More In-depth Description-Dr. Frank Jarrell

This is a comment that I received a few days ago from the Director of SRA-Dr. Frank Jarrell. While it is a bit technical, it is an extremely good description of SRA, and I feel that it needs to be posted on the main site.


Hello Amy,

My name is Dr. Frank Jarrell. A colleague of mine in Atlanta, GA forwarded your blog reference to SRA and indicated that you were new to SRA and that I may want to assist in explaining the process to you.
First, I want to compliment you on a tremendous looking website/blog. It is very professional in design.

SRA Attachment Point Therapy (APT) is one of several procedures available to various professions to reduce the Axial Spinal Reflex (a cord mediated withdraw reflex) and its' adverse effects on nerve, muscle and joint.

When your therapist is applying mild pressure to the tendon attachment points in a given reflex pattern, he or she is stimulating receptors in the muscle, tendons and deeper tissues in a controlled fashion to produce a specific physiological response in the muscles, joints, and nerves.

One receptor stimulated in this procedure, that for low grade pain, conveys information through the spinal cord and on to the pain analgesic centers of the brain.

More specifically, the paraaquaduct grey portion of the Thalamus, a part of the brain stem. This area will release neurotransmitters and analgesics that are transported back to the spinal cord and cause the "fading pain" effect of this technique. As the point is held longer the chemical build-up will cause a drop in tone or tightness in multiple muscles associated with the reflex ("lengthening response").

Although it is a procedure that triggers nerve stimulation and nerve induced nerotransmitter release, the actual pressure is not on the nerves per say, it is on the muscle and tendon end points.

The level of pain should be well below the "splinting" or tension reaction stage and should be relatively comfortable. Pain that causes splinting (as in deep tissue work or injury) releases a different set of neurochemicals that trigger adrenaline and other fight or flight responses.

All points worked are specific to the assessment she performed in the beginning of the session. Not following the charts would be completely ineffective.

The web site is devoted mostly to professional continuing education and therefore does not have a great amount of information available to the general public. We will provide more access in the near future as people indicate the need.

Mild soreness after the first or second session is not uncommon and is noted more in those with lower than average core body temperatures. Please inform your therapist if this persists. She will need to apply a lighter pressure during your sessions.

I hope this information helps in your understanding of this exciting and new approach to pain and dysfunction.

Please feel free to discuss this more with your therapist or contact us at info@spinalreflex.com.
My staff and myself will assist you as best we can.

Sincerely,

Dr. Frank Jarrell
Director of Spinal Reflex Institute, Intl.

The Return

I've been doing so well lately with pain. Tonight changed that.

I have a massive cramp in my lower right side of my back, which kind is creeping up the rest of my back. It's almost to spasm level. I have no idea what is causing it. Hopefully, it is just an isolated incident. The next few days will answer that question.

I have antibiotics for my budding sinus infection, and I bought a multivitamin. This is now what I'm taking daily:

Multivitamin
Iron Supplement
Zithromax (allergy meds)
Tri-Sprintec

Plus Z-pack (antibiotics)

As needed:
Hydrocodone
Cyclobenazpiene
Albuterol (inhaler for asthma)

Goodness.

Anyway, I took my hydrocodone, which is sort of working. I hope it does. This is the last thing that I need right now.

Yesterday, I had some pain, but not enough to really bother me. It was mostly evident when I moved in the wrong way; I felt little twinges of pain.

I'm getting sick again. I've been coughing (with substance) since last night, and I'm getting congested as well. It's probably going to lead to another sinus infection. Joy. I'm sure that all of this isn't helping my back, either.

I feel okay pain-wise so far today, but whatever bug I caught this time is running me down. I didn't go to t'ai chi, mostly because I don't think I could make it through an hour of working out feeling the way that I do.

Something I wanted to mention: there was a comment left on my blog explaining SRA in a lot more detail. I will post this in the main posts soon, but I want to do a little research, first. I hope to have that up in the next couple days or so.

The Third Day

Third day of my SRA thing today.

I went in feeling pretty stiff and sore. T'ai chi, and the walk to and from, really wore me out. That, combined with changing weather and stress, are a triple threat that takes a lot of willpower to deal with.

I had given the therapist the link to this site, and she checked it in the meantime. Not only did my x-ray help her out immensely, she was both impressed and excited that I've been documenting my story. Hearing that makes me very happy. If this treatment works, she believes that my story will help other people dealing with the same issues as I am. I am more than happy to contribute to furthering knowledge on this new type of treatment and the uses it has.

The pain didn't really come back until about half an hour after I left. Even then, it was fatigue pain for the most part, until about an hour ago. That, though, has a separate cause, since my back hurts when I get stressed, and I was under a great deal of that tonight. Hopefully, a good night's sleep will help that, as will turning in the project that caused the night's stress levels to peak.

Hopefully, I won't hurt much tomorrow. Publication design critique will be pretty much painful even without back pain.

Different Types of Pain

I feel that it's time to clarify the 3 types of pain that I experience. This will help me be more specific in my descriptions, as well as better document what I'm dealing with.

Fatigue Pain - This type of pain is the soreness after a physical activity, such as running or, say, t'ai chi. This type of pain occurs when your muscles are tired. This type of pain isn't entirely unpleasant, because it's usually accompanied by a relaxation of said muscles.

