Common Painful Conditions that can be addressed with Trigger Point Therapy

 How Often To Treat Trigger Points?

What are the most common chronic pain syndromes that respond well to trigger point therapy?

Trigger points are associated with most painful conditions. In some cases, trigger points can be addressed to relieve symptoms of pain and restricted movement, and in other cases there are trigger point treatment protocols that can address the root cause and provide total relief.

Below we've listed 7 of the most common painful conditions which can often be treated effectively with well established trigger point treatment protocols.

Each of these conditions is known to be extremely painful and debilitating, and an example of how way too many people, suffer way too long, or turn unnecessarily to medication and in some cases complex surgical procedures.

If you suffer from any of the conditions listed below, take the time to do some research into trigger point therapy and ask your doctor or other healthcare professionals with who you might be consulting, about trigger points.

1. Migraine

Migraine headaches are much more painful than conventional headaches and tend to last for longer. The worst episodes may last for up to 3 days or even more.

Because migraines can cause vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light and sound as well as intense throbbing pain, all that many with migraine can do is find a dark, quiet place to lie down until their headache is over.

Medications can help reduce the frequency and severity of migraines, but so can a number of trigger point therapy protocols.

Find out more about Headaches and Migraine 

2. Slipped disc

Back pain affects eight out of 10 people at some point in their lives and one of the most common causes of back pain is a slipped disc, often the result of a twisting or lifting injury.

What happens in this medical condition is that one of the discs in the spine ruptures and the gel inside leaks out.

Most people with a slipped disc experience sudden and severe lower back pain, which is usually eased by lying down and is often made worse if you move your back, cough or sneeze. A slipped disc can often cause leg pain as well as, or instead of, back pain.

In most cases of slipped disc, the pain eases gradually over several weeks, but the pain can be disabling. Trigger point therapy protocols (including self help) can be very effective.

Read more about Lower Back Pain

3. Arthritis

People with arthritis endure constant and often agonizing joint pain, usually in the hips, knees, wrists or fingers.

The pain can come on suddenly or over time and is often linked with muscle aches and stiffness in the joints.

Various different types of arthritis can cause joint damage, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and lupus.

It's worth noting that irrespective of whatever type of arthritis you have, exercise is one of the best ways to keep pain at bay.

Your doctor or therapist can help you pick an exercise program that will suit you.

The effectiveness of trigger point therapy is dependent upon many factors, but in most cases there are established protocols that can bring tremendous relief.

This is especially worth noting for elderly clients who may choose to live with symptoms rather than suffer surgery.

In these cases, trigger point therapy can be remarkably effective as part of an ongoing pain management program.

Read more about Arthritis

4. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

With Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a severe pain follows an injury to bone and soft tissue. It can happen to anyone at any age, but is most common in women in their 40s and 50s.

The burning pain of CRPS is continuous and intense, often out of all proportion to the severity of the original injury. It usually affects one of the arms, legs, hands or feet.

Often the pain spreads to the entire arm or leg, even though the initial injury might have been only to a finger or toe. Sometimes, the pain even travels to the opposite extremity.

The pain of CRPS can go on for years, and there’s currently no cure as such, but there are a number of trigger point treatment protocols that can help sufferers get on with their lives.

Read more about CRPS

5. Cluster headaches

Imagine giving birth without painkillers once or twice a day for up to 10 weeks at a time and you have some idea of the sheer misery of cluster headaches.

Cluster headaches are also called ‘suicide headaches’ because they’re so excruciatingly painful they’ve been known to drive people to take their own lives.

They tend to come on very suddenly without warning causing a sharp, stabbing pain around one eye. Attacks can be as short as 15 minutes or last three hours or more.

They’re acknowledged to be the most painful type of headache, worse even than severe migraines.

In fact, experts have suggested that cluster headache may be the most painful condition known to medical science.

Find out more about Headaches

6. Frozen shoulder

This condition isn’t just extremely painful, it can also last for up to 30 months unless it’s properly treated.

In frozen shoulder, the joint becomes so tight and stiff that it’s virtually impossible to carry out simple movements such as raising your arm.

Daily activities like taking off a T-shirt, lifting a kettle, putting on a coat, even combing your hair, become an ordeal.

It’s not clear what causes frozen shoulder, but it can happen after a shoulder or arm injury and is more common in people with diabetes.

Either shoulder can be affected but it’s usually the non-dominant one – that’s your left shoulder if you’re right handed or your right shoulder if you’re left handed.

There are a number of extremely well established manual therapy protocols for treating frozen shoulder.

The Niel Asher Technique (NAT) for frozen shoulder is well documented, evidence based, and is widely used by therapists worldwide.

Read more about frozen shoulder

7. Fibromyalgia

The exact cause of fibromyalgia isn’t known but it can cause widespread aches and pains all over the body, usually as lots of tender areas on the back of the neck, shoulders, lower back, hips, shins, elbows and knees.

People with fibromyalgia often say they ache all over.

Quite often the pain and stiffness is worse in the morning and you may have more pain in muscle groups that you use repetitively.

While fibromyalgia is a lifelong condition, trigger point therapy and massage treatment techniques can be applied to signifacantly ease discomfort.

Read more about fibromyalgia

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