The DURA
BY MICHAEL E. MARTIN, D.C., N.M.D.

The significance of the role of the dural membrane in the body’s physiological process cannot be underestimated. Yet, in fact, its role goes largely unrecognized in most branches of health care.

How often have you heard comments such as, "Just as I bent to pick up the bowling ball, my back went out of place", "The pollen count is getting high and my life is getting more miserable by the day. I just hate spring and fall time", "Every time I eat strawberries I get this terrible rash", so it goes on and on. Many things get blamed: the stretch, the pollen or the strawberries, of course there is a connection at least on the surface. But why doesn’t the pollen bother everyone? Not everyone gets a rash from eating berries, and how does a small stretch send a fitness fanatic into a back spasm? The reason has to be dysfunction in the system to begin with, even going back to birth or before birth, that is where the initial symptoms lay just waiting for a trigger to set them off.

Certainly injuries can cause additional trauma to the head and the body, but in the vast majority of cases where injuries show up, they fall into a category of trigger factor. However, they seemingly appear to be the primary.

Take a close look at yourself. The position of your eyes one to the other, as they sit in the head. Is one constricted in relation to the other? One higher, one more open?

What about the ears? Does one seem lower than the other? Is one farther back on the head than the other? Just take a look and make a mental note of what you find.

How about when you smile? Is one side of the mouth more constricted than the other side? Is one side higher than the other?

How about when you are standing, are your shoulders the same height? Is one of your hips higher than the other, does one toe turn out more than the other one? Is your head twisted to one side? Do you have to stand bent forward to balance or to maintain your balance?

Is your spine straight or do you have a curvature of the spine? Are you someone who needs to get their back massaged on a regular basis, or Chiropractic Adjustments on a regular basis just to function? Is it always the same place that hurts or seems to be out of place? What is going on here?

Maybe no one has ever tried to explain this to you before.

Could the DURA be the cause?

Lets consider for a moment a cable like structure that surrounds your brain and attaches to the inside of the skull and the eyes. This has an attachment at the back of the head into the first two or three cervical vertebra of the neck and this cable is so strong that if it was long enough you might consider using it for a tow rope. This cable then goes down the spine and attaches in the tailbone area. It also provides a covering for each spinal nerve root as they exit the spine.

Something that strong actually can cause many distortions in the cranium itself as well as in the spine. If this dura is in a contracted state, then it is always pulling you out of a normal posture, a position causing an actual distortion of the skull, in many cases, and spinal column and thus symptoms as described last forever and are never dealt with.

It is my job, as your Doctor, to therefore identify this problem and then use methods that will eliminate the contractions of this dura and thus remove the symptoms forever. This will take time and effort to accomplish on both of our parts.

If you are the one with this problem, then the rewards for your health will be wonderful for you and thus for your family as well.

References: Boyd, R Introduction to Bio Cranial Therapy 1988  
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