AK Newsletter Vol 1, No 1

Many shoulder problems are due to lack of coordination muscle couples. This muscle couple illustration helps the patient understand the importance of muscle strength and proper timing of contraction.

Deltoid muscle contraction without accompaning contraction of the muscle couple jams the humeral head into the bursae. The illustration quickly shows the patient that injecting the bursa is not treating the cause of the problem.

Finally, the pain and limited abduction from impingement syndrome is caused from failure of organized muscle couple function.

Download a printable Acrobat .pdf version of the file from Systems DC's website.

This is a 16 page pamphlet including cover that gives an overview of AK. It helps explain the AK examination as adding information to the standard health examination. It gives the patient ability to explain to friends and relatives the experience just encountered.

The pamphlet introduces the origin of AK in 1964 and its progression to an international discipline. The triad of health, muscle testing as a science & art, structural balance, challenge, therapy localization, general adaptation syndrome (GAS), nutrition, and lifestyle are presented.

Read the entire pamphlet as an Acrobat file on Systems DC's website as well as see the new brochures added to the collection.

Quite often in applied kinesiology we refer to finding hidden or subclinical problems. Often these problems are hidden only by the manner in which we examine the patient. The majority of examination is done with the patient supine or prone. This, of course, is for the doctor's convenience, as it is the easiest way to test and is the position in which most treatment is done. The reason many functional body disturbances are not found is because this is not the position in which the patient lives. We must examine the patient in the positions and during the activities that coincide with symptom development. Observing body language by listening to and watching the patient provides clues to determine how an examination should be done.

On initial consultation a patient states that his back pain usually develops by mid-day, and sometimes he can hardly get through the day so he can go home and sit down to get relief. Obviously this patient should be tested in the standing or gait position. The simple fact that he gets relief when he sits down says that something in the weight-bearing mechanism is causing the disturbance. Certainly the actual pain may be due to spinal subluxations or fixations, but it is almost certainly being aggravated by a disturbance in the foot, gait mechanism, PRY patterns, dural tension, or some other factor under stress in the standing and gait patterns of body function.

Goodheart has often said that body language does not lie. Clinical experience finds this to be true. When there is no apparent correlation between body language and clinical findings, it pays to persist in an effort to find a correlation. Take, for example, the situation described above where an individual gains relief after getting home and relaxing. If the weight- bearing and other factors mentioned are not found positive, persist with your evaluation by asking the patient about his working conditions. The type of physical activity may not be reproduced in the examination for gait, etc. Situations have been discovered where an individual stands on one leg and pushes a lever with the other leg all day long. Simulating that activity in the office reveals reactive muscles which, when corrected, eliminates the problem. In another case, it may be the work boots an individual wears. We have had people bring in their work boots and found them to have general weakness when standing in them but not when barefooted. The boots may be worn out or simply wrong for the patient. Simply standing in the work boots reveals many positive findings with applied kinesiology. In some cases, correction of the low back problem is as simple as having the patient buy a new pair of boots.

Sometimes body language can lead the doctor astray. Consider the individual who feels worse after eating. The usual evaluation is of the digestive system or for sensitivity to food. Often cranial faults are present with this type problem. It is reasonable to hypothesize that the vagus nerve is being disturbed by the cranial fault, thus causing digestive system problems through various mechanisms. When the cranial faults are observed to recur on subsequent office visits, it is reasonable to re-assess the problem. Perhaps the patient does not develop the headache after eating as a result of sensitivity or poor digestion. It may be caused from chewing recreating the cranial faults. This is relatively easy to test. Simply correct the cranial faults and have the patient chew some substance that is generally non- allergenic, such as raw almonds. If the cranial faults immediately return, it appears that the chewing mechanism or something in the patient's occlusion is disturbing cranial function, meaning that the cranial disturbance is secondary. Again, it is necessary to test the patient under the circumstances creating the health problem.

With experience there are many methods in AK to find the problems that are causing the patient's symptoms. Finding the cause of health problems is the great advantage of AK. Sometime the underlying cause is not initially obvious. Thus we need to be investigators for the hidden problems.

Periodically we will be discussing finding hidden causes of health problems. See below for one of these discussions.

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