What is AK?
Applied Kinesiology; John D. Andre,
D.C.
It is amazing how much the body will tell you if you just know
how to ask it questions.
Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a system of analysis, which aids in
the diagnostic process. AK provides a means
for the physician to dialogue with the human body and its nervous system via
muscle testing indicators. In most
cases, the patient’s symptom and the cause of those symptoms are quite
different - one from another.
AK is especially helpful in difficult cases. It gives the doctor an important additional
avenue down which to seek meaningful information about the patient’s physiology
and its functional status. The entire
human body is a mass of circuits. Like
the electrical circuits in one’s home, there are circuit breakers that can be
reset. Analogously, if all the power
went out in one room in our home, without affecting the other rooms, we would
think to check our fuse box, or circuit breakers first.
Every muscle in our body is tied to a certain acupuncture
meridian, and has specific vitamins, minerals, and herbs associated with
it. Total body reflex beds are found on
the bottom of the feet, in each ear, along the spine, on the face, across the
shoulders, under the back of the skull, and on the hands. Every bone in the body is functionally on a
tract (circuit). Each emotion is
directly tied to a specific organ or gland (as in: he was venting his spleen).
A fly on the wall in an AK treatment room would quickly notice a
number of different things. The
physician or physician’s assistant would be touching the patient - to audit the
body through muscle testing, as a means of assessment. In too many offices today, there is little
or no physical contact between the doctor and the patient. This is unfortunate because so much
information can be gained from the feel of the patient’s skin, the underlying
muscle tensions, and reflex beds.
Special attention is paid to body language: the reading of static and
dynamic posture. Next, the person doing
the muscle testing would be variously positioning the patient’s arms and legs
and body parts, asking them to resist the operator’s pushes.
By the strength and weakness of the various muscles, the body
communicates to the attentive observer information about what works and what
doesn’t work. Muscles can be tested
manually or by machine. Once the skill
of manual muscle testing is developed to an artful level, more and more
information is gained.
The Beginning of AK
In the 1960s, Dr. George Goodhart of
Goodhart is a chiropractic physician. Word spread. And
naturally, the first group of healers to become interested in AK would be
doctors of chiropractic. Later, these
sharpest of the chiropractors were joined by dentists, osteopaths, medical
doctors, optometrists, psychologists, and others. Today, AK is practiced all around the world by individuals in
just about every possible profession.
I.C.A.K.
The International College of Applied Kinesiology (ICAK) was
formed to foster a proper research environment. The earliest AK doctors found themselves spontaneously making one
discovery after another. This created
many discovery-based research practices.
The members of ICAK come together every year to share their research, and
generally have a good time.
Why Chiropractors
For years, doctors of chiropractic have been unhappy with the
problem of redundant subluxations. They
would adjust a bone back into place, and send the patient home - feeling as
though they had done a really good thing for this person’s health. Then, just a few days later, the patient
would return to the clinic with the same bone out of place. The doctor would adjust it again. It would go out again. There was a poor economy to this. Yet, the relief was real for the
patient. The thinking physician learned
to ask why that bone went out of place.
Realizing that muscles position bones - to a large extent - lead
these doctors of chiropractic beyond the bones. AK shows the chiropractic physician that (for example) when the
hip goes out of place - that being a sacroiliac subluxation - the sartorius
muscle is often not being as strong as it should be. The sartorius muscle is an anterior-hip-holder-downer-and
forwarder muscle. And, if it is weak
(hypotonic), it allows the hip to move posterior and inferior (out of
place). This muscle is tied into the
adrenal and pituitary glands.
According to Hans Selye, M.D., the adrenals are the first line
of defense against stress (all kinds of stress). Looking at the above scenario, we find: 1). that stress caused an
adrenal problem, 2). The adrenal problem caused the muscle problem, 3). The
muscle problem caused the bone to go out of place, 4). The bone going out of
place (becoming subluxated) caused the patient’s pain, and 5). The pain caused
the patient to seek help. Which is
better, dear reader, to give a potentially harmful drug for the pain, or to
address the stress and the adrenal weakness?
Hans Selye’s book: The Stress of Life is highly recommended.
Why Dentists
Dr. Harold Gelb, in his book Killing Pain Without Prescriptions
tells about his success with using AK to treat pain. And Dr. George Eversaul has made a large impact on dental
profession through the world teaching AK.
Every tooth in the mouth is tied into a specific circuit. Have you ever wondered why a person got a
cavity in “that” tooth, as opposed to a different one? This can be important when we talk about a
root canal procedure, and whether or not it is successful. Often, a tooth that has had a wonderful root
canal procedure done on it, will still flash pain signals - due to sparks
coming from a gland or organ on its circuit.
(Wait a minute. Is “a wonderful
root canal” an oxymoron, or what?)
Why Psychologists
A number of AK procedures have been developed which allow the
practitioner to access deep levels of the patient’s emotional structure, and
fixations therein. One of these
techniques is explained in the book The 5 Minute Phobia Cure, written by an AK
physician. Astoundingly, the simple
resetting of a circuit in the patient’s physiology can sometimes transform an
extreme emotional problem into its disappearance. Granted, most cases are not quite that easy.
