{"id":15982,"date":"2018-05-01T08:13:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T08:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=15982"},"modified":"2018-05-01T08:14:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T08:14:24","slug":"toxic-brains-frozen-spines-the-perrin-point-ray-perrin-me-cfs-fm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/toxic-brains-frozen-spines-the-perrin-point-ray-perrin-me-cfs-fm\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic brains, frozen spines & the Perrin Point: Ray Perrin, ME\/CFS & FM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health rising<\/strong> blog post, by Cort Johnson, 25 March 2018:\u00a0Toxic brains, frozen spines and the Perrin Point: Ray Perrin, ME\/CFS and Fibromyalgia<\/a><\/h3>\n

This is the second of three blogs examining the possibility that upper body\/head issues play a role in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS) and\/or fibromyalgia (FM). The first blog examined the possibility that high blood pressure in the brain was present in ME\/CFS and FM.<\/p>\n

In this blog, Health Rising examines Ray Perrin\u2019s hypothesis that a toxic overload in the brain is causing ME\/CFS and FM.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ray Perrin PhD, D.O. a U. K. osteopath, has been digging into chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM) for almost three decades.\u00a0 His journey with ME\/CFS began when a professional cyclist suffering from ME\/CFS walked into his sports medicine clinic way back in 1989 and then walked out five treatments later healthy again.<\/p>\n

Perrin wasn\u2019t trying to treat the cyclist\u2019s chronic fatigue syndrome; he was trying to fix his posture, but on the way to fixing his posture \u2013 which required using a variety of techniques \u2013 he ended up curing his ME\/CFS. That cyclist provided Perrin with a clue that he\u2019s been following up on for almost 30 years: the cyclist was experiencing a \u201cmechanical strain\u201d on his spine in the chest area. When Perrin improved the movement in his upper back, the cyclist was able to return to cycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to find out what you\u2019ve done because you got me better and nobody else has.\u201d I thought it was just a coincidence. But then I was a bit inquisitive. I\u2019ve always been inquisitive and I wanted to find out what I had done. And that\u2019s when I started looking at other patients who had the symptoms then and I noticed there were physical signs in all these patients, especially in the spine. That\u2019s what set me on this long road and then I came up with my ideas and a hypothesis of what ME is and then the rest is history, as they say. 28 years on\u2026Ray Perrin \u2013 the Ari Whitten interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perrin comes from an osteopathic tradition in the U.K. which is very focused on reading physical signs and manipulating the body. He was\u00a0the first medical professional I know of to propose that a unique physical structural problem is present in ME\/CFS\/FM. Perrin believes that the practice of reading the body is something of a lost art in the medical field. Perrin\u2019s PhD thesis ended up being on ME\/CFS.<\/p>\n

They (doctors) look at what tests they can do and what their scan shows, but they don\u2019t actually look at the person, feel the person. And I, as an osteopath, do. And this is what we do and I started looking for more and more signs that these patients all shared.\u00a0 The Ari Whitten Interview<\/a><\/p>\n

Personally, his general thesis doesn\u2019t surprise me at all. My pain begins at the chest area and proceeds upwards. Trying to relieve my neck tightness with frequent stretching exercises resulted in nausea, flu-like symptoms and pain. After walking or exercising \u2013 it\u2019s my chest and upper body which are in pain \u2013 not my legs. Touching virtually any part of my face will elicit pain. Whether or not Perrin\u2019s hypothesis has found the or a cause of ME\/CFS\/FM, something is going on in my upper body.<\/p>\n

A Toxic Brain<\/strong>
\nPerhaps only an osteopath \u2013 a doctor specializing in structural problems \u2013 could have come to Perrin\u2019s conclusion. He believes that toxic overload in the brain, caused by a malfunctioning sympathetic nervous system, causes distinct physical signs in the upper bodies of ME\/CFS\/FM patients.<\/p>\n

The Brain\u2019s Lymphatic System<\/strong>
\nThe lymphatic system in our body serves to collect and process large toxins, but no such system was believed to exist in the brain.\u00a0 For hundreds of years, researchers have wondered how the brain effectively gets rid of its waste. The cerebral spinal fluid is one avenue but it seemed a poor second to the role the lymphatic system plays in the body.<\/p>\n

The brain\u2019s lymphatic system<\/a> was rediscovered in 2017 by NIH researchers (two hundred years after an Italian anatomist reported that he\u2019d spied lymphatic tissues in the brains of mice. Sometimes the medical system takes a long, long time to catch up :))\u00a0 That finding is spurring new research into diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer\u2019s and other neuroinflammatory disorders.\u00a0 Perrin believes the buildup of amyloid proteins in Alzheimer\u2019s could result from poor lymphatic drainage. (Avindra Nath, the lead investigator in the NIH\u2019s intramural study believes ME\/CFS may be an neuroinflammatory disorder.)<\/p>\n

