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Double vision after trauma
Thursday, March 27, 2008
An eleven year old girl recently came in with double vision. It followed an episode in May, 2007, where she fell six feet off of a cliff and smashed the left side of her face against a tree trunk. Many of the facial bones were fractured. She was treated at a local children's hospital where she received plastic surgery.
After an interval of over nine months during which her double vision continued and the swelling of the face didn't change too much, she was brought to me. I examined her and noticed that the original trauma to the fascial and fluid systems ( strains) had not been addressed.
In particular, I found that the geometric angle of her optic chiasma (the place in the head where the optic nerve from each eye crosses over the other) was quite distorted. The bony orbit in which the eye resides consists of seven bones. Each is formed in membrane and remains internally connected to membrane which is continuous with the rest of the cranium and body.
Gentle treatment of these strains resulted in a major improvement in her vision which was noticed by her optometrist as well.
Judicious use of homeopathic Arnica and osteopathy also reduced most of the swelling.
She continues to do well.Labels: cranial osteopathy, double vision, fall, osteopath, osteopathic pediatrics, osteopathy
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New office hours, policies.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
As of October, 2007 I shall no longer be accepting new patients.
Our office hours will be 9:15 am to 12:30pm each weekday except Wednesday.
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E mail contact
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
I welcome your comments:Best to contact me at: hrpharold (at) gmail {dot} com . Remove the brackets, parenthesis and use @ for at, . for dot.
Contact
me by email.
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How I treat asthma
Saturday, April 21, 2007
One of the conditions which I love to treat is asthma. Why? Because traditional medicine considers this a chronic, life long problem which can never be cured. It can only be held in bay with medicines. These medicines, essentially different varieties of steroids, are administered via nebulizers and many other ways. They help keep things from getting out of hand.
An asthmatic attack is frightening for everyone involved. The patient is gasping. They can't breathe. They feel like they are suffocating. It's horrible.
Recently, I had a child brought in who was a few months old. The wheezing could be heard across the room. When they left the wheezing was no longer to be heard. I had a medical student with me. We both listened with a stethoscope. No more wheezing. The child had also been pulling at one of its ears. Examination revealed a nasty ear infection. At the end of the treatment - no more ear pulling.
How can osteopthy not only help but actually cure conditions like asthma? What I did was carefully examine the child. Besides the regular exam that any well trained physician would perform, I also do a detailed osteopathic exam. I put my hands on the patient and feel for how the body is actually, at the moment of examination, functioning. If there is a problem in function I can often spot it. If you have read my earlier post on sprained ankles you will be familiar with the reality of sprains and strains which, unless removed, really limit the way the body functions. They are present in 100% of asthmatic patients whom I have examined. The same can be said for all of my patients with ear infections.
I remove the strain and the symptoms are gone. This after untold time on nebulizers, inhalers, etc. At some point the patient no longer needs these medical crutches. The problem is solved. There is no nebulizer in the world that can remove a strain. There is no blood test or X ray, CT, MRI in the world that can detect what the skilled hands of an osteopathic physician specializing in osteopathy in the cranial field can uncover - and successfully treat.
So, people get better. The patient is not only free of symptoms, they feel better overall. More vitality, more energy.
For me, it's a no brainer. Osteopathy is my love. I also practice acupuncture, I am trained and licensed in traditional medicine and surgery. I am board certified in homeopathy. However, I am an osteopath in my bones ( no pun intended). After 17 years of treating thousands of patients I know what works. I only wish that more people knew that such an option is not only available but covered by most insurance. People just don't need to suffer from asthma and other so-called chronic respiratory diseases.
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It all started with a sprained ankle
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Sprained ankles are very common. You step the wrong way and twist the ankle. Then it swells up, may get warm ( both signs of inflammation), and is painful to stand or walk on. So far, nothing unusual. What all of us know or have heard is that once you have sprained an ankle it is likely that you will sprain it again.
The typical medical advice is to keep the ankle raised, iced, wrapped or compressed and to rest it, keep off of it. Hence, the large number of people hobbling around on crutches.
