The Atlas Profilax is only one of a myriad of adjustments that could be made to the body, depending on the problem.
Anytime there is a structural issue in the body, it causes or creates other structural issues. Because it's all so closely connected. [Couldn't agree with you more, which is why I'm a big enthusiasist of the Egoscue "e-cises", which take into account the WHOLE body, and often find that a problem in one area originated one or two major joints away.]
Bones don't just "fall" out of place (as I've heard a chiropractor tell me), rather, they've being held out of place by a myriad of connections. This is why structural treatments often do not stick. And the more instantaneous the treatment is, the least likely it is to last. [I have to disagree on this point, at least as it pertains to Atlas Profilax; more elaboration below]. Our bodies instinctively resist fast forces, but slow forces can literally bend bone without harming it.
My osteo tells me about people who come in with neck problems, who see a chiropractor for it but the treatment doesn't stick. He says most often, all that's needed is some gentle work on the middle of their back and he doesn't even touch their neck. They protest - "you didn't even touch the problem!' He says "do the exercises I gave you and call me in two weeks." Two weeks rolls by and they call back. The issue is completely resolved for them. [Sounds like a wise osteopath!]
Structural adjustments have been my primary treatment for the past, year and a half, I think? There is so much more involved than just moving bones. If bones are out of place, there are reasons behind that which must be carefully unraveled in order to heal the problem for good. Furthermore. bones are actually classified as connective tissue and will change shape according to how they're being pulled. If they've been pulled in the wrong direction for a long time then a single adjustment isn't going to change their shape overnight. [Perhaps in most cases, but from my own experience, not necessarily in all.]
If someone is able to take one adjustment, listen to how that helped their body and what needs to change and carefully continue to build on that, then that's absolutely fantastic! [Atlas Profilax practitioners advocate this approach wholeheartedly.] But I find it puzzling why someone would choose the Atlas Profilax over a professional who can do that plus hundreds of other adjustments, and is trained to customize the treatment specific to your body's needs and physical state.
[I spent decades and thousands of dollars trying to find this perfect practitioner with the technique(s) that would help me. Nothing was ever more than temporary. The AP aligned my atlas in a way that gave my body a whole new stability and that has held now for six years, and did more for me than all my treatments combined over the previous decades. I say stability, because I still have structural issues. But I feel fortunate to experience to this day the stability the AP treatment brought into my body.]
This stuff can be dangerous [I don't know if you're referring to AP here, but I would strongly disagree that the AP is dangerous. I personally think it's far safer than typical chiropractic adjustments. Is ANY treatment without it's potential downside? I doubt it. But to infer that AP is dangerous doesn't conform with my own understanding of it. I do not believe for a moment that my AP practitioner Michael Hane would ever do a modlity that he felt was dangerous.]
- a treatment [I'm assuming you're NOT referring to an AP treatment?] caused an issue where my airways were shut except if I held my chin to my chest. That was the only way I could get a little bit of air. Raising my chin, I could not inhale at all. I spent the better half of a day like this. The first osteo I saw dismissed the issue as psychological. With the second osteo, I warned him about it, and he was able to tell how the treatment would have resulted in that based on my physiology, which fascia was causing this restriction, and instructed me to gently apply heat and pressure to certain areas, particularly the base of my ribcage where that fascia attached. This slowly resolved the problem over a few hours.
[I wrote in an earlier post how one man had such obstructed breathing, he could only sleep in an upright position. The first night after getting the AP, he was able to breathe normally and sleep in bed for the first time in years.]
Another time, following a treatment my food and water was constantly "going down the wrong pipe". We're talking at least 4 times per meal. This is after extremely gentle treatments - nothing exceeding light pressure, no kneading or massaging of tissue. Yet it can be extremely powerful, because a treatment makes your OWN body want to move stuff, change the way you carry yourself or hold yourself. And if your structural issues are complex sometimes one issue can get tangled with another and cause a mess.
This is why I personally am not comfortable with most structural therapies out there, including the Atlas Profilax. I need a doctor who knows precisely how each structural adjustment would have a chain reaction on the rest of the body, who would be able to determine if there are structural issues that might interfere with it, or if there are more pressing needs that should be dealt with first. And if something goes wrong I need my doctor (neuromusculoskeletal specialist, a.k.a. 100% cranial osteopath) to be able to determine why and how to fix it.
leela's experience with AP is very similar to my experience with cranial osteopathy, though over my whole body. One thing to note regarding headaches is that the bones in my skull were literally too hard, from trauma that hadn't healed fully. "She's - literally - hard-headed" became the running joke. To date there has never been a pain anywhere on my body that my osteo couldn't immediately ease and also provide ideas and information on possible ways to relieve it long-term and for good.
