Applied Kinesiology

Muscle Response in Diagnosis, Therapy, and Preventive Medicine

Tom Valentine, Carole Valentine, Douglas P. Hetrick

• Publisher: Healing Arts Press
• Year: 1985
• ISBN:
  9781620552193
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

A practical and reliable diagnostic tool that has emerged over the past twenty-five years, kinesiology is the study of the mechanics of bodily motion, especially muscle movements and their relationship to our body systems. Viewing the body as a balanced triad of structure, chemistry, and mentality, applied kinesiology gauges muscle response to pinpoint underlying physical problems. Within 30 minutes, a competent kinesiologist can evaluate bodily functions and provide a readout on the workings of the glands, organs, lymphatic system, circulatory and nervous systems, circulation, and muscle-bone structure. Applied Kinesiology demonstrates how this technique can be of practical use for everyone.

1

Introducing Applied Kingsiology

In a brief session, a competent applied kinesiologist can evaluate your various bodily functions by testing your muscles, and then present you with a fairly accurate picture of how your glands, organs, lymphatic system, nervous system, circulation, and muscle and bone structures are working.

It’s a rather bold claim, but valid, in our experience. Applied kinesiology (AK) is a practical and reliable diagnostic tool and holistic therapeutic modality that has emerged in the past twenty years or so. AK appeared in 1964, and it has grown impressively. Today there are hundreds of competent clinical and practical researchers contributing to the ever-growing body of knowledge. Since the practice was founded by a chiropractor, it makes sense that most applied kinesiologists are chiropractors. However, over the years other physicians, including dentists, M.D.’s, podiatrists (chiropodists), osteopaths, and even psychiatrists, have learned the art. Today we may approach an applied kinesiologist with confidence.

The list of health problems that the applied kinesiologist can address confidently and helpfully is impressive and still growing. For example, children with chronic sniffles or other nagging cold symptoms may benefit from a muscle-testing session. Or, if you are in need of a change in diet to knock off some fat, or merely to improve your energy level and sense of well-being, an AK session will help determine which nutrients you really need before you go to the trouble of breaking old habits and preparing new foods. Maybe you’re thinking of jumping on the fitness bandwagon and plan to start running a few miles each day. If so, a muscle testing session could help you avoid the chronic problems that might develop from faulty structure. Athletes, young and old, amateur and professional, would do well to have their body functions analyzed regularly by a competent AK practitioner. These are but a few of the uses to which competent applied kinesiology can be put.

This book is designed to tell you everything you need to know about AK from a patient’s point of view. Our resident expert, Douglas Hetrick, D.C., of Escondido, California, has been effectively applying kinesiology in his chiropractic practice for five years, and our guest experts include some of the original geniuses behind this new and exciting healing art form.

The word kinesiology is derived from the Greek and generally translates as “study of motion.” In this case it refers to the study of the mechanics of bodily motion, especially muscle movements and their relationship to the rest of our complex body systems. Applied means simply “put to a practical use.” All the physicians who have taken the time and effort to learn about AK have learned to put it to effective use.

A personal example can clearly illustrate how applied kinesiology works on an average person—me. My condition, when I first met with Dr. Hetrick to discuss this book, was that I was more than forty pounds overweight. In addition, I am a lousy patient—the kind who does what the physician says only if it isn’t too inconvenient. Prior to Dr. Hetrick’s initial examination I had learned from various other experts that I was probably hypothyroid. That means my thyroid gland, which controls my body metabolism, wasn’t doing much of a job. Physicians tell us that glands may be “hypo” (too little activity) or “hyper” (too much activity). Obviously my body had not been metabolizing, or burning up, fats very well. The standard solution for hypothyroidism is the element iodine. I had already been taking several drops of an expensive iodine solution every day for a year on the advice of a licensed nutritionist, but it didn’t appear to do me any good.

One ten-minute session with Dr. Hetrick showed that my thyroid was suspect, but not necessarily because of lack of iodine. (Later we were to learn that it wasn’t iodine that my body needed, but something else.) Dr. Hetrick tested only two of my muscles in that first brief session, and the way they reacted told him what he needed to know. (This was a brief, first examination; more-detailed explanations will follow in the main text of this book.)

