Neurodynamic myths
Shacklock in 2005 very well said that the nervous system is a mechanically and physiologically continuous strusture from the brain till the end terminals in the periphery. 👈
You might have been practicing with ''neurodynamic glides'' or ''neuroglide treatment'' or ''neurodynamic treatment'' but what is neurodynamics really ?
According to Basson et al.2017, ''Neurodynamics is an intervention aimed at restoring the homeostasis in and around the nervous system by mobilisation of the nervous system it self or the structures that surround it''. 👈
Specifically Basson et al.2017 mentioned that NDT (Neurodynamic Treatment) might reduce intraneural pressure, thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia and to reverse increased immune responses after a neeve injury.
What NDT can't do is:
- To test the length and flexibility of nerve tissue
- To test the tension or ''stiffness'' of a nerve
- To tell you whether a nerve is ''trapped''
- Or to be used as standalone tests during a physiotherapy examination
What NDT might be able to do is:
- To test the mechanical sensitivity of nerve tissue
However when therapists use the NDT for their patients they need to consider few things
- All NDT tests might be positive in patients with altered pain state
- NDT tests might provoke all spinals nerve roots or more than one peripheral nerve
- NDT tests could be positive on both side or one side
With that being said Neurodynamics test both the mechanics and physiology of the nervous system.
As David Butler mentioned here 😋, peripheral nerves are long, living and responsive tissues which have encoding, relay and processing functions and can withstand mechanical forces induced by human movement. Information is transmitted along the axons and the dorsal root ganglion acts as the ''brain'' of the nerve through processing and transmitting information from the periphery to the spinal cord.
Once again thanks for reading 👌
Arty