March 15, 2018
CONDITION and HISTORY
Bell’s Palsy is a (usually) temporary paralysis with significant facial distortion. Symptoms include rapid onset of weakness in facial muscles and drooping on one side of the face, pain in or around the ear and jaw on that side, drooling from that side of the mouth, excessive tearing, twitching, and inability to completely close the affected eye. The symptoms usually resolve within six months, though in some cases they may last a lifetime or result in permanent damage to the facial nerves or (rarely) blindness in one eye.
CS3 is a strong, fit middle-aged woman who works physically hard managing a horse farm. She operates farm machinery of various kinds, rides and takes care of horses, does some maintenance on buildings and fences, and so forth. She is also a farrier, which involves equine hoof care and blacksmithing. She spends many hours a day in hard manual labor: standing, bending, lifting, kneeling, stooping, and handling heavy farm equipment, feed sacks, and bales of hay.
When she displayed symptoms of Bell’s Palsy after a period of strenuous work, she was referred to me by her employer, whose neighbor I had succesfully treated for a diagnosed case of Bell’s Palsy several years before.
Upon arrival at her appointment, in addition to her facial symptoms, CS3 reported tension and soreness in her neck and back, which she believed was the result of many hours she had recently spent bush hogging. (Bush hogging refers to mowing fields using a tractor to which a rotary mower is attached at the back. The machinery operator normally spends most of their time looking back over one shoulder at their equipment as they drive the tractor around a field, often over rugged terrain.) Her symptoms were very distressful, prevented her from working, and affected her daily routines profoundly.
TREATMENT
Upon examination and palpation, CS3 exhibited a contracted muscle pattern in most areas of her body plus additional tension in her neck and face on the left side. The initial Applied Bio-Mechanics session relieved all of the contracted areas with significant improvement in her facial symptoms. To give further attention to her cranial nerve symptoms, she returned for cranial-sacral therapy two days later. Her condition improved so much after these two sessions that her teenage son told me, “Thank you for saving my mother.”
During one month’s time, she received a total of four sessions of ABM and two of CST, during which her symptoms improved almost 100 percent. (A very slight sag remained under her left cheekbone.) Though I suggested that she return for an additional treatment, she felt well and did not feel the need to follow up. She had continued working during most of this time and felt back to her normal self.
About one year later, she returned for two treatments three days apart. She reported that she had done very well since her previous treatments, but recently had felt “out of sorts.” Her symptoms included soreness in her left hip, slightly blurred vision, and a mild facial twitch. After two ABM sessions with some CST releases, all of these symptoms disappeared and have not recurred.
OBSERVATIONS
Applied Bio-Mechanics theory suggests that the body functions best when the posture is erect and symmetrical. I have treated many people who work in physically demanding fields, including cowboys, farmers and ranchers, construction workers, mechanics, heavy equipment operators, welders, and so forth, who display a variety of symptoms due to the strains on their bodies that are inherent in their work.
In this case, I believe that the symptoms were brought on due to neck tension that pulled into the cranium and affected the cranial nerves. The strain of having her head turned back over one shoulder to watch her equipment while bush hogging was likely a contributing factor.
The previous case of Bell’s Palsy mentioned (the neighbor) occurred during an extended cross-country motorcycle ride. That client is an older man in good health, but he has a stooped, head-forward posture, and I had worked previously with him for back and neck pain. The Bell’s Palsy symptoms in his case may have been due to the extra strain of hunching forward on a motorcycle wearing a heavy helmet for hundreds of miles daily.
Bell’s Palsy is believed to be the result of inflammation and swelling of cranial nerves that affect the face, and is speculated to be caused by a viral infection. However, I believe that neck and back tension should be addressed and treated first and foremost, especially in cases of arduous labor, extreme effort from other circumstances, or postural strains. Applied Bio-Mechanics with some additional cranial releases has proven very effective in my experience.