Trigger Point Therapy - Relief (Part IV)

After my post massage soreness and malaise (PSMS) relented, I continued to perform the trigger point massage routinely.  Due to the quantity of my identified trigger points (forty plus) and the hour it took to perform one session, let alone the six recommended by The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, I aimed for three sessions a day. 

I had a feeling that the trigger point therapy was providing relief well into the second week but it wasn't until I took a break from the therapy - a day's lapse - which allowed my muscles to rest and recuperate, that I felt the full benefit.  My calves, tight for over a decade, no longer felt like rubber bands at full stretch.  They felt somewhat relaxed.  Of course, as I rolled them on my 5" foam roller ball, they were still tender (and are still tender in some areas), but they were noticeably different - better.  Previously painful muscles in my deltoids  (shoulders) were no longer painful when rolled.  My pectoralis major, though still tender, felt less irritated.

The relief was real and definitively attributable to my work with trigger points.  Despite the noticeable relief in my calves, deltoids, and pecs, I still had major work to do.  My quads, hamstrings, subscapularis, trapezius, serratus anterior, scalenes, and many more muscle groups remained tight.  (sorry for the muscle names - as I learned in this process, most muscles only have Latin names).  I played with my massage techniques, using different balls, foam rollers, and a theracane in different positions, finding some new tools and positions that worked better than before.

As of today I have been exploring trigger point therapy for approximately two months, attacking tight and painful muscle group after tight and painful muscle group.  The results have been consistent and amazing - so much so that I can't stop talking about trigger point therapy to anyone that will listen.  I have long suspected that tight muscles were amplifying my symptoms if not actually causing them - and my experimentation with trigger point therapy has helped reaffirm that belief.  In addition to the relief in muscle tension and pain, my energy level has increased, I am less irritable, my digestion seems to be much better, and as long as I continue to work on my muscles I no longer react as severely when going off my diet.  Relief has been obtained on a number of fronts - with more expected as I continue to dig in to the tightest and longest-maligned muscles.

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)

 

Recommendation (Website) - Dr. Ben King

My latest method for searching the internet for plausible alternative therapies is to type in a symptom combined with another keyword.  For example I'll type muscle pain and oxygen, which brings up a number of interesting leads.  Most of the websites that I come across are aggregator sites such as livestrong.com or the huffingtonpost.com or superficial websites designed to give no or misleading information in an attempt to get you to buy whatever products they are selling.  However occasionally, I come across a website with information that appears, to me, to provide actual content.

One website that I recently found was that of Dr. Ben King, an acupuncturist and chiropractor in Toronto.  I have read some very insightful articles on health, symptoms, and treatments on Dr. King's website and thought I'd share.  Click here to be taken to Dr. King's website.

Trigger Point Therapy - Oh the Pain (Part III)

Like most of my experiments, I decided to give trigger point therapy (as prescribed by Clair Davies) a thorough vetting, despite discomfort and pain.  Forty plus trigger points is a lot to deal with at one time.  In the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, Davies recommends specific massage protocols for eliminating trigger points.  The basics of Davies' recommendations is to massage the trigger points at a pain level of 7 (out of 10) for six to twelve strokes three to six times per day.  For one or a few trigger points, this would equate to a few minutes per session per day.  But for my forty plus trigger points, I ended up spending over an hour per session and didn't end up treating all of my trigger points each session.  Fortunately, I started over Thanksgiving break so I was able to commit to three sessions per day - three very painful sessions.

There is something in the massage world called post massage soreness and malaise (PMSM).  PMSM is exactly what it sounds like - you feel sore and tired.  I was sore and tired and developed symptoms similar to a really bad cold (sore throat and stuffy head) in addition to the soreness and tiredness. Then my urine changed color slightly, was more brown than normal.  A search for the cause of this particular symptom resulted in discovery of the condition of Rhabdomyolysis, a term used to describe the breakdown of muscle fiber, which releases the contents of the muscle fiber into the blood stream.  To read up on Rhabdomyolysis, click here for the NIH link.  Rhabdomyolysis can be dangerous but it didn't seem to be overwhelming my system, so I opted to continue but monitor for worse symptoms.  After about a week and a half, my PMSM subsided, leaving only the pain of the massage.

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)

The Causes of Chronic Illness - Pathogens

First things first.  What is a pathogen?  A pathogen is a generic term for anything that can cause disease.  Pathogens are often sub categorized as viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and prions.  Each of these subcategories of pathogens have been known to cause disease in humans.  Many pathogens are well documented, have known means of identification, and have known means of treatment.  However, for every well-known pathogen, there are many more unknown pathogens with unknown symptoms and outcomes.

Two case-in-points: Lyme Disease and Hantavirus.

