Kinesiology
Applied kinesiology is a technique of identifying dysfunction within the human body by testing the strength of the patient's muscles; it is promoted by the International College of Applied Kinesiology (http://www.icak.com).
The manual muscle test is commonly used by chiropractors and other health practitioners, and the literature on its scientific validity has been reviewed (Cuthbert and Goodheart 2007). This review was followed by publication of another, negative interpretation (Haas et al. 2007), that the validity of standard orthopedic muscle strength testing does not afford credibility to the applied kinesiologist’s use of the test to identify subclinical disease conditions or the need for treatment of organic or metabolic conditions.When kinesiology is applied to veterinary medicine, a surrogate is used during the diagnostic process (Tiekert 1981). The surrogate (such as a veterinary technician) holds one arm extended straight out from the shoulder while placing the index finger of the other, free hand on the part of the animal’s body to be evaluated. Another person applies downward pressure on the surrogate’s arm while the surrogate resists the pressure. The surrogate’s arm is expected to drop (become weak) when contact is made with an area of the patient where normal energy has been disrupted by disease or injury. The technique has been used to select portions of the body to radiograph or to choose which conditions are most important when the patient appears to have several problems.