Treating Physical and Mechanical Structures – The Perrin Technique™ and CFS/ME
The Perrin Technique™ was developed by Dr Raymond Perrin, an osteopath based in North West England in 1989. Dr Perrin found that patients suffering with severe fatigue and what would become known more widely as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), responded well to craniosacral and lymphatic massage, a process that expresses toxic substances and harmful chemicals away from the brain and spinal cord.
This manual process systematically moves your body’s cerebrospinal fluid away from your brain and spine, flushing harmful toxins out from your body’s lymphatic system, where it can then be expressed out of the body by your liver.
The clinic’s founder, Gail Sumner, worked with Dr Perrin for 14 years and has been instrumental in helping Dr Perrin with clinical research in the field of ME/CFS. Gail participated in a CFS/ME Perrin treatment medical trial alongside the NHS during 2015/16. This landmark study demonstrated how the Perrin Technique can be used as an aid to diagnose CFS/ME by assessing 5 physical markers. Gail subsequently co-authored the post-trial scientific paper detailing these results, which was published in the British Medical Journal in 2017.
Gail is only one of twelve health professionals worldwide selected by Dr Perrin to undergo training to become an Advanced Perrin Practitioner.
How Does the Perrin Technique Work?
Your body has what is known as the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which essentially connects your brain to all your body’s critical organs and acts as a regulatory system to ensure they function appropriately and at the right time. The ANS has three sub systems managing the critical and autonomous functions in your body.
The Perrin Technique is focussed on one of those systems, the Sympathetic Nervous System:
Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
Your sympathetic nervous system is responsible for control of the ‘flight or fight’ response and your body’s involuntary actions, the things that happen automatically such as regulating blood pressure, heart rate, dilating pupils, sweating, and bladder functions to name a few. The sympathetic nervous system will ‘switch on’ and increase the function of these systems in response to your environment and the inputs your brain and body are receiving at any one point in time.
The biological elements of the SNS are located in the brain and spinal cord thoracic system and it is the chemicals and hormones flowing through these pathways and around your brain that work in communicating with the sympathetic nervous system.
Your body is designed to go into ‘flight or fight’ for short periods of time only, producing the necessary hormones like adrenaline to drive you into some action. But it should then ‘switch off’ when the moment has passed over. Your body should begin to expel the toxins and waste products from this activity from your brain and your thoracic system. When it does not, it begins to cause inflammation in the central nervous system which causes harm to your body and cognitive functions.
In CFS/ME patients though, it is not uncommon for their sympathetic nervous system to be in a high state of flight or fight for long periods of time, if not permanently, which saturates their brain and spinal cord with hormones such as Cortisol, DHEA and a build-up of waste toxins and harmful chemicals.
Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system is a series of channels and pathways designed to move lymphatic fluid around the body, spinal cord and brain as well as carrying vital nutrients for the nervous system. It also moves toxins and harmful chemical by-products around your body so they can be processed as waste and eliminated from your body.
In CFS/ME patients, research has shown that they suffer from a dysfunctional lymphatic system.
Scientific research by Dr Perrin, primarily, and more recently in a growing body of medical literature demonstrates that drainage of these toxic fluids from the brain and spine is restricted in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME).
It is these blockages and restrictions in the lymphatic pathways from the brain and spinal cord which prevents the efficient drainage of these harmful waste products from the sympathetic nervous system in CFS/ME patients.
The Perrin Technique uses a form of craniosacral therapy and lymphatic massage to manually flush out toxins and harmful chemicals and improve drainage away from the brain and spinal cord. This process is effectively ‘cleaning out’ your sympathetic nervous system.
The Perrin Technique has an incremental effect on patients as when toxic burdens are reduced on your sympathetic nervous system, so your own system begins to recover and enable your lymphatic system to improve and begin functioning more effectively for you.
Although as practitioners we are focussed on the clinical improvements in our patient’s health, The Perrin Technique is also a gentle and non-invasive treatment, and we know many of our patients find it relaxing too.
Perrin Technique Outcomes:
Patients typically find their cognitive functions improving and their levels of fatigue lessen as the brain and spinal cord is cleared of toxins. But there are improvements in many of the areas affected by a chronic fatigue sufferer’s dysfunctional sympathetic nervous system:
Less fatigue – more energy to complete everyday tasks Improved cognitive ability – thinking and speaking without fatigue Improved sleep patterns Reduction and elimination of myalgia and muscle pain Reduction or elimination of dysautonomia; sensitivity to noise, light and smell Reduction and elimination of palpitations Improved temperature dysregulation; feeling too hot and too cold Reduction or elimination of headaches and migraines
A significant number of patients receiving Perrin treatment recover fully from CFS/ME in conjunction with other complimentary treatments and lifestyle changes we recommend at the Clinic.
We have treated many hundreds of CFS/ME patients over the years and the Chronic Health Recovery Clinic has two dedicated Perrin Technique Practitioners caring for CFS/ME and Long Covid sufferers at our Westhoughton clinic near Bolton and Manchester.
Read about Gail Sumner, Advanced Perrin Technique Practitioner and Ruth Wolstoneholme, Certified Perrin Practitioner, here.
Our aim is to improve life by reducing pain and severe fatigue.
Services
Bioresonance Therapy
Physiotherapy
Accupuncture
Nutritional Therapy
Meet the Team
Find us
Markland Therapy Centre
112 Market Street
(Side entrance on Church Street)
Westhoughton
Bolton
BL5 3AZ
Telephone
Based in Westhoughton, Lancashire, our Clinic specialises in providing treatments and therapy for people suffering from chronic illnesses that cause severe fatigue and can result in persistent headaches, cognitive issues (brain fog) and poor memory, constant muscle pain and soreness, fibromyalgia and other fatigue related symptoms.