Article by Kim Pelletier, Holistic Physical Therapist.
I am very grateful that the NFL has brought to light the significance of repeated concussions or head trauma. The brain damage that occurs when the head is repeatedly hit is evidenced on autopsy as areas of clumping of proteins called Tau clumps that spread throughout the brain and damage or kill brain cells. Significant symptoms include physical as well as cognitive deficits inclusive of pain, headache, loss of balance, strength, ringing in the ears, depression, aggression, inability to think, and many more.
In my practice I see many people who are suffering from the result of multiple head hits or concussive events but they don’t know it. So as I ask if they have had a head injury they may say “NO”. However gently evaluation with my hands allows me to feel through the bones and membranes of the head and spinal column and feel the restrictions that are the result of head injury. Upon some gently probing the client suddenly remembered that “Oh, I fell off my horse, hit my head when I was 12, I walked home and had a headache but I just kept going.” I will never forget the woman who had severe neck pain with headaches; my hands told me there had been a head injury but she insisted that there had not been an injury. Four months into treatment she recalled being young, being pushed into a dumpster head first and blacking out. She forgot the incident but her body did not. She had cranial restrictions that caused so many of her symptoms. Some people think that concussions mean that you have blacked out, received medical treatment, have had bleeding etc. This simply is not true. A concussion occurs when the head is directly hit or the brain has been banged as the result of a whiplash or sound blast. Cranial sacral therapy is a treatment which is effective in treating head hits or concussions certainly right after they happen but is effective in treating long standing issues of the head and brain. Unfortunately I see most clients 10, 20 or 30 years after their concussive events and they are reporting symptoms inclusive of headache, spinal pain, depression, difficulty thinking, neck pain, difficulty sleeping and more.
It is usually not just one big hit that causes the problems from a head hit but the accumulation of small hits throughout life. Repeatedly hitting the head is what causes cranial restriction limiting the flow of cerebral spinal fluid and throughout the brain which carries the necessary nutrients for healing. This doesn’t just happen to football players and military vets. It happens to so many of us who, over the course of our lifetimes, have received direct or indirect concussive forces to the brain whether in motor vehicle accidents, falls (remember that fall of the ice?) or other ways we have had physical head trauma.
The best treatment is cranial sacral treatment which gently and effectively mobilizes the cranial bones, membranes and cerebrospinal fluid. This movement helps prevent the stagnation and scarring caused by repetitive head injury. It is always best to get treated as soon as possible after a head hit with cranial work. Years of cranial restriction can be reduced with cranial sacral therapy and longstanding symptoms that do not seem to have an immediate cause can be helped.
I am always thrilled to work with the Upledger Institute from which I learned cranial sacral therapy. I am giving you a link to a specific program being used to alleviate the symptoms of concussions in football players using cranial sacral therapy by the Upledger Institute s you can further understand the symptoms and treatment of concussive events. http://www.upledger.org/what-we-do/concussion-program.php
Call Kim: 860-208-1535
Email: pelletierpt@gmail.com
