Carol B....

Many thanks for posting such an informative and potentially valuable message.
After initially reading your post, I sat here thinking about the number of
things you mentioned, and one thing really struck a chord with me - your
comment about "telneting to a local college library and doing a search, and
you'll be surprised about how much you'll find about something you didn't know
existed."

This particular message and it's topic are a prime example of that.  I've just
spent an hour of wandering around the Net, following the trail you started in
bring up the subject of Craniosacral therapy.  One thing lead to another, and
darned if I haven't ended up reading AND learning about all kinds of related
topics - most of which I'd never even heard of till the original topic was
brought up by you.  It was all pretty darn interesting and some of it might
actually benefit me.

There's more benefits to a person with PD in this type of exploration than is
immediately apparent, I believe.  Many of us tend to either let other List
members or our physicians and families do the research on what is going on in
our own body.  After all, it's the easiest way to find out about something,
and when one's chronically fatigued, the "easy way," is often the route we go
(MEA CULPA!) <smile>.

By taking the "easy route," we PWP's are involved in a passive way, and my
feeling is that this isn't at all good for us.  I KNOW it's not good for ME!!
It's just
to easy to slip from passivity to apathy, and from apathy to depression.

So Carol... thanks for reminding me.... us.... of the challenge and excitement
of mental exploration, and the fact that not only is it easy for us to do, but
we'll also benefit in more ways than the obvious in taking that route.

Barb Mallut
[log in to unmask]



























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From:   Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of Carol L. Brow
Sent:   Friday, April 04, 1997 6:49 PM
To:     Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject:        Craniosacral therapy (tinnitis)

Tinnitus, PD, Depression and more

Both Mary Rack and Jao Pault Carvalho have asked
"What is Craniosacral Therapy?"

I don't blame them for not knowing what it is.
Until we called upon a Physical Therapist to
help mother with a compressed vertebrae that
needed a TEN's unit to stop extreme pain radiating
down her left leg, I had no knowledge of it either.

On that occasion I mentioned to the therapist that
mother had her nights and days mixed up.
She slept most of the day and was awake
most of the night,  getting up to use the bath-
room every 15 or 20 minutes and was getting
more and more confused. She asked if I minded
if she checked mother's  cranial rhythm. I said,
"Sure." trusting her but not having a clue what she
would do. She placed her hands along the sides
of mother's head from behind and concentrated
intensively. She was counting the number of times
mother's head expanded and  contracted in  one
minute. When she was through she explained
that a normal cranial pulse is about 12 beats
a minute. Mother's was three and very weak.
She went on the say that it was no wonder
she was confused. A person in a coma might
have a rhythm of 6!

I have since learned more about the Cranial
System of which the cranial pulse is just
one part. According to Dr. John Upledger
of the Unity Center for Health, Education,
and Research in West Palm Beach, FL,
there is a unity within the body or an
interconnection stemming from the fact that
the cranial bones are NOT fuzed but do
move apart and back together and that
there is a dynamic activity involving skull
bones, meningeal membranes, cerebrospinal
fluid, the intracranial vascular system, the
development of the brain, the movement of body
fluids, the tonicity of muscles and the function
of total body connective tissues.

As I understand it,  the cranial pulse or rhythm
is caused by the brain producing cerebrospinal
fluid which pushes out the cranial bones until
they can no longer expand. This shuts down
the mechanism producing the fluid. The fluid
drains down the spinal cavity and is absorbed
by the body. The cranial bones contract causing
the brain to begin producing fluid again. This
rhythmic rise and fall of fluid pressure is within
a semi-closed hydraulic system. This
expansion and contraction goes on 12 or 13
times a minute in a "normal" person.

This rhythm is transferred to the entire body through
the body's muscle facia (surface tissue) and connective
tissue.

Many things can affect the smooth transfer of energy
throughout this system. An injury like a sprain, surgery,
the trauma of the birth process is probably the first to affect us,
stress or nervous tension (you know how muscles tense when
you're nervous or afraid) Muscles that we think have stopped
contracting or guarding after an injury do not always do so
completely and can result in various forms of discomfort.

More and more physical therapists as well as Osteopathic
physicians and massage therapists are being trained in
craniosacral therapy/myofacial release.

As we all know PD in itself is stressful and it involves
muscle contractions that  are hard to relax (rigidity)

A craniosacral therapist uses very slight.pressure usually
with his or her hands to ease the muscles into what they
call a release. This technique can be applied to all parts of
the body. To affect the cranial rhythm, releases are affected
on various parts of the skull. Any muscle or bone that has
suffered trauma is also treated.

Cronic headaches may be due to the trauma of your own
birth and can be treated using craniosacral therapy.

Pain and stiffness following surgery or other trauma may
respond to craniosacral therapy.

My mother's rhythm improved from 3 to 5 and strong after a
few sessions, she slept 6 hours straight through and
her balance improved to the point where she could stay
alone without fear she would fall.  This was all before
she was diagnosed with Parkinsonism but was showing
signs of the disease..

After her diagnosis,  her family doctor offered either
conventional or alternative treatment. Conventional
being Sinemet and alternative consisted of vitamins,
amino acids, Gaba etc. Listed in his treatment
book as being effective was Craniosacral Therapy!

After subsequent sessions her rhythm came up to 12!

Her PD has progressed. She is taking Sinemet and now
Aricept for the dimentia has also progressed but there
is still improvement with periodic craniosacral therapy.

Ask your local osteopathic physician if he/she does
craniosacral therapy or call your local hospital or
home health care agency and ask if they have a therapist
who does craniosacral therapy. If you can get a prescription
from a doctor,  medicare will pay for the therapy sessions.

I hope I have done a good job in explaining what craniosacral
therapy is and some of the things it can do. There is much
written about it but you've got to search for it. Try telneting
into a local college library and doing a search. You'll be
surprised how much you'll find about something you didn't
know existed. I did.

In Upledger's book "Craniosacral Therapy" Eastland Press
under auditory problems he writes " Tinnitus and recurrent
middle ear problems are well treated by mobilizing and
balancing the temporal bones."

Under emotional depression he writes "We have yet to examine
a case of depression, be it endogenous or reactive, that has not
shown severe anterior -posterior compression of the cranial base.
Further, we have yet to see the first case which has not responded
favorably and usually dramatically to successful decompression
of the cranial base.

Other conditions which improve  with CST include anxiety,
scoliosis, strabismus,  cerebral ischemic episode, rheumatoid
arthritis, Raynaud's phenomenon, chronic pain, peptic ulcers,
bilaty dyskinesia, asthma, acute sprains and strains, cerebral palsy,
behavioral and learning disorders, strains, abscesses and boils,
acute systemic infectious conditions and  autism.

I hope some of you will try craniosacral therapy.

Carol Brow
care giver for Mary Louise Brow
Lake Leelanau, Mi
WinterHaven, FL