Trigger Point Therapy Use in the Richmond Chiropractic Treatment Plan

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

Patients are often astonished that we can find, just by feeling, the painful spot. Trigger points are highly irritable areas in muscle bands that provoke painful responses and are identified by increased soreness in the patient and an obvious hardness to the doctor or therapist. Trigger points are not just sensitive nodules, but they affect the surrounding muscle and tissues.

A form of soft tissue therapy, trigger point therapy, first coined by Dr. Janet Travell who treated President John F. Kennedy for his back pain, is based on the theory that pain in one 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 sensitivity in a muscle. Trigger point therapy incorporates applied pressure to these painful, tender areas in order to alleviate their pain and dysfunction as well as pain in other areas of the body. Sometimes massage and trigger point therapy are applied 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 hurt unless pressed, but they are presumed to bring about 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 relax the muscle and tissues affected. Even as the application of pressure on a trigger point might cause your discomfort to become more apparent, it has the strange effect of feeling good at the same time. You will find that trigger point therapy in connection with your chiropractic Cox Technic treatment goes far to move you toward pain relief.

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