditional Chinese Medicine. Probably the most significant of these are called the Eight Extraordinary (or Extra) Vessels.
Aging Gracefully: The Timeless Benefits of Massage
Massage therapy as an industry has come a long way since I began my career in the 1980's. Instead of using just the traditional "Swedish" massage, most practitioners now need to learn special techniques to work with different populations such as athletes, infants, pregnant women and seniors.
Dry Needling is Acupuncture: But What of Education? What of Public Safety?
One of my patients told me recently, that their physical therapist used a "dry needle" and that it wasn't acupuncture. Apparently, physical therapists (PT) are taught to tell their patients that "only acupuncturists practice acupuncture."
The Difference Between You and an Expert
Imagine if you had an opportunity to sit in a room for four days with the most successful massage business owners who gave you all their secrets to their business: the steps to take; what tools they used and how they built their successful practices.
It's Time to Start Bursting the Education Bubbles
Changes are upon the education community in the U.S.A. Massage education is no exception. In the mid-1980's, we had relatively few massage schools, best guesses are around 100 total.
The ABC's of Meeting with Physicians, Part 2: The Meeting
You only need one minute to introduce yourself to a doctor and ask for patient referrals. You must function with confidence and surgical precision.
Keeping Up With Western Medicine Advancements: The Amazing World of Imaging Studies
When patients with neuromuscular problems come to you for treatment there is usually a lot you can do for them to improve their mobility or reduce their pain, whether it is a middle age woman with a frozen shoulder.
Beauty is Averageness
After seeing Kim Kardashian's face all over the Internet -and my inbox- following her posting on getting facial acupuncture, I recalled the work of Michael Cunningham who was at the University of Louisville when I was doing my doctoral work.
Ask Yourself: Do You Really Need to Learn Another Modality?

Even though I earn a large part of my income from teaching classes and seminars as a CEU provider, I want to offer a word of caution first before you jump in to signing up to learn another technical modality or take another seminar.


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Dynamic Chiropractic – December 17, 2007, Vol. 25, Issue 26
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Dynamic Chiropractic

The Adjustment Puts Bones out of Place?

By David Seaman, DC, MS, DABCN

It's illogical to make definitive statements about the mechanical and neurobiological effects of spinal adjustments, as we simply do not have adequate evidence to support such a position. The term subluxation typically is characterized as a spinal bone that has moved out of position relative to the adjacent vertebrae.

Patients often will say they feel "out" and need an adjustment to get realigned.

Most patients and docs feel that a successful adjustment is one that is associated with the cracking sound of spinal joint cavitation. While there is no evidence to suggest that an adjustment must be accompanied by a cavitation, we all tend to like it better and feel more confident that a meaningful event occurred when we hear the cavitation.

The cracking sound often is followed with patient/doctor comments about how the vertebra "popped" or "moved" back into place or alignment, or the joint was reset. In short, numerous and various terms are used to describe how misaligned vertebrae are "adjusted back into place."

image If, in fact, the adjustment reset the vertebral position, we should be able to see such a change on X-ray or MRI. Unfortunately, very few attempts have been made to demonstrate this outcome. However, for those who believe that "bones pop back into place," there is strong contrary evidence. In 2003, Dr. Greg Cramer and colleagues published the results of a study that suggested a very different outcome occurs with lumbar spine adjusting.1

Lumbar MRIs were first taken of subjects in a side-posture position to visualize both zygapophyseal joints (Z-joints). Then subjects were given a side-posture adjustment and a second MRI was taken. Figure 1 illustrates the pre- and post-adjustment images in the Z-joints.

Clearly, we can see that the left lumbar Z-joint gapped as a consequence of an adjustive thrust. We are told that the right Z-joint was simultaneously moved into a closed packed position.1 Each change was transient in nature. This biomechanical outcome of spinal adjusting supports Sandoz's hypothesis published back in 1976.2

Based on this image, we clearly can see that adjustments don't put bones back into place. If anything, just the opposite occurs in the short term. In addition to moving vertebrae temporarily out of position, we also know that adjustments improve movement asymmetries3-7 and reduce spinal muscle excitability,8,9 and it's well-established that adjustments reduce pain for many patients, which is why it's recommended in the various guidelines for treating low back pain.

Such outcomes of spinal adjusting should lead us to consider the possible nature of subluxation in a different light than the traditional view that subluxation is a bone out of place, which causes nerve interference. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite.

References

  1. Cramer GD, Gregerson DM, Knudsen JT, et al. The effects of side-posture positioning and spinal adjusting on the lumbar Z joints: a randomized controlled trial with sixty-four subjects. Spine, 2002;27(22):2459-66.
  2. Sandoz R. Some physical mechanisms and effects of spinal adjustments. Ann Swiss Chiropr Assoc, 1976;6:91-141.
  3. Carrick FR. Cervical radiculopathy: the diagnosis and treatment of pathomechanics in the cervical spine. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 1983;6:129-37.
  4. Nansel DD, Cremeta E, Carlson J, Szlazak M. Time course considerations for the effects of unilateral lower cervical adjustments with respect to the amelioration of cervical lateral-flexion passive end-range asymmetry. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 1990;13:297-304.
  5. Nansel D, Jansen R, Cremata E, et al. Effects of cervical adjustments on lateral-flexion passive end-range asymmetry and on blood pressure, heart rate and plasma catecholamine levels. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 1991;14:450-6.
  6. Nansel DD, Peneff A, Quitoriano J. Effectiveness of upper versus lower cervical adjustments with respect to the amelioration of passive rotational versus lateral-flexion end-range asymmetries in otherwise asymptomatic subjects. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 1992;15:99-105.
  7. Nansel DD, Waldorf T, Cooperstein R. Time course effect of cervical spinal adjustments on lumbar paraspinal muscle tone: evidence for facilitation of intersegmental tonic neck reflexes. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 1993;16(2):91-5.
  8. Lehman GJ, McGill SM. The influence of a chiropractic manipulation on lumbar kinematics and electromyography during simple and complex tasks: a case study. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 1999;22:576-81.
  9. Lehman GJ, McGill SM. Spinal manipulation causes variable spine kinematic and trunk muscle electromyographic responses. Clin Biomech, 2001;16:293-9.
Click here for more information about David Seaman, DC, MS, DABCN.

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