Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA)

Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA)

SMA “is a condition in which the sensory-motor neurons of the voluntary cortex have lost some position or their ability to control all or some of the muscles of the body.”

What are the causes of SMA?
    Chronic muscular contraction.
    Disuse of the body due to being bedridden, being immobilized for a time - such as being in a cast for a period of time, or being wheel-chair-bound.
    Habitual misuse of the musculo-fascial-skeletal system over time, such as, working in a stooped, forward posture; operating machinery or performing repetitive movements that impose an asymmetrical, imbalanced use of postures and movements; and various injuries and surgeries that impose movement restrictions even after tissue has healed, create scaring that numbs or facially binds soft tissues, or causes bone and/or joint misalignment.

What ever the source, chronically contracted muscles will distort the postures and movements of the person and as a result the following may result:
    *  Over worked muscles may become sore and painful.
    *  Certain muscles become weak due to constant exertion, and people may complain of general fatigue.  Some of my clients say that get up, have breakfast, and then already feel fatigue.
    *  The overall synergy of the body movement and coordination is impaired, and people are more likely to have falls, generally be more clumsy, and may emotionally express more fear of such daily activities as walking, going up and down stairs, and making travel plans.
    *  When some muscles around a joint are chronically contracted, the joint cannot function in an organized way.  The joint is no longer positioned for efficient use and movement may cause friction within the joint leading to arthritis and other conditions.
    *  Posture becomes imbalanced and distorted.  Weight distribution problems add to muscle and joint disfunction.  For example, if a person strongly leans to one side, usually the hip, knee, and ankle/foot joints on that side will carry a disproportionate amount of weight, further distressing function and pain levels.

When the problem is SMA, its main symptoms of SMA, pain, postural distortion, stiff joints, and movement difficulties, are rarely understand by medical doctors and are usually in-effectively treated with drugs, stretching, or local mechanical interventions. “Such local intervention has no lasting effect upon the symptoms, inasmuch as it treats a functional problem of the brain as if it were a structural problem of the peripheral body.”

SMA “can be remedied by only one means: a reduction of the voluntary sensory-motor cortex.  The cortex must be reminded sensorily of what it has forgotten so that, once again, it has full motor control of the muscular areas affected.”  “SMA can only be overcome by education, not treatment.  An internal process must occur whereby new sensory information is introduced into the sensory-motor feedback loop, allowing the motor neurons of the voluptuary cortex once again to control the musculature fully and to achieve voluntary relaxation.”