For more about the effects of dental factors, see chapter 3.
Structural factors, specifically cranial compression and its far-reaching effects, may also be a component in bipolar disorder. Cranial compression results from distortions in the skull caused by birth trauma or later trauma from injury, emotional stress, vaccinations, medications, or dental factors, such as mercury fillings or root canals, says Lina Garcia, DDS, DMD, of South Barrington, Illinois, who specializes in holistic dentistry and cranial osteopathy.
Compression is constriction due to pressure exerted on a body part or system. The impact of cranial compression extends throughout the body, but the immediate effects in the head can be pressure on the brain and cranial nerves, with attendant compromise of neurotransmitter function and brain function in general.
Cranial distortions and compression can be corrected through cranial osteopathy. Dr. Garcia, who frequently works with psychiatric patients, many of whom are referred to her by their psychiatrists, has found that such correction can resolve some cases of bipolar disorder and severe clinical depression, among other conditions.
Dr. Garcia brings a powerful blend of therapeutic traditions to her osteopathic work. Her healing orientation began in her childhood in Brazil, when she discovered that she has what people call “healing hands,” the ability to bring about positive changes in an ailment by placing her hands on the person's body. Practicality and family pressure resulted in her directing her healing talents into training in dentistry. She brought a holistic orientation to her work as a dentist, however, and became one of a growing number of dentists who understand the pervasive influence that problems of the teeth and jaw exert on the entire body.
For more about the effects of dental factors, see chapter 3.
Dr. Garcia went on to train in osteopathy. It is not uncommon for dentists to pursue osteopathic training after they learn that problems of the teeth and jaw often arise from distortions in the bones of the skull. She later returned to the energetic healing interest of her childhood and trained with numerous hands-on healers. She also trained with a clairvoyant (a person with psychic abilities) and later studied the Five Levels of Healing and Family Systems Therapy with Dr. Klinghardt (see chapter 2). Her work is now a potent blend of these disciplines.
While cranial distortion can occur through various traumas, a common source is birth trauma resulting from the use of an epidural and the drug Pitocin during childbirth.197 An epidural block, or epidural for short, is a local anesthetic injected into the space around the lower spinal cord for pain relief during childbirth. Pitocin is the drug given to women to speed the contractions of labor and hurry the process along. The use of both is common in current obstetrical practice.
While they may be convenient for those involved, these substances can result in the baby's skull being subjected to incredible pressure during birth. Under normal conditions, the woman's pelvis reshapes itself to accommodate birth. This process begins long before the first labor contraction. When the baby drops in late pregnancy, that's already part of the pelvic reshaping. If you anesthetize the pelvis, as with an epidural injection, the reshaping that normally occurs is inhibited. When labor does not progress because the vital pelvic involvement has been turned off, Pitocin is introduced to force the uterus to contract artificially.
Osteopathic physician Lawrence Lavine, whose medical roots are in neurology and cranial osteopathy, among other disciplines, describes what follows as “using the child's head as a battering ram to force the pelvis to reshape to accommodate it…. Normally in labor, the head comes through, compresses, twists, then extends, and everything opens up…. When Pitocin and/or an epidural are used, distortions tend to be locked in.”198
A newborn's head is made up of cartilage and membrane, except for two small areas of bone at the lower back of the head. There are two fontanels, or openings, in the membranous areas: the anterior fontanel in the front and the posterior fontanel in the back. These openings and the fact that the cranium is not bone yet allow the sections of the skull to overlap so the head can get through the birth canal. Closed fontanels after birth indicate a misalignment of the cranial base, which is the base of the entire skull, where all the structures of the skull attach. If the cranial base is out of alignment, nothing that attaches to it can be in alignment.199
Fontanels of Infant's Skull and the Main Bones of Skull
The result is compression on the brain, compression of cranial nerves, and systemic effects resulting from disturbance in the primary respiratory mechanism (see sidebar “What Is Cranial Osteopathy?”). Brain function can be compromised. In addition to the structural effects of compression on the brain, cranial compression may disturb neurotransmitter function.200 In addition, compression diminishes cerebrospinal fluid flow, which affects all the other fluid systems of the body, including circulation. This leads to fewer nutrients and less oxygen being delivered to the brain.201 Further, the compression in the skull makes the brain “irritable,” and this irritability makes the brain far more vulnerable to adverse environmental influences, including toxins and stress.
