Medicine

Movement

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We need to move, we evolved through movement. Its just that with our current life choices, we don’t move enough. We have cars, internet shopping, sofas, take away food. We no longer need to hunt, track, think or work for dinner. Our survival no longer depends on moving.

If you watch a child, they move naturally and gracefully. No one has taught them to keep a straight spine and bend at the knees when lifting, they just do.

And if we look closer at their movement patterns in comparison to ours, we can see that they initiate their movements from the centre, the torso, long before the limbs are used. This is where they know they have power, not in the shoulders, arms or legs but starting, rooted in the core. As adults, we have learned that our arms and legs are strong and neglect the trunk, the point where it is all connected.

A common set of movements, sometimes known as the primal movement patterns are, in developmental order:

Flex
Twist
Push
Pull
Squat
Lunge
Walk
Run
Play

We should become like children again and do these every day. Only then will we start to find out how we are restricted and what we need to change to get the best from our bodies.

Blood pressure and treatment

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An article in New Scientist in November 2010 noted that a group of researchers had successfully managed to lower a group of patients blood pressure by 10mmHg. This is significant because, as they stated, this reduces their risk of stroke and earlier death by approximately 30%.

It seems to work by affecting the nerve supplying the kidneys. Which got me thinking that, if they were able to reduce the pressure via the nerves, surely maximising the health of the nervous system would also have the same effect.

This is not a random and unsubstantiated claim that Osteopathy can do this directly but we do know that treatment affects the nervous system and therefore if we can maximise patient health, then maybe this would have a knock on effect, helping the neural supply to the kidney as well. In fact, whilst at college, I was aware of a fellow student who was measuring the effect of cervical manipulation  on the blood pressure of the patient, but I am unaware of her outcomes.

Of course, the best thing to do would be conduct a nice randomised controlled trial but as with many things osteopathic, this would be difficult to do, if for no other reason than the funding.

However, it is something to bear in mind as we treat.

We should, of course, always bear the patients blood pressure in mind when we are treating, since it is a risk factor in cervical manipulations and, as potential primary care practitioners, we may be the first person the patient has been to see for years.

Out with the syphg and onwards to better health!