I was fortunate to meet a very talented, unique person with vast experience and knowledge in the field of folk medicine – Ogulov Alexander Timofeevich. I was trained in visceral chiropractic at his seminars. Alexander Timofeevich researched methods practiced by folk healers in Russia and preserved in villages, among the Old Believers, in other places to correct pathologies of the body by natural means – directly with hands, simple improvised means, herbs and useful living organisms. The result of scientific research and clinical practice became the method, which received the author’s name VICCERAL CHIROPRACTICE, patented in Rospatent as Visceral correction of the functional state of the body, Russian Patent N2040249 of 25.07.95.
Since time immemorial, massage of internal organs has been used in folk medicine as a means of helping to survive in extreme conditions. Hard physical labor, domestic traumas, as well as wars were the main reasons for this. Various wounds and injuries, appearing as a concomitant of human activity of that time forced people to look for ways to help eliminate such phenomena. And of course, the most basic indication that forced people to deal with the abdomen is pain. Relief of the victim’s condition at the first moment of injury or disease through massage of internal organs forced people engaged in such healing activities to think about finding additional means that would further help in his rehabilitation. Such means that strengthened the recovery process were herbs, leeches, bees, pots, conspiracies, etc.
The doctor only needs to carefully observe nature, to notice, to analyze. Such observations of witch doctors were passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation. Something was lost, rediscovered, improved, and, accumulating, formed the general medical culture of the Russian people. In this regard, we must give credit to the ancient Oriental medicine, which complemented the Old Slavic therapy of the abdomen and brought it to perfection.
Visceral chiropractic (visceral – internal, chiro – hand, practice – action) is the treatment of internal organs through pressure, tapping, shifting, massage to restore the position of organs and restore microcirculation in their periorgan spaces. Due to these actions there is a normalization of many metabolic processes in the body and the elimination of functional disorders. That massage of the internal organs, which was performed by our ancestors, which we mentioned at the beginning of our article – this is an analog of chiropractic. It differed from modern visceral chiropractic only in the presence of the concept of the development of pathology in the body, as well as a large number of improvised means used in manual actions, such as: pots, jars, leeches and others.
The whole technology of Visceral Chiropractic is presented as follows. In every diseased organ, as a rule, one finds nerve fiber paresis and vascular spasm; consequently, there are no diseases without these disturbances. As a result, due to insufficient supply of oxygen, nutrients, venous and lymphatic stasis, poor outflow of metabolic products and the development on this ground of pathogenic microflora, self-poisoning of the cell begins. As a result, capillary dysfunction leads to many diseases, and is often their root cause.
Elimination of venous and lymphatic stagnation in organs and periorgan spaces leads to normalization of functions of these organs and recovery of the organism as a whole without the use or with partial use of insignificant amounts of drugs. Manual actions in the abdominal area contribute to the improvement of blood and lymph circulation, not only in the abdomen itself, but also in the chest, head, arms, legs.
In Old Slavic massage, folk healers and empirically established that functional disorders in internal organs develop in a certain sequence, which can be represented in a graphic form, conditionally called by healers “circles of interactions”. The key role in the occurrence of venous stasis is assigned to the gallbladder.
The technique of working with internal organs consists in pressing actions of periorgan spaces with observance of the “laws” of sequence, shifting internal organs in the necessary direction, massage of organ spaces and actions aimed at fixation of organs. Visceral massage is carried out only with consideration of indications and contraindications, after interviewing the patient, palpatory and diagnostic clarification of his condition.
A great deal of attention in Old Slavic massage was paid to pots and jars. If we consider these technologies from a modern perspective, we can say that our ancestors empirically approached the problem, which today is given the most attention in modern medicine.
Bruises caused by jar massage stimulate local or what is called local immunity, i.e. there is an effect of autohemotherapy described in many medical monographs. The general immunity also tends to increase if the autohemotherapy is carried out intramuscularly. This effect has been used more often where antibiotics are in short supply or on patients allergic to them. It is noticed that subcutaneous hematomas on the abdomen eliminate adhesions in the intestine, improves skin turgor. Due to irritation of various receptors in it activates the metabolism of internal organs. Interesting such a phenomenon – bruises are formed only in pathological places, and the more pathology, the bulkier and brighter the bruise. Let’s remember our childhood, when a lung disease or a banal cough was treated with medical cans.
In the considered system of organism restoration there is no definition of “disease”, but there are only concepts of functional weakening of organs and the level of their presence in the “circles of interaction” in each particular patient. This system is of practical interest for any person, both sick and healthy. For one person it is one of the ways to solve problems, and for another – to maintain health and prevent diseases.
The list of indications is large, but there are also contraindications, which are much less. Indications are the following diseases: cholecystitis, pancreatitis, liver congestion, hepatosis, bronchitis, gastric ulcers and bulb of the 12-rectum, colitis, chronic constipation, renal congestion, pelvic congestion, mild cardiac disorders, thyroid diseases, urinary and cholelithiasis, varicose veins of the lower extremities, osteochondrosis, etc.
In particular, let us consider the peculiarities of such a difficult-to-treat disease as osteochondrosis. Treatment of osteochondrosis in the classical, generally accepted to date in medicine is a poorly solved problem, because it is carried out without eliminating the main, in our opinion, the cause underlying the disease, namely, the functional disruption of internal organs. Manual therapy of the spine itself often gives only temporary relief of pain syndrome, transferring the disease into the category of chronic. After some time there are repeated pains and previous problems, and manipulations of manual character on the spine have to be repeated.
Manual therapy of the abdomen – gives new perspectives in the fight against osteochondrosis. Improving the condition of internal organs with its help contributes to the elimination of level tension from muscles and fascia, contributes to the relief of syndrome and recovery of the patient. Teaching the patient to work independently with the abdomen gives him the opportunity to solve his own problem of internal organs and to avoid or stop the process of development of degeneration of the spine. In addition, working with internal organs allows for a more active influence on both the autonomic and central nervous system.
In ideal conditions, it is better to perform abdominal chiropractic treatment on an empty stomach. After all, if a person has eaten well, all the body’s efforts are directed to digesting food, so the gastrointestinal tract may react inadequately to the impact of the specialist. Therefore, if this therapy is carried out during fasting, the effectiveness of visceral chiropractic is multiplied.
On the other hand, no kind of fasting can raise the organs that are down. In turn, the complete absence of food gives a complete rest to all digestive organs. The body does not need to secrete digestive juices, does not need to push the food through all parts of the intestine, there is no need to spend a huge amount of energy on dragging, transformation, neutralization and excretion of all those substances that come to us with food. Now all the energy can be directed to our own recovery, including the recovery of the organs involved in digestion. Therefore, the combination of these two methods organically complement each other, allowing to reduce the period of fasting, without compromising the therapeutic effect.