The brain may be doubly irritated: first, by the compression on the brain from birth, and second, by brain allergies. The toxic effect of substances (food molecules) not normally found in the bloodstream (as occurs in leaky gut) and continual allergic reaction can irritate the brain as well. In addition, people can develop allergies to their own neurotransmitters. In this case, the body doesn't recognize its own serotonin, for example, instead regarding it as a foreign substance. The feedback mechanism sends the message that more serotonin is needed, so the body just keeps producing it; but the brain is unable to utilize it, which further compromises neurotransmitter function.202
For more about allergies, see chapters 2 and 8.
Fortunately, cranial osteopathy releases the locked state of the skull, restoring it to its natural fluidity, thereby restoring the proper flow of cerebrospinal fluid and the function of the primary respiratory mechanism, removing structurally based interference in neurotransmitter and brain function, and returning balance to the body as a whole.
A case from Dr. Garcia's patient files illustrates how cranial osteopathy and the other therapies she uses came together to reverse long-standing bipolar disorder.
Thomas, 34 years old, was referred to Dr. Garcia by his psychiatrist to have his mercury dental fillings replaced with non-mercury fillings. The psychiatrist knew of the neurotoxic effect of mercury and felt that it might be contributing to the bipolar disorder from which Thomas had been suffering all his adult life. Muscle testing (see chapters 3 and 8) and hair analysis had revealed high mercury levels.
Until he went on lithium, Thomas had cycled frequently, experiencing deep troughs and severe mania. When he came to Dr. Garcia, he had been on both lithium and one antidepressant or another for the past seven years, since getting the diagnosis of bipolar disorder after struggling through most of his twenties not knowing what was the matter with him. Prozac was the latest antidepressant drug he was on.
“The medications were keeping things under control, but he was unhappy,” recalls Dr. Garcia. He no longer had the mood swings, but he lived in a state of chronic low-grade depression, despite the drugs, psychotherapy, and acupuncture.
Dr. Garcia has seen root canals and the removal of mercury have dramatic effects on “mental” conditions. In many cases, she finds that these procedures have to be done after cranial osteopathic treatment in order to produce results. She begins by treating patients osteopathically, in her own approach to healing, and their condition often shifts. That was the case with Thomas, whose mercury removal was then postponed.
“As soon as I started treating him, I saw a total shift,” she said. What she observed was a change in what she calls his “dissociation.” In terms of Dr. Klinghardt's levels of healing, his Physical Body was disconnected or dissociated from his Electromagnetic (Energy) Body. The result was the sense that “he was not present.” Dr. Garcia notes that this disconnection is a factor in many of the psychiatric patients she sees.
“Their life force, their potency, their ignition system, as we call it, is depleted,” she explains. “It's not being able to recharge itself. Every step of the way, everything is overwhelming. It takes too much out of the body to keep reigniting the system. The life force is not flowing. The body and the person are not working as a whole, but as separate parts. The physical, functional, energetic, and spiritual are disconnected, and of course the medication over time doesn't help much at all. It just gets them addicted, and they depend on the medication to overcome their emotional challenges.”
Part of their overwhelmed state stems from the fact that their Energy Body is picking up so much information, according to Dr. Garcia. With the Energy Body dissociated from the Physical Body, they have no boundaries and cannot differentiate the sources of information and what to do with it.
“There are very different degrees of dissociation,” she continues. “Some of us have a low degree where we can, by ourselves, without chemicals, come back. At the high degrees, you have schizophrenia.” Healing involves reconnecting the Physical, Energy, and Spiritual bodies.
