The thought of inserting a balloon into the nasal cavity and inflating it to adjust the cranium was inconceivable to me. I admit that “are you insane?” were the first words that came to mind when I was introduced to the unique, bizarre technique called cranial facial release in 1984 at the Parker Seminars.
I literally got up and walked out of the seminar, and the instructor made sure everyone noticed as he aimed his laser pointer at my back and proclaimed, “There goes a guy who just doesn’t get it!”
I totally forgot about the technique until about 15 years later, when an article came across my desk about a woman who had fallen off a horse, hit her head and was suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS). The woman was also experiencing all of the typical symptoms, including depression, brain fog, malaise, headaches, memory loss, vertigo, visual disturbances, insomnia, etc. She had consulted a number of neurologists and brain trauma experts with minimal results, and eventually consulted a doctor in Washington who performed the balloon technique on her. As a result, the patient claimed she felt like a new person and the procedure gave her life back.
Once I took the seminar, I quickly realized what had been missing in my practice all those years, as I started witnessing a level of chiropractic healing far beyond anything I thought was even possible. This treatment seemed to be most impactful on those patients who had tried everything else and given up hope of ever getting relief, and the procedure could be used to treat a host of problems, such as head trauma (traumatic brain injury), PCS, post-stroke symptoms, Bell’s palsy, trigeminal neuralgia, migraine headaches, vertigo, tinnitus, seizures, temporomandibular joint disorder, hearing loss, visual disturbances, breathing disorders, snoring, sleep apnea, sinusitis, deviated septums, emotional and learning disorders, loss of smell and taste, etc.
Ballooning approach
I know it sounds bizarre, but cranial ballooning is not a new concept. It has been around since the early 1900s and was pioneered by DC and naturopath Richard Stober back in the 1960s and 1970s. He called his procedure bilateral nasal specific (BNS), and all present-day versions of this technique arose from his methods and procedures.
Several different approaches to cranial ballooning exist, each with a slight variation in application, but all with the common denominator of using endonasal balloon inflations to directly adjust the cranium.
This article focuses on cranial facial release (CFR), a technique focused on clearing everything below the occiput first before addressing the cranium, with the intention of increasing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and taking torque off the dura.
How CFR works
To understand how this technique works, it is important to remember the skull is not one solid bone; it is made up of 22 individual bones that actually move every time you inhale or at least they are supposed to. Every time you inhale, the cranium expands. Every time you exhale the cranium relaxes and contracts, with each cranial bone having its own specific direction of motion.
It’s not gross osseous movement, but more of a flexion (expansion) and relaxation of the skull with respiration, according to expert anatomist and researcher Marc G. Pick, DC, DICS.1
Any fixation or restriction of motion of any of these individual cranial bones impedes the flow of CSF to that part of the brain and typically gives rise to a wide variety of issues, including visceral disease. Medical doctor and researcher A.D. Speransky explains the direct relationship between mechanical pressure on the control centers of the brain and the genesis of disease.2 So, important were these findings that chiropractic founder B.J. Palmer dedicated 15 pages of the Green Books3 specifically to Speransky and his findings.
The cranial motion phenomenon is facilitated by way of the dural attachment to the base of the occiput and the base of the sacrum, which acts as a lever between the two. They work in conjunction to flex and relax every time you breathe to create a pumping mechanism that facilitates the flow of CSF throughout the brain and spinal cord.
The primary bone of the skull is the sphenoid bone. It is the central bone of the cranial vault and the primary bone we target in CFR technique. The sphenoid bone houses the pituitary gland and articulates with 12 other bones — especially important is the spot where the sphenoid articulates with the basilar portion of the occiput. Here it forms a very important joint called the spheno-basilar (SB) junction, the primary pumping mechanism of the entire skull. The SB junction is a symphysis joint, which means it is disk-like, and as DCs we know structure relates to function. The SB junction is designed this way to allow for the flexion and relaxation of the cranial system upon respiration. All cranial motion revolves around this specialized joint, and it is the primary joint we target in CFR technique.
A typical CFR treatment
The CFR procedure is performed in a series of four days of treatment, with specific bilateral inflation patterns administered each day. It typically takes three to four series to achieve optimal benefit from this treatment.
The equipment consists of a finger cot attached to a blood pressure-type bulb. Colloidal silver gel is applied as a lubricant to prevent infection, and a blunt-ended wooden toothpick is used to carefully guide the balloon into the nose.
The most common question typically asked when performing this technique is, “Are you inserting the balloon into the sinus cavity?” The answer is no; we are inserting the balloon into the nasopharynx, the opening between the nose and throat.
The nasopharynx is divided into six sections, three on each side: lower, middle and upper bilaterally, called the nasal turbinates. The balloon is inserted as far back into the appropriate turbinate as possible, then quickly inflated to open up the breathing passageways and mobilize the bones of the face and cranium.
The whole procedure takes about two seconds and is not painful. It’s more a feeling of intense pressure, but not in your nose – in your face. The objective is to inflate the balloon all the way back into the throat, specifically targeting the spheno-palatine suture.
As the balloon expands, your skull starts cracking as your cranial sutures release.
By reinstating normal cranial motion, i.e., taking the torque off the dura, facilitating normal CSF flow, increasing oxygen-carrying capacity and vascular flow to the brain, increasing venous and lymphatic drainage from the brain and relieving tension on the anterior attachment of the dura at the sella turcica, you optimize the function of the brain and pituitary gland, i.e., the primary control centers of the body, primarily focusing on the other 80% of the nervous system (the source of nerve impulses) before moving further down the chain and concerning ourselves with how nerve impulses are transmitted.
Final thoughts
B.J. Palmer always advised working from above down, yet as DCs, we rarely address the original source of the problem, where the primary subluxation lies: above the neck in the cranium. CFR goes directly to this source and offers relief from a number of debilitating, treatment-resistant issues.
ADAM J. DEL TORTO, DC, a 1984 graduate of New York Chiropractic College who practices in California, is the founder and developer of the balloon-assisted adjusting technique Cranial Facial Release (CFR), which often works on last-resort patients who have not responded to conventional treatment. He has lectured at multiple chiropractic forums in the U.S. and abroad, and has been featured on the E! channel, Celebrity News Magazine and The Wellness Hour, attracting international attention. Del Torto is also the creator of Chiropractic Rocks, a new annual convention featuring 20+ high-level speakers. Contact him at dr.adam@chiropracticrocks.us.
References
- Pick MC. Cranial Sutures: Analysis, Morphology and Manipulative Strategies. Marc G. Pick. 1990. Seattle, WA: Eastland Press.
- Speransky AD. A Basis for the Theory of Medicine. 1943. International Publishers Co Inc.
- Palmer DD, Palmer BJ. The Green Books. 1906. Davenport. IA: Palmer School of Chiropractic.
