Sep
16
Posted by John Dalton on
September 16, 2008
*As with all anatomy I suggest you search for each new term on google then click on the ‘Images’ tab at the top of the page. Look at as many different pictures of each structure, from as many different angles as you can. Then look at it on the Visible Body. This will help you get a 3 dimensional image of the structure in your head.
The Ventricular System is a system of cavities and canals deep
within the brain and spinal cord. They have a thin membranous
lining called the Ependyma. The whole Ventricular System is filled
with Cerebrospinal Fluid. The Ventricular System consists of
four ventricles connected by various communicating channels.
These are:
❍ Two lateral Ventricles (1st and 2nd Ventricles) located within
the two cerebral hemispheres, each of which communicates via an
inter-ventricular foramen to
❍ The third Ventricle located between the two Thalami of the brain.
The Third ventricle communicates inferiorly through the cerebral
aqueduct (aqueduct of sylvius) to
❍ The fourth Ventricle located between the Cerebellum (posteriorly)
and the Pons and Medulla (anteriorly). The fourth Ventricle is
continuous inferiorly with the central canal passing down the
centre of the Spinal Cord.
In the roof of each of the four ventricles are located Choroid Plexi.
These are filter like structures through which Cerebrospinal Fluid
is formed as a filtrate from arterial blood. Arterial blood enters
the Choroid Plexi from the cerebral arteries; then blood cells,
proteins and other large particles are filtered out (remaining in
the blood). The pure colourless fluid that filters through this
Choroid Plexi into the Ventricular System is Cerebrospinal Fluid.
HOW DOES CEREBROSPINAL FLUID GET OUT OF THE VENTRICULAR SYSTEM?
In the posterior and lateral walls of the fourth ventricle are three foramina -
The Foramen of Magendie (medial aperture), posteriorly, and
Two Foramina of Luschka (lateral apertures), bilaterally.
Cerebrospinal Fluid flows throughout the Ventricular System.
It passes out through the Foramina of Magendie and Luschka
into the sub-arachnoid space where it circulates throughout
the Sub-arachnoid space around the Brain and Spinal Cord.
Cerebrospinal Fluid also seeps through the walls of the ventricles
into the nerve tissue of the Brain and Spinal Cord. From the
sub-arachnoid space it seeps through the Pia Mater into the
tissues of the Brain and Spinal Cord. Cerebrospinal Fluid also
seeps out with the peripheral nerves of the spinal cord as they
leave the Central Nervous System and travel out to the periphery.
REABSORBTION
Cerebrospinal Fluid is eventually returned to the blood via the
Arachnoid Villi which protrude from the sub-arachnoid space
through to the Superior Sagittal Sinus of the Brain. It re-joins the
Venous blood which then drains from the Venous Sinuses via the
Internal Jugular Vein to be returned to the heart.
So the direction of flow is,
- Arterial blood is pumped into the Choroid Plexi in the roofs
of the Ventricles where it is filtered into cerebrospinal fluid.
- The lateral ventricles drain into the Third Ventricle via
Inter-ventricular foramina.
- The third ventricle drains into the Aqueduct of Sylvius to the
Forth Ventricle.
- It is in the Fourth Ventricle that the cerebrospinal fluid leaves
the ventricles and enters the sub arachnoid space via the
foramina of Luschka and Magendie. (It also travels down the
central canal of the spinal cord.)
- It travels throughout the sub arachnoid space.
- Some of it seeps out with the peripheral nerves and is
reabsorbed as an extracellular fluid.
- The bulk of it is reabsorbed by the arachnoid granulations
of the arachnoid villi. These transform it into Venous blood
as they deposit it into the Venous sinuses, particularly the
superior sagittal sinus.
Jul
02
Posted by John Dalton on
July 2, 2008
+ Which technique should I use? - September 05
+ Comment from Al Pelowski, principal tutor with The South
African Institute of Cranial Studies. on sciatica- October 05
Hi John,
Found your web site very useful and your URL easy to remember.
I use it as my virtual business card. I have been treating a man in
his late fifties with sciatica. I have had some success but feel I
could achieve more.
Can you recommend any techniques that you have found
particularly useful for sciatica?
Thanks
J.P.
Brisbane.
>>>MY COMMENTS:
Glad you like the site.
I’m going to answer your question in two parts. Let me start by
saying no one technique is ‘the’ technique for ANYTHING.
Techniques are ways we get a handle on the bigger picture.
And the biggest picture is what you need to be available for.
I am putting it like that because describing it as ‘looking’ for
the biggest picture is way too active, eager, inefficient and INTURSIVE.
You need to ask yourself, what is really going on here?
Why has this person got these particular symptoms?
Why are the symptoms in this configuration?
What’s the root cause of this situation?
Symptoms generally manifest physically, meaning they show up
in the person’s body. But that doesn’t mean the CAUSE of those
symptoms is exclusively physical.
Often EMOTIONAL issues will express themselves as physical symptoms.
It doesn’t just stop there, often the root cause of what is going
on has a physical component, caused by an emotional component
but the root cause is not emotional it is something DEEPER.
That may sound spooky or kooky to you depending on your slant
but I have seen it time and again, where the root cause was deeper
than physical and emotional issues.
How can that be?
Let’s go through it one layer at a time.
Physical problems.
These problems are characterised by very physical causes and
descriptions, ‘The tentorium cerebelli is pulled inferiorly here,
causing pressure there . . .etc’.
Regardless of the source of a pattern of a restriction, it will show
up physically. Becoming accurate in identifying the extent and
complexity of physical restrictions takes a lot of practice and is
a prerequisite for working with the deeper causes.
