‘The traditional model of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hydrodynamics is being increasingly challenged in view of recent scientific evidences. The established model presumes that CSF is primarily produced in the choroid plexuses (CP), then flows from the ventricles to the subarachnoid spaces, and is mainly reabsorbed into arachnoid villi (AV). This model is seemingly based on faulty research and misinterpretations. This literature review presents numerous evidence for a new hypothesis of CSF physiology, namely, CSF is produced and reabsorbed throughout the entire CSF-Interstitial fluid (IF) functional unit. IF and CSF are mainly formed and reabsorbed across the walls of CNS blood capillaries. CP, AV and lymphatics become minor sites for CSF hydrodynamics. The lymphatics may play a more significant role in CSF absorption when CSF-IF pressure increases. The consequences of this complete reformulation of CSF hydrodynamics may influence applications in research, publications, including osteopathic manual treatments.’

http://www.bodyworkmovementtherapies.com/article/S1360-8592(13)00010-7/abstract

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/mind-brain/#page=1

Daniel Dennett. A philosopher interested in consciousness.

First 6 minutes and then to 16 minutes of this video are wonderful – the transcription is good if you only have time to scan.

http://www.edge.org/conversation/the-normal-well-tempered-mind
Click this link for the video and transcription

Some quotes are below. I love the idea of a risky brain that is not hierarchical but is a mix of anarchy and democracy. There is competition between individual neurons – descended from free cells that survived for a billion years on their own – and alliances of neurons. Social interaction and culture provide the drive and rewards for the risk taking brain.

‘because each neuron, far from being a simple logical switch, is a little agent with an agenda, and they are much more autonomous and much more interesting than any switch.’

‘We’re beginning to come to grips with the idea that your brain is not this well-organized hierarchical control system where everything is in order, a very dramatic vision of bureaucracy. In fact, it’s much more like anarchy with some elements of democracy. Sometimes you can achieve stability and mutual aid and a sort of calm united front, and then everything is hunky-dory, but then it’s always possible for things to get out of whack and for one alliance or another to gain control, and then you get obsessions and delusions and so forth.’

‘Realize that every neuron in your brain, every human cell in your body (leaving aside all the symbionts), is a direct descendent of eukaryotic cells that lived and fended for themselves for about a billion years as free-swimming, free-living little agents. They fended for themselves, and they survived.’

‘Maybe a lot of the neurons in our brains are not just capable but, if you like, motivated to be more adventurous, more exploratory or risky in the way they comport themselves, in the way they live their lives. They’re struggling amongst themselves with each other for influence, just for staying alive, and there’s competition going on between individual neurons. As soon as that happens, you have room for cooperation to create alliances, and I suspect that a more free-wheeling, anarchic organization is the secret of our greater capacities of creativity, imagination, thinking outside the box and all that, and the price we pay for it is our susceptibility to obsessions, mental illnesses, delusions and smaller problems.’

‘We got risky brains that are much riskier than the brains of other mammals even, even more risky than the brains of chimpanzees, and that this could be partly a matter of a few simple mutations in control genes that release some of the innate competitive talent that is still there in the genomes of the individual neurons. But I don’t think that genetics is the level to explain this. You need culture to explain it.’

See also http://cranialintelligence.com/2012/03/21/great-pain-video-understanding-pain-in-less-than-5-minutes/

I have just discovered the site http://saveyourself.ca It looks like it has loads of good stuff on and is the source for this video.

Illustration depicting the predominant veins and sinuses involved in the craniocervical venous outflow. Venous narrowing is depicted at locations of interest in chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency. Lazzaro M.A. et al (2011)

‘Recent reports have emerged suggesting that multiple sclerosis (MS) may be due to abnormal venous outflow from the central nervous system, termed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI).’

Lazzaro M.A. et al (2011)

http://www.frontiersin.org/Endovascular_and_Interventional_Neurology/10.3389/fneur.2011.00044/full

This is a very exciting article on the how venous outflow could be implicated in MS. The diagram above shows the sites the researchers have identified as being restricted.

There is a long tradition in cranial work of supporting drainage from the head by working at the thoracic outlet (or inlet, depending on what term you prefer, both are used for the same area). The first craniosacral therapist I ever saw would always start at the thoracic outlet, maybe he was on to something.

In the thoracic outlet hold the hands are above and below the base of the neck – upper hand spread over  the suprasternal notch, first rib and clavicles, the lower hand underneath the the cervical thoracic junction. I like to try and feel the shape of the hole made by the first rib and orient to the health of all the tubes moving through the region (dural tube, oesophagus, trachea, carotid sheaths). Pulsing arteries softening, spreading of the fascia sheets, easing of the movement of C7 and a shift in the first rib and clavicles all speak of change in this region.

The image above includes drainage routes via ‘spinal column drainage route’, ‘pterygoid plexus’ and ‘vertebral vein’ that are fairly new to me – nice bits of anatomy to appreciate.

