Home Main principles Can an osteopath fix your neck?

Can osteopathy or manual therapy restore the function of the cervical spine?

For some reason, some people believe that correcting the cervical vertebrae while restoring the proper working of the head joints is such a routine procedure that it can even be done by their own trusted massage therapist or manual therapist.

Unfortunately, situations have recently become very common in which people without proper knowledge and a broad medical understanding of the complex structure of the cervical spine allow themselves to take advantage of patients’ lack of awareness and perform dubious manipulations on their necks, claiming that they are doing the same thing as a professional high-tech clinic.

In this article, we will talk in detail about the possibilities of different methods, as well as the differences between professional and amateur approaches to treating the cervical spine. But first of all, let us immediately exclude unscrupulous specialists from this discussion and give the main criteria for screening them out:

Which “specialists” you should avoid. Body Balance Clinic standards. Checklist

In the opinion of Body Balance Clinic doctors, you must not entrust your neck to a “specialist” if they match at least one item on the list below:

The “specialist” is not a doctor and has no higher or secondary medical education;

Presents their method as unconventional, or claims to be a shaman who keeps secrets passed down to them from generation to generation, or to have learned from such characters;

Has no evidence-based medical proof of the effectiveness of their method (CT and ultrasound results and other types of testing before and after);

Has no long-term positive patient reviews made several months after the procedure, only reviews recorded immediately after the procedure;

Does not use modern diagnostic tools for the initial diagnosis of the neck and for monitoring treatment results (for example, computed tomography of the cervical spine with the scan personally examined, Doppler ultrasound of the head and neck vessels in segments V2, V3, V4 with rotation tests, postural photo analysis);

Claims to determine the condition of the cervical spine accurately solely by palpation and / or movement tests;

When asked about diagnostic tools, claims that instrumental diagnostics can be skipped, that it is a waste of time and money, and that having it will not lead to better results;

Has difficulty explaining exactly what diagnostics are needed or cannot clearly and precisely describe to you what they are needed for;

Claims that gravity acts on a person from the bottom up, that the lower back presses on the head, and that the dysfunction in the cervical spine originally arose because of a tilted pelvis;

Does not ask the patient about their existing symptoms, but immediately starts the procedure;

Does not perform any diagnostics or tests at all, but immediately proceeds to the intervention and the procedure;

Is in a hurry during the session, does not let the patient say a word more than necessary, and generally tries to send them off as quickly as possible;

Does not provide clear comparative results for tracking the changes achieved, other than blurry phone photos taken from different angles and in different lighting;

Eliminates displacements of the cervical vertebrae using energy practices, chanting, fumigation, steaming in a bathhouse, stroking, hammer blows and other unexpected absurd methods that leave the patient stunned and simply submitting to someone else’s will, offering no resistance and switching off any critical thinking about what is happening;

Claims immediately after the procedure (or before it starts) that the dysfunction in the neck cannot be corrected, or that there is no need to do so;

Claims that anyone can “set” their own vertebrae for free and gives a technique for doing so;

Claims that massage technique, manual therapy, osteopathy, kinesiology or chiropractic can cure head joints dysfunction.

Amateur approaches discredit the therapeutic field as a whole

Having read this list, you will be better able to decide whether to entrust your neck to one specialist or another. Using this list, you will be surprised how many people fit these points. We emphasize this because:

Patients who are interested in treating the cervical spine as the main cause of problems in the whole spine have, as a rule, already heard about someone’s successful experience and are therefore interested in this concept.

The topic of head joints dysfunction (atlas correction, treatment of craniovertebral dysfunction) is gaining more and more popularity every day, and public demand is, as they say, “in the air”.

Without understanding the subject, a patient may end up in the hands of an unreliable “specialist” whose procedure will not produce a meaningful result. This may spoil the patient’s impression of the field as a whole and give rise to a mass of rumors on this basis.

Very often, the reasoning behind the actions of “specialists” who fall under the criteria described above comes down to the difference in the cost of services, emotional influence on the patient and personal authority.

