Apical Ligament
A few weeks back a massage therapist friend brought her mother in to see me, complaining of “10 out of 10” debilitating neck pain. Every movement elicited a grimace or exclamation of pain, particularly rotation.
After running through visual and palpatory observations, we found that she was exhibiting a thalamic inhibition pattern, where one entire side of her body was testing as inhibited.
This is a presentation of unchecked nocioceptive information that the brain has failed to block at the normal levels of the CNS, and has instead made it’s way straight up to the thalamus.
After locating and correcting the source of this dysfunction around her right scalene, we went on to find major instability of the neck due to hypersensitive Golgi stretch receptors in her apical and anterior longitudinal ligament in her cervical spine.
Often overlooked, the apical ligament runs from the odontoid process of C2 to the anterior margin of the foramen magnum and plays an important role in cervical rotation.
After restoring normal neurological function to a number of cervical mechanoreceptors and nocioceptors, she was down to a 5/10 level of discomfort.
The tissues felt quite inflamed so I suggested my friend do a bit of targeted soft tissue work to top off the session and promote circulation.
While soft tissue work alone may often provide some temporary relief, what really sets P-DTR apart is its ability to allow the muscular system to truly let go by eliminating the root neurological cause of adhesions in the first place. By addressing these neurological issues first, soft tissue work turns into the icing on the cake. P-DTR saves manual therapists from taking a beating to their hands and completely eradicates unyielding trigger points.
Two hours after our session I received the email above.
Between one P-DTR session and a few minutes of soft tissue work, a total of 60 minutes of combined work, her pain level had gone from a 10 to a 2.
Work smarter, not harder.
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