Trigger Point Therapy - Dr. Travell, The White House Physician of JFK (Part I)

John F. Kennedy, America's 35th president, had a sordid health history.  Throughout his life, Kennedy suffered from abdominal pain, colitis (swelling of the large intestine), severe back pain, and Addison's Disease - ailments that caused severe and chronic pain throughout his life1.  While he was president, Kennedy consulted with a number of physicians and at various times was on upwards of twelve medications to deal with these ailments - all under the supervision of Janet G. Travell, MD, whom he appointed as White House physician, the first female to hold that post and the first citizen to hold the post in 40 years.

While there were a number of physician's attending to JFK during his presidency, Dr. Travell assisted JFK with his back pain, offering renewed hope for a life without crutches if not entirely without back pain2. And aside from her stint as White House physician, Dr. Travell's rofessional pursuits largely revolved around diagnosis and management of myofascial pain syndromes due to trigger points.  Travell went on to write a compendium of her life's work on trigger points and myofascial pain with Dr. David G. Simons in a two volume series titled Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual. 

So what exactly are trigger points?  You may be familiar with the term "knot" as it relates to muscles.  Trigger points are nothing more than small knots, muscle tissue in constant tension. The result of a constantly tense muscle is restricted circulation, nerve impingement, and tension on adjacent connective tissue that can cause muscle weakness, muscle tightness, and pain, often "referred" pain (pain in a different location than the causal trigger point), which is why massaging the area that hurts will not relieve the pain.

Since the progressive tightening of my muscles in 2006, one of my main searches has been for a therapy to reverse the process.  Various therapies have been suggested in that cause - some that I believe are pieces of the puzzle but none that proved effective in and of themselves (at least how they were applied in my circumstance).  After reviewing the literature, Trigger Point Therapy appeared to me be sound, if little known, science.  So, I bought a book and began to experiment... 

To read more about my experiments with trigger point therapy, click the following links:

Dr. Travell, the White House Physician of JFK (Part I)
Fumbling in the Dark (Part II)
Oh the Pain (Part III)
Relief (Part IV)

To read more about JFD's chronic health troubles or Dr. Janet Travell, click the following links:

1 - The Medical Ordeals of JFK, The Atlantic, 2002. 
2 - Janet G. Travell, MD, A Daughter's Recollection, Virginia P. Wilson, 2003.