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A typical experience

I had a new client the other day for an 80 minute massage. I asked him if there is anything that he wanted me to know. He told me that he suffers from a herniated disc that he has had for a few years. He has constant low back and right hip pain that at times radiates down the back of his leg to his knee. He told me that he has had two injections in his low back and has to stay on anit- inflamtory medication. Anything to avoid surgery. The pain is always there. I asked him if he ever saw a chiropractor for his pain. He said yes. But the adjustments hurt his hip so bad that he could not continiue. So here is a guy that thinks he is on the verge of surgery. I knew that there was a very strong probubllity that was not the case. The vast majority of pain people experience is nocioceptive pain( soft tissue- muscle, tendon, ligament, facia). MDs and Chiropractors see pain as neuropathic pain( nerve pain). With that asumption they give the wrong treatments and therapies. Now there is no denying that at times injections and surgery is needed. Not denying that. But most of the time - NOT. 70% to 85% of all pain comes directly from trigger points. Anyway I showed my client a testimonial from a client that I was able to help out of a very painful condition that she had delt with for a couple of years. I showed him that testimonial because all pain has a psychological eliment too it. I wanted him to start thinking maybe he is not on the edge of surgery. I palpated his entire back upper torso, both hips, and right leg. I found a very painful spot on his right L5 erectors. Another very painful spot on his right greater trochantor. A painful spot in the middle part of his lower right hamstrings. And also a tender spot on the right spinous of L3. I knew that if Iwas able to eliminate all those painful palaptory spots that I would most likely eliminate his pain problem. Because a healthy body had no painful spots even with deep massage. Ive been hunting and eliminateing trigger points for thirty years now. He walked out of the massage room pain free. He was pain free for the first time in years. All those other professional people misdiagnosed him because they assume neuropathic pain over nocioceptive pain. I assume the other way around. I'm a Massage Therapist.

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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on March 15, 2016 at 12:09am

Isn't there a possibility she was misdiagnosed, that all her problems were caused by the tps? Certainly the tps can stem from movement lessened (muscle guarding) caused by arthritis. Might be no connection, I know.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on March 15, 2016 at 1:38am

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheumatoid_arthritis. Wikipedia mentions that Fibromyalgia can be confused as being Rheumatoid arthritis . From my experience , Fibromyalgia is Trigger Points. Interesting. Her joints were not deformed like others I've seen with that diagnosis. Gary W Addis, LMT said:

Isn't there a possibility she was misdiagnosed, that all her problems were caused by the tps? Certainly the tps can stem from movement lessened (muscle guarding) caused by arthritis. Might be no connection, I know.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on March 22, 2016 at 10:40pm

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/plantar-fasciitis-topic-overview

Had a new client the other day that came in with plantar fasciitis in her right foot. She has been to different doctors that have not helped. In the above link from webmd there is description of that ailment. However, there is no mention of trigger points. The only posibities they list for this problem is torn fascia, damaged nerve, or arthritis. It's mind boggling to me. The vast majority of pain is trigger points.. Yet never a mention, planar fasciitis included. I palpated the client from head to toe, front, back, and sides. This is what I found. One trigger point that hurt like hell on the plantar surface on the heal of her right foot. I had to press firmly to find it. Another on the Gluteus Medius on her right hip. A PSIS trigger point on the right hip. An L5 right paraspinal trigger point, another at L4 same side. The only other trigger point was on the left spinous of L4. The rest of her body was trigger point free. After I eliminated those trigger points. Her plantar faciitis was gone. Now one session is not going to cure her.. But it proves its trigger points. There is no way I can make arthritis, nerve pain, or torn fascia go way, even temporarily, in A single session. I will close with my favorite sayings. TRUTH IS OFTEN HIDDEN...LIKE A SHADOW...IN DARKNESS. Or. WHAT IS SIMPLE, IS SIMPLY SEEN. AND WHAT IS SIMPLE IS RARELY UNDERSTOOD.

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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on March 23, 2016 at 4:28am

Some of them understand that it is likely trigger points, but conceal their knowledge because there's no profit for them in revealing the truth. Other MDs, etc, are just willfully ignorant, won't consider for a moment that what an exceptionally skilled manual therapist such as yourself can accomplish by lightly touching here and there isn't due to "magic" placebo effect. You know, Oral Roberts / Eastern energy methods / faith healer mojo at work due to temporary placebo effect.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on March 25, 2016 at 11:18pm

I found this interesting. Not long ago a new client came in wanting mostly to relax.. When they say mostly, that means there is something else they are coming in for? In this case it was a very vague symptom complaint. She thought she pulled her Psoas in yoga. She was feeling discomfort in her sacrum and groan area on the right side. She said it was not pain, but a tightness. When I palpated her sacrum I found nothing. But there was mild tenderness on the right PSIS and further down the edge of the sacrum about where the Piriformis would connect. She also had a right lateral spinous pain point around T12. She had a trigger point between her shoulders on the right side of the paraspinals around T3 level. There were two mild pain points on her inner thigh a little bit below where the Psoas would connect on the Lesser Trochanter. There was one more pain point on the base of her right big toe on the medial side. I was able to deactivate all those mild pain points. She had an 80 minute massage. It only took maybe 10 minutes to deactivate all those pain points.. The rest of the time was a good massage. Anyway, after the massage her vague tightness symptom were completely gone, I suggested that she skip yoga for a few days. She said she already planed that. What's interesting to me is. Even mild trigger points that do not elicit any real pain, can still cause weird symptoms and problems in the body. I included an attachment that does not quite fit into this clients problem.. But this is the big mistake I find physical therapists doing all the time. And it's a good reason for her to take a few days off of yoga in order to let those minor injuries heal.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on March 29, 2016 at 9:20pm

High level soft tissue work is effective for more then just sore muscles. So much so that when I talk to educated people like MDs, PTs, DOs, NDs, chiropractors and so on about what I'm able to do. They don't believe me. They don't even try. For that matter even other massage therapists don't believe me. One of the things that few understand is that internal organ stress often is expressed on the surface of the body. Let me try to explain. Every vertebrae , segment of the spine, inervates a specific segment of the body which includes the skin( Dermatome ), muscle( myotome ), skelatal( sclerotome ), viscera( Enterotome ) , segmental nerve( neurotome ). When there is distress or dysfunction in any of those tomes, it often efects one or all of the other tomes. And that dysfunction can often be relieved by manually effecting one of the tomes in that particular spinal segment. As far as soft tissue work goes, I've learned to effect the vicsera, internal organs, via the muscle( myotome ), skin( Dermatome ), or nerve( Neurotome ). Now I'm not saying I can cure internal organ disease, but I can often times diminish or relieve the symptoms. Here is an example of what I'm talking about. This young lady was suffering from dysmenorrhea (severe menstral cramps ). I relieved the pain in both her ovaries as well as a painful spot just above her pubic bone by effecting the neurotome via soft tissue manipulation the spinal segment that controles that area. In this case, as far as the video you will see, the L1 vertebrae . Now there is an overlap between these spinal segments or nerves. As well as a bioindivdualality between people. It could be any vertebrae from T12 to L3 in this particular case. I can load only one attachment at a time that illustrates what I'm saying.

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