Aloha Dr. Siff, and Biomechanists
Would you allow me to intersperse some dialogue between your paragraphs?
Please scroll down. Thank you.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mcsiff@aol.com
To: nvb@hawaiian.net ; BIOMCH-L@NIC.SURFNET.NL
Date: Monday, October 26, 1998 1:00 PM
Subject: SPINAL MANIPULATION
>Replies to the issue of spinal manipulation
***************
Spinal manipulation is an elementary method of spinal Tx not having advanced
really since the pharaohs...sorry to beat that rug again. To anyone with
first year musculo skeletal anatomy behind them I would venture to say that
with about 1 month of intensive training, you with some practical experience
could be an expert in manipulation. Getting great symptomatic relief for
the many spinal aches and pains and occasionally you might get the square
peg in the square hole and "relieve" some headaches. This may account for
the majority of chiropractors
The purpose of the thread I started was to separate right out of the
starting blocks the difference between manipulation and an adjustment. If
one cannot separate the wheat from the chaff from my explain of same
then...well end of conversation.
The transition in ones mind of relating to the difference between manip and
adjust is the difference between crawling and standing up and walking...a
great advance in human locomotion, of course; the upC (and even the lowback
and pelvic) adjustment a great advance in restoration in human function via
restoration of neurological integrity.
Crossing the bridge to a new paradigm in thinking regarding the neuro-spinal
adjustment is tantamount to the first 2 steps in walking. Well you may not
remember that...but how about the first time you went from drowning to
swimming...albeit you may have been a "dog paddler" at first and later
developed the "crawl"...but there was a great mental/physical coordination
shift that took place in your mind. The moment it happened there was a
recognition of shift of capability not there before where there was only
some apprehension of the unknown. Bike riding, surfing, skiing... what else
takes a great leap (and courage) of mind/body control to advance. Where one
moment youy are helpless and the next your mind has opened into a whole new
experience.
Getting off this ancient remedial manipulation stuff is paramount to advance
into the next millenium. A neuro-spinal adjustment is not a musculoskeletal
manipulation in spite of the similarity of positioning and sometimes sounds
emitted.
**************
imply that balance and symmetry of
>structure and function of the human spine are as precise as that of a high
>speed mechanical engine in which even minor deviations from engineering
>specifications can have serious consequences.
******************
Yes, Dr. Siff, you are right, the precision and fine tuning is there. But we
do not see it below C2 as we see it above in the complexity of what by some
is referred to as the Atlas Complex (C0, C1, and C2). And yes we would agree
also to the inherent human frame tolerances that allows some displacement
latittude w/out neuro-aberration.
But when a child under 2 years of age has 3 degrees of lateral displacement
between C0 and C1; and that displacement is reduced to 1 degree with a
pre-measured precision neuro-spinal adjustment (this remaining 1 degree of
placement would indicate in this individual that there is tolerance that you
rightfully insist is there due to the results I am leading up to sharing
with you...[and I don't mean to imply by this singular measurement that it
is this simple; displacement measurement includes many vectors and
magnitudes to be calculated into the formula for the reduction pathway
vector of the adjustment]) ...and consider that that adjustment holds its
replaced position for 6 months and you bi-weekly check the child for loss of
the alignment; and in an optimal situation, the neuro-spinal adjustment
holds for those six months...and then the parents report to you that the
child's usual and frequent epileptic seizures terminated right after that
neuro-spinal adjustment without the use of dilantin and phenobarbitol (or
whatever is the medical Tx of choice).
And years later when casually meeting the parents and they tell you that to
date the child suffered no more seizures to the amazement of themselves and
their pediatrician...would you call this psychosomatic...or parental
psychosomatic transpositioning?...could this just quite cause you to wonder
how this happened? Would you expect this from double (left/right) neck snap
manipulation? Could this have occurred by reducing the irritating 2 degrees
of displacement, while the nervous system tolerated the 1 degree of the non
zero degrees placement.
And if this approach or method of neuro-spinal alignment by precision
adjustment was repeatable with many heretofore thought to be medical
conditions in infants, children, and adults with conditions ranging from,
including, but not limited to allergy, asthma, diabetes, CA, migraine,
dysmenorrhea, bladder infection, carpal tunnel syndrome, blood pressure,and
the myriad of physical pains, mental stress, etc., ad nauseum...wouldn't
that arouse your interest...especially if the practicing neuro-spinal
alignor got these results w/out asking the patient what their condition was
or what their symptoms were?
Now hold on here, we are not speaking about every condition every patient.
An obese pork eating beer guzzling chicharone grinding hypertensive is not
going to see neuro-spinal correction result in decreased blood pressure
anytime soon.