Why is it that the same ankle is prone to further sprain?
To be very blunt, the reason is that the original trauma, the sprain or strained connective tissues, ligaments, tendons, fascia ( a type of connective tissue) has never been treated. The above mentioned measures do not treat the trauma. They treat the symptoms of the trauma, the inflammation.
In order to treat the trauma the actual strain pattern in the tissues must be diagnosed and removed. Only osteopathy does this.
I have had people limp into my office on crutches from a recent strain (often young men) and walk out pain free without crutches and not prone to future restraining of the tissues. I have learned how to identify and remove the strain in the tissues.
If I were present at a football game and one of the players sprained their ankle I could have them back in the game, playing within 20 minutes. This is rarely the case with team physicians or sports medicine doctors. Also, the player would be less likely to resprain the same ankle.
I mention this because someone recently told me that a car ran over their foot. They have been receiving acupuncture for some time ( I am a licensed medical acupuncturist, so I believe I am qualified to speak about acupuncture) but were still in quite a bit of pain.
I told them that I often treat such problems with a lot of success. I treat the strain and the symptoms ( read: pain) go away. It is really quite simple and logical. Strains will not show up on imaging studies ( X rays, MRI, CT, etc.). The patient is given the same instructions mentioned above, anti inflammatory medications, and, if they are still complaining, sent to a physical therapist. The problem, the strain, is never treated.
I treat strains. I find them in almost every patient including babies. They result from traumas to the system. How can a new born have a trauma? Being born is quite traumatic. The neonate must travel through a passage which is not large enough to accomodate the body.They have to twist around to get through, their head gets squished which is why it is still soft in parts when the child is born. This is natures way of dealing with the trauma of birth. If the child is large the birth can be even more traumatic. Many obstetricians routinely do an episiotomy where they will cut the muscles so that there will be more give in the mother's tissues to accomodate the child. If this were not done then the muscles might be torn as the large mass ( the neonate) emerges from the relatively small canal. Labor is not called labor for nothing.
People come in with back pain, neck pain, numbness, tingling in their arms or legs, headaches, eye problems, jaw pain, infections, asthma, and so many other problems. In every case I find strains. The strains are removed and the symptoms disappear. It's a no brainer but, unfortunately, something which is not taught and virtually unappreciated outside the community of osteopathic physicians who practice osteopathy in the cranial field.
Incidentally, this is not taught to cranio-sacral therapists, chiropractors and message therapists all of whom receive good training and help many people in need. How do I know they don't receive this training? Because I treat them and they are fascinated to learn what I am doing.
If you have a question on this or anything related to my work, don't hesitate to contact me. I am always happy to answer questions.
Labels: ankle sprain, cranial academy, cranial osteopathy, cranio-sacral, osteopath, osteopathic pediatrics, osteopathy, sports medicine, sprain, strain
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Chronic ear infections in children
Saturday, March 24, 2007
About 30% of my patients are children. Since I treat a lot of pregnant women to get them through pregnancy with a minimum or absence of problems ( back pain, morning sickness, premature labor, etc.) I have long offered a free first visit for the newborn to get the child started off on the right foot. Often this first visit reveals many structural and functional problems ( feeding issues, irritability, reflux and spitting up, asymmetrically shaped heads, asthma and other respiratory problems, etc. etc.) which can be easily treated and quickly reversed.
As the children age they may display delayed development, frequent infections and other common pediatric problems which osteopathic and homeopathic treatment can solve. There are two local pediatricians who have been referring such children to me for many years. Also, word of mouth among moms has been one of my best means of letting people know what osteopathy has to offer these young ones.
By far, the most common pediatric issue I see is the child who suffers from serous otitis media or ear infections. These children receive many rounds of antibiotics and may or may not improve but inevitably come down with yet another infection. At some point the parents are told that the child must receive tubes. This is often when I see the child.
Usually I find that the base of the cranium and especially one or more of the temporal bone are malfunctioning. This impairs normal drainage of the inner ear via the eustachian tube which, in turn, renders the child vulnerable to infections. Hence the ineffectiveness of antibiotics. This is a structural problem which must be treated structurally and will not be cured with a biochemical ( antibiotic) approach.
