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anatomy

Self-Help Tips For Mild Carpal Tunnel Related Symptoms

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Self-HelpNo Comments

Introducing The Carpal Tunnel Release Series   Within about a couple months after the birth of my daughter, I noticed that I woke up one night with the first three fingers of both hands numb. I know this is from the median nerve being compressed, the nerve associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. After moving my hands for a bit the numbness would go away. My arms still felt sore and tight and bending my wrists forward would elicit the numbness. The next day I forgot about the numbness until I woke up the next night with the same numbness on…

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How To Assess The Impact Of A Tongue Tie On Patients: Osteopathic Considerations

By Health, Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy17 Comments

Why The Tongue Is So Important   The tongue is the only muscle, or really group of muscles, in the body that has one freely moveable end. Not only is it attached to most fascial planes directly or indirectly, but it also has attachments on the hyoid bone, mandible, temporal bones, and other structures in the head. Structurally it can affect the digestive tract and respiratory tract. It has innervation from five cranial nerves – the  trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal, vagus, and hypoglossus nerve. The tongue is complex and its involvement in swallowing and speaking are some of the most important…

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Adult Frenectomy For Pain Relief: Osteopathic Considerations

By Health, Medicine, Osteopathy79 Comments

Why I Opted To Do The Frenectomy   I decided to consider a frenectomy for a tongue tie (ankyloglossia) after doing it for my daughter, Viviana, when she was 2 months old. Seeing how the shape of her face immediately changed, how she was immediately able to open her mouth wider, how she was finally able to bottle feed pumped breast milk for the first time, and she was able to breastfeed more efficiently instantly, I began to wonder if this would be helpful for an adult. It is generally thought that once one is fully grown that the structure…

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What If We Are Approaching Pain All Wrong?

By Health, Medicine, Osteopathy, Physical Health2 Comments

Imagine you are driving down the street and the “check engine” light comes on in your car. You stop your car, get a piece of masking tape, and cover up the “check engine” light. Now that you cannot see the light, you continue on your way. This is the equivalent to taking anti-inflammatory medications to mask the problem when feeling aches and pains. The ache or pain is your body communicating that something is not right. Taking the anti-inflammatory or getting the anti-inflammatory injection may block the pain but does not address the underlying issue. Without trying to figure out…

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The Interrelationship Of Structure And Function: A Progression Through The First Osteopathic Principle

By Health, Osteopathy, Physical HealthNo Comments

When one first glances at osteopathic principles, there may not seem to be much depth to them. Philosophically there is nothing special about the principles. Actually many who are not osteopathic practitioners agree with osteopathic principles. What separates an osteopathic physician from others who agree with osteopathic principles is the application of the principles. Just like it is important for a runner to understand philosophically the principles of proper running, the philosophical understanding does not help if those principles are not put into place during running. Those who do not apply these principles are like the runner who understands proper…

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Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Vs Prescription Medications: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You

By Health, Medicine, OsteopathyOne Comment

I recently requested to volunteer as a physician at a race. I was told that I could volunteer as a physician but that I could not provide osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) because the tents were not equipped for ‘major manipulations’ and that doing so is contraindicated on the athletes because they mostly have musculoskeletal issues and exhaustion. There are so many parts of this statement that shows ignorance about OMM, what it is, and how to use it. Somehow I do not believe that the same physician above would tell a specialist surgeon, whose specialty of which they have little…

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Osteopathic Considerations: What Pain Is Telling You

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Physical Health2 Comments

Tips For Osteopathic Physicians: Understanding how to interpret the information the body communicates can be the difference between helping a patient get pain relief or leaving them in pain. In this day and age, pain is poorly understood and pain management can be dangerous. Currently, prescription related deaths are higher than cocaine or heroine combined. To understand pain, we have to change the way we think about pain and how we approach it as practitioners. Perhaps we need to look at the bigger picture instead and consider the “forest instead of the trees.” In order to progress, we may need…

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What My Mentor Taught Me About Osteopathy

By Osteopathy, Physical Health2 Comments

Always question, always challenge “Do you see how this patient’s tibias are bowed out?” asked the doctor.“Yes,” I replied as I ran my fingers along the patient’s shin bones. I was not really sure of what it was I should be appreciating that was significant. Next, the doctor moved one of his hands along the patient’s leg with a light touch as if he was looking for something. Suddenly his hand stopped along the outer thigh. I was not really sure what exactly we were doing. We waited a moment, and then he said, “Ok, now re-check the tibias.”  Just…

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Why Pain Is Not Caused By Weak Muscles And Why Exercising May Not Work

By Health, Osteopathy, Physical Health3 Comments

Have you ever been told your pain is because one group of muscles have been over exercised? Many of my patients are told this. Therefore they are told that the solution for their pain is that they need to exercise the “weak” muscles to balance out the muscles. Many patients I see go to physical therapists and trainers believing that there will be a “magical” exercise that once they do will rid them of all pain. According to this theory once this balance is restored, then one’s pain should disappear. Although this occasionally works and I do believe exercising is…

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Osteopathic Considerations: The Knee Cap

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Self-HelpNo Comments

I went hiking about 5 months ago. Several days later, I started to have diffuse knee pain. I stopped being able to bend my knee completely. Shortly afterwards it became swollen and inflamed. I had joint line tenderness, which can indicate a meniscal tear. My knee felt very unstable and there was a lot of “popping” with moving it. It went through some periods of getting better and then I would make a wrong move and was back to pain and swelling. During all this time, kneeling was out of the question. I was convinced I was dealing with a…

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