By the time we are 50 most of us hurt; a sore knee after skiing, a hip which aches, a foot with a bunion. These are bothers. If you’ve ever shared a ski lift with a group of greybeards you know most people won’t let this stop them. But since you are reading this article, probably you are experiencing pain which cannot be ignored with 2 Ivoprofin. You have tried the basics, Physical Therapy and Chiropractic and you still hurt.

Ten years ago, at 50, I went beyond my own pain barrier. I was stunned when no one charged in on a white horse to save me. I’d always thought there was a god- like body worker out there who would be there with super powers to step in. But there wasn’t. I had been a body therapist for 15 years so I turned to that. I was left to my own resources.

From this humble point of desperation, I created Vascular Bone Therapy and Bonewhispering. They evolved to provide an alternative to all the therapies I’d tried. They got me better.

So if you are still in discomfort, and you have seen therapists for help, why didn’t it work? And if it did help for a while, why didn’t it hold?

Vascular bone therapy tells us there are several reasons.

One is the artificial separation between therapists who work on bones, the Chiropractors and Osteopaths, and those who work on the organs and soft tissues; visceral manipulation, cranial sacral, deep tissue massage etc. As a whole, those good at bones do not work the soft tissue and therapists who do soft tissue have little feel for the boney structure.(although there are some chiropractors who have studied soft tissue, the more massage oriented therapist who work with the organs and sensitive rhythms of the body almost never are effective with bones.) In Vascular Bone Therapy we work on both.

The second reason is intertwined with the first. I believe, after twenty five years of working with severely injured patients, that dysfunction lies imbedded in the relationship between the vascular (which includes the organs) and boney systems. The heavier the trauma, the deeper it is imbedded. But in our reductionistic culture we separate these systems. In reality, the bones, the nerves, the organs, the vasculature, the cranial sacral, are intertwined by pulls, pushes, and inhibitions which trace back to fetal growth. These dynamics continue to be the basis for our protection against trauma throughout our lives. At the center of this defense are the bones.

For instance, many patients I see have been injured in high impact car accidents. These collisions are the worst for the human body. Even if a person comes to me with multiple injuries, accident and non accident, it will almost always be the car accident which is the worst. And head- ons are the most damaging of these.

Often these patients have been seeing other soft tissue therapists or manipulation specialists for many years before crossing my threshhold. And usually they are better for the help received. They might have a crippling hip on which they can’t walk. The work they received got them on their feet. Or they were in agonizing pain and the therapy eased the utter misery of the situation. But the patient with the hip still can’t go for a long walk and the second patient takes pain medication. People learn to live with these problems. (I am sure many people are healed by these effective and sophisticated methods, but they don’t need to see me). So what is it the trauma has done to their bodies which keeps them from having the margins they need to live a normal life? Why it is that injury seldom get completely better?

The answer lies in our impression of bones. We think they have the composition of the skeletons we dig up in the Olduvai Gorge in Africa or the Le Brea tarpits; hard and brittle. This could not be further from the truth. These are dead bones. Our living bones are 40% connective tissue. They flex and move, adapt and twist against each other in innumerable ways to protect and support us. And while doing so, they get injured in fundamental ways. Particularly while working as shock absorbers.

It is while they do this service, when they work as living springs, that they get involved with the blood vessels. When they absorb the shock, they do so first of all to protect the vulnerable vasculature. In a sense they are wrapped around the blood vessels in what I call a vascular bone spasm. These are always in pivotal points where muscles and ligaments insert.

If we think about it, the body has a huge engineering problem. It is sack with vital fluid hoses crossing very moveable joints. Not only that, but it must stand upright at the same time. So the self must make it a priority to protect these vulnerable tubes of blood. If a large vein or artery bursts we stand a good chance of bleeding out. The body will tear, dislocate, stretch, bend, or break the rest of the structure to avoid this.

But why does this relationship between bones and vasculature create injuries to plague us? Because it means our bones are not just dislocated like the Osteopaths and Chiropractors believe (which is true) but they are bent and torsioned. Not just individually, but against each other in patterns. This is what shows up in Bonewhispering; the patterns of torsion. They present as stiff places in the bones. Pivotal points where the connective tissue within the matrix of the bones is spasmed with trauma. These systems of bent places in the bones can cross numerous joints and almost always follow the large veins and arteries.

So if you still suffer after massage or chiropractic you can look to bent bone and their relationship to the vascular as a cause. In Vascular Bone Therapy, we believe these Vascular Bone spasms are primary to dislocation. But to heal this, you do not pound the bones into straightness. The bad relationship of the kinetic energy within these bone bends goes deep into the body causing poor mechanics and pain. In a sense, your injury is bouncing the pain into your body through the bones.

This is a stored energy, like the power of a bow when it is strung. The bone is not damaged, just possessed by the energy of torsion. When you pull this torsion pattern from the bone and intend down to the blood vessels, the bone can relax and not send its kinetic energy in harmful directions. Otherwise, the torsion/bend pattern will pull the joint into dislocation, cause pain, or create any of the malaise a twisted body is heir to. After releasing this underlying matrix, the bones can go back into adjustment; often times with a simple stretch.

As a consequence, even though Vascular Bone Therapy often heals on its own, the technique does not replace massage, energetic techniques or Chiropractic; it employs them. It prepares the terrain of the body so these disciplines don’t need to fight the underlying torques. This torsion energy is extremely powerful. It can encompass large parts of the boney/vascular system. In the end, if it is not released the body will continue to struggle to adapt its basic structure. An adaptation it is doomed to fail at because the bones are our foundation; if their position or leverage is compromised it is impossible for other systems of the structure to allow for it. Unless we can undo these unlying destructive vascular bone spasms, we are sentenced to a lifetime of discomfort.