Lyme Disease wasn't identified until the early 1970s when an affluent community in Connecticut experienced a wide-reaching epidemic of unknown and debilitating illness (preliminarily identified as rheumatoid arthritis).  The episode garnered the interest of researchers and universities and resources were devoted to finding the cause.  It wasn't until 1982 (almost a decade) until the bacteria that caused the unknown illness was identified.  The reason it took so long was because the bacteria, a spirochete, was really good at hiding in the body and very difficult to find via conventional diagnostic tools.  Click here for an article on the discovery of Lyme's Disease by the Connecticut Department of Public Health.  Hantavirus, a respiratory illness, was first identified by the modern medical community in the early 1990s after several fatalities from an unknown illness in the four corners region of the southwest spurred interest in the disease.  Click here for an article on the discovery of the disease by the CDC.  Hantavirus and Lyme Disease existed before they were documented by the modern scientific community; however, if you would have visited a doctor with these diseases prior to identification they would have been misdiagnosed and you would not have received effective treatment.

Both Lyme Disease and Hantavirus have devastating outcomes - debilitating chronic disease and/or death, which is one of the reasons why they garnered so much attention from the medical community.  Imagine with me, if you will, a scenario where the outcome of an budding but unknown disease or diseases is mild and generic chronic illness.  Would anyone be interested in or put money towards finding out the source of this illness?  Fortunately, the answer to that question is yes.  There are doctors and institutions looking for a pathogenic source for chronic illness (click here to read a few blogs on the subject).  Okay, now imagine with me that this pathogenic source is extremely good at hiding in the body, similar to Lyme disease.  Will it (or they) ever be found?  Good question - only knowable if someone finds one or more pathogens that can be associated with mild chronic symptoms.  The bottom line is that one (or multiple) currently unknown pathogens could be responsible for one or more chronic diseases.

Allergen-Free Recipe - Yam Candy

I cannot recall where I first ran across a version of this recipe for roasted yams - but I do know that it made a huge impression on my taste buds.  Simple ingredients, huge flavor.  You won't be able to stop eating them.


2 Yams
1/4 c. Olive Oil
Salt






(1) Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

(2) Peel yams and cube into 1/2" cubes.

(3) Mix yam cubes with olive oil and salt in a bowl.  Lay out on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the yams have one side that is caramelized. 

The Limitations of Western Medicine - Side Effects

In 2013 I went to see my doctor for an annual physical.  This was my first time seeing Dr. Michaels for a physical and he went through the standard procedures before asking Is there anything else that is bothering you?  This is a standard question - one that I have heard at virtually every physical, and I always answer it the same way.  Aside from my chronic health issues, nothing.  Instead of casting my answer aside, Dr. Michaels dug deeper, which was completely atypical from most of the other doctors I had seen.  The result of that deeper investigation led to a number of treatments that I follow to this day - including eliminating dairy from my diet - and one that as well-intentioned as it was caused my health to plummet to new lows.  That treatment was for a prescription for Flexeril, a muscle relaxant sometimes prescribed to Fibromyalgia patients.

If a doctor prescribes a drug for a particular ailment, you can be assured that the drug has undergone numerous years of studies to document, among other things, (1) the effectiveness for a particular ailment and (2) the side effects of the drug.  The prescribing doctor is not assuring that the drug will cure your ailment; rather he is making a judgement call that the potential benefits of a particular drug outweigh the potential complications.  

On the whole, prescription drugs are extraordinarily useful in treating illness.  I have taken many prescription drugs where the benefits dramatically outweighed the complications.  However, in certain instances for certain ailments, the side effects of drugs may prove more harmful than good.  In my case, while Flexeril did help me sleep better and feel more energetic during the day, my days were filled with unending anxiousness, nervousness, nausea, and digestive discomfort that forced me to miss important business meetings, collapse while mountain biking, and to deplane from a flight to a good friend's wedding.  On the whole, the side effects of Flexeril added a new dimension to my chronic issues that was worse than anything else I had experienced.  And it took seven months to identify that the Flexeril was the cause.  I have been Flexeril free and side-effect free since June.  And since then, many of the symptoms that I discussed with Dr. Michaels at my physical have been eliminated or minimized through experimentation with alternative therapies.

If you are taking any prescription drugs read the label - understand what the potential side effects are.  If you observe any of the side effects or an increase in your current symptoms, make sure to discuss them with your doctor.

Recommendation (Restaurant) - Juice Nation

Juice Nation is a juice and organic foods shop in the City of Solana Beach, right on Highway 101 and just a block from the beach.  While looking for good places to get a green smoothie, I happened upon Juice Nation and couldn't be happier that I did.  Delicious smoothies.  Organic.  For anyone with nut allergies or intolerance, make sure to ask for a substitute for their smoothie base (a nut milk made in-house).

Click here for the link to the Juice Nation website.