Many falls are preventable, with exercise playing a crucial role in prevention. Deficits in postural control and muscle strength are important intrinsic fall risk factors. Both fatigue and load carriage compromise gait.
To decrease the falling risk and hence the risk of fractures especially in the frail and elderly, , exercises must be done to increase lower and upper extremity muscle strength, aerobic endurance and especially that of agility and dynamic balance performance. Of particular importance is lower limb muscle strength, gait and balance, especially that of calf muscle strength.
Exercises that challenge balance are more effective in preventing falls than those which do not challenge balance. The ability to regain balance during the forward falls is important.
A major focus on maintaining or increasing muscle strength instead of muscle size. Strengthening the calf musculature aiming to reestablish the function and stability of gait can possibly avoid falls.
Leaning how to keep balance while standing on one leg and trying to stand on the toes is a useful exercise. If balance is very bad, hold on to something to prevent loss of balance. You will quickly find out the the weaker leg through loss of balance to the weak side and the rapidity of fatigue of calf muscles on the weak side.
Many people have co-morbid diseases and conditions such as joint pain, muscle stiffness, rigidity and joint deformities, use of multiple medications, alcohol, vestibular dysfuction causing vertigo and dizziness, which contributes to the fall.
All who know they have have a weak bladder should restrict fluids in the evenings to prevent hasty movements to the bathroom, often a cause of falls in the night.
Falls are frankly dangerous and cause early disability and death.
eToims ET127 device is the only evoked response stimulator that can stimulate nerve-muscle meeting points commonly known as trigger points. This electrical stimulation will excite the nerve to produce a brisk muscle contraction and relaxation called a twitch. The device is used to seek and search the most excitable trigger points to produce the desired deep twitch that is essential for relieving nerve-related muscle pain and/or discomfort. http://www.singaporedoc.com/index.php/preventing-and-treating-the-mediate-cause-of-myofascial-pain.html
eToims is basically active deep tissue mobilization that is painless, pleasant, pleasing with the ability to produce pain relieving exercise to individual muscles throughout the body. Unlike a massager, TENS or electrical muscle stimulators, eToims device empowers the individual to actively exercise individual muscles.
The individual is able to actively exercise his total body with self treatments similar to getting a total body self massage and feel physically rejuvenated immediately.
eToims does this without causing pain or discomfort compared to active exercise in which multiple joints move because of simultaneous contraction of multiple muscles that can aggravate the underlying muscle pain.
Electrical muscle stimulators, TENS units, self massagers or manual therapies can produce only mechanical excitation, and although pleasing and pleasant, the effects do not last since they are unable to elicit these deep twitches that are critical to achieve deep pain/discomfort relief. Also if electrical or mechanical stimulation is done too aggressively there can be aggravation of pain since there are no guidelines as to when a treatment is too much.
In eToims, the twitches can provide simultaneous diagnosis, therapy and prognosis in nerve related muscle pain/discomfort.
There are five grades of twitches and I will explain how we differentiate twitches in normal muscles from that associated with acute and chronic pain. eToims is always done with the least stimulus parameters to obtain the desired twitch and can be carefully titrated not only to be painless during treatment but not to cause pain after treatment.
Grade 1: Good brisk thumping twitches that produce a recoil effect on the hand holding the probe are easily found. This indicates that the motor endplates under the electrodes are firing. This “thumping” twitch is probably from depolarization of minimally dysfunctional endplates (latent trigger points).
In chronically tight muscles, it is very difficult to find any trigger point. Also due to the filtering effect of the tight tissues, the twitches tend to be small without force enough to produce a recoil effect. This is the most basic twitch force needed to get the most basic therapeutic eToims effect.
Grade 2: Joints to move in a shaking or rocking manner.
In the normal situation, when the stimulus parameters are increased to deliver maximal stimulation to the motor endplates zone, the stimulus will reach the deeper muscle fibers. The contraction of the deeper muscle fibers will produce movements of the bone and joints. This is a minimum requirement to get reasonable eToims therapy effect. Once this effect is attained, further increase in stimulation will not produce stronger twitches.