After quickly checking my skeletal-muscular balance, Dr. Hetrick tested my left forearm, which actually gave him information about my shoulder muscle. Having a strong skeptical streak, and having been forewarned about the possibility that “suggestion” might play a role, I questioned him on what he was about to attempt. He said that a particular muscle in my upper arm, the left teres minor, would test “weak” if my thyroid was not performing properly. He was prepared to prove to me the validity of his testing procedure. He gripped my arm in a certain way, then told me to resist strongly when he pushed it down. Then, to my surprise, as I strained against his pressure, he overcame my resistance with the ease of a circus strongman.

“Now,” he said, “put your finger here,” and he poked me moderately with his finger at a spot on my upper left pectoral. The spot actually hurt from his moderate pressure. When I placed my own finger on the spot, it was also tender to the touch. That particular spot marked a juncture of lymph and nerves that he said was associated with the thyroid gland. The claim is that finger pressure somehow “therapy-localizes,” or isolates, the thyroid, and that when the teres minor muscle test is then repeated, the muscle may test “strong.”

I did resist much more strongly on the second go-round! Now my curiosity was aroused. Just touching that spot on my chest seemed to make my arm muscle stronger. Remove the finger and, strain as I might, the muscle was weaker. This, Dr. Hetrick explained with a confident grin, could mean that my thyroid gland was malfunctioning. However, he required further testing, especially temperature taking, before he could determine the precise nature of the malfunction.

Dr. Hetrick’s years of experience suggested to him that there was a likely connection between my thyroid malfunction and another set of glands. He suggested a second test. I was to lie on my back while he checked my right leg. I have always been proud of my leg strength. My legs may not be very long, but they are miniature tree trunks. “Resist,” the physician commanded when he was in position, cradling my leg so that I could resist with only one or two particular muscles, and not an entire set. I resisted, and this time I tested “strong.”

Feeling smug, I eagerly awaited the next test. This time he had me place the fingers of my right hand on my abdomen, on the right side about midway between diaphragm and hip. With my finger firmly in place on another spot, I resisted again. This time my strong leg muscle tested decidedly weak. Surprised at this, I demanded, “Do that again, Doc.” This time I gritted my teeth and psyched up my strength for the test. He tested me again, and I was weak! However, when I removed my finger from the spot, which he said related to the adrenal glands, I could practically lift him off the floor.

That brief encounter told the physician that my adrenal glands were somehow misfiring, and there was probably a relationship between that malfunction and my thyroid problem. I didn’t need to donate a gallon of blood or urine for testing in a laboratory. Nor did I require overnight hospitalization in order to take a BMR (basal metabolic rate) first thing in the morning—a test, incidentally, that usually shakes up the testee so badly that the results are tarnished.

How accurate was this mini diagnosis? How did the follow-up exams and subsequent therapy work? Would this work for you? That’s what this book is all about.

Our encounter with Doug Hetrick was not our first with applied kinesiology, but his years of experience and his considerable patience in explaining the complex theories behind the practice certainly made him the most thorough. Years ago I heard about the new practice that was sweeping through chiropractic, especially in the Midwest, where I lived and worked as a reporter. Applied kinesiology was then not yet a decade old, but already it was struggling with image problems. This is invariably the case in the healing arts—anything new is always viewed with considerable suspicion and resistance.

The founder of AK is George J. Goodheart, a Detroit chiropractor, and the resident genius behind the International College of Applied Kinesiology (ICAK), the authorized training body for the practice. In 1973 there was no ICAK, and some overzealous, would-be healers attended a seminar by Dr. Goodheart and emerged with self-proclaimed “miracle” healing ability. This sort of behavior did not help the credibility of early applied kinesiology. One exuberant Chicago-area practitioner, evidently fresh out of college pre-med classes, muscle-tested an acquaintance of ours, and informed her that her tubes were blocked and she could never have children. He also diagnosed her as a cancer victim. Sensibly, she balked. A second opinion found that she was already pregnant and had no signs of cancer. The last word we had on the deviant kinesiologist was that he had decided on a return to medical school.