But there are so many human ailments that stem from neuro-aberration that
while the Dx-ing community is trying to come up with a Dx name and course of
Tx on a single individual...a non-Dx-ing, non-Tx-ing neuro-spinal alignment
adjuster may have corrected 10 people w/out drugs or surgery...the likes of
which the latter usually have medical side effects that are not always fun.
The paradigm shift is to look at health or really the absence of it not
through its mal-effects or its symptoms, conditions, Dx's...but to look at
health via what maintains, coordinates and controls it...health...try the
brain stem which is housed and protected by C0, the occiput, and it is
believed by some investigators to anatomically sit inferiorly into the
superior half of C1.
In other words, what if a health practitioner could spend his day in the
21st Century never Dx-ing any condition but instead analyzing the
displacements of the biomechanics of the spine. Biomechanics...that's you
guys...that's why we are writing to you. We are inviting you to add your
Biomechanics knowledge to our practical application. Oh we have some already
awesome understanding of these essential biomechanics stemming back 50 years
to our early engineers.
We are more the workers out on the street getting the job done. We see you
as the R&D guys in those labs potentially figuring out new breakthroughs in
this work because it is biomechanics first and neurological second.
Not all of you will be able to relate or get involved for many reasons not
worth mentioning...but for some of you, you will see that figuring out some
ankle or hip joint wonderful thing, pales in its comparison to correcting
aberration to the brain stem caused by correctable faulty biomechanics in
the upC neuro-spine. Who hasn't said that the first job of the spine is too
house and to protect the nervous system.
We are inviting some of you to participate in advancing what may become in
the next millenium the venue of choice for restoration and maintenance of
health. No, we are not asking you to come over to our house...you can stay
at home in your own comfort and with your own friends. We are saying there
is kind of a block party going on..you can enjoy it at your place.
But just don't all of you miss out on the fun. It's the biomechanics of the
upC spine. Some of you in the deep recesses of your mind hold answers for
the future, these answers will come clear when your already engrams and
synapses receive new ideas that will shake the tree and produce the fruit of
scientific evolution.
*****************
This is true to some degree in the upper cervical spine
>
>Living organisms generally have reasonably generous 'safety factors'
hardwired
>into them to facilitate survival and adaptation as self-regulating and
self-
>repairing systems. If tolerances were to such a high degree of precision,
this
>would not augur well for the persistence of life under such a wide range of
>environmental and operating conditions.
*****************
Point well made for our understanding of life...why if there is so much
tolerance do some in the species live to 120 years of age w/out modern
medicine and so many not get past 40 with modern medicine. The fact is
tolerance is the issue, and while there is some there is not all that much.
If there was why would (now beat me with a stick if I speak a little
inaccurate...but I have read some stats) there be reports that 80,000
Americans' lives are lost to the correct prescription and the right dosage?
Clearly they did not fit the tolerance expectation of the medical model. And
then what about the other maybe few hundred K that succumb to the wrong
prescription or wrong dosage... per year?
In the Great Society there is room for improvement...you can continue to be
part of it continuing to do it as you are doing it; but you can also do it
doing it from the other end of the microscope. Don't look at health from the
viewpoint of where it went...downhill into Dx-able sypmtoms and
conditions...but look to where health comes from, from the inside
perspective (oh, don't forget about the outside sun, water, air, rest,
exercise, and live nutritious foods, along with tolerable stress); what is
it that is the primary source of the continuum and perpetuity of human
function...can we say besides the phenomena of life that the Central Nervous
System plays a part? Well the houser and the protector of the CNS can also
aberrate it if Biomechanically rendered unsound, off the vertical axis,
displaced into the Cartesian X, Y, and Z axis we are talking the spine and
specifically the upC part..
You see if restoring proper Biomechanics restores health in such far
reaching ways...then why not use Biomechanics restoration to maintain
health. This may be truly one apprach to preventive health care that is
raved about but is semantically used to lure in the Dx-able condition that
if it is Dx-able is not prevented but is already there.
**************************************
>Homeostasis is far more dynamically 'fuzzy' than statistically
determinate,
>as is implied by current theories of 'imbalances' being major causative
>factors in pain, disability and disorder. If such precise calipers,
>goniometers etc are used to identify and measure deviations of posture or
>alignment, it would be interesting to ask which norms and tolerances need
to
>be adhered to and to what extent individual structural idiosyncracies are
>accepted.
**************************
Great question if I may accept it as such. What are the parameters of norm
and what are the findings of abnormal or unsound biomechanics of the spine?
