Manual medicine is understood as a traditional method and now modern pain therapy, which deals with the treatment of functional disorders of the entire musculoskeletal system. Primarily, it is about a restoration of mobility and the release of blockages. Joint, neck, back or muscle pain, sciatica or a lumbago are among the complaints that can be cured by a treatment of various hand movements. This method is opposed to invasive or drug treatment and builds on methods of osteopathy and chiropractic.
What is manual medicine?
Manual medicine is a pain therapy that focuses on treating dysfunctions of the entire musculoskeletal system through specific manual techniques. Manual medicine does not have its roots in modern times. As far back as ancient times, people were concerned with manual techniques to straighten out certain parts of the body. Various records and illustrations exist from that time to modern times. Such manual techniques were used, among others, by animal herders and pastoralists who, concerned about the herd, straightened defective bones of retarded or slow animals. This method was also sometimes used on humans. As early as the 19th century, various medical groups began to study the manual method. Beyond Europe, the findings found their way to America. The term manual medicine was finally coined in Switzerland. The physician Otto Nägeli was the first to describe the possibilities of therapy and is thus considered a pioneer in this field. Manual medicine treats functional disorders by applying various hand movements to improve the physical condition. Restricted movement in joints, the spine and muscles is counteracted. So-called target points enable a diagnosis of all blocked body regions. These are connected via neurogenic wiring in the organism and provide information about the respective blockage that needs to be released. In this way, blocked muscles and joints can be treated manipulatively. The term “manipulative” is to be understood here in the Latin context as an art or hand movement.
Treatments and therapies
Hand in hand with manual medicine are mostly chiropractic and osteopathy. These disciplines belong to alternative medicine and build on scientific and philosophical thought structures that presuppose self-healing and regulation of the body and its functions, while manual medicine in turn has a firm place in conventional medicine, since its basis is critical-rational knowledge. In general, it is assumed that body and mind form a functional unit, which is coordinated in its supply. It follows that disorders affect all areas, and that treatment of these in turn brings about improvement and healing by counteracting the complaints in the musculoskeletal system or skeletal system. In this context, the nervous system plays an essential role in general well-being. Manual medicine assumes that diseases are often caused by subluxations of the joints, more precisely by an incomplete dislocation of these. Through manual techniques, these are supposed to be put back into place and allow health. Manual medicine is used especially for joint, back and muscle ailments caused by accidents, illness or incorrect strain. Likewise, headaches are neuropathic pain, dysfunctional disorders results from possible subluxations. Targeted hand movements cause the restoration of the entire mobility from the joints to the spine, releasing blockages and tensions, treating disturbed joint functions and pain. Instead of medical interventions, the hand grips are a simple means of improving pain and can thus replace expensive and time-consuming treatments. Medications are unnecessary in the manual method, the doctor trained for it makes a diagnosis, gets an overview of the complaints, sometimes with the help of an X-ray. A blockage is always treated by an impulse. The doctor applies pressure to joints and vertebrae with minimal force and repeats these movements in quick and short actions. More precisely, he applies a targeted nervous stimulus to a nociceptor, which does not require any force.Nociceptors are free nerve endings that convert tissue damage or other injury into electrical signals. A light pressure allows tense muscles to relax again. This may also produce sounds such as cracking, while the treatment itself is painless, of course only if the doctor is specially trained to do so. The manual and actual treatment begins only after the setting, although usually a few sessions are enough to correct the disorders and eliminate the pain. After treatment, there is usually a rebuilding program through training and rehabilitation to prevent recurrences. This can be physiotherapy, rehabilitation training or gymnastics. Advice on proper posture or using proper sleeping pads is also helpful.
Diagnosis and examination methods
Limitations of manual medicine occur where treatment cannot be used due to preexisting conditions or consequences of accidents because the risks are too high. Assessing such risks is also one of the tasks of a medical practitioner in this field. In particular, spinal damage caused by cancer requires computer tomography for diagnosis, as manipulation in the affected area can be dangerous. Manual medicine has a wide range of applications. For example, it serves as additional training in orthopedics and trauma surgery, where it offers numerous intervention options, has an anxiety-preventing effect in pediatrics when it comes to developmental or attention disorders, for example, or is used in sports medicine to ensure new treatment options for overuse injuries and tension. Even in the common disease of a painful back, manual medicine at the family doctor can prevent chronic diseases in this direction. Techniques on extremity joints or gentle mobilization on the spine can also be performed by non-medical persons. This is then referred to as manual therapy.
