By Maria Francesca Parrino, Ph.D., and Dean Howell, N.D. NeuroCranial Restructuring® is the most powerful manipulation technique in existence today. NCR® has been developed over the past 26 years by Dean Howell, ND. It exhibits a new paradigm for physical medicine which will revolutionize the world of natural medicine with its new concepts in healing. With NCR treatment, a patient will consistently and dependably unwind patterns of skeletal tension returning his/her body to its original, optimal design. This represents the next medical leap in physical healing techniques and redefines protocols for the treatment of the causes for pain and many other health challenges. NeuroCranial Restructuring® Is Like Repairing the Foundation of a Building Imagine hiring a contractor to build a dream home—an impeccably-designed building to be made of the highest quality materials inside and out. Now place this home on a foundation of sand. Despite the contractor’s best efforts, despite the finest materials, despite the wonderful interior and exterior decorating, this will not be a good home. The constant shifting of the poor foundation would result in wall and floor cracks, leaks in the roof, and doors and windows that won’t open. These problems would never end—unless the foundation was repaired. Similarly, in the human body we often forget the importance of structure. For our best health and appearance, we might exercise, meditate, eat well, take vitamins, etc., straighten our teeth, wear night-guards, get injections and surgeries to look younger, and even dress impeccably. But we still have problems—so we eat health foods, take nutriceuticals, take medicines, go to counseling, go to physical medicine therapist, and even undergo surgery—all to try to fix the problems that have resulted from our skeleton not being in its optimal position. Just as the building must have a stable foundation to stand, the human body must stand too. So the nervous system's first priority is to maintain stability. Dr. Howell found that most physical medicine treatments do not last. Most of these treatments last such a short time that Howell describes the situation as the body recovering from the treatment and thereby reverting to its pre-treatment status of maximum stability. He describes that as showing that the body values stability and ignores joint restriction and pain. Howell has clinically shown that, if the head is even slightly distorted, then it is difficult for the neck to hold up the head, and the spine compensates with a counterbalancing distortion patterns to create a makeshift stability. This is why chiropractic adjustments, osteopathic treatments, craniosacral, etc.—all designed to put bones and muscles “back where they belong,”—are all assured to be temporary by their faulty design—and therefore maintenance therapy is continually required. While they might fix the symptomatic problems—the muscle- and bone-pains pains created by the compensation of the musculoskeletal system to the body’s instability created by asymmetry of the skeleton—the underlying problem, the asymmetry, is not addressed or even considered. Of course, the structure remains unstable, so your body reverts to its previous pattern because, although painful, it is the most stable pattern. “Your treatment didn’t hold,” is all that your therapist will say. Massage will produce the same temporary results: after rubbing away all the tension in the muscles, your treatment wears right off, because as soon as you go about your day, the muscles lock back up again to support body’s stability. The body’s ultimate goal is structural stability! Thanks to NCR®, these temporary solutions are no longer necessary. A New Paradigm Creates a New Alternative for Healing NeuroCranial Restructuring focuses on correcting the gravitational instability of the body’s structures. The cumulative NCR manipulation process involves the controlled release of the connective tissue tension in the skeleton, especially the skull. This in turn triggers precise movements of the cranial bones and body to unwind and to gradually return the musculoskeletal system towards its original design. Only the symmetrical skeleton can perfectly house your ideal nervous system. A nervous system with perfect fluid flow patterns can only occur if the skeleton is perfect as well. Imperfect skeletal structure leads to imperfect fluid flow which leads to imperfect nervous system function. If you have problems with your emotions, your thinking, your hormones, etc., especially after a trauma, then the brain must be fixed—and it is a structural problem! So it is only by appropriately correcting the cranial structure that an optimization of nervous system function can occur. Similarly, it is only a perfect skeleton that can have perfect movements of all of the muscles and the joints, perfect function of the mouth and jaw, perfect function of the eyeballs, and perfect function of the nose and sinuses. Isn’t this what people hope is happening when they go to a physical medicine doctor? Yet the