Having been exposed to many different techniques, teachers, and approaches to the body from a variety of different disciplines, Dr. Scoppa has fine tuned his approach over his 15 years in practice. As practioners we have to constantly revaluating what works, what doesn't, and how to best untilize the short time we have with patients to get the most out of the interaction. Unfortunately there is only so much time in a visit, and what he chooses to use, and how his approach has changed over the years, comes down to how quickly he can get a result that will last. Sometimes this means working on the body, sometimes it means removing a food, sometimes doing blood work, taking a supplement, or doing an exercise at home. It's getting patients out of whatever immediate issue they have, but also discussing root causes and how to prevent the issue from popping up again in the future.
Dr. Scoppa puts an emphasis on neurologic integration, increasing proprioception, and getting his patients out of sympathetic dominance. Structural integrity, symmetry, and optiml function are all vital aspects of correcting any dysfunction in the body. These terms are often used flippantly and without context, and can come off as buzzwords when thrown around in blogs and podcasts, but in this case each has been specifically chosen to describe what is happening. Let's dig deeper!
Neurologic Integration:
Our nervous system acts as a circuit breaker, with information going from our brain to our spine and out to our body, and from our body to our spine and up to our brain. This is described as the central and peripheral nervous system, which work in unison at an incredible speed. The same nerves that go to/from our organs also go to/from our muscles and joints, this is called the viscerosomatic system. Communication in this system can be hindred when messages are leaving the brain, going through the spine, or going to the muscles or organs. Conversely, issues in this circuit can happen when going the other direction. These interferences can occur for any number of reasons, including trauma, fascial assymetry, joint issues, muscles misfiring, or organ dysfunction. Dr. Scoppa isn't just looking at your spine, or your muscle, he is looking at how this system is operating and determining where the interference is taking place. He does this via the use of indicators that are checked before and after any treatment to ensure the proper result has been attained. For example, you can have chronic neck issues that are stemming from your jaw joint, or a glute max muscle that's not firing and causing low back and hamstring issues, or a gallbladder problem that's causing right shoulder pain. Sometimes it's clear and a shoulder problem is just a shoulder problem, but sometimes it's not, and it's important that your provider is able to detect the difference.
Increasing Proprioception:
All of our joints have proprioceptors, which can be described as little GPS units that communicate to/from our brain and let us know where we are in space, and contribute to our balance. The fascial system acts as a communication highway for proprioception, and there are even proprioceptors in muscle! Rather than focus on one joint or one muscle, there are some joints and areas of the body that are more rich in proprioception, while others tend to just react or compensate. Knowledge of this dynamic helps Dr. Scoppa get to the root cause of issues faster and more reliably. When the body's proprioceptive system is balanced, there is less stress on joints, muscles are firing more symetrically, and there will be more balance in the body as we move through space and against gravity.
Sympathetic Dominance:
Our nervous system has only two modes, sympathetic and parasympathetic. Sympathetic is how our nervous system prepares our body to deal with stress, whether that be mental/emotional, physical, or chemical/nutritional/microbial. We need this mode to help in times of emergency, but we aren't meant to be in this state all the time. When one is in a sympathetic dominant state the body isn't able to heal or repair itself efficiently, digest food well, or relax. Most of the time we want to be in a state of parasympathetic, sometimes called "rest and digest". Dr. Scoppa has unique techniques and modalities to help facilitate this parasympathetic state in his patients, who are often stuck in a sympathetic, or "fight or flight" response due to pain or the realities of modern life. It's vital that patients give their body's a chance to heal, and any treatment will work expontentially better if a person is in parasympathetic.
To learn more about the physical medicine techniques Dr. Scoppa employs, click here.
To learn more about the parasympathetic inducing modalities Dr. Scoppa has available at his office, click here.
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