Emotional issues/causes.
Restrictions in the emotional aspect of the person can have causes
like, a person may need to leave a partner or job or it may be an old
emotional abuse.
Emotional restrictions are more difficult to identify accurately
because it’s very easy to start theorising about the person’s problems
instead of simply receiving the information from the person’s body in
the same way you do with physical patterns.
Core problems
These relate to how the person sees themselves in their lives, their
relationship with themselves, with God, with their idea of God.
A feeling that they’re off track.
And no, you don’t need to know what their track is.
Core problems can feel like fundamental disharmonies within the
person. They are the hardest to perceive because they are so deep
in the person.
Your ability to see and work with these core issues comes with lots
of practice and humility.
Their revelation occurs in the dynamic between you and the person
and what you have to offer each other.
Are you with me?
It generally works its way through the layers something like this.
A disharmony in a person’s core will affect them emotionally and
in turn affect them physically.
For example someone might think they are fundamentally bad.
This could manifest emotionally as anxiety and paranoia, which
could manifest physically as headaches and chronic fatigue.
The skill comes in being able to assess where the root cause of
the problem is.
Before you go charging off into the great mystery, let me add this.
It can be as easy to go the other way and start looking for deep
emotional and core issues as the root cause of a purely physical
problem.
‘I just twisted my knee Mate!’
Now the second part of my answer is purely physical.
There are lots of different ways of creating sciatica.
It’s a pain, which means there have to be nerves involved.
The pain generally is in the lower back and travels down one
leg or the other, sometimes both.
Have a look at, [in books and with your hands] the lumbar plexus,
the sacral plexus. How are the nerves on both sides of the spinal
column as they leave the vertebral foramina?
Scan the nerves up as far as the thoraco-lumbar junction.
Remember tight membranes can pull vertebrae together and pinch nerves.
Consider how long the person has been getting the pain?
Getting a sense of when and how the pattern of restriction was formed.
So, look particularly at the dural tube.
How are the membranes running?
Most particularly how is the cerebro spinal fluid moving?
Find ways to help it come into a harmonious flow.
It’s all about flow.
Top
***COMMENT FROM AL PELOWSKI***
- On additional physical causes of sciatica.
John,
Some of the rootlets of the sciatic nerve pass through the psoas
muscle - a noted emotional contractor- - slightly bent over posture,
unable to fully extend hips without pain, affected leg externally rotated.
Another sciatica tip: usually on right side, I-C Valve, Caecum.
Yet other possibilities: Leg length differences, real bony differences,
or more likely due to rotations in the leg from protecting an old sprained
ankle or twisted knee — most commonly external rotation in the foot
where there has been damage to the ankle lateral colateral ligaments
– resulting in compression of the S-I joint and thus irritation of the epineuria.
“from the ankle joint to the knee joint…etc” Remember the tune?
Yo. Ta for newsletter. Much food for reflection
A
>>>MY COMMENTS:
Thanks Al. All very useful places to look for the mechanics of
the physical manifestation of sciatica.
Jun
19
Posted by John Dalton on
June 19, 2008
*As with all anatomy I suggest you search for each new term on google then click on the ‘Images’ tab at the top of the page. Look at as many different pictures of each structure, from as many different angles as you can. Then look at it on the Visible Body. This will help you get a 3 dimensional image of the structure in your head.
The cranio sacral system is a physiological system within the body.
Along with the Respiratory and Cardio-Vascular systems, it forms
one of the three primary life systems.
The Cranio Sacral System consists of -
❍ Fluids
❍ Membranes
❍ Fascia
❍ Bones
Each is a recognised anatomical structure but outside Cranio Sacral
Therapy they are not treated as one integrated system.
CEREBRO SPINAL FLUID
A clear colourless fluid which surrounds and bathes the central
nervous system, creating the environment within which the brain
and spinal cord grow, develop and function. It provides nutrition
and drainage for the brain and spinal Cord also. It is in continuous
motion, as any stagnation would undermine the brain and nervous
system.
Cerebro spinal Fluid is produced in hollow spaces at the centre of
the brain called ventricles and circulates throughout the
membrane system.
THE MEMBRANE SYSTEM
Containing the cerebrospinal fluid is a tough waterproof sack
made up of three membranous layers called the meninges which
surround the brain and spinal cord. The meninges have horizontal
infoldings in the cranium which separate the cerebrum from the
cerebellum called the Tentorium Cerebelli and a vertical infolding
called the Falx Cerebri and Falx Cerebelli which divide the right
and left hemispheres of the Cerebrum and cerebellum respectively.
THE FASCIA
Fascia is a connective tissue which forms a continuous sheath
throughout the body from the top of the head to the soles of the feet.
It envelops every organ, nerve, blood vessel, muscle and indeed every
structure throughout the body.
This continuous fascial sheath forms a close connection to the
meninges at the point where each peripheral nerve emanates from
the spinal cord. As the spinal nerves penetrate the Dura they pull
some of the Dura with them and this blends into the fascial sheath
which covers the spinal nerve on its journey. This transition point
from membrane to fascia is called the epineurium. It is one of the
ways the Cranio Sacral Rhythm is translated to the rest of the body
BONES
The meninges are closely attached to the bones of the Cranium
and also to the 2nd and 3rd Cervical Vertebrae (C2 and C3) and
to the Sacrum and Coccyx. The outer layer of the Dura is so
closely attached to the bones of the Cranium that it forms a
periosteum or inner lining to these bones.
Consequently, all the bones to which the membranes attach must
inevitably follow any motion exhibited by the membrane, expanding
and contracting in accordance with the membrane and reflecting
every pull or tension within the membrane system.
