Case Studies

16-January-2010

Case Study 1

July 2009

Mrs Brown, 63 year old, house wife.

Pretty active life, good diet.

Neck and back pain with headaches.

Mrs Brown had suffered with back and neck problems for the last ten years. She had tried many things to improve the stiffness in her lower back and neck. The neck pain was also giving her very bad migraine headaches for days on end. She had been visiting a physio for the last 4 months, seeing her every two weeks for work on her neck mostly. After treatment which mostly consisted of massage to neck and shoulder muscles her neck felt ok, this however only lasted 2-3 days at a time.

Mrs Brown was recommended to me by another patient that I had worked on with a neck problem.

 There was no medical history other than depression, not on any type of medication other than cod liver oil. I carried out the basic diagnostic checks with Mrs Brown all of which showed general spinal stiffness. When checking the spine it was quite clear that it was very stiff with no movement in many vertebrate. L5 was not at all mobile and the vertebrate that did move were only about 60% free. The muscle in the lower back and all up the spine was very hard.

Checking the neck showed the same stiffness with no movement in C7, C6. Shoulder muscles were hard and this followed in to the neck muscles.

 Altogether a very stiff body, started working into the lower back muscles and working up the back stripping out a lot of contracture. Cleared as much tight muscle as was possible in one treatment. Carried out a L5 lumber rotation, this was quite hard on both sides with the body not wanting to relax. I was not happy with the first results so carried out another L5 rotation, this proved to be much better achieving 90% of what I would expect. I then carried out a Lumber rotation to work on L3 and upwards, again this rotation worked well. On rechecking the spine I found that lower back was considerably better, about 75% to 80% better. I then carried out a seated spinal twist trying to target corset and thoracic vertebrate. I carried this out on both sides, again quite stiff on first attempt. On the second attempt the body was much more willing. Again good results 75% improvement.

Mrs Brown returned for a second appointment, straight away she said that she had not suffered any lower back pain for a week. She was very pleased and amazed at why this had not been found before when she had been elsewhere? I check her spine again, the vertebrate were all still mobile. I worked as before into the lower back muscle, all the way up and into the trapezium muscles. Once again contracture was present but no where near as bad as before. Again carried out L5 lumber rotation, this time the body was very receptive and rotated very well.

As Mrs Brown’s body had reacted so well to the lower back treatment, it was decided we would also work on her neck the same appointment. Checked the neck vertebrate, no movement in C7, C6 the rest had limited movement. First I worked into the neck muscles; these were quite tight and painful. Then did a simple neck stretch, rechecked neck, still no movement found in C7, C6. Carried out a neck rotation, aiming for C5, C4 etc. Rotation quite hard with only about 50% of expected turn. Carried out C7 rotation, again hard with about 60% movement achieved. Decided to work in to neck muscles again. Carried out both rotations again but very gently. Check vertebrate again after rotations. C7, C6 now were moving but only about 50% of expected mobility.

Mrs Brown returned for a 3^rd time a very different lady, she had said that she felt very different, she had not had a headache for over a week. She said that she had felt great all week. The biggest difference was that when she crossed the road she now just turned her head, where as before she needed to turn the top half of her body.  I checked as before her spine and neck vertebrate, the back was still good with all vertebrate mobile. The neck was also mobile, but with less mobility. I worked again on shoulder and neck muscles. I then carried out a neck stretch followed by C7 rotation, C5 rotation. These where better than before, with movement improving each time.