In acute nerve irritation, the twitches will be strong enough to produce vigorous joint movements and the movements may be strong enough to lift the joint against gravity.
However if the overlying tissues are very tight, one will get only joint rocking or shaking movements. If one increases the stimulus, one can get stronger twitches.
In the very chronic situation, due to the tissue filtering effects, even grade 2 movements are difficult to obtain and the movements may be that of shaking or rocking of the joint, rather than true movement.
When the muscles are very tight, the treatment goal is to aim for grade 2 therapy which is some joint play with shaking or rocking of the joint.
Grade 3: The limb and even the trunk can move anti-gravity.
These twitch forces are due to depolarization of acutely dysfunctional endplates (acute trigger points). In all cases of chronic pain, these acutely dysfunctional endplates are present and must be searched for to get good pain relieving results. However it is very difficult to find these acutely dysfunctional endplates and to depolarize them since the electricity is unable to penetrate deep since the muscle tissues are so tight.
In the normal situation, as one increases the stimulus parameters the twitch force will not become stronger since the motor end plate zone is discharged fully already. The antigravity movements will not occur in the normal situation since the motor end plate is completely depolarized already and further increase in stimulus parameters will not improve the strength of the twitches.
In acute situations, twitch forces will be large and forceful enough to get antigravity movements.
In chronic situations, antigravity movements do not occur due to the tightness of the tissues that prevent the electricity from reaching the acutely irritable motor endplates zones.
Grade 4: The limb and even the trunk can move anti-gravity with slow fatigue (takes many twitches, usually more than 4 twitches to fatigue and the movements are slow). This is because the tight tissues prevent the stimulation to effectively reach the motor end plate to stimulate with maximal stimulus strength.
Grade 4 twitches always indicate that the stimulus is able to penetrate better to reach to the acutely irritable motor endplates zones but the fatigue occurs slowly since the tight tissues give resistance that prevents the electricity from reaching fast to the nerve.
Grade 5: Muscle fatigue occurs very fast with rapid twitches. The twitches will go on even without ongoing electrical stimulation. If very acute, the fatigue will be occur by 4-9 twitches. Acute on chronic or sub-acute condition, the fatigue may not occur until 20 twitches.
I write this blog in honor of the sudden passing of a dearly loved centenarian, a very positive person, physically able and mentally clear to the end. Without a high school or college degree, Du was my role model in the 30 years I knew her well. She always dressed warmly, ate lightly and yet kept a steady weight, faithfully did self massage, read a lot and slept well. I have never seen her arrogant, sad, angry, bitter, spiteful, depressed or blaming others. On the contrary, my constant vision of her is that of kindness, gentleness, warmth, love, care and a delight to be around. It was a privilege to know her. We were fortunate to have received so much love and care from her and we thank her very much. She had lots of friends and family and was a leader in her circle because she read well and could discuss present day situations of current and past important local and world news. She was still able to play board games, walked with a walker, cooked for self and others, lived independently and offered love, time and attention to all of us. She was a vision of life and vitality.
I did a literature search on positive emotions in elders and let me share this with you since Du practiced these all her life which I am sure played major roles in her longevity.
Behavioral, neuroendocrine, and immune pathways have now been identified that help explain how negative emotions affect the physical health of older persons.Positive emotions, however, have been a relatively unexplored terrain for medical and social scientists.
CORRELATES OF POSITIVE EMOTIONS
“Having reviewed research involving representative samples of several hundred thousand people from all over the world, psychologists Myers and Diener describe the correlates and consequences of happiness, concluding that people who are happy tend to be less self-focused, less hostile, friendlier and more outgoing.Another important discovery of theirs - one that is particularly relevant to the topic we are discussing - is that happiness does not seem to be highly dependent onexternal circumstances such as the degree of wealth.
