Pain can come from many places in the body. Trigger points are one of them. Trigger points are tight tender knots in muscles. Sometimes they are called myofascial nodules or just myofascitis.  They can cause a lot of pain.  A classic sign is radiating pain, when you push on the nodule. Or in other words they cause pain in other areas than their location. Dr Janet Travell MD was famous for developing the understanding of trigger points. She became John F Kennedy’s personal doctor, because she helped relieve his back pain by treating his trigger points in his lower back.

Trigger points are usually caused by:

Joint problems such as subluxation (misaligned vertebrae) and arthritis

Accidents and Injuries

Lack of exercise

Bad posture -swayback posture, telephone posture, computer posture

Muscle overuse, repetitive micro-trauma, over exercising

Chronic stress – anxiety, depression, psychological stress trauma,

Nutrient deficiencies

Sleep disturbances

These factors lead to a local inflammatory response in the muscle, which leads to loss of oxygen supply, loss of blood and nutrient supply irritated nerves in the muscle itself, shortening of muscle fibers, scar tissue, and increased metabolic demand on local tissues.

Trigger points can occur in any muscle.  But the […]