Structural and Neurological Stimulation
While the body is being properly detoxified and nourished, the nerve supply to the pancreas and liver should be considered.
A specific organ works only when told to by a nerve, chemical, or pressure stimulation. Upon taking careful histories, we found a number of cancer patients who had had blows to the head or spine. We feel that such experiences change the nerve impulses to the various organs. If pressure on a nerve to the pancreas causes it to cease sending impulses to the pancreas, the pancreas will turn off and wait until the nerve tells it to work again. If the nerve is destroyed, or for some reason never sends a message, the pancreatic function will be greatly impaired.
Probably the best way to reactivate the nerve enervation is through some form of manipulative therapy such as osteopathic manipulation, chiropractic adjustments, or physiotherapy. We have found it advisable to have a weekly manipulative treatment for at least the first nine months of cancer treatment.
Neurological stimulation can sometimes be increased or simulated by hormone therapy, but this technique must be performed under the direction of a very highly skilled clinician.
There is a group of dentists who use a method called Mandibular Equilibration Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) equilibration to re-shape the skull, take stresses from the brain, and in this way effect very profound neurological changes.
The following are brief descriptions of a few highly successful body-aligning systems.
Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Equilibration
Temporomandibular Joint is such a mouthful that dentists like to use just the initials. It is the name of the joint just in front of the ear where the lower jaw hinges. There is one on the right side, and one on the left. When one or both of them are forced out of place it may lead to such distressing or painful conditions as earache, headache, head noises, clicking sounds, dizziness, nervousness and even mental troubles.
For such ailments as these, doctors may prescribe hot and cold packs, diathermy, massage vibration, rest, surgery, psychological treatment or drugs. While all of these remedies are useful at times, they often do not bring permanent relief if stress in the joint is the real cause of the trouble.
When the cause is stress in this joint in front of the ear, as it often is, a safe and highly successful dental treatment may be the solution. This treatment is known as "equilibration" (pronounced ee-quil-i-bray-shun); it simply means equalizing the muscle forces to restore the lower jaw and its joints to their normal unstrained or neutral positions.
How do the joints get out of adjustment in the first place? It might be from a blow on the chin, a muscle spasm, or opening the jaw too wide (as when biting or yawning). But the most common is chewing with teeth that come together in a wrong way.
Dentists refer to this condition as "malocclusion."
We close our jaws in chewing food, of course — and most persons also press their teeth together one or two thousand times a day between meals in swallowing. If the teeth do not meet properly, the pressures on them during chewing and swallowing may force the lower jaw into a strained position that pinches the joints in front of the ears.
If you could see through the skin and get a side view of the TMJ, you would see how the mandible, or lower jaw, hinges to the skull. The joint consists of a ball-and-socket arrangement, with the ball being a rounded mass of bone in the back part of the lower jaw that fits into a socket at the base of the skull. When you open and close your jaw, this "ball" rotates in its socket, and — if the teeth push the jaw too far in any direction — the soft tissues between the bones are pinched.
One trouble that sometimes follows this pinching is a slow loss of hearing, says one authority on TMJ disorders. He cites the case of a man who was losing his hearing and had been wearing a hearing aid for two years before he learned of equilibration. He had not noticed any discomfort at the joints in front of his ears, nor that his teeth were not meeting properly, but suspected that his teeth might somehow be causing stress. Se he went to his dentist, who made the necessary changes on the chewing surfaces of his teeth. Three days later, the patient’s hearing had improved to such an extent that he discarded his hearing aid. He has not needed it since. That was nine years ago, and his hearing is still good.
Not all patients respond so quickly nor so completely as that, of course, and there are many other causes of deafness, the authority points out — but pressure at the TMJ should not be overlooked.
Besides hearing trouble, this authority says, stress in the TMJ can cause neuralgia, stiff neck, running ears and itching ears. He tells of a woman who suffered from itching ears so much that in company she often had to excuse herself from the room to scratch her ears. X-ray pictures showed both temporomandibular joints to be out of normal adjustment. After her dentist corrected the chewing surfaces of her teeth, the itching gradually left. (X-ray pictures showed that the joints are now in proper adjustment.)
It is not uncommon for stress in the TMJ to bring on head noises. A patient who wore artificial dentures in which the teeth were out of adjustment, forcing the left side of his jaw backward until the joint on that side was under considerable stress, experienced almost immediate relief from roaring sounds in his ears after being treated by his dentist. This was several years ago, and the roaring sound has not returned.
Although the connection between stress in the TMJ and the troubles cited is not fully understood, it is known that there is a connection, because when the condition in the joint is corrected the troubles often disappear.
How does the dentist restore the joints to a normal condition of equilibrium? As part of the treatment he may change the slopes of the natural or artificial teeth, or make the teeth higher or lower to bring the chewing muscles into proper working relationship. Sometimes he reduces pressure on the front teeth so that the chewing forces fall more on the back teeth. (If the ball parts of the lower jaw have been pushed too far up into their sockets, this "pivoting" allows them to settle down again into their normal relaxed positions.)
As the TMJ authority notes, one advantage of equilibration treatment is that it can be done in the dental office and, in many instances, saves the patient from the more radical treatments of surgery or the injection of chemicals into the joints. Quite often, in fact, equilibration is the only treatment needed.
As with other treatment, preventing trouble is an important aim of TMJ diagnosis. Because TMJ stress sometimes builds up gradually, with the patient suffering no inconvenience at first, the lower jaw and its joints are often checked for equilibrium to prevent trouble.
Dentists, Physicians Team Up To Treat TMJ Disorders
Dentists and physicians all over the world are teaming up for diagnosis and treatment of TMJ disorders. (One physician-dentist reported improvement in over 85% of more than 1,000 patients treated with pivoting; another physician-dentist team reported that 52 of 54 patients obtained relief from dizziness after equilibration.)
In 1955 many dentists and physicians from the U.S. and abroad organized as the American Equilibration Society to further more intensive study of the TMJ and related structures.
This is a very gentle, non-invasive hands-on approach that focuses on the craniosacral system of the body. This system consists of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. It extends from the bones of the skull, face and mouth — which make up the cranium — down to the sacrum, or tailbone.
This system has been effective in evaluating and treating problems associated with pain and dysfunction, lowered vitality, and recurring infections. The light touch employed in this approach encourages your own natural mechanisms to improve the functioning of your brain and spinal cord, to dissipate the negative effects of stress and to enhance your general health and resistance to disease.
Craniosacral therapy has proven to help people who complain of ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and some forms of hearing loss.