faulty premises of physical medicine lead to successful outcomes rarely. This is not the fault of the therapist who offers mediocre therapy. It is the fault of their teachers who have embraced a faulty therapy design! They can only remedy the situation by learning a new paradigm. NeuroCranial Restructuring offers this! The entire skeletal structure can be permanently changed with NCR®. Each treatment releases the structural systems of the body to incrementally and cumulatively return towards their most vibrant, harmonious, pain-free and energetic mode of functioning. By optimizing the physical structure, the bones, the muscles, the connective tissues, and the nervous system can all move into positions where they can function more effectively. As the treatments accumulate, the symptoms of pain and malfunction—which are the expression of structural problems—gradually go away. NCR® is not focused on the removal of specific symptoms. Instead it is designed to treat the cause of the symptoms—the asymmetries which produce instability—so that the body’s structure is no longer creating the symptom. The body wants to be in its most optimal position. After each treatment, the body is more stable gravitationally and has no need to revert to its previous pattern unless a new accident or trauma occurs. Let’s Get Our Heads on Straight [Diagram of skull] NeuroCranial Restructuring® focuses on moving the sphenoid bone, the foundation or linch-pin of the bones of the head. The sphenoid’s shape resembles a bat or butterfly. It is easily twisted or contorted. When the sphenoid is twisted, it forces the skull into asymmetrical positions. The brain then modifies the positions of the spinal vertebrae to stabilize the skeleton. It may, for instance, align the Atlas off-center, and the atlas being off-balance can force other areas of the body to compensate to maintain stability. With precise movement of the sphenoid, structurally-related cranial sutures open. These therapist-created movements permit the distorted connective tissues inside the skull to unwind. Then the attached cranial bones move as well. If it is done properly the body moves towards symmetry. The brain expands in its new space, receiving the blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and nutrients it requires, optimizing function and reducing nervous system malfunctions and disorders. As the skull returns to its proper shape and position, fluid flow patterns gradually optimize, so the cranial rhythms treated by osteopathic cranial manipulation cease to be a problem. The spine naturally returns to its optimal shape and function, eliminating the subluxations that are the focus of chiropractic. Headaches and migraines do not occur in a perfect skull. Muscular tension and spasms disappear because they are no longer required for stability. Flexibility and ease of movement return as joint positions optimize. A variety of symptoms begin to disappear. Increased energy and a profound sense of well-being arise. In the early 1990s Dr. Howell found that sphenoid and connective tissue tension patterns are not easy to evaluate. Yet, without this information, a sensible treatment pattern cannot be deduced. Applied kinesiology, static and motion-palpation, X-rays, muscle strength testing, and visualization of symmetry-asymmetry patterns, and other techniques were all inadequate to design this “new age” of analysis. Only subtle sphenoid palpations were accurate, and these patterns were difficult to feel. Then Howell studied with Drs. L. Gene and Steven Ward, DC, who showed him Spinal Stressology and its supposedly applied kinesiology techniques. Howell rapidly deduced that their very effective analytic techniques were not AK, but instead were tests of the gravitational stability of the tested joint. Overjoyed with his new tests, Howell found that any joint in the body could be evaluated for its inherent stability (or instability). All that needs to be done is to gently but firmly push a joint forward or backward and then watch the overall body response. When the body behaves like a dampened pendulum, rapidly coming to rest, then the joint is under good nervous system control. When the body behaves as a pendulum, slowly coming to rest, then the joint is under poor nervous system control. Only the unstable joints should be corrected, or the body becomes less stable and will soon revert to its previous alignment pattern. Dr. Howell has been collecting the treatments that answer these stability questions for over fifteen years, and he calls this NeuroCranial Restructuring (NCR)®. From the moment we are born, each time we receive a physical, biochemical, or emotional blow to the skull, the connective tissues react by tightening the smooth muscles encased within them. By definitions, a joint is an area where two bones come together and move. Tightening of the connective tissues can, therefore, create movement of the bones. When the meninges tighten, the sutures between the cranial bones can shift, changing the shape of the skull, putting pressure