All too often we know what it is like to "throw our backs out" or find ourselves with a "flair-up" of that old injury.
Many of us have experienced when we have had to cough, sneeze or bend down to pick up the newspaper and "wham" it hits us "out of the blue.
" Physical Therapists know all-to-often this type of back pain.
We see these patients daily in our practices.
However, are they just "accidents?" More like "accidents-waiting to happen," according to Dr.
Jean-Pierre Barral, a French Osteopath and Physical Therapist.
Dr.
Barral's work has led him to study injury & pain from a much deeper level.
It is his belief that most musculoskeletal injuries are truly the result of often long-held adhesions, and restrictions in the organs and their connective tissues, which create tension & stress and pull the body out of "synch.
" Over years of study, treatment and observation he developed Visceral Manipulation Therapy.
This is based upon the following: Our organs have inherent movement patterns, that is, they are not frozen in space.
Not only do our organs need to be able to glide, slide, rotate or compress when we physically move our bodies but they also need to move on their own when we are still-- or we would be dead.
When one of our organs become either displaced, compressed by its neighbors, by adhesions or scar tissue or have abnormal tone it does not function properly and can create chronic irritation, dysfunction and pain.
Our organs are not just 'floating' in our bodies.
We are interconnected with ligaments and fascia that not only hold our bones & muscles to each other but also to our organ systems.
Our organs are not frozen in space and they need room to move.
They also need stability so they don't just slide all over the place.
There are multiple ligaments that attach from organ to organ and organ to bone.
One example of this is at the right triangular ligament, which attaches from the right 8th rib to the liver.
When there is a disruption, trauma, instability or disease, the liver may become stuck and immobile.
Its inherent movement pattern stops thus pulling on the ligament, the 8th rib and all of its surrounding attachments.
Over time this can lead to changes in the bony alignment, mobility and overall structure & function.
Changes in right shoulder motion, pain or even back pain may occur as a result.
Visceral Manipulation allows these restrictions to become free, returning normal mobility patterns to the involved organ systems thus enhancing fluidchemical shifts needed for healing, improving mobility to a joint(s)and reducing pain.