Apple Country Chiropractic's Use of Trigger Point Therapy

"Oh, that's the spot, Doc!"

Patients are frequently astonished that we can locate, just by feeling, the painful spot. Trigger points are very sensitive areas in muscle bands that trigger painful responses and are identified by increased pain in the patient and an apparent hardness to the doctor or therapist. Trigger points are not just sensitive nodules, but they affect the muscle and tissues in the surrounding area.

A type of soft tissue therapy, trigger point therapy, first coined by Dr. Janet Travell who treated President John F. Kennedy for his back pain, is established on the theory that pain in a certain part of the body can in fact be caused by an injury or dysfunction somewhere else. chiropractic treatment of the spinal nerve injuries and dysfunctions is complementary.

Trigger points are spots of tenderness in a muscle. Trigger point therapy incorporates applied pressure to these sore, sensitive spots in order to relieve their pain and dysfunction as well as pain in other parts of the body. Sometimes massage and trigger point therapy are applied together. Theoretically, active trigger points bring about muscle pain which passes pain and tenderness to other parts of the body when pressed. Latent trigger points are those that don't have pain unless pressed, but they are thought to cause joint stiffness and decreased ranges of motion as we age.

By including trigger point therapy, the doctor or therapist puts pressure on these painful points to ease the muscle and tissues affected. Even as the applied pressure on a trigger point might cause your pain to become more apparent, it has the strange effect of feeling good at the same time. You will discover that trigger point therapy in combination with your chiropractic Cox Technic treatment does wonders to move you toward pain relief.

Apple Country Chiropractic provides trigger point therapy to enhance your healing. Ask Apple Country Chiropractic for more information.