When I take a patient’s pulse, I’m really checking to make sure their heart is beating in rhythm and their blood is flowing regularly.
It wasn’t until much later that I learned your body has another pulse — your “dural pulse.”
In the 1970s, Dr. John Upledger discovered the dural pulse. He was studying dural tubes at the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University.
The dural tube is a membrane surrounding your spinal cord. It’s filled with cerebral spinal fluid. Dr. Upledger noticed that this spinal fluid moves with a set rhythm. In fact, this dural pulse beats at 6 to 12 cycles per minute.
While the dural pulse is still completely ignored by Western medicine, this central nervous system network of tissues, bones and fluids at the core of your body beats like a second heart.
When the dural pulse is in balance, health and well-being flow naturally. But years of stress and trauma can disrupt this natural rhythm.
Physical injuries, emotional stress, and trauma can leave your body tight and resistant to movement. These blockages can cause:
- Migraines and headaches
- Chronic neck and back pain
- Central nervous system disorders
- Orthopedic problems
- Chronic fatigue
- Stress and tension
- Fibromyalgia
- Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ)
Based on his discovery, Dr. Upledger developed a new therapy for keeping the dural pulse in rhythm. He called it craniosacral therapy or CST. It stimulates healing by using gentle pressure to manipulate the “craniosacral system.”
CST differs from Western medicine because it uses very light physical manipulations to effect change in the body, instead of pharmaceutical medicines or surgery.
The craniosacral system includes the membranes and spinal fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain. It also includes the connective tissues and bones — from the skull to the sacrum at the base of the spine — that attach to these membranes.
In CST, a therapist manipulates the craniosacral system to stimulate the flow of spinal fluid. It aims to release restrictions and blockages around the spinal cord and brain, and to restore the proper function of the nervous system.
This non-invasive therapy is beneficial for patients suffering from chronic pain. And clinical studies prove how effective it can be.
In one review of seven studies, researchers found that patients getting CST significantly increased in their quality of life and sense of well-being.
CST also reduced pain levels and has led to reductions in pain medication.
In a recent German study, doctors divided 54 neck-pain patients into two groups. One group received weekly CST treatments. The other received “placebo” therapy. The CST group had significantly more neck-pain relief. And the benefits lasted for about three months.
Other studies show CST also calms aggressive behavior in patients with dementia. And it improves sleep in patients with fibromyalgia.
I recommend CST to my patients for migraines, disturbed sleep, neck, back and other chronic pain, including jaw pain from TMJ. And it’s effective for the lingering effects of physical and psychological trauma.
I also think of CST as an anti-aging therapy.
You see, it’s often used to relieve stress. And stress shortens telomeres. As these little caps at the end of your chromosomes get shorter, you age faster. One study showed stress can even shorten your lifespan by four to eight years.
Most doctors couldn’t tell you the first thing about your dural pulse. But in the next few months, I’m planning to bring craniosacral therapy to my Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine.
During a CST session, you lie down, face up, and fully clothed. A therapist gently moves your limbs and feels your spine, ribcage and skull for areas of restricted motion. Then using gentle finger pressure with a very light touch, the therapist helps your muscles around the joints and spine relax.
Patients report feeling very calm. Sometimes they have a pleasant tingling sensation throughout their body.
Craniosacral therapy is proven safe, but make sure you find a trained therapist. The Upledger Institute has trained more than 100,000 practitioners. Click here to find one near you.
In the meantime, you can also try a CST technique on yourself at home. This practice brings you to a “still point” and helps reset your craniosacral system’s rhythm.
All you need are two tennis balls and a pair of socks.
- Place the two balls in a sock so they’re touching. Tie up the sock so the balls remain firmly in contact.
- Place the sock with the tennis balls inside the second sock and tie it up the same way.
- Lie on your back on the floor or bed.
- Place the tennis balls under your head on the occipital bone. That’s the curved bone at the bottom of your skull in the back. The weight of your head should rest on the balls.
- Rest comfortably on the tennis balls for 15 minutes.
As you rest, start breathing deeply. You’ll feel different parts of your body releasing. And you should enter a deep state of relaxation.
Do this daily for chronic pain or try it the next time you have a headache.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
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2Green C, Martin CW, Bassett K, Kazanjian A. “A systematic review of craniosacral therapy: biological plausibility, assessment reliability and clinical effectiveness.” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 7 201-207, 1999.
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