The Value of Touch & Gentle Manual Therapy

Posted on: December 7, 2017
a person petting a cat on the nose
Being a practitioner of delicate therapies, I am often asked how I’m able to feel such subtle and specific sensations, like the rhythmic flow of the cerebrospinal fluid around the brain and spinal cord, or the intrinsic motion of the pancreas. Let me tell you, it’s not easy! But it’s the same with any skill though; neurological education, training or essentially practice. 

The sense of touch is the first sense we develop and it is the most crucial for survival.  I was able to see David Linden speak at Town Hall in 2015 and he said “Touch is not optional to human development.” It’s a biological function to cherish and respect.

There is a lot of research on the sense of touch due to automated technology. The hot term is Haptic Perception, which is the combination of tactile perception and kinesthetic movement mainly via the class of nerves called mechanoreceptors. It is how a person can gain information about his or her environment through touch.

One research article from 2013 caught my eye. In “Feeling Small: Exploring the Tactile Perception Limits“, the researchers discovered that human tactile perception can be detected in the nanoscale. That means we can feel surface structures that are one billionth of a meter. Other research has shown tactile perception of vibrational patterns as low as 10 nanometers. The report concludes, “This shows unambiguously that the human finger, with its coarse fingerprint structure in the sub-millimeter range, is capable of dynamically detecting surface structures many orders of magnitude smaller and indicates that nanotechnology may well have a role to play in haptics and tactile perception.” This is a mind-boggling level of detail through our fingers and hands.

So, how can I feel deep structures and movement (or lack of movement) in the body? The analogy I like to use is oil painting. By only holding the end of the paint brush handle I am able to sense the weight of the brush, the stiffness of the bristles against the canvas, the thickness of the paint and determine how thin I want it. I can feel how much paint is on the bristles, and how thick I am applying it on the canvas. Having just recently tried oil painting for the first time I actually thought of all these things and the variety of types of nerves that provided all of this information just so I could paint an apple. Of course, through practice and neurological training it becomes much easier.

Our sense of touch is exquisitely sensitive. Appreciate your mechanorecptors this season, when you ski, cook, drive a car, ride a bike, or just feeling the cold air on your face.
New Chinese Herbal Formulas

I’m excited to announce the addition of TCM Zone Chinese Herbal Formulas. What’s exciting? The herbal formulas are offered in packets of granules, which is a Japanese form of prescription medicine known as Kampo. Just add a packet of granules to warm water, stir and there is your medicinal dose. The effective herbal concentrations in granular form are also offered in capsules making it extremely easy to take on the go. Pre-mixed formulas are all packaged in 5:1 concentrations.The low temperature vacuum concentration and spray-dry processing yield more potent concentrations and much less filler. This company’s products are manufactured under strict accordance with pharmaceutical GMP with Certificates of Analysis on every lot ensuring quality, efficacy, purity and safety. They oversee the stringent monitoring of high-quality raw materials to finished products.