How Osteopathic Therapy Can Help Your Whole Body - Including Problems Caused by Old Strains That Effect Your Organs

Visceral Osteopathic therapy involves gentle manipulation to affect the organs including the lungs, heart, digestive tract, kidneys, liver, uterus & ovaries. This is possible by virtue of their connective tissue support system. In health each organ expresses a subtle motility and is surrounded by fluid lined membranes that enable healthy motion.

At optimal health, the relationship between the organs and structures of the body (muscles, membranes, fasciae and bones) remains stable despite the body’s endless varieties of motion. However if one organ can’t move in harmony with its surrounding viscera due to abnormal tone, adhesions or displacement (after surgery), it works against all the body’s organs and structures. This disharmony creates fixed, abnormal points of tension that the body is forced to move around. That chronic irritation, in turn, paves the way for disease and dysfunction.

We will work through the body’s visceral system to locate and alleviate these abnormal points of tension throughout the body.  There are many techniques that use gentle pressure to encourage normal movement of the viscera and their connective tissues. We use the rhythmic motions of the visceral system to evaluate how any abnormal forces interplay, overlap and affect the normal body forces at work.  

Conditions that may benefit form visceral work include:

- Digestive problems such as IBS, reflux, gas and constipation

- Urinary problems such as chronic bladder and kidney infections

- Menstrual pains

- Breathing disorders such as asthma and persistent coughing

John’s Story: heartburn and shoulder pain – are they connected?

John came to see us complaining of shoulder pain. Ed asked questions about his shoulder and his health in general and discovered John had a history of gastro esophageal reflux (heart burn) going back as far as he could remember.  He had recently had a full medical at work and was declared healthy.  When Ed took a look at John’s left shoulder it seemed completely healthy - there was no obvious dysfunction but the dull ache was constant throughout the examination.  This made Ed think that the shoulder was not the cause of the pain...

Interestingly there is a connection between the diaphragm, the stomach and the shoulder. The nerves that supply the shoulder and the diaphragm both exit the neck at the same level.  Therefore it is possible for the brain to confuse pain and irritation of the diaphragm as shoulder or neck pain.  The stomach lies just underneath the diaphragm and stomach problems often irritate the diaphragm and vice versa.

Ed found a tender spot above John’s belly button.  With pressure on it his shoulder pain got worse! John was surprised to say the least.  Ed explained the connection between the stomach, diaphragm and shoulder and that the heart burn John had been experiencing had irritated the diaphragm which had sent messages to the spinal cord that the brain had misinterpreted as being sent from the shoulder.

This explanation made sense however there was a missing piece to the puzzle...  John had reflux a long time before he had shoulder pain.  When Ed asked John about the events that surrounded the onset of his shoulder pain he mentioned that he had been moving house and jobs at the same time.  He had been a lot more stressed than usual.  Increased stress can affect the body’s ability to cope with excess stomach acid and reflux can increase.  This had been true for John. 

Understanding the relationship between areas of the body saves time and money.  Ed could have spent a long time working on Johns shoulder without achieving any results.  The treatment Ed gave John focused on reducing tension in Johns diaphragm using gentle stretches and rhythmical movement of his ribs.  Ed also reduced friction on the nerves where they exit the neck (to supply both the diaphragm and shoulder) by gentle manipulation and massage.  Within two treatments John found that the shoulder pain was gone and that his heartburn was reduced.  He decided to continue with treatment even though his shoulder pain had gone because he wanted relief from years of reflux - with 6 more treatments the reflux was virtually gone.