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The following article appeared in ‘The Chiropractic Journal,’ August 1998. Donald Epstein, D.C. developer of Network Spinal Analysis and president of the Association for Network Chiropractic: answers questions about Network Spinal Analysis

drepstein

The following is an example of the questions I’m asked about Network. I feel my response will address questions that many doctors and patients have about Network care.”
Dr Donald Epstein

Dear Dr. Epstein,

I recently observed a group of people being adjusted by a chiropractor using Network Spinal Analysis. One of my friends in care had her life literally returned to her with reduction of her pain, improved function, and even a more pleasing personality. In the waiting room of a Network office, patients reported an increased ability to make decisions about their life. Even more interestingly, the responses to the doctor’s gentle touches to the spine were certainly like nothing I have seen before!

The chiropractor moved from table to table, most of the patients were fully clothed facing down. He checked their legs (it was described as a means of determining structural imbalance and for the presence of nerve tension). Then he touched for less than a second spots on the neck or the pelvis (I think it was described as the sacrum or coccyx).

Then the most remarkable things happened. These people started breathing. I mean really breathing. Some stretched on the table, and others moved on the adjusting bench like a dolphin or maybe a snake. I saw some people crying and some laughing. I saw the doctor touch one part of the spine and saw with my very own eyes other parts of the spine rock, or move what appeared to be in response to this. One lady actually sat up, and her neck on its very own turned and “popped” the bone back to place, similar to what my previous chiropractor, before I moved, did to me. But the chiropractor didn’t twist her neck. It just did it on its own.

Oddly enough it was the happiest office I ever visited, and just about no one was talking in the adjusting room. All the seats were full, and as one person got off the table, someone else got on instead. These were not the new age types either. Lots of business people and women professionals and children too.

My questions are: What is the purpose of Network? Are these movements helpful, they sure seemed so. Is it correct to be adjusted in a “group room?” Is silence customary or reasonable? Are patients always fully clothed? Why are gentle touch adjustments performed only on the neck and lower spine? How could such a light touch help someone like myself who has an arthritic neck and lots of pain? Wouldn’t the doctor have to have very special healing qualities to help a person who has been through it all, like myself with such little touch?

The chiropractor would not accept me as a patient to treat my arthritis, or pain, but instead wanted to examine me and recommend a program of care to help Me, not my condition. Is what I described to you appropriate for a doctor who uses your method, or was this person doing his own thing and attaching the name Network to it? I would appreciate a prompt reply as I want to make the correct choice for my health as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,
C.L.

 


Dear C.L.,

Thank you for your inquiry, your mail has come to my attention. I hope to answer your questions and hopefully motivate you to receive the health benefits of Network Care.

The focus of Network Spinal Analysis is to:

  • Establish the capacity of your nervous system to detect and correct areas of tension, and impaired function.
  • Enhance your ability to generate automatic respiration and movements, which help your spine and nervous system to dissipate tension, increase circulation and energy flow, and promote healing.
  • Help you develop an effective and trusting relationship with your spine, nervous system, body and your healing process.
  • Monitor improvement in coordinated function of nerves, muscles, vertebra, and soft tissues, which promote a healthy spine and nervous system.
  • Assist your body in removing spinal interference to communication between your brain and the cells of your body, increasing your body’s ability to properly respond to its experiences, challenges and needs.
  • Help you develop lifetime strategies for self-awareness and healing.
    Monitor your progress with periodic clinical re-evaluations performed by your chiropractor.
  • Allow you to assess the significant improvement in your health and quality of life through a very wide range of indicators.

In specific answer to your questions, it is common for the chiropractor to adjust a few patients at a time, either in a “group” room or private rooms or both. As with all professions, some practitioners tend to be more verbal, speaking to and with patients each visit. Other practitioners prefer to focus on the kinaesthetic (touch/feeling) and visual aspects and discuss things with patients periodically, privately or as needed.

As far as a gentle touch; this is consistent with Network Spinal Analysis. The intent is to enable the body’s own self generated mechanisms of movement and respiration to assist in the correction of mechanical tension and interference to the nervous system. The care is a continuum of increasing spinal awareness and self-corrective efficiency. A gentle touch adjustment has been demonstrated to be effective to achieve these ends. Since the regions the chiropractor is seeking to adjust are not the regions of maximum tension, fixation, inflammation or pain, but instead regions often remote from them likely to generate these conditions, minimal force is required for correction. The body has a striving to utilise energy most efficiently, and to self correct. The body’s own self-organisational intelligence responds to the specific touch to generate a correction.

You were astute in noticing that the contacts are made in the lower spine and the cervical spine. These are the major regions of attention in Network Care, since these are the regions where the spinal cord itself is attached to the vertebral column. Therefore altered tension from these regions can have widespread, or global, spinal and nervous system consequences warranting specific clinical intervention.

As far as the patient being fully clothed, this is most favourable for most patients’ comfort. If the practitioner feels that it is necessary to view or palpate (feel) the spine directly, he or she may ask the patient on that particular visit to be gowned, or turn a shirt or blouse around.

Lying face down is a common way to adjust. It is easy to perform a leg check for spinal tension patterns, observe respiratory and muscular tension patterns, and movement, and easy to palpate the spine in this fashion.

As far as the doctor having special healing qualities, I hope all chiropractors have these qualities. However, the power of the care is in your experiencing an increasingly successful experience with your own healing power and your own internal magic. You will discover that you can heal yourself. Your chiropractor helps that to happen through specific adjustments.

I hope that you enjoy your Network Spinal Analysis experience, and that you discover the benefits of a very wide range of increased health and well being benefits that thousands have and continue to enjoy, and that has sparked the interest of the public and the scientific community.

Sincerely,
Donald M. Epstein, D.C