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OK, that was then and this is now - here is some old stuff we dug out of the vault and dusted off just for you.

 The following article was written by AMMA member Robert Mason and was first published in 2006.  It is an interesting article about a misunderstanding as to how vibrators different from electro therapy devices, like a TENS unit.

Vibrators and Quantum Physics

Robert Mason, R.P.T., M.M.T.

I was at a salon appointment recently that really underscored the issue of consumer protection and fringe massage therapy.

I met a massage therapist who was using a BMS-XB1 device.  They claimed that the BMS device vibrated at a frequency that caused muscles to contract.  Vibrators cause muscle contraction?  When I asked the therapist how that might occur physiologically they could not answer the question. I examined the device and it was nothing more than a mechanical vibrator.  It could not, as suggested by the therapist, transmit an electrical current that contracted muscles, nor would simple mechano-vibration do that either unless it was of such intensity that it caused postural imbalance resulting in muscle stimulation to maintain balance. 

Product information provided with the unit indicated that:

“BMS is a neuromuscular stimulation, purely mechanical, made by a vibration all along the muscle fibres. BMS is NOT using any electricity or chemical components. BMS transmit vibrations of specific amplitude and pre determined frequencies on the neuromuscular system.”

The device was invented in Russia, is made in Germany, and costs $20,000.  (A lot of money for a vibrator)  The smaller handheld devices cost $2000, and are identical in function to the $12.00 vibrators sold at Wal-Mart.

What was amazing to me was the sincerity of the therapist, they really believed that the device worked as the manufacturer claimed, but I was dismayed by the inability of the therapist to understand how a vibrator worked! 

The salon that has this device is selling its use to clients for the treatment of medical conditions.  There are several ethical issues here, the sale of the machine itself for an exorbitant amount of money, better professional mechano-vibrators can be purchased for $1000 or less, the claim that the unit vibrates at a Hz level equal to relaxed muscle (relaxed muscle is neurologically silent), and direct health care fraud to the client by claiming that the unit treats diseases like cellulite due to muscle contraction.  (Why are they treating diseases in a salon?)

Belief in superstition and magic seems to be increasing exponentially and has inculcated itself deeply within the massage and complementary medicine communities.  These kinds of beliefs become apparent in the use of electronic devices that supposedly transmit “special” frequencies that diagnose and/or treat disease.  The most extreme example that I have seen of these kinds of beliefs and practices includes a black box that is absolutely empty, except for the special energy placed in the box by a homeopath.  The claimed purpose of the box was for the amplification and transmission of healing energy by the homeopath through distance healing and via a cell phone to his patients. 

The BMS device was simply one service provided by the massage therapist, but much of the rest of the visit and the actions of the therapist were also based on metaphysical and non physiological practices, in a word a belief by the therapist in magic and metaphysics in the guise of pseudo scientific electronic devices. 

Frequently the justification or theory upon which metaphysics becomes physics is attributed to quantum physics.  Quantum physics is an important division of physical science, but to my knowledge it has not replaced the everyday Newtonian physics or the fundamental laws of physics.  Most likely when you got up to go to work this morning you chose to drive yourself, and not transport your atoms via a Wormhole.

Some therapists are electing to treat patients with electro frequency devices that claim to transmit energy, as opposed to the standard therapeutic modalities of heat and cold, or other direct modes of physio-therapeutics.  They are using the term “quantum” as if it is a universal healing mantra endowed with a strange healing potency.

While I am far from being a physicist, I have been forced by higher education to complete several post graduate level courses in physics and chemistry.   These studies coupled with a lifetime of study in radio and communications technology, and a past license in radio engineering from the FCC, provide me with some insight, perhaps, into the workings of electro therapy and electro frequency transmitters. 

We live in a sea of electro magnetic transmission that constitutes the electro magnetic spectrum and includes everything from radio waves, light, and gamma radiation.  Quantum physics is the division of physical science that studies small particles such as electrons, protons, neutrons, and very small and strange particles such as quarks and gluons.  Some people have taken the theories of quantum physics into the realms of metaphysics and alchemy and used this conglomeration of science and magic to justify questionable healing practices.  Sometimes this is done out of general ignorance of the science, and sometimes because it provides a plausible explanation by which to perform health care fraud.  It isn’t always easy to tell the sincerely ignorant from the criminal element just looking to make an easy buck.

