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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] ---------- 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