According to Myers and Diener, four traits characterize happy people: (1) high self-esteem - they believe themselves to be more ethical, more intelligent, less prejudiced, and better able to get along with others; (2) feeling in control - they believe that they have personal control over their lives and futures; (3) optimistic and hopeful - they often see the best in people and circumstances; and (4) extroverted and outgoing - although they are happy whether alone or with others.
Another correlate of happiness is having close, supportive personal relationships. Numerous studies document a positive relationship between social support, happiness, and life satisfaction in later lifeand an inverse relationship between social support and depression or other negative emotions. High social support, in turn, also predicts better physical health and lower mortality, even in studies that have controlled for depression and psychological stress.
Physical health is one of the strongest correlates of happiness, particularly among older adults.Physical disability often has an enormous impact on the determinants of happiness, including self-esteem, sense of personal control, optimism about the future, and desire to interact with others.
Finally, Myers and Diener note that religiously active people report greater happiness.Controlling for social support, depression, and stressful life events does not explain this association, leaving open the possibility that positive emotions play a role”.
This article is very informative for patients seeking solutions for pain and muscle discomfort. The pain public is looking for new safe and efficacious ways to help relieve their pain.
The population with discomfort “normal functioners” like us, is not aware that the symptoms are resulting from muscle tightness triggered by aging nerve roots (a ubiquitous condition). This aging process is aggravated by activities of daily living, sports, work, repetitive injuries, cumulative trauma and accidents.
This ”normal functioners” population must be reached and educated to prevent the cascade into chronic pain. These individuals usually do not seek medical care and will try alternative methods until it is frank pain and when pain becomes chronic and refractory, there is no cure and the expense and burden to society becomes far too great (In the USA, the cost is 635 billion yearly). eToims is a safe and efficacious method suitable to help such patients with chronic refractory pain to achieve quality of life, nonetheless more difficult when the pain has become chronic.
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This post was written by etoims on March 31, 2012 Comments (0)
Lower back pain (LBP) starts very early and many teenagers do have lower back pain. If not treated appropriately, the back pain can become chronic. Like treating lower back pain in adults, treatments should always start first with conservative treatments that are safe and efficacious. It is of utmost importance that treatments can be safely repeated on a regular basis for those suffering from acute and chronic lower back pain so that the teenager does not have to endure the pain and suffering and loss of quality of life since lower back pain tends to recur.
In our own experience, many of these teenagers have myofascial pain due to chronic partial lumbosacral nerve root irritation from spinal disc degeneration. Teenagers (mean age 14.5 years) with chronic lower back pain have been noted to have lower endurance in trunk extensors, hip extensors and quadriceps (1). We agree with these findings and have also noted on examination, that these patients also have neck and shoulder tightness that must be addressed during treatment.
In a study of 1180 (20.5%) teenagers studied reported one or more episodes of LBP, of whom 900 (76.3%) had consulted a health provider. Nonspecific LBP is a frequent event in teenagers, particularly in females, sedentary children and those with a family history of LBP (2)
Lumbar disc hernia in children and teenagers has 4 main causes: familial history, trauma, congenital malformation of the spine and disc degeneration. The symptoms in young patients are dominated by local or radiating pain, but neurological discrepancies rarely occur (3).
In surveys among children and teenagers as many as half of all children in a community report a history of low back pain. Causal relation exists between the early evolution of a degenerative process of lower lumbar discs and recurrent low back pain in the near future. Individuals with disc degeneration soon after the phase of rapid physical growth not only have an increased risk of recurrent low back pain at this age, but also a long-term risk of recurrent pain up to early adulthood (4).
References:
1. Bernard JC. Bard R. Pujol A. Combey A. Boussard D. Begue C. Salghetti AM.: Muscle assessment in healthy teenagers, Comparison with teenagers with low back pain.
Annales de Readaptation et de Medecine Physique. 51(4):263-83, 2008 May.
