I recently had a person (not a puppy as one might assume from the picture) come to the office for their first visit whose primary concern was optimal health and thriving. He had occasional mid-back discomfort and I have to say “discomfort” because he stated he had no pain. And, I like that he did not think of his discomfort as pain. There’s a whole field of study called Neurolinguistic Programming that focuses upon our descriptive verbalizations and thoughts becoming our reality. So, I would encourage anyone with pain to think of their pains as “discomfort.” And, I would encourage people with discomfort to consider that their sensory experience is their body trying to communicate with them.
The fascinating thing about our exploration of this person’s body through physical examination and the utilization of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) is that we found there were several organs tugging on their musculoskeletal system through the connective tissue network. Yes, organs like liver, kidney, and lungs have both nerve and connective tissue connections with the musculoskeletal system. Specifically, this person had ropey feeling muscles on either side of the spine at the 4th through 6th thoracic levels. The organs that relate to the nerves at these levels are the stomach and liver. With these clues and some others, I examined the stomach and liver and found that they had connective tissue restrictions causing diminished motion.
I treated the stomach and liver, as well as the joints of the vertebra and ribs in the area of the ropey muscles. In the past, I had found that these ropey muscles responded best to acupuncture. However, when I went to re-examine the ropey muscles after treating the involved joints and fascia of the organs the muscles had softened and relaxed. It was a bit anti-climatic, but it was a powerful demonstration that the cause of the ropey, irritated muscles was from the joints or the organs. It’s just one of the reasons I am continually amazed at the power of the human body to heal when the impediments to health are removed through the application of OMT and other similar healing treatments. As an added bonus, the patient did feel better when they were leaving. The goal at the Danto Osteopathic Clinic is always to remove the impediments to health and optimize the musculoskeletal system to enable THRIVING!