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Revision as of 23:23, 4 March 2006 by Scott Cuthbert (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)What is "Applied Kinesiology"?
A new system of evaluation began to develop in chiropractic called applied kinesiology. Dr. George Goodheart of Detroit, Michigan, found that evaluation of normal and abnormal body function could be accomplished by using muscle tests. Since the original discovery, the principle has been broadened by chiropractic, medical, dental, nutritional, and acupuncture researchers to include the evaluation of the nervous, vascular, and lymphatic systems, nutrition, acupuncture, and cerebrospinal fluid function.
Muscle tests are applied to different areas of the body in a manner that evaluates a specific muscle. Patients notice during their examination that some muscles test strong and others appear extremely weak — perhaps the same muscle functions well on one side of the body and poorly on the other. The “weakness” indicates not only poor muscle function, but also possible trouble with the organ and/or other tissue on the same nerve, vascular, and nutritional circuit. Further evaluation by the doctor reveals the “controlling” factor that might be at fault. If correction is successful, there will be a remarkable improvement in the muscle test, apparent to both the patient and their doctor.
Since nerves control body functions, including all the major systems in the body, it is essential that a doctor be able to evaluate all the nerves in the body. For many years it has been easy for doctors to generally evaluate the peripheral nervous system, which controls muscles and elicits sensations such as hot, cold, deep touch, and soft touch. Applied kinesiology gives a doctor added ability to evaluate function of the nervous system, which controls organs, glands, and other tissues. This information is combined with other diagnostic findings to enhance the examination. Actually, the common patterns of control are much more complex. The “neuronal pools” or meridian system may be involved, as well as many other factors. When any problem in human function has become a chronic one, there is usually an involvement of many other parts of the body that has been trying to adapt and compensate to the original dysfunction. Applied kinesiology allows the physician a mode of investigation and treatment that can discover these many component parts of what may appear to be just a single, chronic problem. The muscle involvement provides the chiropractor with an opportunity to determine when the nerve or some other factor is returned to normal and the body is “turned on.”
Therapy Localization
During an AK examination, the doctor may test a muscle and then have you place a finger or hand in a certain spot. The doctor will then re-test the same muscle; sometimes there will be a remarkable change in its apparent strength. What the doctor is doing is using your hand to stimulate nerve receptors, or otherwise add or subtract energy from different areas in your body that are involved in the particular muscle’s weakness on testing. By so doing, one is able to obtain additional information that might indicate abnormal function. These tests, along with other clinical findings, help indicate the most effective treatment for the problem.
Structural Balance
Muscles support joints and give them stability. A basic tenet in human biomechanics is that “muscles move bones.” If the muscles of one side of the knee or lower back are not functioning properly, there may be joint instability. This may cause joint fatigue, pain, easy injury, and — eventually — joint disease. Nearly all joints of the body can be involved, including the entire spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles.
Cranial Bone Movement
Until fairly recently it was thought that the skull was a solid mass primarily protecting the brain. In reality, there is minute movement of a predictable nature between the bones that is necessary for normal function of the nerves that pass through and then exit the brain and for the movement of cerebrospinal fluid. Spinal fluid surrounds the brain and spinal cord, providing nutrition, lubrication, and hormone movement. A bump on the head can jam the bones of the skull, causing abnormal or no movement. This is a very common factor in the perpetuation of neck and head and low back pains after whiplash injuries today. Improper nerve function may result that can cause problems in many organs or structures of the body.
There are several methods for evaluating the function of the skull in applied kinesiology. The doctor may test a muscle, press on various bones of your skull in different directions, and then re-test the muscle. This is called the AK challenge procedure where the physician momentarily increases the fault pattern of a single bone or group of cranial bones, with the intention that this vector of force placed into the skull will cause a temporary increase in the tension of the membranes of the cranio-sacral system. If this vector of force increases the tension it will produce a momentary lowering of the overall muscle tone of an indicator muscle. If this vector of force decreases the tension it will produce an improvement in function in a muscle that was inhibited by the cranial fault.
You may be asked to take a deep breath and hold it, and then a muscle is re-tested to determine any change. The doctor may have you touch various areas of your skull while a muscle is tested. Dysfunction of the skull is called a cranial fault. If one is found, a specific gentle pressure, the direction of which is determined by examination, will be applied to the skull, usually with a specific phase of respiration. If the correction is successful, there will be an immediate improvement of the previously poor muscle test.
Meridian Therapy
The ancient Chinese developed a system of treating disease and maintaining health that balances the energy in what are called meridians. In modern times, acupuncture — or more accurately “meridian therapy” — has proven a valid method of treatment. Dr. Goodheart et al. have provided some of the first advancements in this treatment in the Western world. By using applied kinesiology techniques, the flow of energy in the meridians can be evaluated and corrected if off-balance. Correction can be made by many methods of stimulation, such as electrical, needles, small tape patches with metal balls, or simply by touching certain spots. You will note an immediate improvement in muscle function after meridian balancing.
