Can you recall a time you experienced a paper cut or were pricked by a thorn? Remember how sensitive your finger was to touch or perhaps to the slightest movement? The pain receptors in the area became easily stimulated, even with slight pressure. Yet, in a few days, the sensitivity decreased.

With chronic pain, the sensitivity does not decrease. Entire areas of the body might stay in a state of overwhelming sensitivity and pain. Nervous system tissue reacting in this way is referred to as being “facilitated,” which means the pain cells and pain pathways are overly reactive. Excessively reactive pain cells will tend to lose their ability to modulate input. It’s as though a magnifying glass is amplifying a vast and abnormal amount of sensory information into the area. This can then cause abnormal changes in the structure and function of the tissue innervated by the area of the affected spinal cord neurons, thus maintaining the sensation of chronic pain.

The facilitated sensory input might even cascade into other regions of the spinal cord and brain. The overflow of signals can irritate brain regions, leading to the ongoing perception of pain and the symptoms that often accompany chronic pain. Disturbance of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system (sympathetics) often will lead to widespread bodily dysfunction. The sympathetic turmoil also contributes to chronic pain. “The sympathetics control the caliber of most of the vessels of the body. When the sympathetics are hyperirritable in a given area, in a given segment or in a peripheral distribution, there is a tendency for either exaggerated vasoconstriction or vasodilation. This contributes to chaos and the perpetuation of pathology. When you control the blood supply to a given area, you control its life; you control its capacity for recovery, its capacity to survive and maintain its integrity as a tissue.”⁷

The vascular stress caused by sympathetic nervous system imbalance can lead to more tissue aggravation and pain signaling. Also, “the sympathetic nervous system is an important participant in the maintenance of splinting.”⁸ Splinting is one way the body tries to avoid feeling pain – by rigidly contracting the muscles so minimal movement will occur. In these many ways, the unbridled responsive region(s) of the central and autonomic nervous systems might maintain the feeling of pain. This process also can produce a vast adverse affect on tissues such as nervous system cells, vascular structures, skeletal muscles, smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, glands, connective tissue, fascia, osseous tissue, skin and viscera.

What does all this mean to the bodywork practitioner? Simply put, normal tissue mobility is essential for this healing process, which is critical in addressing chronic pain. Enhanced mobility can help normalize vascular flow, decrease metabolic waste buildup, aid normal neural structure and function, de-facilitate affected spinal cord and brain areas, decrease adaptive body patterns that might be maintaining chronic-pain signals, and normalize autonomic nervous system function, thus decreasing abnormal strain on the associated somatic and visceral structures.

All this can help the body decrease the enormous strain chronic pain places on it, and help free the body from related suffering. In this highly individualized way, CranioSacral therapy might enhance the body’s ability to naturally correct the imbalance and dysfunction that might be contributing to painful patterns. CranioSacral therapy can assist the body in changing abnormal tissue-strain patterns residing in the depths of the brain and spinal cord, throughout the musculoskeletal system, and in the body as a whole. CST also can be used in combination with massage and other manual therapies as an effective treatment for chronic pain conditions.

References (for parts 1 and 2)

1. Sternberg, S. “Chronic Pain: The Enemy Within.” USA Today, May 9, 2005.
2. Purves, D., et al. Neuroscience. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland Massachusetts, 2001.
3. Lidbeck, J. “Central Hyperexcitability in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Conceptual Breakthrough with Multiple Clinical Implications,” Pain Management Clinic, Helsingborg, Sweden, Winter 2002.
4. Torsney, C., and MacDermott, A.B. “A Painful Factor.” Nature, Vol. 438, December 2005.
5. McCleskey, E.W. “New Player in Pain.” Nature, Vol. 424, August 2003.
6. Upledger, J.E. “The Facilitated Segment.” Massage Therapy Journal, Summer 1989.
7. Peterson, B. “The Collected Papers of Irvin M. Korr.” American Academy of Osteopathy, 1995.
8. Peterson, B. “The Collected Papers of Irvin M. Korr.” American Academy of Osteopathy, 1995.

---

 

 

Tad Wanveer, LMT, CST-D, is a certified instructor for The Upledger Institute, where he was a staff clinician for more than five years. He earned his diploma in massage therapy in 1987 from the Swedish Institute of Massage and Allied Health Sciences in New York City. He currently runs a private practice in North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham area specializing in CranioSacral Therapy.

 

Source: http://www.massagetoday.com/

 

Craniosacral Therapy has proven to be a powerful complement to massage therapy in addressing chronic pain.

While massage can effectively address abnormal somatic patterns through the musculoskeletal system, CST approaches somatic disturbances through the craniosacral, fascial and central nervous systems.