At the same time, neck manipulations are carried out with the words “I’ve done this many times” without the use of any medical diagnostic tools and, in essence, without any possibility of comparing the results obtained.

The “specialist” wins the patient over by persuasion and the opportunity to “save money”. The few pieces of evidence of the changes that have occurred often take the form of briefly shown photos taken with a phone camera immediately after the procedure. The patients’ posture before and after is briefly shown on a small screen. The pictures are taken in different lighting from different angles to give the last photo a visual advantage.

And when the effect of such an “intervention” does not live up to expectations or turns out to be negligible altogether, the patient is quickly told that the neck is “not the main thing” and that the spine should be regularly supported with various procedures. Since health is not a simple matter and takes a long time, it has to be worked on painstakingly and persistently, the “specialist” argues in self-justification.

On the whole, the unscrupulous “specialist” discredits not just the work they have done, but the entire field related to the cervical spine and head joints dysfunction.

In most cases, the amateur “specialist” quite consciously deprives their patient of hope for recovery, as well as of a way to solve their health problems in the future, justifying themselves and putting into the patient’s head the idea that “the neck is not the main thing”.

And so that the patient continues to diligently use the services of such a “therapist” and does not decide after all to turn to a professional medical clinic, the patient is “helped” to arrive at the idea that “they do the same thing there”.

This is how the selfishness of unscrupulous therapists breeds disappointment in patients who have tried their “treatment”. The disappointment experienced leads to stories about the negative experience told to acquaintances and, as a result, to subsequent rejection by those who have not even tried real treatment: “haven’t tried it, but I condemn it”.

Or rather even: “tried it with who knows whom, but I condemn everyone who does this and the whole field”. As a result, the actions of unscrupulous “specialists” produce a mass of dissatisfied people.

This is nothing other than a deliberate psychological vaccination against being healthy. A person simply closes their eyes to what could give them this health.

Dear reader, the goal of Body Balance Clinic is to make you a healthy person who takes a conscious attitude towards their health.

We do everything we can to warn our patients about the “viral” actions of unscrupulous therapists, and we sympathize with those who have fallen into “the wrong hands”.

When we say that the treatment of craniovertebral dysfunction is a difficult and complex medical procedure requiring serious skills and training, rest assured, it is not without reason.

It is not done in a brash rush, as some amateurs may claim, but requires thorough diagnostics, calculation and assessment of the points where force is applied, with analysis of the results obtained and comparison with what it was like “before”.

Only in this case does it bring impressive results, which up to 90% of patients achieve at Body Balance Clinic.

The attitude of medical professionals towards various neck manipulations

In medicine, the problem of head joints dysfunction is not dealt with in the wider medical community due to the “absence of the problem itself” and of well-known effective methods of diagnosis and treatment.

The Body Balance Clinic approach, despite the support of doctors, an abundance of evidence and positive patient reviews, is still new (if viewed on a global scale) and is currently at the stage of being introduced into medical practice.

Body Balance Clinic publications in European medical journals.

Doctors who do not know about Body Balance Clinic technologies, guided by their existing knowledge, act first and foremost on the principle of “do no harm” and almost always warn their patients against using the services of manual therapists, massage therapists and osteopaths if the problem is related to the neck, since careless intervention can lead to an exacerbation of symptoms and affect the patient’s health.

Body Balance Clinic explains why this may happen:

The first cervical vertebra, the atlas, is very securely joined to the skull thanks to the work of the muscles and ligaments.

When dysfunction is present, the combined compressive force of the deep neck muscles that lock the vertebra and the head joints is increased above normal and amounts to about 150-200 kilograms.

The deep neck muscles are not controlled by themselves, but by the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the compressive force in the muscles depending on conditions.

The autonomic nervous system can increase the compressive force of the muscles even further if an unskilled intervention is applied in the area of dysfunction, one that has not a therapeutic but merely an irritating effect on the nervous system. This is how the protective mechanism of the autonomic nervous system works.

For this reason, many patients, after unskilled neck manipulations (chiropractic, massage, manual therapy, osteopathy and bonesetting), experience numerous exacerbations — from the neck locking up and neck pain, increased blood pressure and intracranial pressure, to headaches, dizziness and intensified symptoms in other parts of the spine.

