Trigger Point Therapy
What is a Trigger Point?
The term "trigger point" was coined in 1942 by Dr. Janet Travell to describe
a clinical finding with the following characteristics:
- Pain related to a discrete, irritable point in skeletal muscle or fascia, not caused by acute local trauma, inflammation, degeneration, neoplasm or infection.
- The painful point can be felt as a tumor or band in the muscle and a twitch response can be elicited on stimulation of the trigger point.
- Palpation of the trigger point reproduces the patient's complaint of pain, and the pain radiates in a distribution typical of the specific muscle harboring the trigger point.
- The pain cannot be explained by findings on neurological examination.
When muscles are over exerted and strained, the cells will leak fluid which is then detected by the body. Then the body encapsulates the fluid in fibrotic tissue; those are the “knots” you feel. Every muscle has an inherent weak area, just like a link in a chain. A muscle can have up to four trigger point locations causing severe muscle shortening, muscle imbalance, limited range of motion, and of course a lot of pain.
Nerves, blood vessels, lymphatic’s and other structures run through muscle tissue (soft tissue). When the tonus of soft tissue is altered, (shortened), this compresses and entraps the above mentioned structures, (nerve ending, blood vessels, etc) causing you pain.
Reverse these abnormalities, which will eliminate the pain.
Trigger points or trigger sites are described as hyperirritable spots in skeletal muscle that are associated with palpable nodules in taut bands of muscle fibers. Trigger point are small contraction knots and a common cause of pain. Compression of a trigger point may elicit local tenderness, referred pain, or local twitch response. The local twitch response is not the same as a muscle spasm. This is because a muscle spasm refers to the entire muscle entirely contracting whereas the local twitch response also refers to the entire muscle but only involves a small twitch, no contraction.
The trigger point model states that unexplained pain frequently radiates from these points of local tenderness to broader areas, sometimes distant from the trigger point itself. Practitioners have identified reliable referred pain patterns, allowing practitioners to associate pain in one location with trigger points elsewhere.
When a Trigger Points develop, those effected muscles then shorten; reducing the length of the muscle, bring the origin and insertion of the muscle closer together. Thus causing muscle imbalance, distorted posture and other muscular skeletal disorders.
This condition then leads to Myofascial shortening, Adhesions and Muscle Gluing.
We treat patients in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor and other surrounding areas in Pinellas County, Tampa Area.
Call 727 481 3301