Chronic pain can range from mild tissue irritation to intense suffering and disability affecting an individual’s entire body, psyche and life. What’s more, the perception of pain often persists long after the injured tissue has healed. This can cause compensatory patterns that continue to maintain the sensation of pain, eventually leading to abnormal somatic and visceral changes that frequently mask the primary cause of the chronic pain. “Nineteen percent of American adults, almost one in five, suffer from chronic pain.”¹

CranioSacral Therapy can be used to identify and help the body change core patterns contributing to chronic pain. It also effectively addresses its associated symptoms, such as musculoskeletal imbalance, trigger points, myofascial dysfunction, chronic fatigue, immune system dysfunction, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, endocrine system dysfunction, stress, anxiety, hypothalamic dysfunction and sleep difficulties.

Figure 1:

Irritation and abnormal activity of pain-processing elements and circuits throughout the body and nervous system contribute to chronic pain.Chronic pain has a multitude of causes, including congenital disorders, spinal disorders, musculoskeletal imbalance, compensatory patterns, surgery, scar tissue, disease processes, trauma, infection, overuse, disuse and misuse. “The common denominator of conditions that cause chronic pain is irritation of the nociceptive (pain cell) endings, axons, or processing circuits causing abnormal activity that is interpreted as pain.”²

Recent research points to central nervous system adaptation as a common contributor to chronic pain. “Many chronic musculoskeletal pain syndromes – including regional myofascial pain syndromes, whiplash pain syndromes, refractory work-related neck/shoulder pain, certain types of chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia and others – essentially might be explained by abnormalities in central pain modulation.”³

Body tissue often responds to pain through habitual muscle tension, postural distortion, diminished tissue mobility, thickening and congestion of the fascia, decreased blood flow to painful areas, a build-up of metabolic waste products, adverse strain on the peripheral, central and autonomic nervous system tissues, and an overall sense of fatigue.

Persistent peripheral nerve strain due to muscular imbalance, tension, injury or infection might lead to a flood of chronic activity and excessive sensitivity of local nociceptors. This can cause a continual bombardment of signals into the central nervous system. It’s as though there is a constant roar of pain information focused on the brain and spinal cord.

Figure 2:

Body Response to Chronic Pain.The central nervous system tissue might respond by undergoing any number of adaptive changes. Thickening and inflammation of the membrane layers surrounding the spinal cord and brain might occur, leading to irritation and lack of normal motion of central nervous system tissue, imbalance and restricted mobility of the spinal column, or adverse strain on the peripheral nervous system.

Spinal cord neurons receiving chronic pain signals from the periphery also can undergo long-term change due to the activation of microglial cells (central nervous system immune cells), because abnormally increased sensitivity (sensitization) of the nerve cells might occur. This can maintain a state of overwhelming activity of the pain pathways, thus causing constant pain sensation.

Normally, there is a balance of inhibitory and excitatory stimulation where the pain cell synapses (communicates) with the spinal cord neuron. However, decrease of inhibition at the synapse might occur. When this takes place, the neuron will tend to stay in a state of stimulation. This is another cause of excessive sensitivity and activity of pain pathway and chronic pain sensation.⁴

The spinal cord neurons and glial cells normally produce neurotrophic (vitalizing) elements that are transported to the innervated tissue. A distortion in this supply might occur, leading to tissue devitalization and irritation.⁵ This can lead to a further decrease of normal tissue mobility, which can increase irritation and chronic-pain signals. The nociceptor cells also produce elements secreted by the nerve cell endings (terminal ends) when they’re stimulated. These elements create inflammation and heightened sensation of the endings which, in turn, cause the terminal ends to overreact to stimulus and increase the area they receive stimulus from.

This might further create abnormal activity of the pain pathway, which can cause a loop of pain signal dysfunction from the periphery throughout the spinal cord, the autonomic nervous system and the brain. “A very small stimulus which might otherwise be censored out may cause an inappropriately large and indiscriminately wide-ranged neuronal response.”⁶

 

 

Tad Wanveer, LMT, CST-D, is a certified instructor for The Upledger Institute, where he was a staff clinician for more than five years. He earned his diploma in massage therapy in 1987 from the Swedish Institute of Massage and Allied Health Sciences in New York City. He currently runs a private practice in North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham area specializing in CranioSacral Therapy.

 

 

Source: http://www.massagetoday.com/

After last weekend’s intro Craniosacral course success there is already a new date at Morley College. Here are some pictures of the last weekend. It was magical!

 

 

 

 

 

28 Nov 2015 – 29 Nov 2015

DAYS:

Saturday Sunday

TIMES:

10:00 – 15:00

DURATION:

1 Weekend

TUTOR:

Alfredo Hunter

COURSE CODE:

HPD036A

LOCATION:

Westminster Bridge Road

FULL FEE:

£100

CONCESSION:

£80

SENIOR FEE:

£90

AVAILABILITY:

Yes