In Thomas's case, osteopathic evaluation revealed that his cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was not flowing well. “It was almost like his system was stuck. It was slow and pretty toxic.” The CSF has its own electromagnetic charge, and when it is not flowing well, that charge is disturbed. This affects the Electromagnetic Body, the potency, throwing it into a state of disorganization. “If that is disorganized, it's the same as if your liver were extremely toxic, your kidneys were not eliminating properly, and your digestive system were totally overwhelmed.”
Dr. Garcia's osteopathic focus with Thomas was to reorganize his potency. “When he was in a manic stage, his potency was up, but it was an unbalanced potency. If he were balanced, his potency would not be too high or too low. It would be an average that the system could sustain.” Bringing his potency, his Electromagnetic Body, back into an organized state would reconnect it to his Physical Body.
For the first month, Dr. Garcia treated Thomas once a week, and thereafter once every three weeks. Her sessions last between half an hour and an hour and 45 minutes, depending on the information she gets from the body and spirit of each person about what that individual needs at a particular time. Thomas was more present, less dissociated after just one session. His depression began to lift in the weeks that followed, and he wanted to go off his medications.
In her view, his system at that point was strong enough to handle going off the medication, but Dr. Garcia does not advise her patients about the prescription drugs they are taking, as she is neither a physician nor a psychiatrist. Both the psychiatrist and acupuncturist strongly advised Thomas against going off his medications. Given how discontinuation of lithium often catapults people with bipolar disorder into a manic episode, their concern was understandable. Thomas was firm in his resolve, however, and asked Dr. Garcia if his psychiatrist could call her to get a summary of his condition from an osteopathic viewpoint.
They talked, after which the psychiatrist still advised Thomas not to go off his medications, but consented to supervising a gradual decrease in his dosages when he remained adamant. In two months, he had completely stopped taking the drugs. Dr. Garcia continued to treat him, and he had no recurrence of either mania or depression. It has now been two years since he began treatment, and he is maintaining his stable state, “doing better than ever,” reports Dr. Garcia. He also improved his diet during that time and lost 40 pounds, the weight he had gained as a side effect of the lithium.
Another aspect of Thomas's treatment was to address certain issues through Family Systems Therapy. Dr. Garcia uses Dr. Klinghardt's method for this, in which it is only necessary to have the patient and practitioner working together to release the transgenerational energetic issues involved in a person's condition. In Thomas's case, Dr. Garcia felt very clearly that there was some foreign female energy occupying his energy field. The presence of this foreign energy was contributing to his dissociation.
The energy was also “dictating a lot in his life, because he was just so open. He didn't have boundaries. You could say that the female energy was using him.” You can identify the presence of foreign energies in thoughts and feelings, she notes. “You might be sitting there, and all of a sudden have a thought that comes out of the blue to you. You've got to start to learn if it's your thought or someone else's thought. Or it could be a feeling. You walk into a place, and all of a sudden you have a funny feeling, something that doesn't feel right to you.” That could be someone else's energy occupying your energy field.
When we take on this energy, Dr. Garcia calls it “carrying other people's bags.” By that she means “carrying someone's desires or thoughts or pain.” The people whose bags you are carrying could be from a previous generation, which is the basis of Family Systems Therapy. “We carry stuff that's not ours all the time. We don't have the boundaries and the education and the awareness to say, ‘Listen, I can only carry one of your bags. I cannot carry four of your bags.’ So emotionally, we get overwhelmed and overcharged by all we are exposed to. We have ten TVs being turned on around us, and we've got to learn how to choose to leave maybe only one channel open instead of ten channels open.”
