THE MUSCLES.
I find it interesting that although so much of what goes on in the body revolves around the need for healthy muscles, there are very few true muscle specialists who have the expertise to treat them when things go wrong.
In medicine there exists every other specialist you can think of, heart, lung, kidney, nerve, bone and even brain specialists and the list goes on, but no true muscle specialists. Even though some medical specialists label themselves as such, their hands rarely touch the body to develop a feel for what is wrong. This is evidenced by the fact that so many people need to take pain killers and anti inflammatory drugs every day for the pain they have as a result of muscle problems. It is clear that whatever is being done at present to fix muscle problems and treat chronic pain is not working very well.
In my experience people are wasting a lot of money seeing the wrong therapists and because they don't get better, the drug companies are the ones that end up benefiting at the expense of our long term health.
One of my patients told me the story of a work colleague of his. He injured his back and was in a lot of pain so he was placed in the care of doctors and specialists arranged by his employers insurance company. Months later, after being constantly prescribed pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs, he has now been registered as a morphine addict and his weight has increased from 80 kilograms to 110 kilograms. The drugs destroyed his liver and eventually he was told he had only four years to live unless he had a transplant. He still has his back pain and the doctors are considering the insertion of a slow release morphine drip in his body. A couple of years ago he was just a normal average person without pain but now, as a result of his blind faith in the medical system, his life is in the balance. I doubt that this would be an isolated case!
It tells me that the specific training available to health professionals for the treatment of chronic pain is far from adequate. Not to mention the large amount of our insurance dollars being wasted every day that drive premiums up unnecessarily.
As yet there is no university course a person can undertake to learn all about the muscles and the part they play in setting up chronic pain. Sure people can learn the anatomy and physiology of the body but I'm talking about a course that teaches a therapist how to work on the muscles with their hands to take away a person's chronic pain. Forget the machines, exercises and stretches because they don't work.
It involves treating the full body, incorporating all sort of lifestyle factors and getting ‘hands on' with the body. Nearly all treatments break those rules and when they do, their effectiveness goes out the window and they don't get a lasting result.
It is my belief that most people suffering chronic pain are doing so unnecessarily, more because of a lack of knowledge and inadequate treatment methods rather than their problem being incurable. So if you are a chronic pain sufferer I urge you not to give up, just be more demanding in what you expect from the therapists you see and if you don't get a noticeable improvement from your 3 rd or so treatment, move on..
On a physical level....
Muscles need energy to be able to work properly and the level of energy available to them is determined primarily by a person's diet, circulation and fitness.
Muscles will only work, that is extend and contract properly, while they are functional, strong and healthy enough. They must receive an adequate supply of nutrients via an efficient circulatory system that also removes carbon dioxide and waste products produced during any activity.
There comes a point in time, during the day or a particular activity, when overworked muscles need to be rested and given time to recover. If they are not, they will begin to fatigue and tighten causing the other, still working muscles, to compensate for them in some way.
Remember it is these compensations that cause the first stage of imbalances accumulating in the body which is the first stage of a person having the potential to injure themselves more easily or ending up with chronic pain.
This patient has a problem with some of the muscles in his left arm affecting the muscles in his Rhomboid and Latissimus Dorsi, Below the shoulder blade on the left you can see the missing Latissimus Dorsi muscle and how the Teres Major looking overworked at the bottom edge of the (L) shoulder blade is compensating for it.
......... continues
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Next Chapter: Muscle Imbalance. Return to Contents Page.