Quick Links!

Today's Quick Links come from Chaitow's Chat, Body in Mind, and The Body Mechanic

Dr. Leon Chaitow recently came back from the Fascia Research Congress (believe it haters!). There is a new Fascia Research Society forming and they are now accepting fees for memberships. I was told to attend this year's conference by Jan Dommerholdt, but did not have a chance to attend. Possibly next year? Either way, I am going to donate and become a member! Despite the research showing that working on soft tissues may not deform them at all, I know clinically, the techniques work. More research on why is needed.

Body in Mind reviewed some interesting research on CTS. The results of the research showed that the individuals with CTS had elevated pain reports when compared with their healthy counterparts. The areas were not only in the median nerve distribution, but also the neck and the lower leg. The thresholds were not different, only the pain was rated higher. This may be an indication of general somatosensory disturbance. I think most good clinicians look to treat at least the entire neural container despite the often generic Dx of "CTS," don't you?

Dr. Greg Lehman blogs over at his site thebodymechanic.ca. He wrote a post on why you and patients should stop rolling their IT Band. I had learned of similar research over a decade ago, that also concluded you could hang an elephant from it, and it would not lengthen. They concluded that manual techniques were THE ONLY way you could possibly "damage" it enough to deform it.

Does a foam roller do the job? Most likely not on it's own. I do believe they are useful as adjuncts as a HEP, but so is a rolling pin/the stick and it is a hell of a lot less painful. However, many of my patients who are runners are already using a foam roller before they come to see me, but a few specific releases (tissue and joint) and corrective exercises get the job done. This does not mean I would not work on the ITB, I would absolutely, but the effect it is having, is what I have questioned over the past year.

Most often I prescribe dynamic stretches or repeated movements to be performed in the new range literally all day. Whether that is keeping the tissues semi lengthened by preventing the visco-elasticity from taking the tissues back to their normal length, or it is enhancing a centrally mediated stretch tolerance and allowing the body to move in the new range, it seems to work for me (and I know I am not the only one).