Osteopathic Medicine and Rolfing® SI

Doctors of Osteopathy (D.O.'s) in the U.S. are medical doctors with additional expertise in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM). You may be wondering what a D.O. can do, so I'll highlight a few key points:

•  D.O.'s focus on treating the whole body and on preventive care. This means a D.O. looks beyond symptoms and seeks the root causes of illness or disease. In addition to the regular treatment you may find with a typical M.D., a D.O. seeks to enhance overall health to support healing.

•  D.O.'s use OMM--a hands-on treatment--to support the goals of better health and faster healing. It feels very gentle and is done while the patient is fully clothed. OMM is mainly concerned with improving fluid flow: blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid. These fluids must be able to flow freely through your body or disease, injury, and illness result.

 



*Note: traditional medicine may not detect problems with your body's circulation of fluids until an obvious symptom arises (like a sickness). The most efficient way to detect those issues is with touch. Just good old-fashioned hands-on palpation. D.O.'s are trained in this touch.

•  Rolfing® SI dovetails wonderfully with OMM in that structural alignment--the main goal of Rolfing SI--helps to support and maintain good fluid flow. The human body, among other things, is a series of fluid pumps separated by pressure membranes. In an organized body, walking and breathing generate the mechanical pressure needed to pumps fluids efficiently into and out of all of its tissues. 

If your ankles have ever swollen during a long plane ride, you have experienced the consequence of a fluid imbalance. The remedy? Walking. The muscle contractions in your legs pump the lymph fluid out.

 Side-effects of an organized body are ease of movement, a feeling of lightness, and a sense of groundedness at the same time. Since our minds and bodies are inextricably linked, feeling good in your body has profound effects emotionally and psychologically. Dr. Ida Rolf, the progenitor of Rolfing Structural Integration, stated as her goal for the work the full realization of human potential.

Nerves and Rolfing

I've just finished a four-day workshop on Nerve Manipulation. As usual, workshops taught by Rolfers™ open my eyes to whole dimensions that were right before me all the time, but somehow eluded detection.

I'd like to formally issue a Recall Notice to any and all clients that I have ever treated for hip pain, low back pain, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, numbness or tingling anywhere, sciatica, neck pain, and etc (there's more, but I'll stop there) because there was probably nerve impingement involved and I now have mo' better tools in my kit.

I'm only partially kidding, by the way.

An excellent news piece on Rolfing!

Find balance and better health through rolfing - AmericaNowNews.com

Leon Fleischer and Rolfing

 One of my childhood friends took lessons from Leon Fleischer. His experience with Rolfing®SI mirrors those of many who find their way to my office--filling in the gaps of traditional medicine. Enjoy!

Watch Piano Virtuoso Fleisher on Overcoming Disability That Nearly Silenced Career on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Many of my clients come to me for some kind of painful condition. Often, we are able to find greater range of motion with less pain as a result of treatment. While this is a very good thing, we must remember that if our body is used to operating within certain parameters (like a sore back or twisted toe) for say, some number of years, you will need a period of adjustment before jumping back into normal activity.

 For example, two weeks ago I was preparing for a solo backpacking trip into the High Sierra. Recalling past experiences of painful bunions while carrying a pack, I booked a couple of appointments with my Rolfer™ to help my feet get ready for the trip.

Sure enough, during those sessions we found that the bones of my midfoot were jammed and the tendons correspondingly displaced, predisposing my feet to that painful process of bone formation that we call a bunion. My Rolfer eased the bones back into place and relocated the tendons, so that immediately upon standing up my feet felt like leaf springs instead of stumps. My feet also pointed forward, rather than splaying outward as they had done since childhood.

I bounced out of the office and shortly thereafter, hefted a fifty-pound pack up and down the passes of the High Sierra for dozens of rocky miles. I also developed a mild case of Achilles tendonitis in my left foot, a condition I had never experienced before in decades of backcountry travel.

Why now?

As I gimped morosely along the dusty trail leading back to the trailhead, I had plenty of time to ponder the pain now stabbing the back of my heel with every step.

In the high elevations of the Sierra are krummholz: sub-alpine pine trees that grow close to the ground. These trees are recognizable by their tortured and twisted countenances, their trunks leaning with the prevailing winds and the winter snowpack. They are perfectly adapted to their environment.

In a way, my feet were the same: the tendons and muscles, including the big Achilles attaching to the back of the heel, had adapted to the rotations and relatively limited mobility in their boney structure. After half of a lifetime, those soft tissue structures were quite happy and capable of doing their jobs within that context. I probably would never have noticed any limitations or wanted to correct them but for the unfortunate presence of those darn bunions. In the span of a week, my feet were Rolfed into achieving significantly more mobility, and then forced to carry loads much greater than my body weight without any pre-conditioning.

It would be like uprooting krummholz from its craggy granite perch and stuffing it feet first into a coastal redwood forest. It’s hard to undo millions of years of evolution that quickly. Of course, the tree will die.

Luckily, instead of dying, my foot simply developed an overuse injury. Also, luckily, that overuse injury has largely healed itself within a few days of easy walking around (and without a pack.)

 If you are an athlete, whether recreational or otherwise, make sure to ease back into your normal activities slowly after receiving treatment, even and especially if you feel better than ever before. The payoff will be many years of enhanced functionality and performance, without the risk of unanticipated injury.

Are you ready to Go Barefoot? Part II

Here's an excellent video showing some simple tests to evaluate your foot strength. It also shows exercises to increase the coordination and strength in your feet, so that you prepare yourself to make the leap.

Are you ready to Go Barefoot? Part I

Ok, so you read the book Born to Run and you are inspired to take your running to the next step, figuratively and literally. Do you just chuck your $125 shoes with the pronation control and inches of padding out the window and hit the pavement (or the beach, or the trails) sans shoes?

Definitely not! After a lifetime of a cozy, cushioned existence, your cossetted feet are mostly likely not ready for the demands of barefoot running. In fact, chances are high that you will hurt yourself if you try.

I was delighted to hear this very topic covered on NPR's Fresh Air. Give it a listen, and read the book if you're so inclined. Enjoy!

Click on this link: NPR's Happy Feet

And check out my next post for an informative video on how to assess your readiness to run barefoot, and if you're not, how to prepare yourself to minimize injuries before you try.