IN PAIN?  If you've found this page chances are good you or someone you care about is in pain. You have probably tried drugs that either didn't work or that you don't want to continue because of side-effects or possible addiction.  This website seeks to inform you and others of methods of pain control that don't involve medication or surgery, in particular trigger point therapy.

This important new technique, trigger point therapy, is used to resolve referred pain originating in a surprisingly widespread dysfunction of muscle tissue, which has become known "myofascial pain".  More public awareness of the phenomenon of referred pain from muscle tissue is needed.  Trigger points are very common, but usually refer the pain they create elsewhere in the body, thereby misleading physician and pain sufferer alike as to its true source.  Referral of pain from muscle trigger points occurs in what are now well-understood patterns.  Knowledge of these pain referral patterns is used by myofascial trigger point therapists to help locate the source of the pain, which can then be treated using simple procedures.  Knowing something about this phenomena may help you understand and resolve your pain problem.

There are other methods of non-invasive, drug-free pain control that don't fit so easily into the notion of "pain patterns" as trigger point therapy.  They are mentioned below because they fit into the larger theme of pain relief without drugs or surgery.  One or another of these techniques may provide the reader with a useful alternative, especially as competant trigger point therapy is not yet available in all areas.

FIRST, SEE YOUR DOCTOR.  If you haven't already done so, it's an important first step.   Only physicians are qualified to identify and treat possible underlying organic problems.  This screening may save your life.  If the cause of your pain is still unclear, if you don't want to take drugs, or if the prescribed physical therapy makes matters worse, one of the therapies discussed below may be a good alternative for you.

EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES.  Most people, including many physicians, do not realize how effective certain more recently developed, non-invasive, drug-free pain management procedures can be.  These are not "second-string" methods.  Practitioners of the pain therapies discussed here generally do not get easy cases.  Rather they are found by people who have exhausted better-known possibilities.  Having been to doctors from several medical specialties, they can provide a list of drugs they tried, as well as many x-ray, MRI and lab reports. They may hope that someone new can make sense of it all.  While no therapy works for every person in every situation, the non-invasive, drug-free methods discussed here generally mitigate or eliminate pain in straight-forward cases, and often help in more difficult, long-term cases.  I make this statement from direct personal experience and from knowledge of cases handled by other therapists.  There is hope.

TRIGGER POINT THERAPY.  Myofascial trigger point therapy comes straight from texts that are in every medical library in the country.  But while doctors are often familiar with the term "myofascial pain", they may not know Travell and Simons ground-breaking work in any detail (Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, Second edition 1999).  These volumes hold 2000 pages of pain patterns and invaluable, practical and relatively simple techniques for resolving them.  But, except for some recently graduated pain specialists, relatively few doctors realize the importance of these works, let alone study them.  Well-trained, non-physician trigger point therapists have used Travell/Simons techniques to help many people solve pain problems, even seemingly intractable ones. They cannot solve every mysterious pain condition, but they often provide effective help when other practitioners have failed. This site defines and describes trigger points, describes how trigger point therapy works, and will help you decide whether it could work in your case.

ACUPUNCTURE.  Since there are many sources of information on acupuncture, it won't be characterized here.  It is mentioned to remind the reader of this possibility for treating pain without drugs.  I will offer only some anecdotes from personal experience.  Years before I became aware of trigger point therapy, acupuncture was effective for severe neck pain that followed a bungled chiropractic treatment, and, on another occasion, helped with a painful frozen neck.  In addition, an amateur pianist I knew was cured of seemingly intractable forearm paralysis through a series of acupuncture treatments.  If a therapist or physician skilled in treating trigger points is not available in your area acupuncture may provide an alternative.  Acupuncture can also be helpful when trigger point therapy is inappropriate since it encompasses a wider range of ills.

MICROCURRENT.  Another development in drug-free pain control comes from a modernized, sophisticated revival of techniques for applying electro-magnetic energy to the body.  The body runs on tiny but measurable currents which activate muscles – including the heart – and modulate countless physiological processes.  The body's biochemistry responds to these tiny currents more strongly than to larger ones, which it apparently can filter out (cf. Cheng 1982).  So it should come as no surprise that micro-current can be used therapeutically.  If you suffer from widespread pain with no identifiable cause (often diagnosed as "fibromyalgia"), or from nerve pain, the new techniques using micro-current might change your life for the better.  For example, see 'frequencyspecific.com'.

OSTEOPATHY.  Osteopathic techniques were developed in the United States, initially by Andrew Taylor in the 1870's.  Modern day osteopaths are often almost indistinguishable from ordinary physicians, as their training has expanded to include use of drugs and all other mainstream techniques.  But some osteopaths still remain focused on treating pain and organic dysfunctions manually. 

Their approach differs from the muscle-oriented techniques advocated in this website because in the classic osteopathic tradition the body's ills were traced to misalignment in some part of the skeleton, not to muscle dysfunction.  They developed methods for manipulating the various joints, often more gentle than those employed by chiropractors.  (But there are gentle, multi-faceted chiropractors out there too!)  Although the osteopathic focus was on bones and joints, they also developed sophisticated methods for improving the function of muscle tissue as an indirect means of improving joint function. These techniques are valuable to manual therapists who work directly with muscles and connective tissue (fascia).  The trigger point therapist views most problems of "misaligned" or "stuck" bones as the end result of dysfunctions in the surrounding muscles and fascia.  Our experience suggests that bringing the muscles back to normal functioning will usually have the side effect of putting the bones which they control into a better relationship. 

CHIROPRACTIC.  Chiropractic is also a non-invasive, drug-free technique.  It shares with osteopathy the understanding that mis-aligned bones cause health problem, but, as most people know, it focuses specifically on the spine.  As chiropractic is already widely known and used it will not be discussed further here.

This page is part of a larger website intended to educate people about trigger point bodywork and other methods of non-invasive, drug-free pain relief.  Myofascial therapy was developed by physicians in the last few decades.  Its primary purpose is to eliminate myofascial pain, but it also improves movement and posture.

I offer myofascial treatment and pain management services for the Montvale, Norwood, Old Tappen and Park Ridge area of northern NJ, though I am not immediately nearby. If you live in a town such as River Vale, Tenafly, Westwood and Allendale NJ I would still be the closest certified therapist. Woodcliff Lake, Ridgewood, Washington Township and Waldwick NJ also fall into this category, as does Ramsey NJ, and much of the rest of New Jersey. Somewhat distant towns are mentioned because I have seen many times that people are glad to travel even several hours to get rid of pain. If you live elsewhere you may be able to find a practitioner nearby.

Joseph Hoane Ph.D., CMTPT Top of Page

Copyright 2007 Joseph Hoane