That kind of blatant quackery, which occurs in every professional healing field, delivered a severe blow to AK, and even today one hears derogatory remarks about it from both the medical establishment and various uninformed gossips. A primary aim of this book—and of the entire Inside Health series—is to tear away the veils of misinformation and provide a more balanced view.

Bear in mind that the most prestigious medical doctor at the most prestigious medical facility, following the most prestigious and expensive set of diagnostic and exploratory evaluations, including surgery, is still pretty much guessing, and is dependent upon his years of practical experience when he attempts to discern a cause of bodily malfunction. This is especially true in cases of chronic and metabolic ailments as opposed to clear-cut germ pathologies. You and I know this about medicine, and yet we place a great deal of faith in our orthodox medical doctors—and rightly so! The wonders of modern medicine are impressive. If I suffered from a heart problem, for example, I’d not hesitate to trust any number of today’s qualified heart specialists.

Our position in this entire series of books is not an adverse position; rather it is an adjunct position. Applied kinesiologists demonstrate that they are capable of testing the body with the body. This has definite advantages. They use a whole, walking, talking person, as opposed to testing one who is anesthetized or drugged and probably desperately sick. The differences between standard diagnostics and AK’s muscle testing is staggering when you compare expense and human suffering. There is no way that AK can replace much of today’s crisis medicine, but that is not its purpose. Applied kinesiologists are far more interested in health than in disease. Their goal is to prevent serious illness, thereby taking some of the heavy load off the shoulders of our over-crowded hospitals. An open and fair comparison of the claims of AK with those of “establishment” medicine should demonstrate that applied kinesiology deserves ample equal opportunity to prove itself. Thus far the opportunity has not been equal, but the applied kinesiologists have made the best of it.

Applied kinesiologists look at every person from a “triad-of-health” perspective. This is the three-sided nature of every human being that makes up a healing art’s triangle of “structure, chemistry, and mentality.” We discuss this extensively in chapter 2. At this point we shall just point out that chiropractors approach health and healing from a “structural” basis, medical doctors generally from a “chemical” basis, and psychiatrists and psychologists from a “mental” or “emotional” basis. Most applied kinesiologists, being “holistic physicians,” attempt to work with all three areas of health, and in some cases they include a “spiritual” dimension. Doug Hetrick stresses the holistic approach, as do an ever-growing number of physicians today.

Applied kinesiology originated in 1964 when Dr. Goodheart encountered some puzzling muscle behavior. He noticed that a particular patient exhibited a weak serratus anticus muscle on one side. The serratus anticus muscles are designed to hold the scapula the (“wing-bone” behind the shoulder) to the rib cage. If one of these two muscles is stronger than the other, it can pull the shoulder out of kilter, causing all kinds of problems. Dr. Goodheart was puzzled because the weaker muscle did not seem to be atrophied, or withered. He examined the muscle with his fingers and found some painful nodules (little bumps) where the muscle originates at the ribs (see figure 1).

Curious to learn whether these nodules were affecting the strength of his patient’s wing muscle, Dr. Goodheart deeply massaged the nodules, then retested. He observed that the muscle had gained considerable strength. Thus was born a technique for muscle therapy called “origin-insertion,” which was the precursor of applied kinesiology.

Figure 1. The serratus anticus muscles.

The origin or head of a muscle is its starting point, the fixed attachment that serves as the basis for muscular action. In contrast is the muscle’s insertion, the point where the muscle is attached to a more movable part. When a muscle contracts, in order to exert force, the action demands that the insertion always move toward the origin. This is why the AK doctor is so specific when preparing to test one of your muscles. It’s not magic; it’s knowing the exact direction of muscle movement.

Further experiments with the patient led Dr. Goodheart to observe specific relationships between muscle weaknesses and other physical conditions. Dr. Goodheart’s early work was valid enough to interest other chiropractors in learning manual muscle-testing procedures for diagnosing conditions pertaining to structural balance. Muscle testing is one way an AK chiropractor can find the precise location along your spine where something is out of place. Another method is X-ray. Correlating the two methods was one way early AK diagnoses were confirmed.

