How your organs may affect your muscle and joint pains.

Chronic pain is a pain. Patients often spend countless lost hours seeking treatment that may only partially or temporarily relieve the ache. One key to creating longer lasting and more complete relief, is to look for therapy that works on the body as a whole, rather than focusing only on the related muscles and joints. 

This involves recognizing the interrelationship between our musculoskeletal system and our organs. To understand this relationship, it is helpful to look at the body's framework. The skeleton and muscles create a mobile, protective frame that houses our organs. A strong, thin tissue called the fascia surrounds the organs and anchors them to this framework, so creating a mechanical connection between the musculoskeletal system and the organs.

For example, the lungs via their fascial covering, the pleura, attach to the ribs and lower bones of the neck. The bowels, uterus and bladder are attached via fasciae to the pelvic bones.

Understanding this mechanical link, we can apply the information to a practical example: chronic neck pain. If a patient has suffered or is suffering from a lung condition such as pneumonia or

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), there will be a change in the movement of the ribs and lower neck joints which will then cause a tension in the neck muscles. In this situation, if treatment does not address movement of the bones in relation to the lungs, the neck pain may not decrease, or may take longer to resolve.

Another example: the effects of constipation on back pain. The bowels attach to the pelvis and lower spine.When they are irritated, as in constipation, the bowels send aberrant nerve signals to the spinal cord, resulting in increased muscle tension in the area. Again, if treatment does not recognize this interrelationship, back pain may not resolve.

The organs not only affect the muscles and joints of our body, but can themselves have their function changed by a lack of movement in the musculoskeletal system. If we look at the above example of constipation, this condition can occur after someone falls onto their bottom. The joints of the low back and pelvis can become jammed, resulting in altered nerve signals to the spinal cord and a strain on local fascia. This causes a change in nerve signal information going to the bowels, and along with the change in tension on the anchoring fascia of the bowels, can cause constipation.

Katrine Cakuls has been trained to treat the body understanding the link between the organs and the musculoskeletal system. She uses hands-on techniques that include visceral manipulation, a treatment addressing the tension in the fascia surrounding organs, and their attachment to the muskuloskeletal system.