What is Visceral Manipulation?

Trauma, lack of exercise, physical deconditioning, cumulative soft tissue injury, inflammation, surgery, or obesity can displace, restrict, tighten, or scar ligament and fascia that surround, support, or suspend organs. Fascial and ligamentous injury can result in focal strains that cause tissue or organ dysfunction and injury. Pain and inflammation cycles are facilitated. VM uses soft vectoral techniques aimed at re-engaging normal suspension or movement of internal tissues / organs.

The notion of tissue restrictions or compliance to movement extends to the viscera. Organs, fascia, mesentery, and visceral ligaments move along and in relation to each other in much the same way that we know normal fascia-muscle compartments do. This notion of mobility in relation to each other is differentiated from intrinsic organ motility. Organs are mobile in relation to each other and often possess an internal movement or motility. As all fascia moves with breathing, the lungs move as we breathe, the stomach and intestines move in relation to each other during peristalsis, the urinary bladder shifts location somewhat when we piss. Viscera also move around a bit with ambulation. Visceral mobility restrictions are thought to restrict normal fluid, solid, and impulse conduction through individual organs. Visceral Manipulation addresses these restrictions. Visceral Manipulation is a hands-on set of techniques that resolve organ tissue motility and mobility problems. An organ in its proper place, moving the way it should, is a happy and functional organ. That is the goal of Visceral Manipulation.

Musculoskeletal conditions linked to visceral involvement include:

1. Mid to low back pain: The colon’s attachment to the back of the abdominal compartment may be strained. This can lend ligamentous tightness or displacement which, in turn, can inhibit normal spinal movement. These spinal segmental dysfunctions result in their related pain constellations.

2. Neck stiffness and pain: The suspensory ligaments of the lung and the pericardium all attach to cervical vertebrae. Ligamentous involvement here can cause cervical joint compression and flexion cervical somatic dysfunction. A forward head posture may thus actually be more closely related to a lung problem than to a thoracic spine dysfunction.

3. Shoulder restrictions and pain: Most paramedical personnel are familiar with the fact that gallbladder inflammation can result in pain that radiates to the right shoulder. Nerves that supply the suspensory ligaments of the liver stem from the spinal segment that innervates the shoulder. Liver suspensory ligament involvement may thus result in shoulder somatic dysfunctions.

4. Peripheral joint pain: Visceral compartment restrictions can transmit tension via adjacent myofascial trains into the limbs. These tension lines can cause compressive and torsional joint irritation and dysfunction.


How can visceral manipulation help me?

Visceral Manipulation has been known to improve:

1. Fatigue: Abnormal fascial tension or scarring from at the visceral suspension system may result from inflammation, surgery, and blunt or countercoup trauma. Loss of organ mobility due to restrictions of surrounding and supporting tissues have been linked to general fatigue. By example, lessened fatigue has been reported by whiplash-injured VA patients. Faster recovery rates and lower incidences of depressive symptoms have likewise been reported.

2. GI motility disorders: Ileus, constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome: Abnormal fascial tension or scarring from at the small and large intestinal suspension system may result from inflammation, surgery, or blunt trauma. This causes restrictions that negatively alter bowel motility and function.

3. Hemorrhoids: The venous drainage from the rectum toward the liver is impeded when the hepatoduodenal ligament is abnormally tight. The resultant vascular congestion can cause or aggravate hemorrhoids.

4. Incontinence: Ligamentous tightness and muscle hypertonus may limit proper urinary bladder expansion and emptying.

5. Comparative Studies have found Visceral Manipulation Beneficial for:
Bloating and Constipation
Nausea
Acid Reflux / GERD
Swallowing Dysfunctions
Chronic Pelvic Pain
Endometriosis
Fibroids and Cysts
Dysmenorrhea
Bladder Incontinence
Prostate Dysfunction
Referred Testicular Pain
Effects of Menopause
Pain Related to Post-operative Scar Tissue
Post-infection Scar Tissue
Autonomic Mechanism Dysfunctions
Constipation and Gastritis
Persistent Vomiting
Vesicoureteral Reflux
Infant Colic
Anxiety and Depression
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder


Are you a Therapist or Doctor?
Visceral Manipulation involves hands-on techniques that alter restrictions imposed on the visceral organs. The aim is release of previously impaired mobility and motility. This normalized organ freedom of movement may also release musculoskeletal structures that have been secondarily affected. Reflexive guarding and adhesions causing Somatic Dysfunctions may be broken up with Visceral techniques.


Are there Studies that prove this works?
Comparative Studies have found Visceral Manipulation also Beneficial for:
Somatic-Visceral Interactions
Chronic Spinal Dysfunction
Headaches and Migraine headaches
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Hip and Knee Pain
Sciatica
Whiplash
Seatbelt Injuries
Chest or Abdominal Sports Injuries

Perhaps the best reasons i've heard on
why one should see a Visceral Manipulation Specialist are
1. "when nothing Else has worked," and
2. "there has to be a safer alternative than surgery."