Palpable Vascular Motilities and Joint Circulation

Palpable Vascular Motilities and Joint Circulation
by Kimberly Burnham, PhD, MT, IMTC

Integrative Manual Therapy practitioners, Craniosacral therapists, Osteopathic Manual Therapists and many other practitioners use their hands and palpation skills to find areas of dysfunction and treat them. Recently further validation of palpable rhythms in the body, which can be used to assess the circulatory system have been published. In a 2006 article entitled "Recording the rate of the cranial rhythmic impulse." in the Journal of the America Osteopath Association, Nelson, Sergueef and colleagues noted, "the rate of the cranial rhythmic impulse can be obtained by both palpation and instrumentation."

The cranial rhythmic impulse has been demonstrated to be synchronous with the Traube-Hering oscillation, measured in blood flow velocity. Their study demonstrates that physicians tend to palpate the cranial rhythmic impulse and Traube-Hering oscillation in a 1:2 ratio.

The study concluded, "Many low-frequency oscillations in the 6 to 9 cpm (0.1–0.15 Hz) range are found in the human body, such as blood pressure, blood flow velocity (TH),37 heart rate (R-to-R interval) variability, sympathetic tone in muscle, and intracranial fluid oscillations. These phenomena can be directly or indirectly linked to oscillations in the autonomic nervous system, particularly the sympathetic nervous system."

In an earlier study(1991), entitled "Low frequency components of the body's center of gravity and blood circulation", Inamura, Mano and colleagues contribute to the idea of palpable motilities, which are reflective the circulatory system. They did research on a low frequency components of the body's center of gravity, a 1 minute wave. Inamura relates this to "the mechanism of compensation for the venous blood pooling in the legs during static standing in humans." The wave or pulse affects the circumference of each leg causing an oscillation or rhythm from the calves to the chest via the venous system. Inamura notes, "this was inversely synchronized with the 1 minute waves of the body's center of gravity." It was speculated that muscular pumping of the calf related to the 1 minute wave of the body's center of gravity might be compensating for the venous blood pooling in the legs. The research implies that this wave protects us from edema of the legs and helps to stabilize our center of gravity.

Another study shows that joint pumping affects the fluid levels within the joint and circulation to the bone. In the 1986 study, Kimura, M. looked at "The relationship between intraarticular pressure and bone circulation." Pressure in the bone marrow space of the femur, the tibia and the patella, and bone blood flow in the femur were measured during knee joint pumping therapy. Kimura found, "bone marrow pressure in the femur and the patella increased proportionately with the increase of intraarticular pressure (IAP). The study concluded, "joint pumping plays a major role in the improvement of bone circulation."

Copyright 2008 Kimberly Burnham, PhD, MT, IMTC, practices Integrative Manual Therapy in Bloomfield, CT and writes a newsletter on The reasons to think massage therapy and manual therapies can help you. She researches the impact of manual therapies on people with cardiovascular disease, strokes, diabetes, Lyme disease, Parkinson’s disease, back pain, autism, Down’s syndrome, macular degeneration and more. She can be reached at KimBurnham@CenterIMT.com