TYPES OF MANUAL THERAPY

The beginnings of medicine

Primitive man knew little about speech or medicinal herbs yet tried to help himself or a fellow tribesman by stretching, compressing, stroking, and setting.

 “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." These are the pillars of human culture according to St. Paul. In the context of medicine, we would be talking, like Hippocrates, of herbs, the word and the hand – where the hand is the oldest pillar.

Primitive man knew little about speech or medicinal herbs but certainly tried to help himself or a fellow tribesman by stretching, compressing, stroking, and setting.  People with a gift for these manipulations were recognized as medicine men, shamans, healers or witch doctors.

Massage in ancient China

These were the forerunners of modern medical professionals. It may be safely assumed that manual therapy (“manus” means “hand” in Latin, and “therapy” is the ancient Greek word for “healing”) is the ancestor of all medical techniques.

The most ancient depiction of massage found in the palace of Assyrian king Sennacherib is more than 2,600 years old.

Since no one performs surgery in the sauna or an X-ray test at the beach, these are perceived as the "real" medicine.

In our day and age, however, manual therapy has all but lost its leadership position in medicine and, much like medical science generally, has split into a multitude of specialized fields and subdivisions. The best-known kind of manual therapy – massage -- may be used to promote relaxation and well-being, as well as treat sports injuries and other problems affecting the body’s musculature. Of course, you can get a massage not only in a rehabilitation center or a sports clinic but also in a sauna, at the beach, or even at home on your sofa. Consequently, this ancient healing method has lost the aura of the sacral. People tend to dismiss massage as a serious technique since they believe that “true” medical procedures, like surgery or an X-ray examination, must be performed in appropriate settings.

Because of this attitude, many massage-related types of manual therapy were jettisoned by “real” medicine.  This is not fair: the art of eliminating a painful spasm, setting a displaced joint, or releasing a blocked vertebra can hardly be learned by memorizing a textbook paragraph.  It calls for a pianist’s strong and sensitive hands and an engineer’s ingenious mind.

The forerunners of modern medicine

In the late 19th century a demand for manual doctors led to the birth of chiropractic and osteopathy in the USA. At that point, the traditional medical science (allopathy) was increasingly turning to pharmacological and surgical treatments to gradually evolve into modern medicine, while its two siblings that rely on spine and joint manipulations were largely pushed to the margins.

Chiropractic and osteopathy were born late on the 19th century in the USA simultaneously with allopathy, the forerunner of modern medicine.

Chiropractic claims that all diseases stem from the displacement of certain vertebrae, whose setting can handle spinal problems as well as internal organ diseases.  More often than not, the picture is not that simple.  Chiropractic training is also a far cry from that of a medical doctor.  So, we are talking of a pretty narrow area of expertise – in fact, chiropractors are not even licensed to prescribe drugs, make injections or perform surgery.

The founding of osteopathic medicine is credited to Andrew Taylor Still (1828 – 1917), an American doctor whom many considered a renegade.

Osteopathy is something else.  It does include training in family medicine, pharmacology, and surgery plus joint and muscle manipulations.  These techniques may be effective and popular among patients, but few osteopaths dare use them, probably for fear of being confused with chiropractors or even massage therapists.

The rebirth of manual therapy

Despite all the prejudice and fear, however, in the late 20th century manual therapy finally found its place in medicine, at least in Canada and Europe.  Manual therapy schools sprang up in Germany, France, Canada, the Czech Republic, and post-Soviet Russia. The curricula for these schools were developed jointly by experts in orthopedics, traumatology, neurology, and even neurosurgery. This is how the mentioned new medical specialization, namely manual vertebroneurology, was born.

An experienced vertebrologist (manual therapist) does not simply reset blocked joints. His aim is the complete rehabilitation of the spine, the nervous system, and the overall self-control mechanisms by means of comprehensive treatment involving manual therapy, physical therapy, and medication. The heart of this process is manual decompression and strengthening of the core muscles. This therapy has a very high long-term success rate.