Manual Medicine is a medical diagnostic and therapeutic act that uses exclusively or predominantly the hands of the operator, possibly with the help of simple tools to amplify its effectiveness.
Importance of Manual Medicine
In Tuscany, Manual Medicine is one of the five accredited "complementary" medical disciplines, together with Acupuncture, Phytotherapy, Homeopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine, as they are considered scientifically appropriate, of proven efficacy and widely appreciated by the public.
The MM reveals a particular efficacy in everything that can be classified as osteo-myo-articular pathology, which represents the first cause of consultation to the general practitioner.
The raw reality
Often the general practitioner subjects the patient with myo-articular problems to unnecessary eidological examinations (RX, ECO, RMN, ...) and / or to equally useless specialist mailings, with the result of demoralizing him or dispersing him in "alternative practices", which sometimes give positive results, but the most disappointing or only partial and provisional.
Unfortunately, the family doctor has a constant tendency to delegate the care of these patients to others, since, although perhaps recognizing the validity of the manual approach, he has the feeling that it is something unattainable, or understandable only to those who are specialists. of the sector or "started" with particularly demanding practices and studies. The complex philosophical system of certain schools and disciplines (such as Chiropractic and Osteopathy) contributes even more to fueling confusion.
The Manual Medicine of Travell-Simons
Doctors and researchers Jane Travell and David Simons are responsible for a long research, supported by a substantial team of collaborators and students, which led to the discovery in the skeletal muscle of particular anatomical-pathological entities called Trigger Points and Tender Area, directly connected with all types of osteo-myo-articular pathology and more.
Thanks to their work, we have a method that fully fulfills four characteristics that everyone has always hoped for in medicine: causal validity, capacity for stable results, ease of learning, poor or no contraindications.
What to do then?
In my opinion the most competent operator in the field of Manual Medicine appears to be the family doctor, if only he finds the opportunity and the will to try his hand.
These, more than any other, know their patient, his peculiarities, the environment in which he lives and his clinical history. For all this it has the best foundations to arrive at a personalized therapy, a necessary condition for the effective application of the manual method in Medicine.
The Travell-Simons method - I repeat - is easily learned, has no particular difficulties in its execution and above all does not involve dangers or contraindications, present instead in certain techniques that involve mobilization and impulse manipulation.
For further information
- Manual Medicine, brief introduction
- The Manual Medicine of Travell-Simons
- Manual Medicine and Homeopathy
- Manual Medicine, an opportunity for the family doctor
This last paper - more substantial - constitutes a final thesis for the three-year course of "Specific Training in General Medicine" and encompasses the first two listed above.