To dispel Thomas's dissociation completely, the female energy needed to be addressed. In his case, identifying the source of that energy was not necessary. It turned out to be enough for Thomas to become aware of it and begin to distinguish between what was his and what was not his, and determine what bags it was all right with him to continue to carry. The energy was not destructive in itself, but only as it disconnected Thomas from who he really was. Some of the bags he was carrying of this feminine energy fit him well, while others did not. His healing came in discerning the difference. “If he chose to carry someone's bag, it would be his choice, not someone else's choice. In his case, he might have been carrying a little bit more than he could afford to carry,” notes Dr. Garcia.
Through becoming aware, Thomas began to make his own choices. With awareness comes reconnection and learning how to be present. Dr. Garcia makes it clear that this process does not involve judging the energy. “There are just different energies around, and you have to be aware of them. At least you have to be aware of why you're feeling the way you are.” Learning how to be really present and deciding what you are willing to carry is the key to not being controlled by energies that are not your own.
When someone is in a state of dissociation, those who work with that person on an energetic level have to be responsible about how they do it, Dr. Garcia cautions, both for their own safety and that of the patient. Otherwise, they may take in some of the energies themselves or introduce more foreign energies and cause the person to dissociate even more. “It's the same as going into someone's mouth or touching their blood without wearing gloves and a mask,” she explains. Without such protection, AIDS, herpes, or other infections can pass between patient and practitioner.
“The energetic pollution is far worse because we are not educated at all for that,” she notes. “People need to be very well trained to do energy work. You've got to be very careful as a practitioner. It's a lot more serious than it looks.”
Dr. Garcia's first step with patients is to talk with them about what's going on for them. What they say gives her information on both the Physical Level and the Electromagnetic (or energetic, spiritual) Level. Information about the Electromagnetic Level is not so much communicated to her through their words, but in what she picks up telepathically. She then does a hands-on osteopathic evaluation of the person's system, diagnosing how the cerebrospinal fluid is flowing whether the potency in the system is strong or weak.
She describes her role in treatment as “listening to the information” that the body and spirit of the patient communicate if the practitioner is very still. “You don't dictate anything. You're not going in there and cracking bones and doing all of that,” she explains. This is termed being an “efferent practitioner,” which is a practitioner who waits for the information to come to her rather than deciding where to work on a patient. It is the body and spirit that dictate the direction that treatment should take, and it is the gift of the doctor to allow this, she says.
Dr. Garcia's particular blend of healing disciplines and abilities makes what she does different from what most other osteopaths do. They have similar training, but her orientation is more to the electromagnetic, spiritual level of osteopathy, while theirs is to the physical level.
For example, in comparing her work with that of a close colleague, a physician who is also an osteopath, she notes that when they check a patient for diagnostic purposes, her tendency is to tap into the potency—the electromagnetic and the spiritual—while his tendency is to tap into the physical first. “He will go to the musculoskeletal and describe that well, whereas I will describe the electromagnetic and the spiritual in more detail,” she says. That's not to say that working on the physical level only is not healing, but Dr. Garcia seeks information from both body and spirit for the direction healing should take.
The information arrives silently and comes mostly from what osteopathy calls “the embryo.” Osteopathic training involves extensive study in embryology, says Garcia, with the fundamental teaching that “in the first six to eight weeks of embryonic life, there's no genetic or environmental influences at all. The embryo has its own intelligence and is developing on its own.”
After that point, genetics and environmental factors begin to influence the developing fetus. Those factors comprise the first “lesion,” as it is known in osteopathy, meaning “the first challenge that the embryo has to overcome.” According to this model, if the mother is having a difficult time with her spouse, that emotional frequency will only influence the embryo after the first six to eight weeks, and not before.
The initial period in the life of the being, “when the embryo dictates the embryological development, when there is no other influence but its own intelligence and knowing,” is the source of the body's wisdom. That is where the information comes from that the practitioner receives regarding how to restore the health of the system. It is “the pure intelligence of the body,” which is later obscured and blurred by the toxins of external influences. Dr. Garcia regards this pure intelligence as part of the spirit.
