...continued from page 1

.....In fact, he started his research into the positive effects of slackening the pons-cord tract and reducing axial tension on the central nervous system by using various outside the body mechanical methods of holding the patients’ heads in extension.

Breig’s direct experimentation and trails of therapy have led to the relief of the effects of cervical myelopathies, rhizopathies, trigeminal neuralgias, post-traumatic myelopathies, Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsies, urinary incontinence due to intra- and extramedulary lesions of various origins, and many more conditions previously not thought to be related to biomechanical pathologies.

Dr. Ward’s contribution came with the recognition that just as Breig noted the site of the mechanical lesion generating tension on the CNS could not be diagnosed without examining entire spine in flexion and extension, analysis and diagnosis of primary biomechanical pathologies (the basic misalignments for which other things compensate) in the spinal column-pelvis could not be diagnosed without examining the spinal column in multiple positions. Further, Ward noted the biomechanical stress patterns fixing patients’ spinal columns were most evident sitting but could not be diagnosed from single position examination due to the way other primary biomechanical pathologies in other regions of the spinal column affected compensation patterns. Mechanical pathologies can be precisely diagnosed by comparing sitting and standing biomechanical patterns noted radiographically though occasionally measurement of the body in additional positions is necessary for accurate diagnosis. (This confirmed Breig's findings.)

Building upon the breakthroughs of these men, I have hypothesized and found consistent and predictable workability in analysis and clinical diagnosis and treatment the point that the basic mechanical pathology of the body is the movement, by any means, of a body structure into a position of decreased mechanical function from which the body cannot retrieve it. Think that through. Simple as it is it is the basic of mechanical pathology in the body. It says more than you might first realize.

Another point commonly noted but not accounted for in any mechanical theory is that the bones of the body work as a single mechanical mechanism levering the body upright. Like a set of interlocking gears, when one bone moves out of its optimal position it can no longer act as the lever it is. Therefore, with the bone misaligned the body begins to fall in the direction of lost leverage (later it will be demonstrated that, for reasons of mechanical design of the skeleton the direction a combination of forward right or left -- actually a torque -- and rarely posterior or posteriolateral.) The basic here is that an ideal body with bones in exactly the right position will stay upright with no muscular action. This is born out clinically. when people treated by these theories and mechanical analyses they stay upright with little or no effort and every function of the body has been measured to improve -- thus the pictures at the opening of this web site.

As an example in the spinal column of the body not being able to move a bone in a direction needed for self-correction of structure: When a vertebra has become displaced anterior of its optimal position of function, there are no muscles or other motion inducing mechanisms that can pull that single vertebra in an anterior-to-posterior direction relative to the vertebrae above and below it with enough magnitude to reposition such a vertebra which has slipped or been forced anterior to its optimum position of mechanical function.

Experiments have been mentioned indicating that the various tissues attaching to the vertebrae will pull posterior when the body/spinal column is bent forward. However, like a rubber band held horizontal with a small weight at its center that can never completely be straightened by pulling at its ends, the physical reality is that the force anterior-to-posterior is not able to be exerted over enough distance to reposition the vertebra. (Those presenting the data on the posterior pull of these tissues neglect to notice the basic mechanics of the situation -- that as the vertebra moves the angle of the tissues reduces and the force A-to-P reduces as a multiple function of the angle, ultimately not being enough to reposition the vertebra. They also miss the point that the other vertebrae are not any more stable than the one stuck forward, they are movable and get pulled out of position anteriorly as much as the vertebra stuck anterior is supposedly pulled posterior. the net result is no correction but compensation.)

Therefore, vertebrae in some way displaced with an anterior component of motion result in lost mechanical leverage holding the body upright. With the advantage of leverage gone, the body then must compensate for that loss. Compensating events ranging from the inconsequential to the enormously harmful occur resulting in most of the "disease" conditions described by Breig and others.

Most practitioners approach structural therapy with the presupposition that the body can move its parts in any direction and that the body is totally self-correcting. This is incorrect. For the body to self-correct/heal a very specific set of circumstances must be met. Consider a broken bone and how much effort must be taken to reposition and hold the position of the bone until it is substantially healed and what happens if it is not repositioned and held there.

continued on page 3 ...

top