Cranial Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine: Overview

00:01 So we're gonna talk a little bit more about cranial osteopathic manipulative medicine So cranial osteopathic manipulative medicine is the application of osteopathic principles to the cranium We're looking at the anatomy and physiology and how it ties to structure and function.

00:16 So there's a growing evidence of osteopathic research looking at how cranial osteopathic medicine could affect different medical problems and issues.

00:27 And because of the proximity of the cranium to the central nervous system, this gives us a good opportunity to apply the neurologic model in looking at how we could further examine how cranial osteopathic medicine could affect different neurologic conditions.

00:43 The primary respiratory mechanism is an inherent physiologic motion that is perceivable throughout the entire body.

00:50 This is a motion that is there at birth, there is a expansion and contraction of the central nervous system.

00:56 Another term for this is the cranial rhythmic impulse.

01:00 So there's been different research related to examining the cranial rhythmic impulse and associating with what's called Traube-Hering-Meyer oscillation.

01:11 This has been studied using a laser dopler.

01:14 And so what they found is a cycle about 10 to 14 expansion-contractions per minute.

01:21 This correlates with what is being palpated by cranial osteopathic positions and if you have a rate that is below 10 or above 14- that is considered abnormal.

01:37 So the primary respiratory mechanism is based on 5 basic phenomena.

01:43 So the first one is that there is an inherent motility of the brain and spinal cord.

01:47 So there is a expansion and contraction of the brain and spinal cord and there is a movement there present since birth.

01:54 There's a fluctuation of the CSF, so there is no direct blood flow of the central nervous system.

02:01 The cerebrospinal fluid base, the brain and the spinal cord.

02:06 And so for motion and movement of the fluid there, there's a certain fluctuation that allows for transport of nutrients and waste.

02:14 There is movement of the intracranial and intraspinous membranes.

02:18 So the dural membranes attach to the cranial bones and similar to how ligaments attach to bone, the dural membranes help to guide and limit the amount of motion and movement present at the cranial bones.

02:31 There's a articular mobility of the cranial bones.

02:35 So the cranial bones themselves have motion and movement, based on the different types of sutures and attachments there might be more of a hinge-like motion with the serrated sutures.

02:45 There might be more of a gliding motion when you have more of a squamous sutures so the cranial bones have a innate ablity to articulate and move.

02:55 Finally, there's a involuntary, involuntary mobility of the sacrum between the ilia.

03:00 So due to the dural connections from the cranium down to sacrum via the spinal cord, the sacrum actually will nutate and couternutate due to that pull.

03:11 And so there is a mobility of that sacrum as it articulates with the pelvis.