Restoring health is like resetting the timing belt back to its original setting, that is, restoring the system's tempo to what it was in the embryonic stage before genetic and environmental influences intervened. “That tempo is health,” says Dr. Garcia.
“I don't ever only treat the symptom,” she notes. “I take the patient's whole body to neutral and go from there.” Returning to neutral is the first step in restoring the system's natural, original tempo. Being in neutral means that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is balanced, with neither the parasympathetic nor the sympathetic branch dominant. (The ANS controls the automatic processes of the body, such as respiration, heart rate, digestion, and response to stress, with the sympathetic branch being the one involved in the high-adrenaline, fight-or-flight response to stress.)
With the ANS balanced, “the patient gets very calm and the whole system gets very quiet. Then when it's quiet, you've got to be very still as a practitioner and wait for the health to dictate whatever else needs to be done in this system. It knows exactly what to do in different situations in the body. You're trying to balance the body by bringing that original self-healing ability back into focus. It's gotten so blurry.”
It is necessary to synchronize the health at different layers. Therefore, much of osteopathic work entails a purely musculoskeletal orientation, Dr. Garcia says. “Working on the body, you are unlocking the tightness, the rigidity, the obstacles that are keeping the cerebrospinal fluid from being able to flow optimally. Being a dentist, I really focus on the head; that's the cranial osteopathy. I check different parts of the body, but that's where I treat from.”
In addition to birth trauma, any other trauma can lock up the system, according to Dr. Garcia. Any physical trauma, such as an accident or fall, emotional trauma, or spiritual trauma shocks the system. The spirit, for example, “may have been so tremendously abused that it's almost having its own life away from the physical.” This is the dissociation referred to earlier in the case of Thomas. Spiritual trauma produces the same results as the physical trauma of a serious car accident.
Shock to the system causes it to lock up. It can stay that way for a whole lifetime, she notes. In the locked state, the system doesn't breathe or expand. “Every bone, everything in your system, has to breathe, has to expand and contract to a certain extent. When bones are locked into one position, the system is not breathing enough. By moving the bones, by letting them breathe, everything else breathes, too, from the fluids to the emotions and spirit,” Dr. Garcia explains.
Many people regard bone as hard, unshapeable, and immovable. On a practical level, this view is belied by what results from osteopathic treatment. Some of Dr. Garcia's patients have come to her for relief from the pain of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome, which involves misalignment of the teeth and jaw and can produce everything from headaches and neck or back pain to insomnia and depression. TMJ problems are an indication that the bones of the skull are out of alignment, she says. Restoring the skull bones to their proper flexible position may produce noticeable structural changes or not, but a number of TMJ patients say to her after treatment that their teeth come together in a different way than they did before—proof of bone movement.
The environment in which the bones exist is a vital milieu. The bones of the head and spine are bathed in cerebrospinal fluid. “Everything is surrounded by life, by liquid, by life force, by the electromagnetic,” observes Dr. Garcia. “It's not a stagnant system at all.” Regarding the body as purely musculoskeletal is “a very Newtonian perception and understanding of the system, of the body. When you go to Einstein and other wonderful scientists, you start seeing medicine in a totally different way. For example, in quantum physics, if you go down to your very small quantum, it's pure energy. It's an illusion that there's actually any physical to it. So medicine is the same. Some people, a lot of people, are still in the Newtonian knowledge and understanding of the mechanical existence.”
The osteopathy that Dr. Garcia practices is a biodynamic model of osteopathy, in which the practitioner doesn't treat just the bone, but the fluids and the potency in the bone, which unlocks everything from the physical to the spiritual. “Once you go deeper into treatments, the structure is just part of it,” she says. Restoring the body to its innate tempo, the state of balance and health that existed before genetics and environment intervened, allows the body, mind, and spirit to heal itself. Given the genetic and environmental nature of bipolar disorder, restoring the tempo of health in those who suffer from it can have far-reaching effects.