on the brain, which can diminish optimal learning and well-being. Every time you are traumatized, the nervous system reacts. The connective tissues usually respond by tightening. The tightening can lead to skeletal changes, changing movement dynamics and nervous system function. The body will seek stability, so it will make some of the effects lasting. Every time you are traumatized, it is like rolling a dice to find out how lucky you will be this time—will it go away or become a lasting problem? Everything from falls and car accidents to infections and emotional traumas can cause the head to be distorted into undesirable shapes and positions which, in turn, can cause a person to not only look unhealthy but suffer from a wide variety of uncomfortable and sometimes debilitating symptoms. In his research, Dr. Howell found that the body’s structural priority is to maintain head balance (stability) against the Earth’s gravitational environment. As a result, the skeleton and muscles will assume whatever position necessary (however painful and limiting) to support the head and maintain this gravitational stability. Living in the NeuroCranial World The skull houses the brain and the top of the spinal column. Nutrient-loaded fluids that need as much circulation as possible bathe the brain, which expands and contracts like a sponge surrounded by a blacksmith’s bellows. Surrounding the brain is the meninges, which is a rubber band-like sack that connects the brain to the skull. When a physical trauma moves the skull bones, the meninges must maintain its integrity by compensating for the movement by tightening. If we are emotionally or biochemically traumatized, the meninges immediately react by tightening smooth muscles within its tissue. This forces the skull bones to shift. So either of these situations results in mechanical pressure on the brain from the skull. Hydraulic principles tell us that fluid flow patterns in a closed vessel are controlled by the shape of the vessel. So changing the shape of the head changes the flow of blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Most of the time traumas will cause restriction of the flow of those important nutrients. Obviously, this condition is common (misstated as “normal”). Our functioning is reduced, including our capacity for mental activities. The traumas we experience either tighten the meninges or compress the bones. Both result from the mechanical pressure from the bones and the squeeze produced by the meninges. The brain compression is the inevitable result from the altered skull alignment. The shape of the skull is gradually altered, and no longer sits properly on the spine. The spine takes on a distorted shape to support the changes in the skull and gradually the spinal muscles tighten to adapt to that movement. Conventional medicine doesn’t really help, since the original problem with the skull is never addressed. Dr Weston A. Price, in his immortal classic Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, studied and documented various primitive peoples as he traveled all over the world. All the subjects had wide skulls and huge dental arches until they began to eat modern diets. Then, in one generation, their children showed the narrow faces, misshapen head and smaller crowded dental arches that are universal today. Dr. Price performed experiments with “Mongoloid” (Downs’ Syndrome) children and cut the arch at the roof of their mouth down the center. He placed expansion screws and opened up the bones at the base of the skull. When he did this, the intelligence of these “retarded” children became almost normal. The “retardation” returned when he removed the expansion screws and the skull bones reverted. After traveling worldwide and seeing all races, Dr. Price concluded that degenerated structure (poor skull and dental development) is the main impediment to human intelligence. Dr. Howell discovered how to release the power of the brain without these drastic surgical procedures. NCR® optimizes brain function, which is the foundation of our mental capacities, and our physical/spiritual well-being as well. When a problem is treated with NeuroCranial Restructuring®, the skull is gradually restored to its original shape, and the brain can resume operating at peak levels. As the brain and skull adjust, the muscles relax and the spine returns to its optimal position on its own. Since this is truly a more stable position for the body, it holds permanently. This can have profound physical effects by not only providing relief from a variety of serious physical conditions, but also with beneficial changes, such as increased flexibility, energy and mobility. There are also outstanding mental and emotional benefits from NCR® as well, including relief from anxiety, phobias, depression, hyperactivity, nervousness, learning disabilities and even lessening of the effects of serious mental disorders. All of this can result by simply correcting the imbalance that starts at the top of your head, just as Dr. Price foretold. The