Point of Pain

Definition: Myofascial Trigger Points - Often very painful, or highly aggravating, areas in muscles causing pain, stiffness and limited range of motion, as well as other symptoms.

The pain can also migrate through the body, sometimes often far from the ‘trigger point,’ or the point at which the pain originated.  Examples of myofascial trigger points, which are often misdiagnosed, are Tennis Elbow and Repetitive Strain Syndrome.

Trigger point therapy is a treatment that locates the individual myofascial trigger points with the aim of addressing and overcoming soft-tissue pain and apparent joint pain. This area of alternative therapy is similar to massage, but attempts to go further by treating the cause of the pain, rather than temporarily soothing the point of the pain.

Many conventional treatments of pain are based on the assumption that the cause of pain is to be found at the site of the pain. Trigger point therapy indicates the cause of the pain may be found elsewhere.  Myofascial Trigger Points so often present themselves disguised as something else, or having migrated from their source, that it has been suggested that they are the primary cause for up to 75 percent of chronic pain cases, yet the treatment prescribed often mask’s the pain rather than treating the trigger.  These treatments then fail because they only focus on treating the site of the pain whilst overlooking and failing to treat the cause.

The knot of the trigger point can be felt with the fingers, particularly in the shoulders, however in deeper tissue it had been difficult to diagnose.  New technologies such as the electron microscope and ‘mapping’ technology has made finding, and photographing, the trigger points far easier.  Many problems  can now be eliminated within three to ten days: even long-standing chronic conditions may be cleared up in weeks rather than months.

As Travell and Simons write in their acclaimed medical text Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual: ‘It is becoming increasingly clear that nearly all fibromyalgia patients have myofascial trigger points that are contributing significantly to their total pain problem.  Some patients are diagnosed as having fibromyalgia when in fact they only have much more treatable multiple trigger points.’ Trigger point therapy can now be seen as a viable treatment programme by many practitioners and, according to Clair Davies NCTMB author of The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, ‘Many an operation could be avoided by trying trigger point therapy first.’

One of the key benefits of this therapy is that the client can also be shown the relevant trigger points and the correct way to massage them, and continue to massage these points themselves in between sessions. In this way they are taking control of some of their own pain relief, rather than just ‘popping another pill’, empowering them to be in charge of their own bodies again.

Trigger Point Therapy has shown to have positive results in the treatment of: Fibromyalgia, Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Lower Back Pain, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tennis Elbow, Neck and Jaw Pain, Frozen Shoulder Pain, Arthritis, Headaches, Sore Knees and Feet, Accident Trauma, Join Pain and Muscle Aches, Sports and Repetitive Strain Injury.

Author: Wendy Radford 07921 837807