Unraveling the mystery

Unraveling the Mystery

People often come to my office who are in pain.  Many of these people have been to the doctor.  They've had X-rays or MRIs, but the doctor can find nothing wrong - no breaks, no tears, no pathology.  It can be very frustrating because the patient wants a diagnosis.  "If there's nothing wrong, why does it hurt?"

Great question:  If there's nothing wrong, why does it hurt?  That's where I come in.  I trace the pain to its source.  I find the patterns.  They are called "referral pain patterns", patterns that mimic something serious, but are, in fact, not medically serious at all.  This process is called Trigger Point Therapy.  It's one of my main modalities.

Here are a few real-life examples:

• A woman in her 50's came in with tight neck and shoulders.  Nothing she did got her any relief.  I myself worked her neck and shoulders with no noticeable result.  Then I checked her jaw.  It was tight.  Very tight.  And it was not tracking well, pulling to one side when she opened and closed her mouth.  She told me that she grinds her teeth at night.  So together we gently worked the jaw.  It began to release.  Then I rechecked her neck.  It had become soft!  She was amazed and very happy.  Here was a case where the tightness in the neck was a direct result of tightness in the jaw.  A perfect example of referral pain patterns.  
• A man in his 60's came in with low back pain.  He told me that it started after he had picked up a heavy load in his garden.  (I hear the same story from nurses who lift patients.)  In this man's case, his low back pain was coming from his belly muscles.  Those muscles got strained and tight from overuse, then sent pain to his low back.  The remedy was to gently release certain belly muscles - the psoas and iliacus.  This we did, and to his delight, the back pain was gone.  This is an example of a common referral pain pattern.  
• An active man in his 50's came in with knee pain in his left knee.  He was about to play in a golf tournament the very next day, so we needed good results fast!  The knee especially hurt when he walked down steps.  We traced the knee pain to his left groin muscles.  I told him that he must have had a groin pull.  He told me that he indeed had - 30 years ago!  We released those groin muscles.  Then I had him walk up and down a staircase.  Voila, no pain.  A great example of a released referral pain pattern from an old injury.

Referral pain patterns often masquerade as something serious.  I've seen clients cry tears of relief when they realized that their pain was simply referred from an active trigger point, and not from cancer or something else just as serious.  Of course, I'm careful to be on the lookout for something that may actually be medically serious; I do refer some clients to their doctor.  Still, according to The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Claire Davies, 75% of pain is due to myofascial trigger points.

If you have "mystery pain" that is baffling to you or your doctors, you might look into Trigger Point Therapy as a possible solution.

Robert Sherman is a state certified massage therapist in Carlsbad, CA. He specializes in treating old injuries and surgical scars with Trigger Point Therapy, Myofascial Release, and Ortho-Bionomy, which includes Phase 7 Healing.  He can be reached at 760-826-3220.