Anatomy Angel

Dooley Noted: 12/11/14 Bursae are fluid-filled sacs located outside of a joint. In the cadaver, they look like fascial pockets. They are packed with synovium, a super-slippery lubricant that prevents excessive friction and erosion, usually at bone. I am convinced that the bursae are severely underestimated as pain generators. It explains why even after injections and anti-inflammatories, the pain quickly returns as you return to your movement patterns. Those strategies continue to irritate bursae, whose … Read more

Dooley Noted: 11/20/2014 Yesterday, I helped students remove 6 livers. Unlike most internal organs, the liver is a particular challenge to remove. The liver is anchored to your anterior abdominal wall by the falciform ligament. Its position can be altered by abdominal contraction. The liver is anchored to your stomach and duodenum by the lesser omentum. Their relative positions can affect each other’s ability to properly digest. The liver is anchored to the inferior vena … Read more

Dooley Noted: 10/30/14 The tongue is often considered one muscle. But it is not! It’s a group of muscles that propel animals – including you. But you may not realize it yet. The tongue has the following muscles: 1. Genioglossus: the powerful muscle attaching the tongue to the jaw 2. Hyoglossus: the important muscle attaching the tongue to the hyoid bone, which helps keep the airway stabilized 3. Styloglossus: the crucial stabilizing muscle that attaches … Read more

Dooley Noted: 9/15/2014 It you are what you eat, then so are your core muscles. Or core stability is what you digest. Let’s say your digestion doesn’t agree with a food you chose, and you become bloated. Bloating and distention of the anterior abdominal wall stretches important muscles like rectus abdominis, transversus abdominis, and the abdominal obliques. These muscles exert enormous expulsive strength during a cough, sneeze, deadlift, squat, etc. (See picture below.) If they … Read more

Dooley Noted: 9/5/2014 If Brachialis is the unsung hero of elbow flexion (See: Anatomy Angel: Brachialis), then Deltoid is the unsung hero of shoulder flexion. This muscle is enormously useful to get you out of that failing bench press, or to basically lift anything over your head. Like the Pectoral muscle group, Deltoid can flex, internally rotate, and horizontally adduct with its anterior fibers. After the first 15 degrees of humeral abduction, the intermediate (middle) … Read more

Dooley Noted: 8/24/2014 After another long Grenada flight soon after my trek across the world, I ended up with left sacroiliac (SI) joint compression. As I was walking, I noticed my right shoulder was hiking as I stepped forward with my left foot. I immediately felt left SI joint pain. You can see that mechanism here: You can see my right shoulder is hiking, and my left side sacrum is jamming into my left ilium, … Read more

Dooley Noted: 7/13/2014 Yesterday, I conducted a trial run seminar on rotation. I asked where the group would like to start. I said, “Pick eyes or foot. Each one has great impact.” They chose the foot. They were very surprised when I didn’t spend excessive time discussing dorsiflexion of the ankle, a concept assigned and discussed ad nauseum. We focused on the subtalar joint, a synovial planar joint inferior to the ankle. As a chiropractic … Read more

Dooley Noted: 6/26/14 The hyoid bone is an incredible bone that is practically floating in space, just anterior to your C3 vertebrae. If you run your fingers directly under your chin, you will run into its body. This incredible bone does not articulate with any other bones. It is anchored by muscular and ligamentous attachments. The hyoid attaches to the tongue, thyroid cartilage, pharynx, mandible (jaw), shoulder, skull, and sternum. Due to it’s vast attachments, … Read more

Dooley Noted: 6/18/2014 Balance can be an elusive concept. Just when you think you strike it, something may throw you off kilter. This is something to be applauded, not avoided. Babies have zero fear of falling down. Watch them fall. They do it incessantly, as their freaked-out parents attempt to catch them. But when left to their own devices, babies fall on repeat. Then they try again. They know to fall is not to fail. … Read more