| "The cry of mankind is not for pleasure but release | | | | approaches that include hands-on techniques. |
| from pain." Goethe | | | | Such concepts emerged from the mists of antiquity. |
| Pain can be a life saving bodily defense. To be born | | | | The idea is ancient. Wherever native societies |
| with the inability to feel pain assures early death, but | | | | developed healing systems, they incorporated some |
| in the vast, ordinary middle ground of living - | | | | form of these applications. What is new are |
| between first perception and life threat - the hope | | | | advances from increased knowledge and experience |
| for pain relief is a driving universal need. | | | | - and, at the same time, what was tragic is what |
| Yet, while pain relief is historically first priority for a | | | | transpired during the formation of "professions" |
| host of health-care professions: traditional medicine, | | | | when, many generations ago, the basic |
| osteopathy, chiropractic, physical therapy and others, | | | | understandings became the fodder of contention, |
| all associated with related industries that pervade the | | | | conflict, greed, lust for power - domination at any |
| societies of the world, despite all that alleged effort, | | | | cost. Logic died. Because during one of its lowest |
| there is, in fact, a Pain Pandemic. Because the | | | | intellectual ebbs traditionalism rejected the hands-on |
| fundamentals are not universally accepted, for more | | | | (manipulative) therapies, instead of reinvestigating, it |
| than a century and a half, countless millions have | | | | went to war at any cost as reaction to the |
| suffered unnecessarily and continue to suffer- | | | | subsequent emergence of osteopathy, then |
| especially wherever Westernized medicine is practiced | | | | chiropractic. "Enemies" have to be despised so how |
| as the result of medicine's Fundamental Flaw. | | | | could they do anything worth emulating? And there |
| In a single simple statement, parts of the body | | | | certainly were always cases of abuse to "justify" |
| operate similarly to machines. Each has levers, pulleys, | | | | such attitudes. The ongoing screams of societal pain |
| power sources, support systems and the need for | | | | eventually became background noise, "just the way |
| balance in performance. When imbalance occurs, | | | | things are," as the essence of the issue became lost |
| performance is impaired. Pain can be equivalent to | | | | in the professional posturing and the onslaught of pill |
| squeaks in the machinery that may be relieved by | | | | popping advertising as the 'normal' way to relieve |
| skills not dissimilar to those of the machinist, the | | | | pain. |
| mechanic, the carpenter - the study of function | | | | Medicine's technological advances with interposed |
| through knowledgeable examination of the materials | | | | instrumentation only further obscure and distance the |
| they work with. | | | | clinician from primary responsibility to understand |
| In the body, the exquisitely complex relationships and | | | | what the patient's tissues willingly reveal to the |
| interactions between the parts are the substance for | | | | respectful clinical examination. And, the advent of |
| the production of a host of pain syndromes whether | | | | managed care shoveled on another layer of |
| experienced as headache, back pain, neck pain - | | | | obfuscation. But truth persists: There are invaluable |
| musculoskeletal pain in any of its expressions. Many, | | | | medical therapies that only hands can successfully |
| regardless, are inherently, sometimes uniquely | | | | administer. |
| receptive to relief and functional restoration by | | | | |