functioning of our brains is perhaps the greatest factor for success in all areas of life. When the brain is allowed to achieve its maximum size and ideal shape, amazing things can happen. Many of the health problems from which people suffer may resolve themselves naturally. Health Challenges That NCR® Can Help NeuroCranial Restructuring® helps conditions that have either a structural cause or a significant structural component. It creates a permanent structural release for changes triggered by the traumatic events of a body’s life. Birth trauma, accidents and falls, sports injuries, medical procedures, severe emotional and biochemical traumas are just some of the causes of musculoskeletal damage that are corrected with NRC® treatments. Some health challenges which manifest from cranial bones that are out of alignment: Chronic Depression Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Dyslexia and other Learning Disabilities Hyperactivity Epilepsy Migraines and Headaches Mental problems Double Vision Glaucoma Eye Abnormalities Balance Problems – Vertigo Tinnitus/Hearing disorders Chronic Sinus Problems Nasal Breathing Problems/Sleep Apnea Neck and Shoulder Pain/whiplash TMJ, TMD, Various Jaw Function Problems that effect bite patterns Scoliosis Neuralgia and Neuritis Muscle spasms, seizures Sciatica - Low Back and Pelvis Problems Sinus Problems Muscular and Skeletal conditions Emotional and Mental difficulties Insomnia and problems caused by lack of sleep Dystonia and Parkinson’s tremors These are all mechanical, structural complaints that have to be treated systematically and system wide. They cannot be treated locally (or the cause is not addressed) and the problem will return. Many people experience lives of misery and suffering with little hope for a happy, energetic, pain-free future. Too many doctors refuse to acknowledge that our skulls are the most important part of the skeletal system. Testimonials Ginny Stafford: “I had a severe 90 degree scoliosis and I was in pain from my knees to my waist and all of the pain is gone! When I first went to Dr. Howell’s office I could hardly walk up the steps and now I have no problem walking up stairs. I can breathe. And I...anyone that has scoliosis needs to come here and have this done. It's just wonderful. Your whole life will change. He saved my life." Debra Hernandez: “My son of a year and a half, who was diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome, had so much congestion before his first treatment, that I would have to use three different medicines just to control it but after his treatment, his airways are now free and clear. His forehead which before had protruded is now markedly more in line with the rest of his face. This was only the first treatment.” Harvey Meyers: “I had a crushing pain problem in my skull, like vise grip that was misdiagnosed, mismanaged by doctor after doctor for 12 years. I was on 180 mg of morphine, then ended the Oxycontin and went back into full pain. 12 years is a long time, and the details of how my life was crushed between 37 and 50 years old are arduous. 4 days in October removed the pain that I would call debilitating as well as improving my vision and gait. And it's hard to get anyone to understand just how PROFOUND and MIRACULOUS the changes were for me, not to mention permanent at least 3 months so far. I've got a long way to go to recover to whatever my new 'normal' is. After 12 years of disability lots of things are whacked and adjusting is hard, but the killer pain I endured 24/7 for 12 years is gone. “ Dr. Ross Hauser, M.D.: " I’m a medical doctor and practitioner of NCR®. I was fortunate to get trained in NCR® by Dr. Howell. I’m the Medical Director of Caring Medical and Rehabilitation Services, a natural medicine clinic in Oak Park, Illinois. I am also the author of several books on natural medicine, including the well-known book, Prolo Your Pain Away: Curing Chronic Pain with Prolotherapy." I myself suffer from some medical conditions such as an inability to smell, some pain on the right side of my body, such as TMJ syndrome, as well as having some concentration difficulty. After just four NCR® treatments by Dr. Howell, I could smell for the first time in years. My TMJ vastly improved and my concentration and attention was phenomenal. And, these are similar results that I’ve seen in my patients, being a practitioner of NCR®. If a person suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder, concentration difficulties, autism, Downs Syndrome, balance difficulties, tinnitus or ringing in the ears, vertigo, allergies, chronic sinusitis, chronic neck pain, back pain, scoliosis, headaches, torticollis, tremor, chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia...these are the kinds of conditions that respond very well to NCR®. Often a doctor or clinician trained in NCR® can look at a person’s face and know that they’re going to be an appropriate candidate for NCR®. What a physician or clinician is looking for is various asymmetries in the face. For instance, a