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