Another route for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to leave the skull you can consider is shown below. A significant amount of CSF drains as lymphatic outflow from the cranial cavity via the ethmoid (and to a lesser degree perineural spaces of cranial and spinal nerves) and is collected by the lymphatic vessels of the head and neck (Pollay 2010).

This research helped me appreciate the dynamics of the ethmoid and cervical lymphatics as important in fluid draining from the skull. Pollay also indicates that poor outflow of CSF is not good for the health of the nervous system.

A great image from Pollay 2010 showing the dual outflow system for drainage of CSF. Outflow is via both the arachnoid villi into the venous sinuses and the lymphatic outflow (mostly through the ethmoid via CNI olfactory nerve sheaths)

‘The lymphatic system has been shown to develop earlier than that of the arachnoid villi and therefore appear to be a dominant CSF outflow route in the late fetal and early neonatal period. There is convincing evidence that the arachnoid villi system loses it efficiency with age, which can influence the total turnover rate of the CSF with possible neurodegenerative consequences.’

Pollay 2010

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2904716

See also this post for more on the venous outflow in cranial work

http://cranialintelligence.com/2012/01/19/working-with-the-venous-sinuses/

References

Lazzaro M.A. et al (2011) Endovascular therapy for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in multiple sclerosis. Front. Neur., 14 July 2011 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2011.00044

Pollay, M. (2010) The function and structure of the cerebrospinal fluid outflow system. Cerebrospinal Fluid Res. 2010; 7: 9. Published online 2010 June 21. Accessed 2/10/12 via http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2904716

Do not like to think how it was made, but it is very beautiful and strangely moving.

When you identify yourself to others, where do you point? Most would say the center of their chest. Why here? What’s the significance of this place? Some would say the heart resides here; but then why don’t we point slightly down and to the left a bit? Others would say it’s the heart charkra area, yet others, the seat of the soul. Interestingly, it’s the thymus which lies in the mediastinum, directly at the center of the chest where people point to indicate themselves. The word thymus comes from the Latin derivation of the Greek word thymos. This means ‘watery excrescence’ as well as ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ ; hence the ancient greeks considered the thymus as the center of the soul.

The role of the thymus is to identify self from non-self; self identification. In the newborn, it is massive (averaging 15grams) in comparison to it’s relative size in an adult. It continues to grow until the onset of puberty, thereafter, diminishing in size in healthy adults. It makes sense that it is so large in the newborn, as the entire world is new and what is ‘self’ and what is ‘other’ is a process, not only of physiological development, but also of psychological maturity. So as we grow, discover the world and ourselves within it, the thymus is the organ we use to make this distinction. It could be said that as we grow into old age, we know more of ourselves (physically, emotionally and psychologically) and of our environment, so the need for this organ reduces, in both it’s size and function.

The thymus is a center for balancing the immune system by making sure the body doesn’t turn on itself (as in autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Type 1 diabetes, MS and muscular dystrophy, etc). It produces two types of white blood cells (lymphocytes). One type is responsible for recognising foreign substances as well as the multiple ways in which the body attacks the substances. The other group of lymphocytes is responsible for producing antibodies. As time goes by, our personal library of antibody arsenal increases, and fewer ‘new, foreign’ things come along to stimulate our immune system. By and large, the thymus gradually becomes redundant.

So… what happens in autoimmune diseases? Interestingly, many result in an enlarging of the thymus. This was made very obvious to me during a recent BCST session with a middle aged Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) client. Apart from liver and spleen imbalances and a highly metallic feel to her blood, her thymus was large and somehow ‘out of sorts’. The thymus does temporarily enlarge with certain chemicals such as immunosuppressant drugs and chemotherapy. On talking about the metallic quality in her blood, the client noted she’d had her amalgam fillings replaced in two appointments (4 weeks and 2 days ago respectively). Her blood test 2 years prior, had found high mercury levels. That accounted for the highly metal sense in the blood (not an unusual sense in itself, but at this level, with its relationship to the liver and the spleen, it was telling me a different story). It may have also been causative agent in the thymus enlargement, but I strongly suspect the enlargement was more to do with her RA. Another interesting point was that she reported after her last session, she was beginning to put herself first, something she had not done much in her life.

On filing through a number of research papers, the correlation between thymus function and autoimmune diseases in adults is noticeable, but not with children diagnosed of conditions such as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), which is an autoimmune disease. The children with JIA had normal thymus function and size. This suggests that there is something else happening in the adult which either predisposes the individual to autoimmune diseases which then affects the thymus function, or that impaired thymus function increases the individual’s susceptibility to autoimmune disease. This is an intriguing question from an aetiological view point. From a holistic approach, the interplay of the systems of the body are so entwined that what is needed is not so much, ‘what caused what’, but ‘how does one system inter-relate to another and how can balance be restored’. This is where CST can come into its own. Awareness of the autonomic tensions of the sympathetics to parasympathetics, the interplay of different organs and glands, life experience holdings within the body and the tone/emotional play within allows the system to shed light on whole body patterns so clarity comes out of the confusion.