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Craniosacral therapy

Craniosacral therapy (CST)
cranial-sacral therapy,
cranial osteopathy,
cranial therapy
Kraniosakrální terapie - biodynamika.jpg
"Biodynamic" craniosacral therapy
Alternative therapy
NCCIH Classification Manipulative and body-based
School Osteopathy
Risks Two known cases of death
Benefits Placebo

Craniosacral therapy (CST) is a form of bodywork or alternative therapy using gentle touch to manipulate the synarthrodial joints of the cranium. A practitioner of cranial-sacral therapy may also apply light touches to a patient's spine and pelvis. Practitioners believe that this manipulation regulates the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and aids in "primary respiration". Craniosacral therapy was developed by John Upledger, D.O. in the 1970s, as an offshoot osteopathy in the cranial field, or cranial osteopathy, which was developed in the 1930s by William Garner Sutherland.

According to the American Cancer Society, although CST may relieve the symptoms of stress or tension, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that craniosacral therapy helps in treating cancer or any other disease". CST has been characterized as pseudoscience and its practice has been called quackery. Cranial osteopathy has received a similar assessment, with one 1990 paper finding there was no scientific basis for any of the practitioners' claims the paper examined.

The term craniosacral or cranial-sacral are based on the terms cranium and sacrum, a bone of the pelvis which connects the lowest lumbar vertebra to the two hip bones and the tailbone.

Cranial osteopathy, a forerunner of CST, was originated by osteopath William Sutherland (1873–1954) in 1898–1900. While looking at a disarticulated skull, Sutherland was struck by the idea that the cranial sutures of the temporal bones where they meet the parietal bones were "beveled, like the gills of a fish, indicating articular mobility for a respiratory mechanism."


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Wikipedia

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