Myofascial pain may be caused by several common precipitators.
As outlined by the *Clinical Director of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of California Irvine, these common causes including trauma (including sprains, strains and bruises, or contusions), repetitive injury or postural stress (like that related to long periods of sitting or standing that facilitates muscular tension), inflammation (such as tendinitis, bursitis, synovitis or arthritis), emotional stress, or neurological irritation due to spinal disc problems (discogenic disease, such as herniation or disc bulging).
Myofascial pain refers to the structures comprising the muscles and fascia; the fascia is often overlooked, but is a key mechanism in any muscular disorder due to its ubiquitous nature.
Fascia is a tough connective tissue that covers muscles, tendons and ligaments in a continuous fashion and essentially unifies the muscular system, creating unique patterns of support designed to displace certain types of physical stressors.
When physical stressors exceed the tolerable limit, however, involved muscles and its associated fascia respond by become taut, or tight, in order to help stabilize the gradually weakening area.
Imagine that you are sitting at a computer working on a project for several hours with little movement.
After 20 minutes or so your muscles actually accommodate to the new position, meaning that your upper shoulders and back elongate.
With more time, those upper shoulders and back muscles fatigue (just like working out), and slowly they stiffen to attempt--unsuccessfully in most cases--to resist the strain associated with the postural demands.
Also, myofascial issues lead to weakened muscles due to their tightening and fatigue (again like working out).
The end result is myofascial pain.
Symptoms of Myofascial Pain Myofascial pain often results in feelings of tightness, diffuse, dull pain, and restricted motion or increased pain associated with movement of the involved region(s).
Additionally, myofascial pain has a key characteristic of referred pain, which is pain caused in one particular location but is felt (perceived to be) in an uninvolved region.
The reason for this is that contrary to popular belief, internal pain (pain not associated with the more sensitive surfaces of the skin) is a fairly unspecific phenomenon.
Only about 10% of our nerves are pain-sensing (nociceptors), and many injuries including those of myofascial origin "recruit" nearby pain nerves to transmit the experience of pain--making it an unspecific phenomenon.
Nonetheless, myofasical pain is often very painful because it involves regions of frequent use in daily life.
Effective treatment of myofascial pain should use evidence-based treatments.
These proven strategies include clinician-assisted stretching techniques, muscular relaxation using manual therapy, clinical massage therapy, and re-training of the involved muscles using simple movement-based techniques (neuromuscular reeducation in clinical terms).
In effect we are stimulating the involved muscles to "activate" in the appropriate way so that they can begin doing their job relative to the structures they move and stabilize.
These treatments, often employed simultaneously, condition the muscles to work in the way they are intended and help patients return to normal activities of daily living as soon as possible.
As outlined by the *Clinical Director of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of California Irvine, these common causes including trauma (including sprains, strains and bruises, or contusions), repetitive injury or postural stress (like that related to long periods of sitting or standing that facilitates muscular tension), inflammation (such as tendinitis, bursitis, synovitis or arthritis), emotional stress, or neurological irritation due to spinal disc problems (discogenic disease, such as herniation or disc bulging).
Myofascial pain refers to the structures comprising the muscles and fascia; the fascia is often overlooked, but is a key mechanism in any muscular disorder due to its ubiquitous nature.
Fascia is a tough connective tissue that covers muscles, tendons and ligaments in a continuous fashion and essentially unifies the muscular system, creating unique patterns of support designed to displace certain types of physical stressors.
When physical stressors exceed the tolerable limit, however, involved muscles and its associated fascia respond by become taut, or tight, in order to help stabilize the gradually weakening area.
Imagine that you are sitting at a computer working on a project for several hours with little movement.
After 20 minutes or so your muscles actually accommodate to the new position, meaning that your upper shoulders and back elongate.
With more time, those upper shoulders and back muscles fatigue (just like working out), and slowly they stiffen to attempt--unsuccessfully in most cases--to resist the strain associated with the postural demands.
Also, myofascial issues lead to weakened muscles due to their tightening and fatigue (again like working out).
The end result is myofascial pain.
Symptoms of Myofascial Pain Myofascial pain often results in feelings of tightness, diffuse, dull pain, and restricted motion or increased pain associated with movement of the involved region(s).
Additionally, myofascial pain has a key characteristic of referred pain, which is pain caused in one particular location but is felt (perceived to be) in an uninvolved region.
The reason for this is that contrary to popular belief, internal pain (pain not associated with the more sensitive surfaces of the skin) is a fairly unspecific phenomenon.
Only about 10% of our nerves are pain-sensing (nociceptors), and many injuries including those of myofascial origin "recruit" nearby pain nerves to transmit the experience of pain--making it an unspecific phenomenon.
Nonetheless, myofasical pain is often very painful because it involves regions of frequent use in daily life.
Effective treatment of myofascial pain should use evidence-based treatments.
These proven strategies include clinician-assisted stretching techniques, muscular relaxation using manual therapy, clinical massage therapy, and re-training of the involved muscles using simple movement-based techniques (neuromuscular reeducation in clinical terms).
In effect we are stimulating the involved muscles to "activate" in the appropriate way so that they can begin doing their job relative to the structures they move and stabilize.
These treatments, often employed simultaneously, condition the muscles to work in the way they are intended and help patients return to normal activities of daily living as soon as possible.
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