All of this makes it evident that there is a definite problem in the educational programs that are producing massage therapists that lack training in basic sciences, and are apparently spending  too much time studying metaphysical and non physiological theories and practices.  The current recommendations and criteria established by several general massage associations encourage the inclusion of non scientific and metaphysical studies as a component of entry level massage education and curriculum.

Our current politically correct social and professional environment states that, “Your OK, and I’m, OK.  If you believe that your vibrator is a ticket to quantum Nirvana, more power to you!  (just make certain that you are using 120 volts when you plug it in)

No Name Massage Therapy

It is early morning and you are walking down the beach.  As you walk along and gather sea shells you see a small book lying along the shore.  You bend and pick up the book and you notice the books unusual title, “No Name Massage Therapy”.  As you open the book to its introduction you are immediately captivated by the book’s introduction:

“Welcome to this book, No Name Massage Therapy.  This book, as its title suggests, has no name and the author wishes to remain anonymous.  This book is about massage therapy, or rather what massage therapy would be like if no one attempted to take personal credit for different theories and ideas, techniques and procedures, and if no one wanted to profit from the art, knowledge and science of massage therapy.   You see, massage therapy is a great gift to humanity, and many massage workers have contributed and will continue to contribute to this great body of knowledge.  No one who enjoys success and profit from the profession of massage has the right to impede its progress and advancement.  Simply because you are a massage therapist, you do not have the right to hamper this professions progressive growth and development.  This book is simply about massage and how massage works to assist the body’s healing processes.  Once you are finished with this book please return it to the Ocean from where it came. 

There are simply two rules; one, whatever you add to the book must be the truth, the absolute truth as you know it, and two, whatever you write must benefit the sick, the suffering and those in pain.  Nothing placed in this book can be sham, and nothing can be added simply to benefit you.”

As you turn the page you see the book is filled with the handwriting and ideas of many different massage therapists, therapists who like you found the book lying on the shore and who added their ideas and returned the book to the Ocean.  As you look further through the pages of the book you see that there are still many blank pages yet to be filled, and so you begin…

Anonymous

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

Observations of a Massage Heretic

I usually do not write in the first person.  I have learned a lot of clever ways to avoid the use of the word “I”, however, in this article, and in just two sentences I have already managed to use the word “I” five times!!  This article is about what I have experienced and what I have observed as I have practiced manual therapy, and so I will probably be using a lot of “I”s.  (see five more “I”s)

I usually write about things like science and research and clinical applications of biomechanical or neurological discoveries and I normally fastidiously avoid the use of the word “I” in the writing that I do for books, manuals and articles.  In this article that describes my “observations as a massage heretic”, I simply cannot avoid the word “I”, or its close friends “me” and “myself”.  So please forgive “me”, because even through the word “I” will appear over and over again in this article, I am really not writing about me or myself, and certainly not “I”.  Instead I am writing about massage and manual therapy.

Many of the materials that I have written over the last several years have been based on my clinical experience as a naprapath and a chiropractor who has practiced manual therapy for several decades and my inquisitive research into muscle architecture, connective tissue engineering, biomechanics, and functional neurology.  I am, I believe, fortunate in that I entered the field of applied manual therapy as a naprapath and therefore I am a graduate of a four year training program in musculoskeletal manual therapy technique, in addition to the five year chiropractic program at the National University of Health Sciences. 

This article is about what I don’t believe about popular massage therapy practices and theories.   A heretic is someone who holds “controversial” opinions.  That is certainly “I”. However, while I may be a heretic, my opinions are not heresy.  I have authored several “books” (training manuals) on the subject of medical massage and medical manual therapy, as well as, numerous articles on the same topics.  In my written materials I attempt to present and to represent the latest scientific findings regarding massage and biomechanics, as they relate to the physiology of the body.  In the process of doing this I frequently find myself in opposition to popular massage therapy practices and theories.