The second cervical vertebra, the axis, is an extremely vulnerable link, since it does not have such rigid fixation by muscles and ligaments as the atlas. It is more pliable and vulnerable.

With sharp turns and jerks of the head, cracking of the cervical vertebrae and, in general, with any sudden movements involving the cervical spine, a rotational subluxation may occur in the atlantoaxial joint with a one-sided pathological obliquus capitis inferior syndrome, which leads to very intense headaches, as well as a spiral twisting of the spine along its entire length.

Subluxation of the axis C2 provokes a screw-like twisting of the spine. Note the difference in height in the area of the shoulder blades and pelvis. Exacerbation is common after unsuccessful manual therapy and bonesetting, due to increased subluxation of the axis C2.

The medical approach of Body Balance Clinic to the cervical spine coincides with the opinion of other doctors that a patient’s neck must not be entrusted to amateurs. The approach takes into account all the criteria listed above and, before any therapeutic intervention, strictly insists on the use of instrumental diagnostic methods and the exclusion of palpation as a means of examination.

Palpation of the vertebrae is not objective in 75% of cases and in 100% of cases does not allow one to see the real picture of the condition of the patient’s neck.

A simple example to make it easier for the reader to understand:

At Body Balance Clinic, we have many times encountered situations where an intern palpating a patient’s neck was absolutely sure that the first cervical vertebra, the atlas C1, was rotated in a certain direction.

When a CT scan was performed, in 6 cases out of 10 a completely different picture was found, in 2 variations:

1. Skull asymmetry was found, which created the impression of a rotation of the first vertebra that did not actually exist.

2. Asymmetry of the atlas vertebra was found, which created a false impression of rotation, or else the vertebra was rotated in the other direction.

An example of asymmetric development of the mastoid processes of the skull, which creates a false impression of displacement of the first cervical vertebra on palpation. In this case, the displacement is felt on the right, although in fact the vertebra is pulled by the left muscle group.

Conclusion 1: Correct diagnostics means a correct diagnosis. A correct diagnosis means correct and successful treatment.

Conclusion 2: No diagnostics or incorrect diagnostics means an incorrect diagnosis. An incorrect diagnosis means incorrect treatment, with a likelihood of deterioration.

If diagnostic equipment is not used to establish the picture of displacements in the head joints, there is a very high chance of harming the patient. This applies to all “specialists” who do not diagnose patients at all.

About the “technologies” of neck manipulation

Massage therapists, chiropractors, kinesiologists, osteopaths, manual therapists and bonesetters who take on the responsibility of restoring a patient’s head joints face the following difficulties, which they are unlikely to suspect:

The compressive force of the muscles at the base of the skull and of the first two vertebrae can reach 250 kilograms (this means that cracking the neck and jerking the head is useless);

The 16 deep neck muscles are in an unevenly tensed, asymmetrical tone — a kind of checkerboard pattern — with a strong spasm in one place and an atrophied muscle in another (therefore they need to be relaxed selectively, but people do not even know about this);

The muscles are fibrotic over 10 to 100% of their area (this means that cracking the neck and jerking the head is doubly useless);

These muscles can hold the vertebrae rotated in opposite directions relative to each other: the atlas is rotated one way and the axis the other (this means that cracking the neck and jerking the head also becomes dangerous);

Horizontal displacements of the vertebrae relative to each other are common (dealing with this is absolutely unrealistic, because nobody even suspects it — there are no diagnostics, after all);

With atlas subluxation, there is almost always calcification of one of the occipital condyles, which rules out self-regulation of the first vertebra (contrary to the theories on which the methods under consideration are based).

Doing all this blindly (there is no instrumental CT diagnostics, after all), with bare hands (no special equipment either), without an understanding of neurophysiology (the causes of “muscle memory” and why symptoms return) is not just doomed to failure; it is the most amateurish approach there is, with a 100% chance of failure and increased risks for the patient who has decided on such “therapy”.

Did you think that treating craniovertebral dysfunction is easy and accessible? No, dear reader, it is not for nothing that doctors have been working on this problem for several decades.

