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Introduction to
the subject of Visceroptosis
Visceroptosis is a condition in which the internal organs
have been compressed and displaced by poor posture, the enlarging
womb of pregnancy, tight waisted corsets, and a variety of other
factors. This displacement stretches the attachments which hold
the stomach, liver, and kidneys etc. in their proper place in
the upper abdomen, and as a result they are suspended in a lower
position. This produces a tendency for the kinking of tubular
structures, ducts, blood vessels, and nerves leading to various
problems such as indigestion, kidney problems, and faintness.
However there has been much dispute about this, with the current
consensus of opinion being that the condtion is trivial, and
not a cause of chronic illness. In reviewing this matter I found
the following book, and have summarised the information to give
a report on the history of the subject.
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A Review of a 1930
Book on Visceroptosis ©
This essay is from
the 11th edition of The Posture Theory pages 259-261.
In a book called Visceroptosis and Allied Abdominal Conditions
Associated with Chronic Invalidism, published in 1930, the author
H. Bedingfield gives an account of the history of ideas on that
subject from the 16th century to the early 20th century.
According to the author, 16th century writers claimed that the
internal organs belonged in particular positions, and any variation
in location was regarded as abnormal.
In 1837-41 French writer P.F. Rayer observed that a movable kidney
was commoner for the right kidney and commoner in men, and was
associated with general visceroptosis and hypochondriacal symptoms
which could be relieved by supporting the kidney with a suitable
belt.
In 1841 J. Cruveilhier gave a precise account of transverse colons
which zig-zagged across the abdomen or looped down into the pelvis.
He concluded that that was due to corset wearing which compressed
and displaced the liver, which in turn distorted and displaced
the bowel.
In 1870 R. Chroback suggested that the movable kidney was the
cause of hysteria. L. Landau published another article on nephroptosis
in 1881 which started a flood of literature on that subject,
such that by 1897 A. Macalister was able to provide a select
bibliography of 151 articles.
Between 1885 and 1899 Frantz Glenard wrote 30 articles and monographs
on enteroptosis. His early articles proposed that sections of
the colon could bow under the weight of faeces, which would cause
a sharpening and narrowing of the nearby bends or flexures. That
would further impair the flow of faeces and increase the weight
in that section causing a strain on its attachments. He proposed
that the hepatic flexure was the weakest and would give way first,
and as that section of bowel descended it would drag on the pyloric
end of the stomach and then pull down the transverse colon, ultimately
producing obstructive kinks. The stomach and bowel would then
tend to dilate prior to those kinks and contract after them.
He later proposed that disturbed liver function altered the bowel
function and led to similar mechanisms of displacement, and he
noted that disturbance in the circulation of the liver and bowel
was followed by reduction in the tone of the bowel. "Glenard
was the first to suggest that muco-membranous colitis was not
a clinical entity but simply one of the symptoms of enteroptosis."
In 1903 Alex Blad of Copenhagen wrote a book called "On
Enteroptosis" which referred to some 800 articles on visceroptosis
and by 1912 H. Burckhardt of Berlin presented several hundred
more. However interest in that subject then began to wane. From
1913 J.E. Goldwaith and his Boston colleagues proposed that body
shape influenced health, with a narrow back and chest cramping
the lungs and heart, and resulting in poor aeration of the blood,
and low blood pressure. He also proposed that such physique disposed
to enteroptosis.
There were suggestions that a narrow upper abdomen may result
in the abdominal viscera lying lower. The lowest part of the
stomach would then be lower than its outlet so it may not empty
properly. The lower bowels would necessitate kinking, and, would
drag on the solar plexus, with the suggestion that that would
cause neurasthenia (fatigue).
It was also thought that with normal posture the stomach was
tucked up into the arch of the diaphragm and held in place by
the vacuum created by its high dome formation. The small intestines
were held in place by a shelf formed above a narrow waist which
in turn supported the transverse colon and stomach, and, as the
abdominal cavity inclines upwards and backwards, the kidneys
and spleen have support from the posterior abdominal wall. Any
alterations in posture would tend to remove these supports and
then under the influence of gravity the viscera may drop to the
lower abdomen.
In 1916 E.C. Koenig and N. Mankell attributed chronic intestinal
disorders in children to visceroptosis, and F.B. Talbot, L.T.
Brown and W.H. Sherman described how training in posture and
carriage removed the children's symptoms and restored their abdominal
organs to their normal position.
In 1927 H. Moore and F.E. Wheatley of Boston claimed that if
the child was trained to maintain a correct posture from early
life, and wore no constricting garment around the lower thorax,
nor excessively heavy ones from the shoulders, visceroptosis
"would not and could not happen."
As well as considering the ideas about mechanical causes of visceroptosis,
and visceroptosis as a cause of allied abdominal conditions,
nervous disorders, neurasthenia and hysteria, the author also
refers to various studies showing considerable variations in
the position of internal anatomy between boys and girls, children
and adults, men and women, and British and Americans, and concludes
that differences between individuals represent a very wide range
which can be regarded as normal.
There are references to individuals who have displaced anatomy
yet have no symptoms with a further conclusion that variations
in anatomy are compatible with normal health and were therefore
not the cause of symptoms.
The postural ideas of the Boston doctors were dismissed by
British orthopaedic surgeons who preferred "to regard posture
and symptoms, not as cause and effect, but as expressions of
an underlying cause", namely psychological factors, with
a further quote from A.S. Blankart "there is frequent association
of postural deformity with neurasthenia and with a neuropathic
family history". The Boston exponents were also unable to
explain all the diverse aspects of the condition, or why the
abdominal symptoms were often accompanied by remote symptoms.
However I note that the great majority of postural defects are
acquired as the result of mechanical causes and that symptoms
are a sequel, and that improvements in posture often relieve
symptoms. The cause and affect between posture and symptoms would
apply regardless of whether the postural defect was acquired
or inherited.
The diverse aspects of visceroptosis are due to the multiple
and diverse, often combined causes, and the remote symptoms emanate
from abdominal disorders influencing the general health, and
from the affects of postural mechanics on the entire body structure.
The ideas that corsets were a cause of visceroptosis were dismissed
with the suggestion that many women with visceroptosis had never
worn corsets.
However, I note that in 1903 it was possible to obtain 800 articles
on visceroptosis and by 1912 there were several hundred more,
after which such articles became rare. There is clear evidence
that the extensive interest in the subject in the 19th century
was due to the extreme symptoms resulting from severe visceroptosis
caused by the 19th century corsets. Between 1900 and 1914 as
the abdominal crushing corsets faded out of fashion, the symptoms
became less common and less severe, which would have obscured
the link between cause and effect and explain why interest in
the subject waned.
In the Medline Express computer data base which covers worldwide
medical publications for the thirty year period from 1966 to
1995, less than 70 articles (i.e. less than an average of three
per year) are listed under the heading of visceroptosis. In the
Cumulated Index Medicus only one article is listed in 1993, and
one in 1994. Medline Express lists none between January and October
1995.
I suggest that the current paucity of articles is not due to
the rarity of visceroptosis but because the influence of the
very common condition has been underrated and neglected. The
indigestion and multiple other aches and pains which should properly
be attributed to visceroptosis are being dismissed as the trivial
or imaginary products of a supposedly disturbed mind, and where
there is no evidence of that they are attributed to supposedly
mysterious or sub-conscious psychological problems. M.B.
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