From those humble origins, applied kinesiology blossomed into a major diagnostic art as more and more qualified practitioners and researchers entered the field.

Our complex body systems provide five avenues of diagnostics and/or therapy to the applied kinesiologist. These five bodily avenues are: (1) the nervous system, (2) the lymphatic system, (3) the vascular (blood vessel) system, (4) the cerebrospinal fluid, and (5) the meridian system (that is, the acupuncture lines). The fifth system is taken directly from the ancient healing art of acupuncture, which came to public attention in the United States at about the same time AK was getting off the ground. Dr. Hetrick stresses that all five systems are so intricately interwoven, each with the other, that it is impossible to separate them. To the applied kinesiologist, the body functions as an integrated whole, and must be tested as such. AK therefore stresses that the whole is, indeed, greater than the sum of its parts. It is thus able to make sense of vague complaints of the “I just don’t feel well” variety.

This last point may have a profound effect on medical thinking. It may even demolish the lopsided statistics dealing with hypochondriacs—those people who allegedly “imagine” their sickness when nothing is physically wrong. A medical doctor once told me that nearly 80 percent of his patients were “hypochondriacs” who had “nothing wrong with them at all.” In light of what applied kinesiologists have learned, a diagnosis of “hypochondria” may prove to be an excuse for ignorance or insufficient diagnosis on the part of the physician. Establishment medicine requires that the patient present a specific disease or clear-cut symptom in order for the physician to treat the problem. Because of this specialization, it is difficult for doctors to deal with vague descriptions of general malady. Thus, despite its many triumphs over disease, modern medicine has often been baffled in the face of various chronic and metabolic ailments.

This is where applied kinesiology may be of assistance. The purpose of Applied Kinesiology is to inform you of the potential applications of AK for you and your family, to describe how it works, and to explain how you can be assured of competence when you seek a practicing AK physician.

2

The Triangle of Health: Structure, Chemistry, Mentality

The term holistic has emerged from relative obscurity in the 1960s to play a leading role in alternative medicine and in the social awareness of health. Holistic derives from the philosophical term holism, the theory that “whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts.”

The applied kinesiologist is a holistic practitioner par excellence.

He (or she) deals with the interrelated whole of your body and personality, and utilizes those interrelationships in his diagnostic technique.

David S. Walther, D.C., a diplomate of the International College of Applied Kinesiology, wrote the definitive textbook on AK. The first volume, Basic Procedures and Muscle Testing, opens with an in-depth discussion of the triad of health. The triad comprises structural, chemical, and mental sides of the human being, as indicated in the equilateral triangle in figure 2.

Chiropractic, which gave birth to AK, is based upon the structural side of human nature. This does not mean that chiropractors ignore the other two sides of our nature; it simply illustrates the emphasis of their practice. Doug Hetrick explains that “the competent AK cannot be lopsided in his practice and effectively treat his patients. He must deal with every person holistically as an equilateral composite of the triangle.”

Figure 2. The triad of health.

You and I might assume this view to be so basic as to be taken for granted by all medical practitioners, but such is not generally the case. Medical doctors generally specialize in one of the three, thereby enlarging the triangular framework out of proportion, as shown in figure 3.

Figure 3. Imbalance in the triad of health.

The general practitioner automatically prescribes drugs, or chemicals, for pain and other symptoms. Usually the patient gets rapid relief from the symptom even though the ca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• 1. Introducing Applied Kinesiology
• 2. The Triangle of Health: Structure, Chemistry, Mentality
• 3. What Applied Kinesiology Can Do for Your Family
• 4. Your First Kinesiology Examination
• 5. Checking Your Glands and Organs
• 6. Testing Your Bones and Muscles
• 7. Proprioceptors—Muscle Communicators
• 8. Body Organization: Right Brain/Left Brain
• 9. Nutrition, Polarity, and Ongoing Research
• 10. How to Choose an AK Physician
• Also by Tom and Carole Valentine
• About the Author
• About Inner Traditions
• Books of Related Interest
• Copyright