Nerve Pain - If you've never had this, I envy you. This type of pain is sharp, stabbing, and persistent. This is the type of pain that I had when I had my herniated disk.

Cramp Pain - Everyone's had it at some point in their life. It can be a dull ache to full blown waves of pain. This, by far, is the most common pain I experience. This is the pain that debilitates you. It also persists no matter what you do. This muscle cramping is what leads to the spasms that I've had so many times in the past. This is what I will keep stressing: This is the pain that rules my life. This is the pain that debilitates me. This is the pain I live with every day.

Giving in

Most of the day yesterday and today, I've been really sore.

I think it's partially due to the fact that the weather changed so drastically. This has affected me before in a negative way, so it's a very good possibility.

I finally gave in and took some hydrocodone. I was so stiff and sore that I could hardly move. The high has hit me, so I may take it easy for awhile. If the pain goes away, I might try some t'ai chi to relax me a little. Or do some stretching, if I feel up to it.

I don't feel so bad that I broke my two week streak of no painkillers. I needed them, and that's what they're for. I have proved that I have the willpower to not take them all the time, so that's what matters, right?

I was going to go out tonight, but I'm too tired and sore to make it until 2. Another moment in the countless times that I've been restricted by my pain. Let's hope that these times continue to become less frequent.

I work tomorrow. Hopefully, I will do okay.

I've been pretty sore for the last couple of days. It almost overwhelmed me at work today, but I managed to make it through. I work tomorrow, too, but only for 3 hours or so, and then nothing after that. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little and also resting my body most of the day. (My mind, however, will have to be put to good use)

Hopefully soreness does not interfere with my plans tonight.

I'm happy to report that there was none of the surface skin pain that I had the first time that I had the SRA treatment. I didn't really hurt much at all yesterday, but I did spend a good deal of my time sitting down. Today will be more of a test.

I decided to park in a lot south of campus and walk to all of my classes today, as opposed to driving to my first class and then parking. This is signifigant, because not only do I have to carry my work-out clothes with me all day, it is a long way to walk. Since I'm such a visual person, I took a map of campus and drew out everywhere I have to walk today:


Sorry about the crappyness, I didn't put much effort into it)

T'ai chi was a lot easier today, mainly because we didn't do those kicks that we did on Monday. We went over the forms we've learned so far, added one more, then he taught us meditation techniques. That was pretty cool, actually. I knew how to do what he was teaching, but I still enjoyed it.

Currently, I'm exhausted, but I'm not in a significant amount of pain. The pain that I have is the "after exercise" type, not the muscle cramp type. This is good.

I have a class, my internship, and then I work at Piazza at 5. The test of how the treatment is working will come then. Let's hope that I can continue the streak of not taking painkillers.

Second Day

I just recently got back from my SRA session.

The second one went about the same as the first one. I felt more relaxed after the treatment, certainly. It's too early to say whether or not I'll have the same pains as last time.

Right now, I'm sore, but I think that's more a factor of t'ai chi plus the appointment today. It's not the muscle cramp pain that I generally have. It's actually more like the pain you'd feel after a workout. Certainly not bad enough to cause too many problems.

I'm going to try to update this more. Especially if there are changes. I should probably try to document what hurts when and where and at what level of pain on a daily basis. In an ideal world, I suppose, but we'll see how that works out with the mountain of stuff I already do.

Update for sure, later.

Spinal Reflex Analysis (SRA)

Spinal reflex analysis, or SRA, is the technique that the therapist is performing. This is the description from spinalreflexanalysis.com:

"Where all other therapies currently focus on simple reflex reactions, Spinal Reflex Analysis (SRA) focuses on the ASR, the root cause of these reactions. SRA is a fast and extremely accurate system of identifying the involved axial spinal reflex and 'turning them off' through specific SRA based treatment programs."

Basically, she's working directly with the nerves to "turn them off". What this means is, my muscles won't hurt nearly as much. I also think that it will prevent them from getting to the pain stage so easily.

I have only had one treatment, which was last Friday. I didn't say too much about it then, mainly because I wanted to have the information in once place. I did find the one site dedicated to SRA, but i didn't find a whole lot of information besides that. This is a new treatment, so I'm really not that surprised. I will post the link in the sidebar and try to describe it as best I can.

She places her finger on a specific nerve, in a specific pattern. To begin with, the pain level is about a 4 or so...just under flinching away stage. She keeps her finger on that place, and asks me to move my eyes in a certain pattern. The way she explained it to me, moving the eyes stimulates the nerves in your brain, and the pain gradually fades to nothing. She continues this through a certain pattern for about an hour. I looked for a graphic of this on the internet, but I didn't find one in the couple minutes that I looked. I will try to get the copy of the one she gave me on here eventually.

When I went in last week, I was really sore and really tense. When I left, I was pretty relaxed. That night, and the next day, my muscles felt okay, but my skin was really tender. I think it might have something to do with the release of lactic acid and other chemicals from my achy muscles. My eyes also hurt a little, I'm assuming since I moved them around so much. We will see if this happens again, and if that reaction is normal.

I have not taken my painkillers for a couple weeks now. Not that I haven't been in enough pain to take them: I have. But I think that my t'ai chi, combined with the SRA is helping me to remain relaxed enough to keep the pain at a bearable level. I hope this will improve over time.

My second SRA appointment is today. I'll post sometime after that.