Neuromuscular Education
Flora shifted from one leg to the other as she finished the dishes; this is how she kept the pain in her hip at a bearable level while she went through her daily routine. She had almost gotten used to it, since the pain had been there for so long, almost 5 years now, although you never can get completely used to being in constant discomfort. She had a good feeling about today; her son had met someone that said they might be able to help, and they had their first session today, she was due in less than half an hour; she felt a little excited, but she had been let down before better to not get her hopes up.
When the door bell rang she answered quickly, the girl standing there was tall and thin, with long blonde hair, she thought how is this little gal going to be able to do anything, she didn’t look big enough. The therapist was extremely polite, after introductions, she asked where to set up; stating the living room looked perfect. Her table was up in a minute and as she put on sheets, she questioned Flora about her pain. Where it was, was there any radiating pain, how long had she had it, how did it start? It all seemed very in-depth for a massage therapist to be asking for all this information, but she answered each question her best. When she lay down on the table, the therapist did some feeling around and moving of her body; something else that she had never had a massage therapist do. The massage progressed through her back and down to lower part of her body; it felt so very wonderful; it definitely was not a massage she had experience before.
When it was over the therapist told her to wait a few minutes before getting up; she was glad she did she still felt a little dizzy when she did get off the table. The therapist stressed the importance of drinking water, as it would wash out the toxins that were just moved and broken up. She drank several glasses before turning in for the night. The great part is she slept through the night, which she hadn’t done in months and then woke in the morning with no pain for the first time in years. This feeling lasted several days and then she saw the therapist again in 5 days, after several treatments she had weeks where she was pain free, after a year she was able to cut back to every 6 weeks just for maintenance. She lives a full life and no longer shifts from one leg to the other to get through the day. To this day Flora lives a productive life and credits the wonders of this powerful tool to being able to.
Neuromuscular education or reeducation as it is often called was first mentioned in medical books in 1927 to help with those suffering from Bell’s palsy; since then it has gone through drastic changes from the use of electrical stimulation to a more hands-on approach. Arthur Freese wrote probably the most widely read book on the subject, “Stroke, The New Hope & the New Help.” This book was published in 1982, and Freese is considered a pioneer in the field using this to help stroke patients to regain use of some of the limbs that were affected by stroke. The medical college of Wisconsin has done much research in the uses of neuromuscular education to help with some of the unique problems associated with face paralysis, including swallowing and speech. Dr. Bernard Brucker has been testing operant conditioning to train non-damaged cells in the brain and spinal cord to take over for damaged cells. There has even been some research into the effects on cancer and cardiovascular disease. This is all promising research being done throughout the medical community.
However, massage therapist have adopted a hands-on approach to this style of therapy. By using everything from gentle stretching to thrust manipulations changes can be made in the way the body functions. This technique works because our bodies are wonderful machines that have the capability to heal itself; sometimes it just needs a little help. By knowing the way the muscles run and by manipulating them into correct line, the bones will follow. This is reeducating your body to be back into correct alignment to run more effectively the way it did before injury or pain began. This can be a life saver for a person who lives a life of pain and discomfort.
Most recently dentistry has started to implement this type of massage technique for those people who suffer from TMJ (Lockjaw). Over 10.8 million Americans suffer from this painful disorder. Using massage manipulations the muscle tissue in the jaw can be retrained to be properly aligned at rest. This is a welcome treatment for those who suffer to gain relief and in some cases just to be able to eat without pain.
Neuromuscular is a powerful edition to any therapist’s practice. It can also give you the satisfaction of knowing that you have the skill in your hands to actually help someone change their life for the better.
