Did you know your back and neck may be filled with tight knots of tension right now? These little tight spots are also known as trigger points, and have been targeted by massage therapists for centuries. As the study of the nervous system developed, many researchers noticed that manipulation of these points caused effects throughout the body. This led to the development of the practice known as trigger point therapy. If you are interested in releasing pain throughout the body, a set of therapy sessions at Back 2 Health Physical Medicine could make a big difference.

How Do Trigger Points Affect My Body?

Current research shows that there are an estimated 620 points on the human body that can become trigger points. These nodes are all located on bands of smooth muscle tissue. When one or more is activated, they tense up and create a knot-like lump that can often be felt by the patient themselves. These little knots can compress nerves, especially if the trigger points are located along the spine or in the neck. This creates pain and inflammation in the area and often leads to symptoms that appear unrelated. A compressed nerve in the neck can cause tingling and numbness in the feet. Intensive research has proven the power of a small knot of muscle to cause serious pain to the point that many major insurance companies cover treatment for this issue.

What Causes A Trigger Point To Become Activated?

Many patients are surprised to find they have numerous knots across their back or neck when they first visit our Goose Creek office. These points can become tensed for many reasons, including:

• Muscle overload on a daily basis or during one traumatic event
• Psychological disorders like anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and depression
• Chronic stress
• Trauma to the muscle due to strains, tears, or serious impacts
• Car accidents and sports injuries
• Systemic or localized infections
• Bad habits like smoking and poor posture

How Do I Know If I Have Trigger Point Issues Or Another Condition?

Unfortunately, many doctors are simply not trained to recognize or treat muscular disturbances like trigger points. Trigger point therapy is mostly practiced by chiropractors, massage therapists, sports injury specialists, orthopedists, and physical medicine specialists. Many patients suffering from this issue are misdiagnosed and find no relief through the treatments offered. Back 2 Health Physical Medicine starts with imaging and other diagnostics to rule out serious issues like spinal misalignment, degenerative disorders, and herniated discs. We can also physically examine you for the hard nodes themselves. If we do find trigger points, you may still have other conditions causing pain and inflammation that need treatment as well.

What Treatments Are Available For Trigger Point Therapy?

Our therapeutic programs combine multiple treatment methods to ensure your irritation, inflammation, and lack of flexibility is resolved as quickly as possible. These therapies include:

• Myotherapy, which can involve deep tissue massage or a tapping pressure
• Vibration exercises to relax tensed muscles all at once
• Electrostimulation through a safe TENS unit
• Massage therapy to work out the knots
• Assisted and home stretching to improve muscle tone
• Injections to help break down the scar tissue and heal the affected muscle

Non-Chemical Trigger point injections

This treatment is administered several times over the course of four to 12 weeks. To maximize results, Trigger Point injections may be combined with other alternative treatment methods such as physical therapy and chiropractic care. Trigger Point injections have been used for many decades as a natural alternative to the sometimes toxic injections commonly used to relieve pain. It is effective for many patients in treating chronic pain and allowing patients to return to their regular activities.

We use Sarapin in our trigger point injections. Sarapin is a natural solution extracted from Sarraceniaceae, a pitcher plant, and used as an alternative to steroids or cortisone injections for the treatment of chronic pain. This alternative offers patients effective relief from pain, swelling and inflammation caused by certain orthopedic conditions, while eliminating the side effects often caused by other types of injections.

As a natural substance, Sarapin is non-toxic and does not accumulate within the body and does not damage or weaken cartilage bones or tendons. It can be injected nearly anywhere in the body and is commonly used to treat sciatic pain, intercostal neuralgia and alcoholic neuritis.

More About Sarapin and how it compares to Cortizone

Sarapin – A natural medicine for chronic pain relief that gets results without the dangerous side effects of cortisone!

Have you ever heard of Sarapin? Odds are you probably haven’t. However, if you have ever suffered for chronic back, neck, or joint pain the odds are overwhelming that you have probably heard of cortisone. So what do these two medicines have in common? They can both be used to treat chronic pain to reduce inflammation and they both provide pain relief.

They are also both medicines that are recognized by the FDA and AMA, and both require prescriptions for treatments requiring injections. Lastly, they are both recognized as possible treatments for the following ailments: Sciatic Pain, Intercostal Neuralgia, Alcoholic Neuritis, Occipital Neuralgia, Brachial Plexus Neuralgia, Lumbar Neuralgia and many more, but that’s where the similarities end.

Sarapin is a biological medicine – which means it is derived from a naturally occurring organism (the Pitcher plant). It works by stopping pain signals in the nerves of the spine where they exit the spinal column. It does not affect any other nerve functions or motor functions and is not affected by heat or cold. Cortisone, on the other hand, is chemical medicine –which means it is made using a chemical process. More importantly, Sarapin has no known side effects.

Conversely, cortisone injection side effects include thinning of the skin, easy bruising, weight gain, puffiness of the face, elevation of blood pressure, cataract formation, thinning of the bones (osteoporosis), and a rare but serious damage to the bones of the large joints (avascular necrosis). While these side effects are not common, and there are many positive benefits of cortisone when used properly, chronic pain management professionals should only resort to the use of cortisone when other methods and less toxic medicines have proven ineffective.

So why haven’t you heard of Sarapin? The simple reason is that Sarapin lacks profitability and marketing. As a biological medicine that has been in use for over 70 years, Sarapin cannot be patented. As a result, it can be made and sold on the open market without the huge price mark-up that are afforded to patent protected medicines. (Patent protection is the same reason why branded drugs are so much more expensive that generic drugs that have the same chemical composition.) Not surprisingly, Sarapin has never had the financial sponsorship of a large pharmaceutical company to pitch it to doctors via the pharmaceutical company’s national network of drug representatives.

Understandably, it’s not your doctor’s fault that he or she may not be aware of Sarapin or how it can be used to address your pain. Fortunately, our medical doctors are aware of the benefits of Sarapin and how it can be used to treat chronic pain.

Since our Back 2 Health Physical Medicine team includes a medical doctor and experienced massage therapists, we can provide a full range of services without sending you out of the office. If you have been struggling with inflammation and tenderness that doesn’t have a clear cause, we may be able to pinpoint the muscles involved and relax the tension.