2. Masiero S. Carraro E. Celia A. Sarto D. Ermani M.:Prevalence of nonspecific low back pain in schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 years. Acta Paediatrica. 97(2):212-6, 2008 Feb.
3. Burnei, G. Gavriliu, S. Vlad, C. Georgescu, Ileana. Hurmuz, Lucia. Hodorogea, D.:
Discal hernia in children and teenagers: medical, surgical and recovery treatment.
Romanian Journal of Internal Medicine. 44(4):477-81, 2006.
4. Salminen JJ. Erkintalo MO. Pentti J. Oksanen A. Kormano MJ.: Recurrent low back pain and early disc degeneration in the young. Spine. 24(13):1316-21, 1999 Jul 1.
More Americans suffer from chronic pain than those affected by heart disease, cancer and
diabetes combined, yearly costing about $635 billion for treatment and lost productivity.
“Given the burden of pain in human lives, dollars and social consequences relieving pain
should be a national priority” [ (1) Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2011].
At least 15-30% American adults currently experience regional musculoskeletal pain, eg. low
back pain (LBP), while 70-85% adults experience LBP sometimes in life. Most low back pain
episodes settle after 2 weeks but many have a recurrent course. Further acute episodes affect
20-44% of patients within one year in the working population with 85% experiencing lifetime
recurrences (Bone and Joint Decade Report, 2005). Due to myofascial pain’s high prevalence,
finding safe and efficacious methods for treatment is essential.
Presently compounding the chronic pain problem is the lack of effective treatments for its management (2) .
Chronic pain should be treated long-term similar to other chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, etc. Treatments should be directed at the mediate cause of the problem from which neuromuscular pain arises.
Myofascial pain syndrome involves pain from myofascial trigger points (MTrPs or nervemuscle
junctions) in skeletal muscle, which appear characteristic. Nerves communicate with
muscles at such neuromuscular junctions. MTrPs appear localized taut bands with tender
points, which when compressed produce stereotypical referred pain patterns. Snapping
palpation of the myofascial band produces a local twitch response. A muscle twitch consists of
contraction, then relaxation.
One MTrP formation theory suggests that muscle trauma or strain causes damage to the
trigger point area, resulting in local, partial contraction of a muscle fiber at the MTrP, leading
to ischemia and pain. Another suggests spinal nerve roots age prematurely due to trauma,
induced by activities of daily living, sports, auto accidents, work and repetitive motion, injuring
or irritating involved nerve roots. This leads to muscle shortening or spasm that produces
intramuscular entrapment of nerves and blood vessels, with tension pulling pain sensitive
regions, such as bone and joint coverings.
Compression of intramuscular nerves and blood vessels or traction on bone and joint
coverings, causes pain. It is more difficult to treat nerve related pain that produces tingling,
numbness, burning, throbbing, shooting or sharp pain.
Commonly, treating underlying etiologies responsible for MTrP activation involve procedures
that inactivate, disrupt or suppress MTrP activity. Such procedures include injections into
muscle trigger points or spinal nerve roots or oral medications. However, none of these
methods release muscle spasms formed in deepest muscle layers, closest to involved bones
and joints.
eToims® (Electrical Twitch Obtaining Intramuscular Stimulation Technique) excites deep MTrPs
by electrically locating the most irritable and active MTrPs, exciting them to generate muscle
twitches. Identification of such MTrPs, generating pathognomic twitches, relieves pain.
eToims promotes healing of irritable MTrPs through twitch elicitation, stretching problematic
tight and shortened muscle fibers (in spasm), releasing compression of intramuscular blood
vessels, including those involving their nerve fibers, and reducing traction on pain sensitive
structures. Consequently, twitch induced exercise also promotes local blood flow, improving
tissue oxygenation, promoting healing and removing local accumulation of pain producing
neurochemicals. The twitch, when an involved muscle is electrically stimulated to contract,
and then relax, ending pathologic muscle spasm, is diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic.