Treatment technologies play a huge role. Body Balance Clinic is a highly specialized clinic with extensive experience in treating head joints dysfunction as the main factor in diseases of the spine and nervous system.

Analysis of trust manipulations in the treatment of head joints dysfunction

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What can be said about trust manipulations of the cervical spine, when the patient is asked to trust and then the head is sharply jerked?

According to the fundamental theories of chiropractors and osteopaths, the blockage of any joint can be eliminated with a maneuver lasting a tenth of a second, which will lead to the vertebrae restoring their position on their own.

Let us examine this theory:

Firstly, the maximum physical force applied by an osteopath or manual therapist is at best 50 kg. And in a fraction of a second it is evenly distributed across all the muscles of the cervical spine. It is absolutely not enough to release the compressive force of 150-200 kg that locks the vertebrae and head joints.

Secondly, it is not aimed at eliminating the fibrosis that causes the pathological shortening of the muscles. And if so, there can be no question of eliminating rotations and displacements of the vertebrae.
Thirdly, it is not aimed at restoring the symmetry of muscle tension. Jerking the head, loading all the neck muscles without exception, both tense and weakened, is extremely inappropriate, since it can lead to a deterioration in health and a worsening of vertebral rotation.

Fourthly, and most importantly, such an intervention has no therapeutic effect on the autonomic nervous system. On the other hand, a jerk of the neck can activate the protective mechanism of the autonomic nervous system, which will cause an even greater muscle spasm than there was originally. This way, a person can be made disabled, or the existing symptoms can almost certainly be worsened.

Muscle tension is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Without restoring the neurophysiological component, it is impossible in principle to restore the musculoskeletal balance of the body.

The protective mechanism of the nervous system

Patients and many “specialists” are usually not aware of it, but activation of the protective mechanism of the autonomic nervous system occurs in response to muscle stretching that happens during a sharp jerk or turn of the head. The second feature of this mechanism is that it can manifest either immediately or gradually, building up over several months after the violence done to the neck. For this reason, patients usually do not tend to directly blame their “therapists” for the deterioration of their health — because the disorders appear mostly after a month or more.

That is why Body Balance Clinic is against trust manipulations.
This can be called the delayed symptom effect, when the condition worsens not immediately but after a certain period of time.

Having received stress, the nervous system, as after a whiplash injury, will gradually increase the protective tension of the muscles. This happens after any sharp manipulations. The damaged segment will be reinforced even more.

To any jerk or stretch, the neck muscles react like seat belts in a car during a sudden movement — with a defensive muscle spasm that builds up over a couple of months.

If, however, the specialist does not perform sharp manipulations, but works only with the muscles and works gently — then what is the point of such procedures at all with respect to fibrosis and the 150-200 kg compressive force of the muscles that control the head joints?

Body Balance Clinic draws attention to the neurophysiology of the process: a temporary improvement in joint function as a result of physical stress, firstly, will not align the vertebrae and, secondly, will not unlock the head joints on a permanent basis.

Neurophysiological principles of Body Balance Clinic correction

In order simply to unlock all three head joints, it is necessary to take into account the presence of muscle fibrosis, as well as the principles of how the autonomic nervous system functions. This makes it possible to have a therapeutic effect on the nervous system so that the protective mechanism of spasmodic muscle strengthening is not activated as a response. In this case, treatment is always effective and absolutely safe for the patient.

In addition, understanding the principles of neuromuscular regulation makes it possible to consolidate the result for the long term. Without using this mechanism and without influencing the nervous system, it is impossible to overcome the resistance of the muscles it controls and, consequently, impossible to achieve stable results. And all this requires knowledge and experience in neurophysiology.

Study of “competing” methods by Body Balance Clinic specialists

An important distinguishing feature of head joints dysfunction treatment at Body Balance Clinic is the restoration of the patient’s body center of gravity and of the symmetrical tension of the myofascial trains along the sides of the body.

This means that after Body Balance correction, a tilted pelvis and leg length are evened out. The effect remains stable for many years and cannot be disrupted unless a new neck injury occurs.

