Unconventional assessement
In Hemodynamic Osteopathy, the assessments change drastically compared to those of Classical Osteopathy.
They will focus mainly on the rhythm, amplitudes and moments of muscle contraction. We test all 54+ known muscle chains. Palpation here asks us to go to the limits of the listening capacity of our hands.
Muscular lesions
First the synchronicity
By oversimplifying (which will lead to some untruths for pedagogical purposes). During thoracic or diaphragmatic inspiration, half of the muscles will contract while the other half will relax. These inspiratory contractions will cause the arms and thighs to rotate externally. And when exhaling the other half of the muscles will contract and bring the arms and thighs into internal rotation.
Then the physiological desynchronization
When you bring a thoracic joint into extreme rotation, the body will reverse the direction of this on the side opposite to the rotation. If you turn your head to the right, the right arm will go into external rotation but the left arm will go into internal rotation. When you bring your head back to the neutral position, this phenomenon disappears.
And finally the pathological desynchronization
It’s the same phenomenon, but the imbalance persists when you bring your head back to the neutral position. This is the lesion that at the level of the 1st costal arch will be at the origin of the infant’s plagiocephaly.
The muscles contract and relax 8 to 12 times a minute. A muscle chain, which contains one or more muscles, one or more joints, or a muscle and a joint, which is injured, will see its rhythmicity halved. It will go down to 4 to 6 rhythms per minute.
By palpating the muscles, we will be able to count the rhythms of the muscle chains and know which ones are in lesion with or without a loss of rhythm. An example, anterior tibial osteochondrosis of growth or Osgood-Schlatter’s disease involves a lesion of the 12th rib on the same side.
MMP contractions have a certain amplitude. The therapist will be able to determine if a muscle is losing amplitude by palpation by comparing it with the same muscle on the opposite side. These are the most delicate assessments to perform.
These amplitude loss lesions are at the origin of venous insufficiency, as the muscle becomes less efficient as a muscle pump.
Classical lesions
They are characterized by a loss of amplitude and rhythmicity.
The periarticular tissues will create chemical bridges (tissue cohesion) and will “stick” the joint envelopes together. It would seem that these bridges form around the junction between the tissues (capsule, synovium) and the bone on which these tissues are inserted.
Fascias are the supporting tissues of the human body, including the envelopes of muscles, bones and organs. They have the ability to shorten relatively quickly and can decrease the range of motion of the muscles they envelop. They may be associated with amplitude loss injuries.
Also unconventional treatments
Classical Osteopathy is a so-called “Holistic” medicine. A symptom can be the result of one or more vectors located, at a distance, in another part of the body. We must therefore take into account all the “Osteopathic lesions” of the patient and treat them.
Hemodynamic Osteopathy brings, with this new understanding of muscle chains, water to the mill of this sacrosanct rule. For example, a symptom in the 7th cervical can be linked to a lesion of the cuboid bone of the foot. A lesion that will have to be treated to free the cervical vertebrae… We will have to rebalance all the muscles and joints of the body so that all the symptoms resulting from various dysfunctions diminish or disappear.
New manipulations are brought to respond to unresolved desynchronizations in classical Osteopathy and other manual therapies.
Loss of rhythm and loss of muscular amplitudes will be taken into account and treated, in their totality.
Associated treatments
The affected joints should be repositioned in extreme rotation and returned to the neutral position in case of respiratory apnea.
We will treat the deficient musculoarticular chain either by treating one or more injured joints or muscles. A pathology such as Dupuytren’s Disease generally involves several joints on the chain of the 3rd cervical vertebrae. It will be necessary to find out on the chain concerned, whether they are joints or muscles in lesion.
We will treat the musculoarticular chain by focusing more on the muscles and fascias. It is also a question of readapting the muscles to the effort concerning the muscle fibres dedicated to the hemodynamic role.
And what’s more, the reality being much more complex than that…
The three types of lesions can overlap on the same chain. In this situation, the assessments will be much more difficult to perform, although this is not impossible. In this situation the understanding of the symptoms is much more delicate.
The course of a session
Osteopathy is a holistic medicine. The assessments and treatments will therefore take into account the totality of the joints (including the bones of the skull) and the muscle chains of the whole body. Whatever your reason for consultation, the whole body will be taken into consideration.
We will take into account the 24 dorsal chains, the 24 costo-vertebral chains (costal lesions) as well as the accessory chains (clavicles, shoulder blades, pubis…). The assessments consist of listening to the motility of the muscles by testing the muscles of each chain.
The treatments, of the whole body, will be done by searching on the injured chains which are the joints (including the skull bones) or muscles at the origin of the disturbances. All the classical techniques of osteopathy can be used as well as techniques specific to our art.
We will treat all the symptoms that will emerge from the anamnesis, if possible.
And after the treatment
The treatment will have the effect of modifying muscle activity significantly. The rhythmicity of certain muscles will change, their working lengths will also change, etc. In total the muscles will have a lot of work to adapt to their new way of functioning. They will be very sensitive to any external disturbance and could reproduce the lesional state they were in… The activity of the muscle at rest will intensify, even if the spasms have diminished, and it will have to be able to maintain the corrections made by the therapist.
It is therefore important for the patient to plan a period of rest and calm on the evening of the treatment. A feeling of intense fatigue regularly appears after treatments. The patient will need to hydrate properly to compensate for “hyperactivity of the resting muscle”, a sensation of thirst will often be present after treatment.
He will have to avoid stressful situations in order to avoid any harmful additional muscular work.
He will have to avoid sports activities for three days after the treatment, avoid torsion of the trunk as well (Yoga).
A hot shower or a hot bath before going to bed can be really relevant.