person’s nose may be crooked or the cheekbones may be more full on one side or the other. These give an indication that a person will respond very well to NCR®. Such condition as mental fatigue, concentration, attention disorders, memory problems and such psychiatric conditions as anxiety and depression are helped when one improves the body’s hormone production as well as increasing the hormone production in the brain. By manipulating the sphenoid bone and affecting the pituitary gland function, as well as the various areas of the brain in regard to neurotransmitter formation and circulation, NCR® causes dramatic improvements in these conditions. What I like most about NCR® is first, that it is very safe. There has been over a million NCR® treatments done without any long-term bad side effects. It’s an extremely safe procedure. And second, it can be utilized in the context of comprehensive natural medicine. If a person’s using a particular dietary regime, herbal regime or other interventional techniques, such as neurotherapy and prolotherapy, NCR® can be a great adjunct to that treatment protocol. Thirdly, NCR® is very effective. So by utilizing NCR® in a person’s particular natural medical regime, they can improve their health very quickly." The NCR® Approach Dr. Dean Howell, the founder of NCR® therapy, found that regular physical medicine treatments had only temporary results. First he discovered that he could determine where to use endonasal balloons to specifically manipulate the sphenoid bone by palpating the greater wings of the sphenoid bone (in the areas commonly called the temples). These very specific sphenoid adjustments that gentle, proprioceptive testing could be used to map the body’s areas of stability and instability. This can be performed on a patient that is standing, sitting, or lying down. and the doctors he's trained, perform an external examination to test the sphenoid's stability. Depending on where and the degree of instability, they design a pattern of treatment tailored to the individual. Small balloons of varying thickness are inserted into one of the six nasal passages to the throat, permitting a momentary direct contact with the sphenoid bone. It is inflated from a second to precisely move the sphenoid and thus all the other cranial bones, creating a new and superior stability. For maximal results, the patient receives one treatment a day over four consecutive days. Dr. Howell has personally administered over 60,000 treatments, all of which have been safe and highly effective in reducing or eliminating a host of physical and emotional symptoms. Patients report that they feel less (or no) pain, and are more relaxed, happy and self-confident. Creativity is enhanced. Relationships improve. Learning becomes easier. Concentration, focus, mental and emotional clarity all increase. “Everybody can use NCR®! People need NeuroCranial Restructuring® because their physical structure is not optimal.” states Dr. Howell. “I can say this because I have never seen a perfect structure.” Some amount of NCR therapy could be useful for everyone because it optimizes everything. CONCLUSION NCR® is the most extraordinary and fastest-healing method of physical healing today. It is the only technique that can create permanent, incremental improvements in the body’s structure, which restores the whole skeletal system to its most stable and symmetrical position. The bones, muscles, connective tissues, and nervous system are put back to the positions where they can begin to heal and function optimally. This new position allows us to function in our most vibrant, harmonious, pain-free and energetic mode. The variety and intensity of positive physical, mental and emotional effects from optimizing the body's structure through NCR® is astounding. This demonstrates that the body's structural integrity is far more important than we had realized. Together with proper diet, exercise and rest, good structure is the key to the body, mind and emotions operating at their full potential. NCR® is the only therapy that optimally moves the sphenoid bone and with it, the entire structure precisely and effectively. If we want to be the best we can be in body, mind and spirit, receiving NCR® is a great place to start. Maria Francesca Parrino, Ph.D., is an Environmental and Wellness Consultant, health researcher, writer and PPNF member. She is the Founder and Coordinator of Natural Food Choices, a private organic food and educational cooperative. She can be reached at 877.819.5976 or by e-mail at info@NaturalFoodChoices.info Dr. Dean Howell, N.D., received his Naturopathic degree from Bastyr University, and lives in Washington state. He is the author of ‘NeuroCranial Restructuring: Unleash Your Structural Power’. Dr. Howell practiced in Encinitas, CA, and was a former PPNF Board member. As he travels the world treating patients, he also offers training for practitioners in the techniques of NCR®. For more information call 888.252.0411, www.DrDeanHowell.com, or email at info@drdeanhowell.com. [2955]