Nutrition and Adverse Chemicals
The effect of nutrition and chemicals on health is not totally understood. Modern science is making great strides in furthering this knowledge. Examination to find the cause of a health problem or to generally enhance health should take many factors into consideration. Your doctor’s knowledge about you begins with observation. Hair and skin quality, color of the whites of the eyes, feeling of glands, organs and muscles, and other observations offer initial clues for further examination procedures. Laboratory examinations or special tests may follow. In addition to these usual procedures, your doctor may test various muscles before and after you chew or inhale nutritional or chemical factors.
Nutritional items, when chewed, stimulate the nerve endings in the mouth. This may have an immediate effect on muscle function. For example, if the muscle clinically associated with the liver is weak and vitamin A is indicated for liver support, chewing vitamin A or a carrot may cause immediate and dramatic improvement of the muscle’s function, as indicated by the manual muscle test. Conversely, if a toxic chemical is causing a problem in the liver, a muscle associated with the liver will test poorly immediately after the substance is chewed or inhaled.
All aspects of the examination should correlate and lead to the final diagnosis and recommendation for treatment. Applied kinesiology muscle tests for nutrition and chemicals do not take the place of a complete, thorough examination; rather, they augment it by evaluating how hour body responds to the substances being tested. This adds a functional evaluation that takes into consideration the biochemical individuality of people.
AK not only helps the doctor determine the type of treatment needed, it also helps both the doctor and the patient determine the progress being obtained. As treatment progresses, patients observe muscles that once functioned poorly now test strong. This, of course, is because the body is now functioning in a normal manner.
When health is back to its maximum level, your doctor can use applied kinesiology procedures to help you maintain it by finding poor function and correcting the problem before symptoms develop.
Applied Kinesiology Research Literature
The International College of Applied Kinesiology has understood from its founding that research will help insure chiropractic’s future, and publishing this research helps protect the future of AK. The Collected Papers of the International College of Applied Kinesiology has been published both annually and bi-annually since the founding of the ICAK in 1976. There has been a concerted effort by the organization to present the research, outcomes assessment, and clinical investigations of its members to the organization as a whole and to the scientific, biomedical, and chiropractic community at large. There have been over 2,000 papers in 40 Annual Yearbooks published by members of the organization.
These research papers demonstrate the commitment within AK to staying current and progressive within chiropractic art and science, as well as to testing the principles upon which AK is based.
Hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers have been published that describe the neurological, anatomical, and clinical reasons why applied kinesiology works as well as it does. The websites listed below offer The key technical factor about applied kinesiology that makes it such a comprehensive form of therapy was provided by the discovery that the musculoskeletal system is an accessible and representational system for the rest of the physiology.
The muscular system is completely integrated with the spinal system, and so spinal joint dysfunction will produce weakness on manual muscle testing. Muscular imbalance, verifiable by manual muscle testing, functions in two ways -- by providing the doctor with a non-invasive, painless method of diagnosis -- and by indicating the treatment necessary to help the patient get well.
The AK Research Compendium that you can link to below presents an exhaustive review of the research literature about AK’s clinical methods in peer-reviewed scientific journals, that summum bonum of 21st century research validity. Research will help insure chiropractic’s future, and publishing this research helps protect the future of AK. These studies include research from chiropractic, biomedical, and osteopathic literature and cover the diagnosis, treatment, reliability, and outcome measurements of AK methods. Applied kinesiology’s relevance to neuroimmunology, pediatric, and emotional health is also documented here.
The compilation of structured abstracts from the I.C.A.K. that you can link to below shows that measurements of posture, pain level, vital capacity, body temperature, blood pressure, muscle strength, range of motion, visual acuity, hearing acuity, coronary function (measured by auscultation, sphygmomanometer, or endocardiograph), thyroid and adrenal function, blood chemistry, lingual ascorbic acid time, and salivary pH show beneficial changes following AK corrections to functional disturbances in the patients described in these reports.
Through evaluation of the function of certain muscles pre- and post-treatment, therapeutic efficacy for particular problems can be evaluated. Applied kinesiologists theorize that physical, chemical, and mental imbalances are associated with secondary muscle dysfunction – specifically a muscle inhibition (usually preceding an overfacilitation of an opposing muscle). Applying the proper therapy results in improvement in the inhibited muscle.
The chiropractic subluxation is a neurological dysfunction finally rendered demonstrable by manual muscle testing (MMT), and can be described as functional neurological testing. The applied kinesiologist is now capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation (with repeatable, demonstrable, reproducible tests) with what the founder of chiropractic D.D. Palmer called "Innate Intelligence," or what Cannon called the "Homeostatic Mechanism" of the human being.
The timely discovery of applied kinesiology has revolutionized the approach to healing, creating a new paradigm in healing, and has placed Chiropractic and many other manual modalities of health care into the scientific arena...scientific in the practical sense, meaning that which is explicable, demonstratable, and reproducible.
Evidence-based decision making in clinical practice requires, first of all, evidence. This links below offers you the abundance of evidence about the efficacy of applied kinesiology.
http://www.soto-usa.org/SOTLiterature/Applied%20Kinesiology/Applied%20Kinesiology%20Literature.htm
http://www.icakusa.com/Research.html http://www.icak.com/college/research/AK_Research_Compendium_Dr_Scott_Cuthbert_11_06_05.doc http://www.kinesiology.net/research.asp