Often it takes just a few treatments for the pediatrician to notice that the ears look clear. The parents, especially if the child has been in pain, pulling or boring its ear or complaining, will notice earlier. I am able to then discharge these patients. They usually don't require much further treatment unless there is an additional problem.
In 2003 The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, an MD journal published by the AMA, did a study on osteopathic treatment of ear infections.
This is the link which you can paste into your browser to examine:
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/157/9/852
The authors concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between children who received osteopathic treatment for ear infections and the subsequent improvement in their health. This was welcome news indeed since I realize many people rely on such sources for their knowledge of medicine.
It was also reassuring that such a study appeared in a prominent MD specialty journal. This lends additional credibility to what many osteopathic physicians witness on a daily basis; osteopathy ( and, I would add, homeopathy) are a veritable God-send to a sick child.
What I regularly have witnessed over the years is that children treated in this way are healthier overall, develop better than their peers, and need far fewer doctor visits. It is the most valuable foundation that can be given them for future health.
We have a saying in osteopathy. As the twig is bent so grows the tree. Imagine a small sapling that is bent over. When the twig is small there is not much to notice. When it grows into a tall tree its "bentness" becomes more obvious. However, then it is harder to reverse what formerly could be treated in just a few visits. The earlier we can get to these bent twigs the easier will their lives be. There are few investments with such enormous and long term benefits.
Labels: cranial academy, cranial osteopathy, cranio-sacral, osteopath, osteopathic pediatrics
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How a head injury can lead to abdominal problems
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Did you ever see a spider web? They are actually quite intricate in design. Starting from one point the spider creates an enormous mosaic of crafted spittle. Sit and contemplate the web. It is really a work of art. These insects build them to catch other insects.
The web must be of a certain size. Some are quite large. It must have a great degree of bounce. If a fly crashes into it the web must not break. It must absorb the kinetic energy generated by the impact and deftly imprison the hapless fly. The fly must be trapped, unable to escape. The web is designed with all of this in mind. For what it does it functions perfectly.
Consider the human body as a vast spider web. If you pull on a part of the web the entire web responds. It will conform to the impact and absorb it. The web, if pulled at one point, will change shape to accommodate itself to the deformation. Say you grab one piece and gently shift it around in space. The entire web rearranges itself. Every single piece of the web shifts. It works as a single unit.
This is exactly how the human body functions. The body is actually a vast web. The various pieces of the web have many shapes and different tissues. However, they are all part of the same web. If one piece is shifted, every part is shifted no matter how far away from the point of impact or seemingly unrelated.
A blow to the head effects the membranes which make up the skull. Originally, the skull is membranous. The outer layer of membrane becomes bone. The inner layers remain membrane. They have the consistency of shoe leather. They can be bent, twisted, and moved about. They cannot be stretched without tearing which really takes an enormous amount of force. So, in the normal course of life, the membranes get twisted and strained a lot. We call this cranial membranous strain or sprain. It is like a sprained ankle ( which remains vulnerable to reinjury even after the swelling, pain, and other acute symptoms are gone) . You can have these membranous or tissue strains anywhere in the body. They always are accompanied by body dysfunction.
So, again, imagine the spider web. If one piece is twisted upon itself or pulled asymmetrically the entire web mirrors and compensates for this. It's health in action, always finding a perfectly balanced response to the stressor.
The cranium is struck. The membranes in the gut follow suit. The person, sooner or later, experiences gastrointestinal and pelvic problems. No one but a trained-osteopath realizes the connection. No one but a classical osteopath is trained to think, diagnose and treat in this way.
I have seen hundreds of such cases over the last seventeen years. It just reaffirms the intrinsic somatic - visceral connection for me. The body works like a big spider web. Tweak one part, everything else responds.
Labels: cranial osteopathy, cranio-sacral, dr. harold goodman, harold goodman, osteopath, osteopathy, tensegrity
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