Why doesn’t C2 supply the superior cervical ganglion?

Posted by John Dalton on August 13, 2008

+ Why doesn’t C2 supply the superior cervical ganglion? - November 05

Hello John,
I am having a lot of trouble getting a visual, 3-D
sense, of the sympathetic chain.  Particularly
nerve supply.  For example, why isn’t the superior
cervical ganglion supplied by C1 or 2?

Any help would be appreciated.

M.L.
Sydney.

>>>MY COMMENTS:

The most helpful thing you can do if you are
having trouble getting, as you say, a 3-D, sense
of some part of anatomy is to make a 3-D model of
it.  Make your model out of anything you like.
You don’t have to be good at crafts and it doesn’t
have to look pretty.  You will learn a lot from
putting the pieces together.

So while you go off to collect egg boxes and
pipe cleaners, here’s something I prepared
earlier.

Think of the sympathetic division of the
autonomic nervous system like two highways, one on
either side of a long suburb called ‘Spinal cord
T1 - L2′.

Nerves impulses leave the suburb and go onto
the highway via ‘On’ ramps and exit the highway
via ‘Off’ ramps.

‘On’ ramps are called White communicantes.
‘Off’ ramps are called Gray communicantes.  The
white ones are white because they have a myelin
sheath.

So just like any highway, you enter at one
point, travel along for a while and then exit at
another point.  Nerve impulses in the sympathetic
chain are no different.  They enter the
sympathetic chain at one vertebral level and exit
at another.

Now along these twin highways are service
stations.  Places where you can get out and
stretch your legs, change cars if you like or
split yourself in four and drive off in four
different cars going in different directions.

No hang on, that was a dream I had last night.

It may be stretching the analogy but it is what
nerve impulses do.  The service stations are the
paravertebral ganglia that make up the beads in
the chain.   At these service stations (ganglia)
nerve impulses may change cars (synapse) and
continue on their way in a new car (nerve).

or they might drive off in four different cars
in four different directions along axon
collaterals (branches).

Now here’s the bit I think you’re getting stuck
on.  Remember the suburb all the nerve impulses
live in?

Humour me.

It’s called ‘Spinal cord T1 - L2′

The sympathetic division may supply all parts
of the body but it only emerges from the spinal
cord and so only penetrates the dura between T1-
L2.

So it makes sense that there are more ‘Off’
ramps (gray communicantes) than ‘On’ ramps (white
communicantes).

14 ‘On’ ramps and 31 ‘Off’ ramps to be exact.

Each highway usually has 22 service stations
(paravertebral ganglion) but instead of them being
called, ‘the servo that has a McDonalds’ or ‘the
one that has KFC’, they’re called cervical,
thoracic, lumbar and sacral ganglia.

and not a big Mac in sight.

You want a coke with those fries or are you
still with me?

Good.
Now that you have a new found understanding of
the structure of the sympathetic chain . . .
just nod . . . it’s time for some audience participation.

The superior cervical ganglion is located
posterior to carotid artery and anterior to
transverse process of C2, right?  Keep nodding.

At what level of the spinal cord do the
sympathetic nerves emerge that supply the superior
cervical ganglion?

That’s correct! T1 or below.

and the middle cervical ganglion?

Correct again! T1 or below.

Now, you’ve got it.  Well look, we could chat
about this all day but you’ve got a model to make.

The significance of all this tomfoolery is that
if the sympathetic chain is compressed anywhere it
can have the effect of switching on the whole
sympathetic chain. Not good.

This can put you in constant ‘fight or flight’
mode.  Making you fearful and agitated with poor
digestion and lousy sleep.   You’ll be sensitive
to bright lights because your pupils are locked
open and you’ll have excess adrenalin in your body
which has a long term corrosive effect on your
nervous system.

Whadaya mean reading my response has had the
same effect?

Sciatica

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.