Release of spasm relieves pain. Twitches are key to relief of myofascial pain or discomfort.
While exercises are often prescribed for nerve related muscle pain, if too many painful
muscles contract simultaneously, increase in pain can occur. In presence of spasm induced
preexistent nerve and muscle ischemia, exercise increases ischemia, as well as increases local
accumulation of tissue wastes, both increasing pain. This helps explain activity related
fluctuation of symptoms commonly found with myofascial pain/discomfort. However,
focused, painless, pain relieving exercise can be done, one muscle at a time, with eToims.
In acute pain without underlying chronic neuromuscular problems, if eToims is begun
immediately, esp. within 24 hours, progression to chronic pain may be averted, leading to
possible cure in 1-3 treatments. It appears best to begin eToims when muscle symptoms
begin or are minimal, rather than wait until chronic pain/discomfort occurs, associated with
Prevention and capacity to be able to perform self treatment is the key to managing chronic diseases, especially chronic neuromuscular pain. Also chronic pain needs regular and ongoing treatment. All these features have been met in these videos, except of course the safety issues need to be addressed to:
Talk of self treatments and ongoing regular treatments for chronic pain.
You can see the muscles twitching, a gross form of self treatments with eToims. I calculated the frequency which was right on target, low frequency stimulation in the range used in eToims indeed.
Twitching muscles works as shown here by proof of mass approval initiated and vouched by the very poor on their cohort study! Since there is improvement in micro-circulation it worked for them not only for their arthritic symptoms but for other related illnesses such as stroke, hypertension and diabetes since these diseases are accompanied by the effects of aging nerve roots, tight muscles and poor circulation. Railtrack therapy is just too dangerous for the average person or the person who can afford proper scientific treatment!
The article in the Lancet 2011 (1) shows you that there is little progress in the management of pain to date and the article (2) by the Institute of Medicine (2011) shows the huge expenditure of chronic pain in the USA (635 billion annually!) and that pain management should be a priority because it is a public health issue. There has been a huge surge in use of narcotics as pain killers in the USA as reported on the BBC recently. http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/world-us-canada-15548478.
The advantage of eToims is that it can treat not only chronic pain but able to treat acute and sub-acute pain and is useful for diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. Additionally eToims is ideal for individuals without pain but has discomfort and wants the competitive edge to play, work and travel that meets their life-style.
Since eToims has physical rejuvenation effects through improving micro-circulation it can be used for its anti-aging effects in Aesthetic Medicine and Cosmetology also. eToims is an ideal and complementary partner to looking good and feeling young.
eToims appeal to the mass market is huge because it is the only technology that can stimulate the deep trigger points and at the same time be safe and efficacious for repetitive long term use, even daily use and even multiple times daily.
There is no other technology to date that can provide this value for ROI. eToims does not suppress pain like other methods, it treats pain at the mediate source and removes pain.
References:
Turk DC. Wilson HD. Cahana A. Treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. Lancet. 377(9784):2226-35, 2011 Jun 25.
Institute of Medcine of the National Academies: Relieving Pain in America. For more www.iom.edu/relievingpain
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This post was written by etoims on November 13, 2011 Comments (0)
These injuries occur when the muscles are weak and/or tight and made to contract in an abnormal position.Either the ligament is stretched excessively or partially torn (sprained) or the muscle or tendon is stretched or partially torn (strained).
In both situations, there will be pain, swelling, tenderness but if the pain and swelling is significant with excessive tenderness and bruising, fracture needs to be ruled out and x-rays of the involved joint will be necessary.Always have a physician check condition for the line of treatment needed.
General treatments involve resting, icing, compression and elevation of the involved limb.Support of the joint may be needed with a light brace or cast.However, movements and partial weight-bearing should begin by the second day.Remember that healing may be take 6 weeks.
