Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT) is a chiropractic technique that was developed by Major Bertrand DeJarnette. He was first an engineer who had a workplace accident that severely injured him. With the help of chiropractic and osteopathic care, he went on to study these disciplines, becoming a chiropractor in 1924 and and osteopath thereafter. He spend over 50 years developing and researching the method that we now know as SOT. SOT is a gentle, safe and effective approach to the care of the chiropractic patient.
SOT goes beyond looking at individual spinal bones and evaluates global neurological patterns that include the cranium (head), pelvis, extremities and organs. These patterns are the nervous system’s response to subluxation, in the form of compensations and adaptations, that seek to maintain function and comfort. Unless a person suffers an acute injury, most symptoms are the end result of years of compensating for old issue and subluxations that can date back to early childhood.
In the SOT model, the subluxation is defined by Dr. DeJarnette as follows: “The subluxation produces abnormal stimulus which affects the musculoskeletal system and can alter the total make-up of the intervertebral foramen through the total length of the vertebral system…This stimulus is not necessarily one resulting from a changed attitude of one vertebrae in relationship to another or many other vertebrae, but may be the result of meningeal bulging, traction, overlapping, tearing, inflammation of one of many other processes. The total dural structure is under tension with resultant neurological dysfunction develops at the spinal or cranial area now under the greatest stress.”
The SOT method seeks to adjust the body in a specific and effective way. By continually examining and monitoring neurological indicators, the SOT practitioner works through the many layers of compensations in the body to get to, and correct for, subluxations that are at the root of the problem. Such an approach must address all of the involved anatomy: the bones of the skull, spine and pelvis, the dural-meningeal system (connective tissues covering the brain and spinal cord) and the CSF (Cerebrospinal Fluid). The bones house and protect the nervous system. The connective tissue supports the brain and spinal cord by tethering them to the bones from the inside. Finally, the CSF is a fluid that surrounds the brain and flows around the brain and spinal cord. It helps bring nutrients to the nerve cells, remove toxins and metabolic waste (like the lymphatic system of the body) and helps regulate brain temperature. Adjustments realign bones, reduce and equalize connective tissue tension and improve CSF flow. The adjustment reduces the irritation from/increased aberrant stimulation of, the central nervous system and promotes its well being.
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