In the earlier posts, I discussed what dry needling and trigger points  are and how that can affect our bodies with pain or dysfunction such as:

-Stiffness
-Ineffective & inefficient body movement
-Decreased strength & fatigue 
-Body breakdown

In this post, I ask the question…  

How effective is dry needling at making our body function at its highest level again?

Well, most importantly, that depends on your therapist.  How well trained was your therapist?  Is he/she certified through an excellent dry needling teaching organization?  Janet G. Travell was the pioneer for trigger point dry needling- and only a select few therapists, like myself, have been certified with an organization that has a dry needling foundation stretching over a half century- Janet G. Travell's Myopain group.

Assuming however that you do have a well-trained, highly-proficient dry needling therapist, this Karel Lewit article ought to interest you.  Lewit conducted a study "The Needle Effect in the Relief of Myofascial Pain".  He conducted a study on 241patients with 312 pain sites with dry needling. 

Immediate relief was achieved in 86.8% of the painful sites.

But how long does that relief last?  Ahhh.  That is a key question.  Out of 288 pain sites that were able to be followed up 92 had permanent relief or 32%.  58 sites or 20% had relief for several months .  32 out of 288 or 11% had several days of relief.  So of the painful sites that were able to be followed up- over half had several months of relief to permanent relief.

Why didn't all the sites have permanent relief?  There could have been more trigger points responsible for the pain that were not addressed.  Or just as likely, there could have been underlying problems causing these trigger points that were not addressed or resolved- posture, poor body mechanics or ergonomics or even an underlying arthritic condition in a nearby joint(s).

However, not to be overlooked is the long-term effectiveness of dry needling.  Just imagine, when used in combination with corrective exercises, other manual techniques and education to address the other underlying issues, Travell dry needling can be a very potent treatment approach.  

What is a myofacial trigger point?  And what effect can it have on your health?

Often I am asked this question by my patients- as almost all patients suffering from pain and dysfunction (stiffness, weakness, etc) will have some trigger points. 

Here are some quick things you should know about trigger points:

1.  They will cause your body to move poorly & inefficiently-           causing weakness, fatigue, pain and eventual breakdown
2.  They can indirectly be responsible for pain throughout the            body by hard-wiring your body for pain
3.  They quite often cause headaches
4.  Most importantly, they are painful!
5.  Yes, fortunately, they can be eliminated

Ok, but what is a trigger point?

A myofacial trigger point, or mTP, is a taut band of tissue that is irritated and hypersensitive, commonly referring pain when provoked.  These trigger points can be found throughout the body anywhere that there are muscles. Stressors (-poor posture, overwork, painful joints or arthritis, etc.) on the body commonly produce these mTPs through what is likely poor blood flow throughout the muscle area.  If a muscle that is being overworked, has decreased blood flow and therefore decreased oxygen to produce the necessary work- this deficiency will cause pain and further despair in the muscle.

Your body will sense this hyper-irritable muscular area and release a host of painful chemicals into the involved area- activating your body's pain receptors.  Sending that pain to your brain, your brain will recognize that a painful crisis exists and be put on alert.  Unfortunately, your brain ramps up its response to pain.  Meaning that something that previously was not painful or minimally painful, will now have an increased likelihood to cause pain.  This is called allodynia and hyperalgesia.  And sadly, even if this muscle is perhaps in the neck, it can increase the pain sensitivity in other parts of the body as well, such as areas as far away as your feet and legs.  Not good, eh? 

Well, what can be done?  Stay tuned...    for  Part II.

In part I, I explained what a trigger point, MTP, is and how occur.  Now, I want to explain:

How does the trigger point effect me?

Well, when your body experiences painful tight muscular areas, or mTPs, it will not operate like the efficient machine it was designed to be.  An article, Latent myofascial trigger points: their effects on muscle activation and movement efficiency by Karen R. Lucasa, Barbara I. Polusa, Peter A. Rich, conducted a study on the effect on body movement.  What they discovered as that mTPs caused individuals to move their bodies poorly.  What happens to a body that moves poorly?  Well, it's just like a machine that works poorly.  If your cars tires are misaligned, what happens over time?  Mechanical breakdown.  Well, we are no different.  If you body moves poorly, you will notice- weakness, fatigue and likely eventually pain and early breakdown. The study also demonstrated how trigger point dry needling actually restored the body's motion back to normalized motion by removing the offending trigger points. 

To sum up, if you have enough trigger points in your body- for whatever reason, poor posture, overwork, stressful job or relationship causing increased muscular tension- your body will start to function inefficiently.  And your body can begin to become "hard-wired" for pain.  Definitely, not good.

The Travell Dry Needling that we offer has proven to remove trigger points and restore optimal health and function again.   Next up- see Part III for the success rate that we can provide...