Rehabilitation will involve stretching and strengthening exercises of muscles around the joint as well as total body conditioning. The best way to exercise these muscles is to be able to twitch exercise them individually which performs neuromuscular reeducation for proper contraction patterns of these muscles as well as to provide circulation to the injured muscle(s) . Prevention of recurrent injuries is the goal.
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This post was written by etoims on June 10, 2011 Comments (0)
This is my response to the most recent acupuncture article in the Wall Street Journal on April 23rd 2011.This is another important dimension for the understanding of pain mechanisms since pain and/or discomfort is a public health issue.Here is the link to the original article:
There are many hypotheses behind acupuncture’s mechanism of action and all involve needling specific points on imaginary meridians.As you described in the article, patient input is required to find involved specific acupuncture points.Yet, for acupuncture points to be objectively found, why is subjective patient input necessary?Shouldn’t these body points be readily apparent to others?Shouldn’t finding such involved acupuncture points be among the most important factors in obtaining clinical results?Is invasive insertion of a needle necessary?Considering three dimensions, upon insertion, what if the needle is deflected from stimulating the specific acupuncture point due to tissue resistance or the specific point lies below the depth to which the needle can penetrate? On finding the correct point, should the needle be inserted only once, should it be oscillated, should several needles be inserted in that same point, and should needles be withdrawn if at the wrong point?What objective criteria determines how many needles need to be inserted in a treatment session, how deep should the needles be inserted, how long should needles remain at each point and how long should the treatment session last?Independent of patient report, are there quantifiable factors that determine whether treatment was a failure or success?
If acupuncture effects are mainly attributed to release of endorphins, why is it that endorphins released during exercise, not only fail to relieve, but aggravate pain of those who suffer from neuromuscular conditions, such as myofascial pain and fibromyalgia?
The mediate source of pain and/or discomfort in the majority of individuals, including those suffering from concussion who improved with acupuncture, appears reversible ischemia (deficient blood supply) at trigger points.This is due to relaxation of vice-like clamping effects that shortened and tight involved muscles produce on intramuscular blood vessels and nerves, specifically concentrated at trigger points.These shortened and tight muscles result from spinal nerve root irritation related to aging compounded by trauma.The mixture of reversible as well as permanent nerve damage also leads to a tugging effect of involved muscles on pain sensitive coverings on bones and joints to which they attach.This traction magnifies the pain and/or discomfort associated with the aforementioned ischemic effects.The degree of suffering appears dependent on the duration, type and extent of nerve damage.
Acupuncture points have been identified to be trigger points (neuromuscular junctions) and these points can be objectively recorded with electromyography (please see enclosed peer reviewed published manuscripts).Among the best stimuli to excite nerves is electricity, not mechanical stimulation as with the needle.When neuromuscular junctions are excited, the involved muscle that is innervated responds with twitch contractions.This twitch induced active exercise can produce an internal stretch where muscle spasm and/or muscle shortening is concentrated, namely the trigger point.This way, many shortened and tight individual muscles can be painlessly stretched and exercised individually to improve the microcirculation.By such action, the underlying local muscle ischemic changes are reversed.Consequently, involved muscle twitch elicitation is often accompanied by “pleasant and pleasing” sensations, leading to relief of pain or discomfort.Acupuncture on the correct points may also achieve this, albeit with less consistency than electrical stimulation, through obtaining twitches or micro-twitches, similarly relieving pain or discomfort.However, it is the electrical excitation of local trigger points with the elicitation of focal twitches, strong enough for observation to note that the action of the treated muscle was reproduced, preferably in an antigravity manner, and that this objective finding is associated with predictable production of pain relief.The time needed to seek and treat the trigger points should be objectively quantifiable, as revealed by the susceptibility and excitability of the trigger points to electrical stimulation.Therefore, freed from meridians and patient subjectivity, objective criteria for treatment parameters and efficacy now exist.
