If you suffer from aches and pains that do not leave, you should consider an alternative treatment called naprapathy. Today, this therapy is either shrouded in mystery or obscure for the unaware.
What is Naprapathy?
Naprapathic medicine targets connective tissue aches and pains by focusing on hand-operated manipulation, dietary recommendations, and healing “practicalities,” such as heat. However, the main naprapathic manual therapy treatment includes massage and stretching to do the alignment and correct the vertebrae.
Naprapathy is a medical doctrine based on the belief that most diseases stem from the displacement of ligaments, tendons, and other connective tissue structures. These diseases can only be cured through appropriate manipulations to eliminate these displacements.
It is a longstanding medical art that is starting to make a resurgence in integrative medicine practices in North America. Naprapathic medicine is currently being championed by the complementary medicine community that prefers this gentler form of manual medicine over other high-velocity forms of treatment.
Many people have never heard of naprapathic medicine, even though this profession is 110 years old. This medicine is well known in Scandinavian countries. In fact, the first Naprapathic College was founded in Sweden back in 1970. Today, modern followers such as naprapat värnamo foster this medical art and help people relieve pains. Also, this medicine has its origins in the United States where it was initiated by Dr. Oakley Smith.
Naprapaths are also known and licensed as connective tissue specialists. Connective tissue refers to three things:
- ligaments that hold bone to bone
- tendons that hold muscle to bone
- fascia or interstitial tissue, which is the most prevalent connective tissue.
The main focus of naprapathic medicine is fascia. By its nature, fascia is viscous and gooey. When you move your shoulder or your back, the muscles should glide over that viscous fascia. Stress, dehydration, repetitive motion, old injuries, sleeping, or sitting positions – all these tend to impact fascia. As you sit hunched over your computer, the fascia starts to dry in the neck and around your back.
This brings us to the focus of naprapathic medicine, which is the alignment of the bony structure. However, instead of doing a high-velocity adjustment, a naprapath will work through the muscle, into the connective fascia to get into the ligaments of the bony structure and make adjustments. As this is a noninvasive method, this feel-good type of treatment has no downsides. It is a gentle system of manipulation that can alleviate the pinching of areas causing restriction to nerves.
What Is Naprapathy Effective For
Manual therapy like naprapathy is effective for patients with:
- carpal tunnel syndrome,
- non-specific back pain,
- headaches,
- non-specific neck pain,
- knee strain,
- rheumatological disorders,
- sciatica,
- fibromyalgia, and others.
With that being said, this therapy has been recently evaluated in a comprehensive RCT which proved its effectiveness in alleviating back and neck pain.
The Final Word
Overall, this therapy is on the fringe of medical care and seems to be picking up pieces that other modalities have abandoned. It can be used alone or combined with other practices to alleviate disabling and recurrent disorders in the short or long term.
