Manual Medicine
What is CranioSacral Therapy?
The CranioSacral system consists 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.
Since this vital system influences the development and performance of the brain and spinal cord, an imbalance or restriction in it could potentially cause any number of sensory, motor or neurological disabilities. These problems could include chronic pain, eye difficulties scoliosis, motor-coordination impairments, learning disabilities and other health challenges.
Because of its positive effect on so many body functions, CranioSacral Therapy is practiced today by a wide variety of healthcare professionals. They include medical doctors, doctors of Oriental medicine, naturopathic physicians, nurses, psychiatric specialists, psychologists, dentists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, acupuncturists, massage therapists and other professional body workers.
How is CranioSacral Therapy Performed?
The CranioSacral therapy practitioner uses a light touch – generally no more than the weight of a nickel to test for restrictions in the CranioSacral system. This is done by monitoring the rhythm of the cerebrospinal fluid as it flows through the system. While experienced clinicians can detect that motion anywhere on your body, they can most easily feel it at the skull, sacrum and coccyx. These bones attach to the membranes that enclose the cerebrospinal fluid.
The positive effects of CranioSacral therapy rely to a large extent on your body’s natural self-corrective activities. The therapist’s light, hands-on approach simply assists the hydraulic forces inherent in the CranioSacral system to improve your body’s internal environment – and strengthen its ability to heal itself.
What is Regenerative Medicine?
The body comes equipped with natural healing ability. It is possible to boost this ability using regenerative injections, thereby healing joint or spine pain by rebuilding and repairing damaged tissue. Regenerative injections can address damage and micro-tearing of the ligaments or soft tissue in the body, stimulating the body to repair and heal by inducing an inflammatory reaction. In short, regenerative injections enable you to better tap into your body’s natural healing abilities. Examples of regenerative injections include Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Injections.
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy is an injection technique that uses concentrated blood platelets. The localized inflammation causes healing cells to arrive at the injured area and lay down new tissue, creating stronger ligaments and rebuilding soft tissue. As ligaments tighten and soft tissue heals, the structures may return to normal function. When the body functions normally, pain and swelling resolve.
Prolotherapy
Prolotherapy is an injection technique that uses a simple sugar, dextrose, and lidocaine. Prolotherapy removes damaged tissue and replaces it with new, healthy tissue. When Prolotherapy is injected into the joint or tissue, it stimulates the production of leukocytes (an immune cell that absorbs and gets rid of diseased tissue) and macrophages. Macrophages remove debris and damaged tissues in the joint. Prolotherapy brings oxygen to the joint to help provide healing cells energy for repair.
Arthritis is a condition that may be treated with regenerative injections. With arthritis, nature’s way of healing is for chondrocytes (healing and rebuilding cells in a body) to repair damage and build new cartilage. Regenerative therapies can assist in this process and accelerate healing. During this healing, the body produces its own specialized inflammatory process that acts as a protective barrier to protect the new cartilage that is being built. Once the repair is complete, the inflammation resolves.
Do you have joint or spine pain? At Total Integrative Health, Dr Eric Lake can evaluate you to see what treatment is available for you. Let us tap into the healing powers of your own body.