If nerve damage is present in multiple areas in many muscles, an improvement in how acupuncture is performed is desirable and necessary.This allows the treatments to be provided multiple times daily on a long term basis without side effects and without pain during treatment, leading to better treatment acceptance by patients, including those who are needle phobic.Advanced technology for needle-less acupuncture that can stimulate deep trigger points is now available, befitting 21st-century medicine.
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This post was written by etoims on April 25, 2011 Comments (0)
In most articles one reads on back pain, the major thrust is on discussion of pain related to herniated disks, facet joints and nerve roots. Thus, the tests (XRays, MRIs) and treatments performed revolve around using spinal surgery, injections into nerve roots or muscles, radiofrequency cauterization, medications etc. to use of alternative methods such as acupuncture, massage, yoga, biofeedback, meditation, etc. Then, there will be mention that most lower back pain will disappear and that 10% will suffer from chronic pain. If one considers that 80% of us in a nation of 300 million Americans suffer from low back pain at some point in time, and if 10% goes into chronic pain (regardless of the treatments and some more added on to suffer chronic pain because of the treatments themselves), just please do the math. One will realize that the population suffering from chronic pain is in the many millions. This is a huge number indeed.
There is yet even a larger number of people, and that is the majority of us without pain but living in discomfort. The original pain had disappeared, but the discomfort remains and because we have no pain, we are not considered or diagnosed to be a statistic for pain and/or disability. However, tightness, stiffness, soreness, aching and/or tenderness of muscles is disabling to many and becomes more serious depending on one’s occupation. Consider what those signs and symptoms leading to easy fatigue mean to a surgeon, ballerina, trapeze artist, airline pilot or professional athlete where movements need to be precise and well-timed?
Please consider the person who is tight and stiff from shortened muscles due to chronic spasms from presence of long-standing irritable trigger points (neuromuscular junctions). This is related to painless involvement of the spinal nerve roots known as spondylotic radiculopathy (aging of the nerve roots). These individuals are candidates for progressing into chronic pain when an injury occurs. This injury may be sudden as that resulting from an auto accident, a fall or a lifting injury or more insidious as from activities of daily living, repetitive motion activities or overuse injuries. Whenever pain occurs from further trauma to the nerve roots, there is more signaling from the nerve roots to cause further shortening of muscle fibers at the trigger points. Formation of many more new and active trigger points with active muscle spasms compound the original tightness related long-standing trigger points.
So what is the mediate source of pain and/or discomfort in the majority of individuals? Consider ischemia (deficient blood supply) at trigger points from the vice-like clamping effect that muscle spasms have on the intramuscular blood vessels and nerves. Also, the tugging effect of these muscles in spasm on the pain sensitive bone and joints constitute to magnify the pain.
If pain is so deep and present in so many trigger points of many muscles, how best to approach them? Clearly, the usual armamentarium for treating pain will not be sufficient to address this problem of neuromuscular pain and/or discomfort. Pain related to neuromuscular problems is difficult enough to address when it is focal involving only a joint or one limb segment as in myofascial pain but truly very difficult when the problem is diffuse as in fibromyalgia.
Physicians always advise patients to exercise. But the hallmark in neuromuscular pain due to ischemia as in myofascial pain or fibromyalgia is pain on movements with or without resistance. These patients cannot exercise since too many muscles and too many joints are moved simultaneously. However, active exercise can still be performed by stimulating the trigger points in individual muscles. This stimulation induced active exercise can produce an internal stretch where muscle spasm is concentrated, namely the trigger point. This way, many shortened and tight muscles can be exercised one at a time painlessly, often accompanied by pleasant and pleasing sensations that lead to pain relief.
It thus behooves those in the technology sector to find ways that can address pain at the deep trigger points. This type of technology should be able to manage pain and/or discomfort non-invasively, and should be able to be used long-term regularly and consistently even on a daily basis with few contraindications and rare side effects. Finding this technology is akin to finding the holy grail for managing the ubiquitous disease known as neuromuscular aging. And this technology exists now.
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This post was written by etoims on April 5, 2011 Comments (0)
