"Kathy Cascade, a physical therapist and Tellington TTouch instructor, has described how the wraps stimulate the skin and proprioceptive system in such a way that the enhanced information can be used by the brain to make improvements in balance, coordination and movement. Kathy was talking about the ability to know where our bodies are located in space based upon the feedback system coming from the skin, joints, ligaments and tendons. This feedback system allows the person wearing wraps to instlantly know where the wrapped part of the body is located in space and brings awareness to the relationship between this part of the body and the rest of the body during movement.
Some of the proprioceptive receptors in the skin adapt to sensation quickly and others adapt slowly. Rapidly adapting receptors allow for minute distinctions in the experience of pressure and vibration on the skin. The hair follicles, Meissner's and Pacinian corpuscles all respond to light brushing, light touch and gentle vibration, respectively, by sending immediate brief signals to the brain at the start and stop of each stimulation. This fast on-off information switch allows the body to respond quickly and freshly to each stimulus to the skin so that differentiation of slight changes in skin pressure and vibration can be detected. These fast adapting receptors happen to be associated with the release of oxytocin when stimulated by light touch.
The thermorepcetors in the skin detect warm and cold sensations. (...) There are no receptors for very hot temperatures in the skin. In fact, the receptors that detect cold temperatures actually fire along with warm receptors when something is hot to create the sensation of extreme heat. This combination of warm and cold receptors firing at the same time is what causes the paradoxical hot/cold "Vick's Vapor Rub" feeling that Jessica described in her legs.
Pain reception also involves both quick acting and slow acting neurons. The quick acting neurons tend to detect sharp, shooting pain and the slow acting neurons tend to detect deep, throbbing or aching pain. (...)
It may be that soothing skin stimulation competes with the pain pathway or the memory of pain. It is reported in the TENS literature that gentle electrical stimulation actually blocks chronic pain receptors. Chronic pain perception is activated by the slow acting neurons. Because the fast adapting neurons bring the gentle stimulation of the TENS to the brain through a different route, it blocks the awareness of chronic pain. The wraps may be generating a similar type of gentle input that competes with and distracts someone from chronic pain.
As mentioned in the brain's rules for change, perhaps the gentle stimulation is new information that contradicts the circumstances under which the pain memory was created and instantly changes the memory. Could the gentle stimulation of the wraps cause a release of a chemical messenger, like oxytocin, that signals safety and suggests to the body that the pain is over? Maybe it is the interest generated from a different kind of stimulation that triggers an orienting response and then permits the completion of the orienting response and the engagement of the calming ventral vagal system.
There is scientific evidence to support the hypothesis that the engagement of the polyvagal system is part of reducing the perception of pain. In fact, where the vagus nerve meets the heart is one place where pain is modulated. When the heart is pumping in a calm and rhythmic cycle it causes the vagus nerve to suppress pain perception in the spinothalamic tract which brings information about pain to the brain. With the spinothalamic tract suppressed the experience of pain coming from both the spine and from the skin will be reduced."
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