Methods like Grostic, Atlas Orthogonal, Orthospinology, and others describe
this, some better than the other, and others as well.
I personally feel that the advancements so far in this understanding are
awesome...but tomorrow and in the next millenium they will be remedial. If
Biomechanists share their wealth of knowledge, know how, and facilities the
future will alter course away from after the fact Tx's, no matter how
fantastic surgery and petrochemicals can be.
Why have wonderful Tx when you can maintain normalcy. In which direction do
the Biomechanists want to go? I read on this list much to do about that
which leads to surgical repairs and studies of extremities...all good
stuff...but what if you guys started advancing perpetuation of
neuro-integrity from proximal to distal.
Deductively, clinical individual practices point to that there is neuro
aberration in the presence of spinal biomechanical displacement. And what is
more important?..the cauda equina of the lowback/pelvis... or the brainstem
and superior cord of the upC spine.
Oh and one lister here sort of trashed what he referred to as
pseudoscientific jargon...hey, hello, this world is brand new every day if
you look at it with optimism, a new world, new jargon. If new jargon does
not fit your old jargon, maybe yours is going the wayside...look around is
email pseudo because it is not U.S. mail? I say out with the old and in
with the new...don't be left behind; the new world is here to enjoy.
***********************************
For instance, is sagittal linearity of the spine a sine qua non of
>healthy human function.
>*************************
Dam if I know...I don't speak Latin. But if you asking if a sagittal view of
the cervical spine in the erect position has a military or zero curve, or
worse, has an "S" appearance...could that impact on brain stem and cord
tractioning...yes, could be...and the sequalae are all those MVA (motor
vehicle accident chronic complaints) especially when it so often follows
whiplash (CAD) trauma.
*************************************************
>The entire issue of imbalances, subluxations and other concepts of
deviations
>for generalised norms and a fairly deterministic relationship between
>structural and functional mechanisms seems to be central to physical
therapies
>such as chiropractic. What about the possibility that conditioning by
>repeated exposure to 'reasonable' stresses or intentional physical training
>increases the magnitude of the inherent safety factors of the human body,
as
>seems to be implied by the continual increases in human sporting
performance?
****************************
I must `100% agree with you...that which counters external biomechanical
displacing forces found in the "misdemeanors of daily living" are the
supportive soft tissues of the body...and these are controlled by the
nervous system, particularly the brain stem and some cord reflexes in the
grey matter I have been told.
Thus a better conditioned body does better than a slovenly one when it comes
to resistance against extrinsic forces to the body.
*********
>
>Is one justified in assuming that the safety factors of the human body are
>statically invariant and of such a small magnitude that even minor
deviations
>from hypothetical norms may precipitate serious pain and dysfunction, not
only
>in the architecture of the body, but also in remote physiologically
functions?
********************************
If you are saying that if there are biomechanically measureable
displacements of upC osseous segments with magnitudes of vectors significant
to aberrate neural tissue...then we agree that there can be remote
malfunctions correctable by reversal of those biomechanical displacements as
thousands of practitioners deductively observe on a daily basis. But you
must view this from the next paradigm as discussed above...if you are
looking at this from the old medical paradigm...then, you cannot get here
from there.
I guess it boils down as to what fires the desire in your career...if it is
ankles and hips...that is tremendous. If it is brain stems and
biomechanics...well there is another adjetive to describe that. Do what you
want...we take no prisoners.
We would expect many naysayers...the chiros themselves have too many
themselves. There are those who do not know the difference between a
manipulation and an adjustment; deny the existence of biomechanically
disrupted osseous tissue except in the presence of dislocation like
paralysis from cord insult.
I hope my dialogue is not of an against you nature; it is intended to
embrace you.
We are all into this for the same reason, service to others. If all of us
look at ourselves and recognize that we are at least reasonably intelligent
people...why would your people be the only correct ones...and us not?
One Biomechanist state he did some spinal surgery or cadaver work, I cannot
remember...then listed several pathologies rarely seen in a day to day
practice...he held himself up as an expert on this thread re:
adjustments...may I hide my disbelief in this self esteem...when I know some
who have singularly performed millions of spinal manipulations and
adjustments, have seen human restoration of health day after day for 40
years and still do not hold themself out as expert, still wanting to learn,
yet they help an incredible array of conditions w/out Dx or Tx or speaking
to the patient regarding same. Something is going on here and it is not
faith healing.
It is biomechanics and you are qualified to get involved. We are not saying
we know it all, we are saying we all could know more with your help.
Thank you,
Trennoche
>Dr Mel C Siff
>Littleton, Colorado, USA
>mcsiff@aol.com
>
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