Can Acupuncture help Concussion and TBI

CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation: A new Treatment Intervention for Concussion Recovery Gail Wetzler, Melinda Roland, Sally Fryer-Dietz, and Dee Dettmann-Ahem

There were 400,000 traumatic brain injuries during military combat since 2012 due to heavy equipment use and exposures to environmental hazards and explosives. U.S. athletes are subject to concussions and TBI as well. This study examined the use of CranioSacral Therapy (CST), Visceral Manipulation (VM), and Neural Manipulation (NM), modalities whose elements are extrapolated from acupuncture therapies. The study’s goal was to evaluate these effects on immobility, pain intensity, quality of life, sleep disorders, and cognition.

The patients in this study were retired professional football players from both the National Football League and the the Canadian Football League previously diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. Individuals with acute recent head injury were not included in the study.

The results of this study revealed statistically significant reduction in pain in the head and neck regions. There was also an increase in the range of motion of the head and neck region. Sleep time doubled reducing fatigue and anxiety. There was also an increase in the average memory score, less difficulty with learning, reading, and making appropriate decisions. Depression scores also seemed to improve.

CranioSacral Therapy is a gentle, noninvasive manual therapy that modifies and corrects restrictions in the craniosacral system which consists of meninges, bones attached to the meninges, cerebrospinal fluid and glia. The essential part of CST is to optimize the flow of CSF into and out of the central nervous system.

Visceral Manipulation consists of gentle manual forces that encourage normal mobility, vascularity, tone, pressure, and inherent tissue motion of organs; connective tissue; and their relationship to other areas of the body where physiologic mechanisms have been impaired.

Neural Manipulation focuses on releasing local nerve restrictions to help restore and balance the freedom of movement for intracranial pressures and the central and peripheral nerves. Mechanical properties of nerves require mobility, elasticity, and a compliant intrinsic and extrinsic intraneural pressure system.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it is theorized that external trauma such as in concussion and mild TBI often causes a TCM condition known as blood status which causes pain and dysfunction in the injured area and can be alleviated with acupuncture treatments. Acupuncture has been found to have longer-lasting therapeutic effect for acute headache after trauma when compared with pharmaceutical options. The needle placement can produce analgesic effects in areas of injury by locally increasing the blood supply through the release of vasdilatory neuropeptides and thereby increasing local oxygen and cytokines along with reducing inflammation. Acupuncture also has been indicated as having a positive therapeutic effect on other mild TBI and concussion related symptoms such as headaches, neck pain, and nausea.

Medical Athletes Sports Services, MASS, employs a specific form of acupuncture developed by Dr. Naomi Kubota known as Ishizaka-ryu Traditional Japanese Acupuncture. Ishizaka-ryu Japanese Acupunture incorporates Shiatsu massage that incorporates techniques superior to CranioSacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Neural Manipulation. The Ishizaka-ryu school focuses on stimulation chi (energy) blockages along the primary meridians surrounding the entire spinal column to increase blood flow and utilize the body’s own healing power. While the traditional Ishizaka-rye method uses a vertical motion of the needle, Dr. Kubota has enhanced the method by using a spiral motion of the supporting hand, making his therapeutic approach simultaneously gentler and more potent.