Traditional medicine is based on sound, empirical research. Nothing - no treatment or a medication or a protocol - is provided to a patient without absolute certainty that the treatment or medication or protocol will be effective in treating a specific condition. While this is the way it should be, there is a downside to this reliance on such proof. No matter what complaint you present, it must fit into a protocol or procedure or medication that has been proven to work. Your physician will provide a diagnosis. This is actually a label applied to your condition. The label is then given a number. So, if your complaint is lumbar back injury, you know have 146.8. However, there are many conditions and specific complaints that may not fit in perfectly into 146.8, especially for athletes. So you continue to be treated for 146.8 but your pain persists.
There is another very important issue to consider when seeking help in many traditional settings. Many practitioners know very little about muscles. Even though there are hundreds of muscles in your body, have you ever heard of a muscleologist? There are cardiologists, neurologists, endrocrinologists, rheumatologists, etc....but no one focus specifically on muscles.
Here is where clinical massage therapy will help. Traditional medicine, for the most part, focuses on the site of your actual pain. The treatment goal is to get rid of the pain with medication, physical therapy, surgery or other means. Many repetitive stress injuries and conditions do not respond well to these traditional treatments. As a clinical massage therapist I view the pain as a language your body is using to tell you something is wrong.
Pain can actually be your friend. Whenever you experience pain, your body is trying to help you focus on that pain and do something about it. My job is to search for the source of the pain and to use my manual skills to eliminate that source of pain which is often caused by trigger points in a muscle, tendon or ligament. Trigger points account for approximately 75% of all soft tissue injuries and conditions! Yet, the traditioinal medical world ignores this process.
Many of us suffer from chronic conditions and repetitive stress injuries. What is a "chronic" condition? Well, to me, it means that no one has come up with a formula to heal the actual condition. Perhaps the medication you take helps but not enough, or you've been to physical therapy for many sessions yet the condition doesn't go away. Or you go to the chiropractor three times a week and never get better.
You may have been diagnosed with "non-specific" pain, meaning no one can find the reason for the pain or condition. In most cases, this type of pain is caused by trigger points. I am considered an expert in Trigger Point Therapy. Read more about Trigger Point therapy HERE
So if we add massage therapy to your medical treatment, we often find that the condition improves. Chronic pain syndromes, headache, back aches, sciatica and a host of other "chronic" conditions, especially repetitive stress injuries are often vastly improved with massage therapy.
What does all this mean to you? It means you owe it to yourself to find out if massage therapy can help you. I look forward to discussing your concerns and issues. I will always be honest in my assessment regarding how massage may or may not help.
