Recently a new patient came to me with
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), which had been diagnosed four years
earlier. His neurologist put him on several medications to control
the symptoms and make sleep possible. However, the RLS was still
keeping the patient awake and the condition was spreading to his
arms.
My patient just had his annual check-up. Upon hearing that the
medications weren’t working and were in fact causing mental
fuzziness and other unwanted side-effects, his neurologist said that
1) he didn’t know what was causing the RLS other than something in
his neck or brain; 2) there was no cure; 3) he would have RLS for
the rest of his life; and 4) he should get used to it.
Typically, after ten hours without medication the initial symptoms
of agitation would begin and would escalate into a horrific headache
shortly after the twelfth hour. The patient arrived on the tenth
hour and his lack of medication symptoms were beginning to assert
themselves. In the next hour, as we found and released a number of
vascular and peripheral nerve restrictions in the neck and several
major restrictions in the occipital lobe and cerebellum, his
symptoms decreased.
He left the session feeling chipper. The next morning my patient
called to report that in spite of having skipped his medication and
in spite of having both coffee and chocolate after our treatment,
he’d slept well and had no RLS symptoms.
When one approaches the body mechanically and frees up mechanical
restrictions in the tissues, promising outcomes like this are not
atypical. With manual therapy — regardless of whether the
restriction resulted from physical, thermal, chemical, or emotional
trauma — chances for success are always good, regardless of the
medical diagnosis and the symptom’s severity and longevity.
Frequently when in the course of our work my patients find emotions,
issues, beliefs, or attitudes parked in the tissues, they object at
first, saying, “But I already worked through that and let go of it
years ago!” They are usually right — in the sense that they cleaned
out their mental attics, that they let go in their heads. I always
say “Good. But the content is not in your head. It’s in the tissues,
right here under my hands, and that’s where you need to let go of
it. Since you’ve already done the mental/cerebral part, getting the
content out of the tissues should be a breeze!” It usually is.
For example, another new patient and I recently discovered that the
flow of blood through his right carotid artery was inadequate. When
the restriction hadn’t yielded to gentle manipulation, I asked his
body if there was an emotion, issue, or belief involved.
Immediately, his body said, “Yes.” “How long has it been there?” I
asked. “23 years”’ was the reply. I said, “Ask your body to show you
something from 23 years ago that resulted in a restriction in your
right carotid artery.” “Oh,” he said, “When I was 16, I was walking
with a friend. Engrossed in conversation. Not paying enough
attention. Came around the back of a dumpster. You know that thing
that sticks out from the corner that the truck hooks onto to lift up
the dumpster? I ran right into it. Caught me on the side of the neck
and head. Hurt like the dickens, but I felt so klutzy, I didn’t say
anything. Didn’t complain. Didn’t cry. It really hurt.” ” What was
the emotion or belief? “ I asked. “Embarrassment!” Would it be okay
to let that out of your neck today?” I asked.” “Would it ever!”
Before I was able to even say “Go ahead,” we both felt the blood
surging through the artery, as it hadn’t in a long, long time —
probably 23 years. In addition to improving the blood and CSF supply
to the structures that orchestrate coordination, there are the
preventive advantages of releasing the self-fulfilling belief that
one is klutzy.
It’s no coincidence that my two examples involve inadequate blood
supply to the brain. In the past year, virtually every new patient
arrived with this problem. (Apologies to readers who have heard this
from me before, but it bears repeating for several reasons.) First
and foremost, delivering arterial blood to the brain is the single
most important job in the body. Arterial blood carries oxygen,
nutrients, immune cells, and neurotransmitters — all of which are
critical to the operation, maintenance, repair, and upgrade of the
brain and central nervous system. When there is such a shortfall to
the brain, the body will short all other organs in an attempt to
minimize the brain’s shortfall. This has deleterious consequences
for every cell in the rest of the body.
Secondly, arterial blood is the raw material from which
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is distilled at the blood-brain barrier.
Absent sufficient arterial blood, CSF volumes will be inadequate,
producing symptoms both within and without the central nervous
system (CNS). For starters, CSF floats, cushions, nourishes, fuels,
bathes, detoxifies, and delivers neurotransmitters and immune cells
to the CNS and its components. The brain is soft and weak and — like
a whale — cannot survive long on dry land. If your brain isn’t fully
and continuously afloat in a virtual sea of CSF, CNS structures like
the pituitary, hypothalamus, cerebral cortex, and cerebellum will
perform inadequately and you will experience symptoms within the
head and elsewhere in the body — though you and your physician may
never discover the cause.
Whether you want to overcome chronic health or adjustive challenges,
you should consider CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation.
These extremely gentle therapies are ideal for freeing up the
mechanical restrictions and buried issues, beliefs, and emotions
that prevent you from attaining your life and health goals.
Mike Macy, CST, frees the
body’s most critical systems from mechanical restrictions at Healing
Journeys, his new clinic in Spenard. Contact him at (907) 272-HEAL
(4325) or at
mmacy@acsalaska.net
