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Massage helps these dysfunctions

Posted Mar 25 08 12:08pm 5 Comments

Many people may hesitate to book a massage session because they are not sure if massage would address their particular ailments, or dysfunctions. Well I’m happy to have stumbled across an informative piece at holisticoline.com that describes various dysfunctions that massage helps in detail. Read on…

Massage and Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction

Pain and/or physiological dysfunction originates from identifiable points within muscles and their fascial tissues. These locations are known as trigger points because they often trigger distant reactions.

Scientists have developed extensive maps of such referred pain. They have also identified nearly a hundred dysfunctions that can have myofascial trigger point origins. Some of these are: carpal tunnel syndrome, TMJ dysfunction, PMS, headache, diarrhea, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmia, indigestion, tennis elbow, urinary frequency, sinusitis, deafness, and blurred vision.

Massage and Fascial Plane Dysfunction

Fascia can be compared to the body’s own version of “Saran Wrap.” It covers most of the body in large, continuously connected sheets. Injury, postural patterns and chemical imbalances can cause these sheets to distort and bind to themselves and nearby tissues. Since all major blood vessels and nerves follow these fascial sheathes through the body, properly aligned and released fascia is vital to good health and the proper operation of the circulatory and nervous systems.

Massage and Neuromuscular Dysfunction

The smallest muscular activity requires that countless nerve impulses be sent to the muscle to be activated and to all of the adjoining and opposing muscles. For example, let us say that you want to flex your elbow. This requires that you must tighten the biceps and other associated muscles while simultaneously relaxing the triceps and other associated muscles. The combined nervous activity and muscular response must be precisely timed and exactly proportionate.

For more complex movements like rotating the head or taking a breath, the amount of coordinating activity increases exponentially. Unfortunately, the mechanism responsible for such coordination can break down and muscle fibers or whole muscles can actually lock in opposition to their normal activity.

Massage and Tonus System Dysfunction

When overused, muscles can lose their ability to understand how to relax. This is referred to as hypertonic. As a result, the muscles become overly tight. They tend to harbor myofascial trigger points, and cause stress on the muscles that oppose them and the joints that they cross.

Massage and Dermatomic and Spondylogenic Dysfunctions

If a nerve is pinched where it leaves the spine, or anywhere along its route, the area that nerve serves will feel pain. Many people have experienced such a problem with the sciatic nerve. It originates in the low back, but when pinched can make the knee, shin, or heel hurt. This is an example of dermatomic pain - literally translated - pain in an area of skin.

Massage and Spondylogenic Dysfunction

This occurs when the joints of the spine are compressed or otherwise impaired and cause their own special trigger point-type pain or dysfunction.

Both of these are successfully treated with clinical massage by loosening the muscles and other soft tissue that surrounds the affected joint or nerve.

Source

Comments (5)
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This is excellent information - but could you please edit the piece so that it just links out to the original source? Otherwise to post it in its entirety is a copyright violation. Thank you.

On the topic itself - I do have some muscles that are chronically tense. Some of them are in my forehead. I'm doing my best to massage them so I don't end up with a lot of wrinkles there! :-)

This is great information. Massage is meant to be particularly amazing for people with fibromyalgia. I have many clients that have benefited from it tremendously.

I need to find out the trigger point for sinusitis and get to a masseuse, quick!

This is really interesting, but are most masseuses knowledgeable of this information? If not, how can you find someone who is? Are there specialists in massage that treat these issues?

http://www.findamassagetherapist.org is the American Massage Associations Search Engine, in which you can find QUALIFIED practitioners throughout the U.S. from Acupressure to Neuromuscular and Myofascial... many different methods available, just depends on where you are located and what practitioners practice in that area. if you happen to be in the Detroit, MI area, I practice NMT. :-) I also practice Myofascial Therapy & Active Isolated Stretching.

Ah, all very vital information. I have since stopped going to places that offer the froufy, spa-style massage and now I only look for serious structural bodyworkers who know chronic pain when they see it. :)
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