To date, Body Balance Clinic knows of only two organizations which could possibly eliminate the symptom of a tilted pelvis and different leg lengths for a long time — so that six months after the manipulations the patient would have exactly the same level pelvis and even legs. But these cases are rare.

On the other hand, we know of frequent cases of deception, when unscrupulous “specialists” announce to their patients that their legs have been evened out, which turns out to be untrue on checking. As soon as the person stands up and walks around the massage table for ten seconds, on re-examination their legs again turn out to be of different lengths. You can’t fool neurophysiology.

Criticism of amateur approaches

Having conducted several hundred examinations of patients who had undergone “cervical spine restoration” procedures with amateur specialists, Body Balance Clinic doctors have not found a single case of correct head joint function in the organization’s entire practice. In all cases, the examinations revealed displacement of the vertebrae, incomplete functioning of the head joints and extensive fibrosis. Even in those few patients who did not complain of symptoms.

Body Balance Clinic adheres to fairly strict standards and has nothing in common with amateur manipulations, either in methods of execution or in results. No matter what they are called and no matter how authoritative the people performing them may seem. We are confident that if some amateur (even if they are wearing a white coat) claims that they supposedly restore the functionality of the head joints, then on careful examination of the patients’ condition, in 99% of cases this will turn out to be untrue.

The peculiarity of amateur approaches lies in the fact that amateurs take on responsibility and perform procedures whose full meaning they themselves do not understand. They selfishly assure themselves that they are doing everything right and assure others of this. Such deceptive self-suggestion is fraught with a high risk of injury for their patients, with a possible deterioration of their health, unlike the Body Balance Clinic method, which is risk-free altogether and built on entirely different principles of interaction with the human neuromuscular and skeletal systems.

In amateur practice, the lack of stable results, or of any results at all, is usually explained by the claim that neck manipulations must be repeated regularly.

Whereas the “Body Balance Clinic correction” reveals its effect for many years in just two procedures.

Body Balance correction – the leader in the treatment of craniovertebral dysfunction

The “Body Balance Clinic correction” is a treatment unique of its kind. If your doctor does not happen to be a therapist who practices at “Body Balance Clinic”, you simply will not have a chance to receive treatment that even remotely resembles the “Body Balance Correction” in effectiveness. Accordingly, you will not be able to take advantage of all the results achievable through the correction of craniovertebral dysfunction. This is evidenced above all by the success stories of people who have undergone treatment at the clinic.

People who underwent neck restoration procedures with amateurs, who were not helped, and who disappointedly believe that these methods do not work, simply have not been to an appointment at Body Balance Clinic. And even if you feel that you are better after an appointment with your massage therapist, your joints are almost certainly not working as they should.

We have no intention of denigrating other methods of treatment and health improvement. Our duty is to warn you. This article reveals the inner nuances and details that are hidden from patients but that almost everyone involved in vertebrology is aware of. Not every specialist who promises to solve your problems can actually do it.

Based on our experience, subluxation of the head joints cannot be corrected with manual therapy, massage, osteopathic manipulations or manual medicine.

This can be verified using cone beam computed tomography images before and after the procedures.

Subluxation and blockage of the head joints persist after the manipulations described above. This is often the reason why health disorders return after a short period of relief.

Skeptical patients can have a Doppler scan of their vessels and CT scans done and undergo treatment anywhere else. And then come for diagnostics and treatment at Body Balance Clinic in order to compare the effectiveness there with the effectiveness here, both in terms of changes in examination results and in terms of personal sensations.

We are confident in our methods and open to any kind of medical and scientific comparison. When the “Body Balance Clinic Correction” technique is used to restore the functions of the cervical spine, you will need only a few procedures to see this difference.

Why Body Balance Clinic?

Our own effectiveness is confirmed by the positive results of comparative medical examinations before and after treatment, official medical statistics and studies of the method’s effectiveness, professional feedback and support from doctors, publications in medical journals, as well as hundreds of grateful reviews from patients we have cured, including many hours of video features. All these materials can be found on our website, YouTube channel and Instagram.