A few months ago I had two female clients with the same issue. They were both in their 50's, and they each had pain in one of their breasts. One had had breast augmentation many years ago and recently had that checked out by her doctor who said that everything was OK, no problem as far as the operation was concerned. The other thought the pain may have been there becuase she needed breast reduction. The outcome for each lady after one treatment each was no pain. The solution for each was actually quite easy. Upon assessment, in both cases, I found that there were Trigger Points on the side of the shoulder...the same side as the painful breast. When I would press on the side of the shoulder near the underarm, the pain in the breast would become activated. In the world of therapeutic massage, that's an AHA. So in each case, I simply used Trigger Point Therapy and Myofascial Release techniques to gently dissolve the tightness in the muscles and connective tissue. The result in each case was no pain. And three months later they are still both pain-free. One commented how nice it is to not think about it! It still amazes me how simple these solutions are when trigger points are involved. A trigger point is a place in the muscle or connective tissue that refers pain somewhere else. Trigger points can cause pain that seems very serious, and masquerades as all kinds of maladies and prognoses. I've had people on my massage table actually cry with relief that the pain they had been experiencing was not cancer, but just a place in a muscle that was causing the pain. JFK's doctor in the White House and the creator of Trigger Point Therapy, Dr. Janet Travell, used to say that 75-80% of all pain is due to trigger points. When I do my work I am the "pain detective", always wondering where the pain may actually be coming from. And when I find it, AHA!
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Robert Sherman
Robert is a Licensed and Certified Massage Therapist with over 23 years of experience. Archives
June 2024
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