Injury Recall Technique (IRT) is a treatment technique that is unique to those who use Applied Kinesiology. It was brought to Applied Kinesiology by Dr. Schmitt who had learned it from podiatrists. What these podiatrists had found was that trauma on the body would change the structure of our feet which would often lead to other problems later in life. Dr. Schmitt expanded on this and found that through Applied Kinesiology techniques we are able to identify previous traumas or injuries that are affecting the current health of our patients. While the previous injuries had healed, the compensations that the body made during the injury had remained. These compensations were causing pain or health problems, sometimes in the same area of the body, but often times in seemingly unrelated areas. When treated with IRT, the compensations are eliminated and subsequent treatments produce results much quicker.
To the patient, the treatment for injury recall seems too simple to actually do anything. The patient will touch or rub the area of injury while the doctor adjusts the heel or heels that are affected. There is also a low force adjustment to the head and neck area where the doctor lightly tucks the patient’s chin to their chest. That is it. This resets the body’s compensations toward that injury and we move on to the next injury.
Dr. Jose Palomar presented a paper in Los Angeles a few years ago on proprioceptor recalibration using deep tendon reflexes. This seems to be an Injury Recall Technique that gets deeper than the IRT that Dr. Schmitt has presented. By deeper, I mean that treatment with Dr. Palomar’s recalibration will sometimes erase the need for Dr. Schmitt’s IRT.
Proprioception is the body’s way of knowing where we are in space. The muscles and tendons send messages to the brain so we know where our body parts are and we don’t run into walls or stub our toes. If there is a problem with proprioception, it will affect our balance, how we walk, our endurance, and cause pain in our joints and confusion in our head.
Similar to Dr. Schmitt’s IRT, Dr. Palomar’s recalibration has the patient touch the area of injury, but this time the doctor has to find the anatomy train that has become affected because of the injury. If you remember the old song about “the head bone is connected to the neck bone”, that is the easiest way to understand anatomy trains. The head and the foot are connected, indirectly, by all the muscles, ligaments and tendons that are in between. There are many anatomy trains within the body. The doctor’s job is to find which one(s) were affected and treat them accordingly.
To the patient, treatment for Dr. Palomar’s recalibration will seems as simple as treatment for Dr. Schmitt’s IRT. After the patient touches or rubs the area of injury and the doctor finds the affected anatomy train, the doctor then taps a deep tendon reflex while both ends of the train and the injury are touched or rubbed. A common deep tendon reflex is when the doctor taps the knee and the foot kicks out uncontrollably.
These two simple techniques allow me to reduce the number of times I see my patient’s, and the number of times I adjust the same areas. I have found that treating the previous injuries helps patient’s hold adjustments much longer than if these injuries were not addressed. These techniques have helped with ongoing joint pain, balance problems, poor posture, and improving athletic performance.
As simple as these treatment may seem, they have deep impacts on the body and the health of the patient. For more information about these or other treatments that Dr. Herbert provides call our office today.