It seems as though all old stresses that get stuck in the
patient are quite literally stuck in the flesh. This explains why practitioners of Rolfing, Alexander Technique,
Structural Integration, and Receptor-Tonus work get such fine changes to the
emotional fields with their work. To
quote Ida Rolf, the founder of Rolfing: “we put our fingers into the flesh and
we see spirit move.”
Why Optometrists
Dr. Harry Sirota discovered that a large percentage of people
are wearing glasses that are stronger than they need to be. Have you - or someone you know - had the
experience of having been put into a new pair of glasses, only to get a nasty
headache? And then, to be told that the
eyes just need to adapt to the new lenses?
He further discovered that this causes stress to be locked into
the vision circuits. Often this causes
the emotions to be locked, until the vision circuits are properly
addressed. I “found” Harry via the
profound effect he had on one of my patients. I’ve been a major fan of his ever
since.
Dr. Sirota prescribes lenses for the nervous system, not for
acuity. And, it is not uncommon for him
to take patients out of their glasses all together. He uses AK technique as one of his methods of evaluating the
patient.
Why Other Professionals Use AK
Practitioners are finding with AK they can help patients they’ve
never been able to help before. And in
most cases, get better results faster.
The ability to dialogue with the patient’s body is helpful.
Today
AK is taught in a number of Chiropractic Colleges. According to a recent survey, about 63% of
chiropractic physicians use some form of AK, making us the heaviest user of
this science. Thanks to the likes of
ICAK heavyweight Dr. Evan Mladenoff, many college and professional sports teams
- including important NFL teams - have discovered the benefits of having an AK
doctor at hand. AK is becoming widely
recognized in sports medicine.
AK has become the common denominator in “alternative” health
care. Doctors of Chiropractic with an
holistic and eclectic frame of mind have discovered that, as a technique, it
allows for the easy integration of all other techniques. In AK, it is not uncommon to find a
chiropractic physician utilizing vitamins, herbs, acupuncture (meridian
therapy), minerals, flower remedies, color, microcurrent stimulation,
aromatherapy, homeopathy, exercise, colonic therapy, mental exercises, diet and
lifestyle modification, muscle reeducation, and more.
The other professions are paying attention to AK, too. They’re just not being as fast on the
uptake, with much smaller percentages of their members using AK.
The American public likes AK.
About 50% of the out of pocket dollars being spent on health care in
Today’s Health Care Dilemma
In our present environment where the HMOs and PPOs rein supreme,
the patient’s needs come last, all too often.
A patient’s progress on the road towards health has traditionally been
handled by the relationship structure between doctor and patient. Managed Care, by design, damages the
doctor/patient relationship. And what
is worse, the bean counters are the primary decision makers who select which
patient gets the extra tests or treatments needed, versus the patients who must
do without. It’s becoming a kind of
economic triage, where the lucky patient gets what’s best - while the less
fortunate others do without. What good
can come from a system where all the not-for-profit hospitals are being bought
up by for-profit groups?
Is it any wonder that in the summer of 1997 a troubling trend
surfaced concerning Managed Care membership rolls? It was found that a good number of Medicare patients would
readily sign up for the HMO type plan.
But that after they got sick, for some reason, they were leaving The
Plan. Pray tell, what could the reason
be?
A Time of Conflicting Trends
On the one hand today, a great number of Americans are now
selecting “alternative” health care as their provider mechanism of choice. While on the other hand, employer are
climbing on the Managed Care bus almost a quickly as they can make the
arrangements to do so. And, few in
Managed Care include anything more than vague lip service regarding “alternative”
approaches to patient care.
Sadly, this leaves the individual on the short end of both
sticks. They now have to choose between
paying themselves for the highly effective natural choices offered by
“alternative” therapies, or they go along with the Managed Care program. I think it was P.T. Barnum who once said
that the best way to get a person to go in an unpleasant direction is to give
them two less than pleasant choices.
Tomorrow Via Research
According to Anita Green of The National Institutes of Health,
(NIH) Office of Alternative Medicine, AK has not made its way onto their radar
screen, as yet. However, rumors abound
within the AK community about impending attention from NIH. Stay tuned to this channel for further
updates.
ICAK star, Dr. Rene’ Espy, has developed the mapping of the
microcurrent frequencies for every bone and muscle in the human body. In the future, we will be looking at
adjusting the bones of the body and resetting muscle tonus by utilizing a
machine to put the proper hertz into the proper circuit.
In seminar, I watched her treat a man who had been suffering
with a frozen eye for many years. One
eye looked around and moved just fine; the other looked to be dead, stuck
straight ahead. She put a minute yet
specific frequency into a certain point for two minutes. He then got up and walked around. The difference being that both eyes now
tracked perfectly together. This was an
astounding display of skill!
There are many AK physicians around the world conducting
research today. The gains being made
each year that add meaningfully to the collective pool of knowledge are almost
more than one can keep up with.
Summary
In today’s health care world, there are two parallel
realities. One is the insurance company
arena of the HMOs and PPOs, with non-physician types determining how much may
be spent and what a doctor may or may not do for the patient in need. The other arena is peopled be those of us
who choose to put the patient’s needs first.
AK is a healthy alternative, and a boon for the patient.