Ryan Christensen DO

Chief Wellness Officer & DO Trad Osteopath in Lake Orion, MI 💆🏼‍♀️Reformed FamilyMed Residency Director. Board Certified #OsteopathicPhysician in Michigan

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

“Stop cracking your knuckles, you’ll get arthritis.”
Total myth.
That pop isn’t a bubble collapsing — MRI footage shows a cavity forming in the joint fluid as the surfaces pull apart. One doctor cracked a single hand twice a day for 50+ years vs his other hand as a control. Zero arthritis. No difference.
The only thing worth watching is pain. The sound is harmless.
What’s a “health fact” you grew up with that turned out to be nonsense?

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

The Human Cost of Readiness: Behavioral Health After Traumatic Response https://t.co/B38izO6RO3 an important article for anyone who works with first responders.
Thank you Deputy Chief Templeton! @jtemp94 @jemsconnect

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@anishmoonka Great post!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@RogerSeheult Thank you!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

Technique is an abstraction!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@jack_schroder_ Now you’re talking like an osteopath! So much of the blood is connected to bones. Bone health for the win!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@BrianRoemmele Cool let’s get one I wanna try it!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@stopchasingpain Truth! The direct vagal access from the brain to the gut is key here too thanks great post!

[Perry Nickelston @stopchasingpain]

The brain controls the autonomic nervous system, which in turn controls the gastrointestinal tract.

That means if you have gut issues, you always need to look at the brain, the brainstem and the spinal cord.

Not just the gut with food and supplements.

Big reason history of concussions matter in gut issues too.

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

Amazing software that allows you to see real time cranial osteopathic motion including normal and pathological. See what we feel daily and notice the detail. @stillwaterdo created this from his disarticulated skull 💀 and I’m so excited to share it with the greater osteopathic @AmAcadOsteo and cranial and Craniosacral @Upledger_Inst @chiklyinstitute @BarralInstitute communities @spheno_xiphoid @BottleBell as well as folks like @stopchasingpain @ChrisPalmerMD @AOAforDOs @hubermanlab

[Jared Dubey @stillwaterdo]

I spent countless hours taking photos and iterating my way to this fledgling project, all the while convincing my wife I was totally insane. check out the fruits of my labor: https://t.co/OVO66XTqhr Its vey much in development still so feel free to curse or send me nasty messages. (I know, bold of me to deign to give you the persmission you would need to express your opinion).

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@tessfalor @nataliezzz3 Good finding! Osteopathic manipulation and oral Myo functional therapy are helpful options for the UARS! Excited to see your blog and data

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@stillwaterdo This is so cool! Excited to use it and share more! Thanks for creating such a cool tool for osteopathic medicine! @AmAcadOsteo

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

🌊 Your skull is breathing right now. 👀

Not air — motion. A subtle rhythm pulsing through the bones of your head, felt by trained hands. Over 100 years ago a DO named William Garner Sutherland discovered it and called it primary respiration — the body's deepest tide. 🌀

Watch the three bones in the center move: sphenoid 🟡, occiput 🔵, ethmoid 🔴. These are your midline bones, and they rock — flexion and extension — pivoting at a single point deep in your skull. As they roll, the whole vault gently widens and lengthens, breathing like the sea. 🌊

Meanwhile the paired bones on the sides — temporals, parietals — spiral outward and back in. The entire head, moving as one living mechanism. 🤯

💆‍♀️ This is what Dr. Sutherland felt with his hands. It's what cranial osteopathic physicians (DOs) feel today — and where that motion gets stuck, we help it flow again. Gentle. No cracking. Just structure finding its way back to function. ✋👨‍⚕️
👇 What do you feel when you put your hands on your own head and get quiet? Tell me. 💀
🩺 Find a DO who does this → @AmAcadOsteo https://t.co/Cm7aBbbEk9 🎥 Make your own cranial animation → https://t.co/mMylArTPD6 @stillwaterdo
#CranialOsteopathy #PrimaryRespiration #Sutherland #Osteopathy #DO #Anatomy #craniallab

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

Consistency is more important than intensity. Read that again!

Results come with consistency and iteration!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@BottleBell @MetabolicRec Well said! This is why osteopathy and working in the fascia gives you amazing results!

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

Dental health is health! How do you take care of your teeth? 🦷 I love @nobsroutines and my Flaus :)

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@stopchasingpain Agreed. Without opening up the central lymphatics other interventions are not a good idea :)

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

@RogerSeheult Functional and lifestyle medicine win!

[Bendy by Birthright @gymrat_bookworm]

My best friend's mom is a trained pharmacist. After giving birth for the third time, she slipped into a "severe treatment-resistant depression" and hasn't worked in 20 years. Has gotten a deep brain stimulator implanted. Still is very fatigued and doesn't do a lot. Is surprised when she does do stuff. Her family is beyond annoyed with her, but about 2 years ago, my friend mentioned how she can't stand going to visit her parents because the house seems musty, so I suspected a mold-related illness. I've always thought there was "more than depression" because how would one get a PharmD and do well into her 30s and then develop such a severe mood disorder? The trajectory didn't track.

When I first started getting sick, her husband told my friend, "I want to help Rachel get on disability." He saw something in me that he saw his wife. But then I got diagnosed with hEDS, MCAS, ME, one positive Lyme. This has floored and shook the whole family.

How many people with "severe, treatment-resistant depression" haven't the slightest clue what's going on with them?

[Ryan Christensen DO @DrRyanC]

Osteopathic medicine allows for treatment supine, seated, and even standing. We are learning how to treat intraosseous dysfunction with an indirect osteopathic approach as Dr. Kavieff demonstrates how to treat a “vertebrae that is hard as a 🧱 brick.”