Oxford Chiropractic Care: Trigger Point Therapy

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

Patients are frequently amazed that we can find, just by feeling, the painful area. Trigger points are highly irritable areas in muscle bands that provoke painful responses and are characterized 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 surrounding muscle and tissues.

A type of soft tissue therapy, trigger point therapy, first originated by Dr. Janet Travell who treated President John F. Kennedy for his back pain, is founded on the theory that pain in one part of the body can in fact be brought about 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 involves applied pressure to these sore, sensitive areas in order to alleviate 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 areas of the body when pressed. Latent trigger points are those that don't have pain unless pressed, but they are presumed to cause joint stiffness and reduced ranges of motion as we get older.

By incorporating trigger point therapy, the doctor or therapist presses on these painful points to relax the muscle and tissues affected. Even as the applied pressure on a trigger point may 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 combination with your chiropractic Cox Technic treatment does wonders to move you toward pain relief.

Satterwhite Chiropractic offers trigger point therapy to maximize your healing. Ask Satterwhite Chiropractic for more information.