Interestingly, blocking that lymphatic drainage<\/a>\u00a0in mice results in a buildup of fluids in three areas of the brain associated with ME\/CFS: the hypothalamus, the thalamus and the basal ganglia.<\/p>\n

Decades ago, Perrin was on a similar trail. He believed lymphatic drainage from the brain<\/a> was occurring but he didn\u2019t know from where. He did know that the cerebral spinal fluid drains toxins from the brain through a bony plate (cribriform plate) situated above the nose. From there, the toxins drain into lymphatic vessels around the nasal sinuses and the optic, auditory and trigeminal nerves in the eye, ear and cheek and along the spine. From there they flow to the thoracic duct and finally into the blood, where they end up at the liver.<\/p>\n

Perrin\u2019s osteopathic training taught him that the main drainage point of the lymphatic system was found at the thoracic duct in the chest area. This thoracic duct has a pumping mechanism controlled by a system \u2013 the sympathetic nervous system \u2013 that researchers have long found to be dysregulated in ME\/CFS and fibromyalgia.<\/p>\n

Perrin hypothesized that blocked or congested lymphatic drainage pathways in ME\/CFS and FM were causing toxins to build up in the central nervous system. That toxin buildup was disturbing the hypothalamus, which, in turn, was causing sympathetic nervous system problems.\u00a0 The hypothalamus is the only part of the brain with direct access to the blood. It needs this access to regulate insulin levels in the blood but it comes at a cost\u00a0 \u2013 less protection from toxins.<\/p>\n

Those SNS problems were, in turn, blunting the pumping action of the key lymphatic drainage point \u2013 the thoracic duct. In fact it\u2019s worse than that. Perrin believes the pump in ME\/CFS\/FM is working backwards \u2013 instead of pumping lymphatic fluid to the body, it\u2019s actually pumping lymphatic fluids back towards the brain \u2013 and Perrin believes this can push toxins into the brain. (That retrograde pumping mechanism shows up in odd-looking varicose veins in the chest area.) Those toxins then destabilize the hypothalamus and sympathetic nervous system \u2013 which, in turn, whacks the pumping mechanism. In short, a\u00a0vicious circle which maintains high toxin levels in the brain is present.<\/p>\n

Perrin now believes that the entire brain is probably affected by increased toxin levels\u00a0with the limbic system<\/a> (hypothalamus, thalamus, basal ganglia) most affected. That\u2019s enough of the brain to easily produce the movement, sleep, fatigue and cognitive problems found in ME\/CFS\/FM. Because the lymphatic drainage from the brain mostly occurs during the delta stages of sleep, it\u2019s possible that the sleep problems in ME\/CFS \u2013 which have been linked to autonomic nervous system dysfunction<\/a> \u2013 are reducing drainage as well.<\/p>\n

Physical Signs of ME\/CFS and Fibromyalgia<\/strong>
\nPerrin is the first to postulate that direct physical evidence of ME\/CFS and FM exists in the form of frozen or limited spinal mobility, particularly in the middle and upper back, swollen lymph vessels and specific tender points. He\u2019s said he\u2019s never seen an ME\/CFS patient who\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have a thoracic (upper and middle) spine problem.<\/p>\n

The Perrin Point is a tender point about 2 to 3\u2009cm to the left and 2 to 3\u2009cm above your left nipple. It\u2019s also generally found between in the third intercostal space between the third and fourth ribs (counting from the top).<\/p>\n

Each of these physical findings, Perrin believes, relates to problems with fluid drainage from the brain. Each, Perrin also asserts, can be manipulated using cranial osteopathic techniques to stimulate renewed flow of cerebral spinal and lymphatic fluids, thus relieving the buildup of toxins in the brain and relieving the symptoms of ME\/CFS\/FM.<\/p>\n

Once toxin levels drop and normal lymphatic drainage resumes, Perrin states the patient is free of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS). Throughout the book, Perrin refers to numerous recovery stories.<\/p>\n

Success Story<\/strong>
\nOne young ME\/CFS patient who was virtually carried into his office had a strong curvature in her mid-upper back region, tender points in certain areas, lymphatic congestion and a very sluggish \u201ccranial rhythm\u201d. Perrin reported that an intensive course of soft tissue massage and spinal articulation improved her lymph drainage and the girl was able to successfully return to school, gain a degree and remained healthy at the time of the book\u2019s printing.\u201c.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/a> about the history of this hypothesis and the Perrin Treatment protocol<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health rising blog post, by Cort Johnson, 25 March 2018:\u00a0Toxic brains, frozen spines and the Perrin Point: Ray Perrin, ME\/CFS and Fibromyalgia This is the second of three blogs examining the possibility that upper body\/head issues play a role in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[930,618,1961,4387,4386,4058,1019],"class_list":["post-15982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-autonomic-nervous-system","tag-cort-johnson","tag-lymphatic-network","tag-osteopathy","tag-perrin-technique","tag-raymond-perrin","tag-sympathetic-nervous-system-dysfunction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-49M","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15982"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16364,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15982\/revisions\/16364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}