Vancouver Chiropractic Care: Trigger Point Therapy

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

Patients are frequently amazed that we can locate, just by feeling, the painful area. Trigger points are extremely irritable areas in muscle bands that provoke painful responses and are characterized by heightened pain in the patient and an apparent hardness to the doctor or therapist. Trigger points are not just sensitive nodules, but they affect the surrounding muscle and tissues.

A type of soft tissue therapy, trigger point therapy, first formulated 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 actually be caused by an injury or dysfunction somewhere else. chiropractic treatment of the spinal nerve injuries and dysfunctions is complementary.

Trigger points are areas of tenderness in a muscle. Trigger point therapy involves the application of pressure to these sore, sensitive spots in order to relieve their pain and dysfunction as well as pain in other areas of the body. Sometimes massage and trigger point therapy are used together. Theoretically, active trigger points cause 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 reduced ranges of motion as we get older.

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

Vancouver Disc Centers provides trigger point therapy to maximize your healing. Ask Vancouver Disc Centers for more information.