About Restorative Kinematics (RK).

What would medicine be like today if we were not thinking of the body as a machine or the mind as a computer? That question is only partly rhetorical, as what I am proposing here is a different concept of how the body functions, particularly the musculoskeletal system. No one can predict the consequences of changing our point of view in this way, but we do have a clue about how things could be different by looking at Oriental Medicine. Oriental Medicine does not view the body as a machine, and it has come up with a totally different treatment strategy.
 
I propose a way of viewing the body that does not presuppose a degenerative process as the inevitable response to injury. I believe we have been overlooking the role ligaments play in how our joints function. By viewing ligaments as something more than static connectors of bones, we can begin to think about the body as an integrated whole with the ability not only to become worse but also to become better.
 
Each of us is shaped by the time and place in which we live; and we, in turn, make our marks on our historical times and places. My ideas about how the body works are very much rooted in my personal experiences – as a patient, as a practitioner, as a person living in Illinois at the turn of this millenium, and as the recipient of a very special treatment table from an unknown giftor.
 
Soon after I graduated from acupuncture school in 1986, acupuncture became a Class 4 felony in Illinois, with penalties equivalent to kidnapping. Living with the threat of being charged with a felony had a profound effect on how I practice acupuncture. I made sure that everything that I could do with a needle I could also do with my hands. It took us 14 years to change the law in Illinois.
 
People often ask me what I “do.” I say that I am an orthopedic acupuncturist, but what I actually do is hard to define. I use many of the methods of Eastern Medicine – acupuncture, topical herbal preparations, moxibustion, manual therapy, tuning forks – but I use them because I am trying to align the joints. One of my colleagues called me a bone whisperer, and I think that best describes what I “do.” I listen to bones, ligaments, and tendons with my fingers and try to line up the tissues in the way that they most want to be lined up, which allows the bones then to move to a position where they are aligned and can move more freely. We now call this approach “Restorative Kinematics,” because what it does is restore the motion inherent in the structure of the vertebrate body.
 
How I developed my concepts and methods, how I became a bone whisperer, was a slow process. It began with problems that I had with my own hip and my own neck. For years I went to chiropractors and osteopaths and did not really get much help. Then at about the same time I started acupuncture school, I started treatment with a new osteopath. It turned out that he was also an acupuncturist, and his treatment turned my life onto a new path. Not only did he work on my neck, he also lined up my eyes and straightened my teeth – with his hands. I was not aware of what he had done until I saw myself later in a mirror. His treatment showed me that it is possible to make profound changes in the alignment of the body, painlessly, without fanfare, and with one’s hands.
 
This experience started me on a quest to learn how joints work because I wanted to be able to help others in the way that he had helped me. After graduating from acupuncture school, I started studying orthopedics with various teachers. What I realized fairly soon was that I was being taught structure – something very static, very concrete, the names of things, the locations of things, kinds of fibers and cells. It was hard to understand, and I found that this information was not particularly useful for what I was trying to do. What I really needed to learn was function, how the joints work; and I found that I had to learn that on my own.
 
It took me about ten years to figure out how the body really works, ten more years to get pretty good at using that information to treat my patients, and ten more years to learn how to teach others how to do what I do. I am still learning. In the process, though, it surprised me to realize that other people do not see what I see. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it cannot be put back in. My way of thinking has been changed forever. I think there is a lot more that medicine – both Western and Eastern – could be doing to help people with orthopedic problems. I think we are not seeing things that are right in front of us. We have our cultural assumptions that the body is like a machine. We look at it in a fragmented way. When a part “wears out,” we “replace” it. But the body really is not a machine. It is an amazing, dynamic, adaptable, plastic construction.
 
Now, about my table. Before I started acupuncture school, I had made arrangements to live overseas for a year and a half, so I took a planned leave of absence during my first year in school. While I was gone, I sublet my apartment to two of my acupuncture classmates. When I returned, they were gone, and in my apartment was an incredible treatment table. Instead of the typical folding massage table, this was a tall narrow table made of square-tubular steel. It is enormously heavy and sturdy, and there is a three-step, two-level stool that goes with it. I can do anything with this table! I can stand on it if I want, along with the heaviest patient, without fear that it will collapse. I can use body mechanics to move people all around on the table and never worry that the table will tip over. It has a solid wood platform with a relatively thin padding that is very comfortable for patients, yet I can place my fingers under patients and use the solid wood to brace my hands as I work. It is narrow, so I am never far from my center of gravity as I lean over patients. Without this table, I would never have been able to develop the treatment techniques that I use. I am eternally grateful for this gift; and, in turn, I wish to pass along what I have learned about how bodies work, as a result of having worked on this table, in this historical time and place, with my own personal treatment experiences, and from thirty-five years of working on patients, each of whom was a personal teacher to me and who validated my ideas about how our plastic bodies work.

To hear more about Restorative Kinematics

Mary was interviewed    by sports acupuncturist Chad Bong about the relevance of her structural work to athletes and sports acupuncturists. Listen to the interview here.

Restorative Kinematics Publications

Here is a list of recent publications by Mary on Restorative Kinematics.

Rogel, M.J. Restorative Kinematics: The pelvis.   Oriental Medicine Journal, 2018, Fire (Summer), Vol, 25, No. 4, Vol, 25, No. 4, pp. 6-37.   Read article .

Rogel, M.J. Seeking Equilibrium: The dynamic body & the keys to the kingdom: The anatomy of holism.  Oriental Medicine Journal, 2015, Earth(Late Summer), Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 6-27.   Read article.

Rogel, M.J. Building on bedrock: Rethinking Orthopedics. Oriental Medicine Journal, Fall (Metal), 2010, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp. 28-35.  Read article.

​Rogel, M. J. Introducing “Gold Needle” acupuncture: The lamina points, the facet points, and a method for needling them.   Oriental Medicine Journal, Fall (Metal), 2007, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 14-23.   Read article.

Listen to Mary on VoiceAmerica

Click the Rethinking Orthopedics picture to be taken to the VoiceAmerica's Health and Wellness Channel for  episodes of Mary's radio show, Rethinking Orthopedics.