In several thousand pages of material I have written about what I do believe regarding how massage and manual therapy affect the physiology and neurology of the body and how proper massage and manual therapy technique should be delivered to patients.  I will not bore you with a lengthy rendition or a rehash of what has already been covered ad nauseam, but suffice it to say that I am a strongly opinionated proponent of medical massage that is applied for clinical purposes, and objectives, to a patient’s chief complaint or musculoskeletal problem. I do not utilize pain provoking techniques, or massage that is esoteric or sensual, and that does not direct itself to producing a measurable clinical response in the patient.  A lot of what is currently popular in massage practice today, along with accepted theories and concepts, will not be popular for long.  Many of these theories regarding pain provoking deep tissue technique, trigger point, and tendon reflexes in NMT and PNF are on there way out.  Sacred cows are an endangered species, but they should not be placed on the “protected” list.

Massage therapy, because of its long history and intrinsic value, will endure the loss of these passing fads as it moves ahead along its evolutionary path into the future.  In history things of value endure the ages.  Like the American pioneers moving west, things that lack value are discarded along the way.   

Current beliefs regarding nervous system peripheral control over muscles and tendons, so called tendon reflexes, are intimately inculcated within the theories of NMT and PNF.  Current research seriously questions the basis for peripheral control of muscles and tendons by these tendon reflexes.

Current research findings regarding myofascial pain syndrome calls into question the theories of trigger point therapy and points the way to new understandings of MPS as a peripheral nerve pathology, or at least, a neuromuscular disorder that is secondary to peripheral nerve pathology.

Research regarding deep tissue or pain provoking massage technique calls into question the need for all this pain, and indicates that these techniques actually increase patient pain and prolong patient recovery.

Even the simple things that we may have come to believe about massage or anatomy may not be true.   I have observed over the years, this simple truth, people are different.  No two people are the same.  Their anatomy is not the same.  Surgeons know that patients have different shapes to internal organs or extra arterial branches.  To the knowledgeable anatomist most anatomy books are laughable, almost comic book representations of real human anatomy.  The lateral aspect of the psoas may have a connecting branch to the quadratus lumborum, the piriformis muscle may be joined at the sacrum by attachments from the gluteus minimus, and the deltoid may follow the tricep brachii to the scapula.  In “real” anatomy “anomalies” are a normal event.  What is not normal, is normal.

The quadratus lumborum may be easily identified in one patient and unrecognizable from the abdominal oblique in another patient.  The so called “gliding” effect of normal fascial planes over, along and upon each other probably does not occur, but it sells Rolfing sessions.  What probably does occur are changes in the “gel like state” (thixotropy) of muscle and connective tissues, the muscle architecture, so that muscle stiffness is reduced and that in turn allows adaptation of the muscle in response to surrounding tissues. 

Two doctoral programs and several opportunities from the pre med to the post graduate level to participate in human dissection and cadaver studies have provided me with an altered perception of the human body. I have also gained a perspective regarding what techniques may work and which ones may not. I now see anatomy books as nothing more than a road map to the body.  I have a very difficult time, after having “worked” with the human cranium, believing that the subtle pressures of cranial technique are going to have any direct effect whatsoever on the movement of human cranial sections or along suture lines.  Sacral techniques are a different story, some patients probably do experience a medical subluxation of the SI joint, however many do not.  After having investigated the atlanto occipital junction in a human cadaver I seriously question some of the subtle Sutherland release techniques I learned early in my training. 

My approach to musculoskeletal therapy is so pragmatic that I have little tolerance for new age approaches or techniques that are countered by practical anatomy, and often commonsense.  The claims of cranial sacral therapists to “talk” to a patient’s internal organ’s is simply beyond my feeble capacity as a simple manual therapist working within the realms of muscle and bone.

Things change, and too often that change makes people uncomfortable, but change is a natural part of the process and progress of science and discovery.  Massage therapists don’t like to be told that things that they think are true, aren’t, or that techniques that they have learned are not effective.  However, in this great cycle of life, no one asks us what we want, or whether the change makes us feel uncomfortable or not.  No one is that important.  No therapist, teacher, or school owner has the right, simply because they enjoy the privilege of practicing the great art and science of massage, to resist its growth or change.  To do so is an affront to the profession we profess to represent.

I am as passionate about my medical and research based approach to massage and manual therapy as others are to their pet theories and non physiological approaches to massage.  I believe in the unfettered independent investigation of truth, because I believe that science, like faith, has no limits.   Beware!  Beyond here, there be monsters!

About the author:

Dr. Lawton is the Founder of the Blue Heron Academy of Healing Arts and Sciences and a board member of the American Medical Massage Association.