Posturology of a Stroke Victim

Hello again everyone, as I continue the evaluation of this case study we will be covering the Postural analysis portion of the study next. A thorough postural assessment is crucial in achieving a pain free outcome for all patients. Although Jeff had already been a previous patient, an assessment is taken at the beginning of every treatment to determine the SOURCE of your pain. As I will explain throughout this post the assessment is what gives Neurosomatic Therapy an edge over many other modalities and allows us to find the source of  your pain and not waste time chasing symptoms. Below is Jeff's assessment after seeing me roughly 1 week after his initial stroke.

The first time many look at this chart the first question is, "What does it all mean?". Well if you're a Neurosomatic Therapist or have been treated by one this may look familiar and you may have a basic understanding of the measurements, but for everyone else let me explain. 

Dots = anterior/rotation (that part of the body is coming forward)
Lines = inferior or superior (shoulder will be high or low on one side)
Arrows = direction of hip bones (hip flares inward or hip can flare out)

Thanks to Paul St. John, founder of Neurosomatic therapy. Paul has developed these series of measurements that relate to muscle pull or imbalances. A great example would be if you sleep wrong at night or strain your shoulder. We would see the affected side, lets say left side, raise up higher or superior on the left shoulder. This happens because the muscles affected by the strain elevate that shoulder so when we look at the individual they look "tilted". These imbalances may not only come from muscle strains but also from a leg length discrepancy, a pronation or being "flat footed", and even gravity compressing your posture and distorting it over time combined with previous injuries.

As you can see in Jeff's charts he has quite a bit going on and before we look at his cranial measurements I want to take a minute and talk about "rotation" in the body. Rotation or torque is the most detrimental force the body can create on joints and your intervertebral discs. This can cause accelerated degeneration or tearing of the discs. You can see in Jeff's upper body measurements that his cranium is rotating against the lower half of his body creating a torque throughout the spine. You can also deduct that his affected side (the right side) has created a depressed shoulder/shoulder blade. This can be related to Jeff's stroke and the affected nerves into the arm exciting the muscle tissue making them hypertonic and increasing the tonus pull on the limb.

Arndt-Schultz Law states that, a weak stimuli may excite physiologic activity, a moderate strong stimuli favors it, a strong stimuli retards it, and a very strong stimuli arrest it. By using this basic law of stimuli we can understand why Jeff's right side was affected so strongly, the stroke had caused the muscles in this area to become ischemic and hypertonic from the brains severe trauma. Treating the muscles along the Median, Radial, and Ulnar nerve tracks leading out from the brachial plexus was a crucial step in restoring motor function, improving range of motion (ROM), and reducing any neuropathy or nerve pain he was having in that arm. After being treated  I can proudly say that Jeff now has complete motor function back in his right extremity with very minor nerve sensitivity in the hand but is able to continue running his business and Cross-fit train 4-5 days a week. In my next post we will continue the analysis of how the nervous system, controlled in/at the base of the cranium, can cause an increased tonus on muscles thorough out the body. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and check out our website at sarasotapaintreatment.com for more information on how Neurosomatic Therapy can help your chronic pain. 

-Life is Better When Its Pain Free

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