There’s a quiet revolution going on in medicine, and southeast Minnesota is at its epicenter. While a national debate rages over health care options and costs, many here are quietly turning to what is often called alternative medicine to supplement, if not supplant, more conventional therapies.          

Partially driven by consumer demand, such venerable medical establishments as the Mayo Clinic have begun incorporating aspects of integrative medicine in their treatments, and spreading the word via their websites and newsletters. Last year the second, updated edition of The Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine was published. Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, regularly spreads the gospel to his and Oprah Winfrey’s viewers.

What is complementary and alternative, or integrative, medicine?  It includes such modalities as homeopathy, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, herbalism and nutritional-based therapies such as Ayurveda, according to the American National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). It differs from mainstream, American Medical Association-dictated medical practice in that:

• Based on quantum, versus Newtonian physics, it views the body as a dynamic energy system, not as a bio-machine.

• It believes that emotion and spirit can influence illness or health via energetic and neuro-hormonal connections among body, mind and spirit.

• It seeks to re-balance the body to maximize wellness, rather than “fix” illness.

Though it is said that integrative medicine has had only limited clinical study, scientific investigation is beginning to address this gap, and the boundaries between it and more traditional practices is beginning to blur. Seventy-five percent of Americans older than 18 have used some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).  Medical schools are breaking free of the AMA mold:  60 percent of the nation’s medical schools now include CAM courses in their curriculum.

Northfield is noted as a progressive community, and nowhere is this more noticeable than in the number of holistic practitioners; a local publisher puts out an annual guide to help keep track of the myriad masseurs, chiropractors, Reiki masters and acupuncturists in and around our city limits.

Northfield Patch will present a series of six profiles of local integrative health practitioners, explaining what they do and exploring the ways in which Northfield is weaving a new web of holistic health care that is more inclusive, less intrusive—and abundantly available in our backyard.

A look at STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION

If you’re suffering from sore, aching muscles this winter, it might be more than our marathon snow shoveling that’s a pain in the neck.

You may need Daniel Martin, a structural integration practioner—a practice based on Rolfing Structural Integration. Martin is new to town, but has quickly turned the tools of his profession—plus considerable charm and uncanny intuition—to the needs of Northfielders with knotty muscles that just won’t go away.

Structural integration practioners use hands-on pressure to stretch and separate fascial (connective tissue) layers that have become misaligned due to strain, injury, or years of poor posture and movement. Because bones, muscle, and sinews are so interconnected, this misalignment can cause stress and pain.  

During carefully designed series of 10 sequential treatments, this stress is released.  The goal is to achieve a more integrated and balanced body, with more efficient muscle use, more flexible joints and greater overall health.

“(It) is structural and mechanical in philosophy: structure creates function,” says Martin. “If you’re lined up structurally—top to bottom and side to side—then your functioning is enhanced.”

Most people, Martin says, are not aware of the interconnectedness of muscle and connective tissue.

He demonstrated with his shirt: “You see, when I tug on the hem, the stress appears way up here by my shoulder? When we get stiffening from lack of movement, we overcompensate somewhere else in the body.”

Who can benefit from structural integration? Athletes, dancers, people who stand or sit too much, or who perform repetitive motions—people like Carol Holly, a professor of English at St. Olaf College.

“Conventional medicine had given me no help at all,” says Holly, who came to Martin with complaints of chronic pain in her shoulder, hip and knees. “No one could tell me just what the problem was.”

Together with a medical and lifestyle evaluation, Martin’s practiced eye quickly spotted the asymmetry in Holly’s posture, which was exacerbated by long hours on her feet, delivering lectures on English literature.

“Daniel was able to just look at me and see the misalignments,” Holly says. “He’s so knowledgeable and so kind that he got together with me and my physical therapist to design exercises for me to do between treatments.”

Structural integration blends well with other modalities of integrative medicine, such as therapeutic massage, acupuncture, and Craniosacral Therapy, and many use them in conjunction with structural integration sessions. 

Martin is also a certified practitioner of Craniosacral Therapy, which works with the rhythms of the cerebrospinal fluid that circulates between the cranium and the sacrum. The two therapies are similar, and complementary.

“(Structural integration) moves biomechanically, externally to internally, while CST is more energetic, and moves internally to externally,” says Martin. “Both listen to the body, which has its own treatment plan.”

Martin says that educating patients to recognize and release harmful patterns can be emotionally cathartic, as well.                                                                                           

“You see personal issues surfacing, and they get dealt with," he says. "It doesn’t matter whether this happens on the cognitive level; structural integration in most cases leads to integration of body, mind and spirit, as well."

Holly is nearly complete with her series of treatments.

“I feel so much better overall,” she said. “I wish I could have a treatment every week, because it feels so good.” 

She is also mindful of maintenance. 

“It’s not a cure-all,” she says. “I have to keep up my exercises, and I’ve recently started yin yoga on Daniel’s advice.”

Martin setup his practice at HeartWork Yoga Studio—where he is also studying for certification in yoga—last fall. When he discovered yin yoga, he quickly incorporated the technique into to his practice. (Yang yoga focus on muscle flexion and extension; yin yoga gently stretches the connective tissue). 

“In yin yoga, you hold the poses longer, for many minutes, which helps keep the connective tissue open, hydrated and pliable,” Martin says.

Martin, a practitioner for 17 years, is a graduate of the Guild for Structural Integration. Contact Daniel Martin at 507-664-9418.

Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify that structural integration is a practice based on Rolfing Structural Integration.