Under diagnosed and poorly understood, many more people suffer from hyper mobility than most estimates suggest. Conditions like Marfan's and EDS are often missed and can be difficult to diagnose with the numerous subcategories and types, but when you consider that around a fifth of the population has general hyper mobility (questionnaire is below, score of 5/9 or greater indicates a + test for hyper mobility), there are many people who will not respond well to traditional manual therapy, PT, or chiropractic. Whether it's TMJ and jaw problems, or musculoskeletal conditions such as neck and back pain, those who are hyper mobile will have an increased likelihood of having these issues. Treatments that are helpful and take into account hyper mobility are often lacking in most healthcare settings.

 

Traditional exercise often emphasizes full ranges of motion and puts those with hyper mobility into positions that can potentially damage their joints and cause more problems. Traditional chiropractic doesn't make sense, since their joints are already hyper mobile and chiropractors are typically obsessed with creating MORE mobility, again potentially leading to more problems. Muscle work is potentially damaging because often the hyper mobile patient's muscles are having to act as ligaments to create support and stability, so once the muscles are "released" the patient is at risk of damaging their joints. So what is one to do?!

Dr. Scoppa has been seeing hyper mobile patients for years with great effect because the focus is on proprioception, neurologic integration and re-patterning, and a very specific timeline of when certain modalities and rehab tools are introduced. At the beginning the patient will probably have to be seen fairly regularly, but then the focus shifts to therapies that don't require the patient to be seen nearly as often, with an emphasis on self-care, SAFELY building strength and stability. 

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