Muscle and Myofascial Disorder

What is myofascial Disorder? Myo refers to muscle. Fascia is a thin, tough, elastic type of connective tissue that wraps most structures within the human body, including muscles. Pain from muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia are the most common problems. Muscle shortening caused by muscle spasm and contraction is an important factor in pain. When a muscle shortens, it pulls on tendons and stresses the joints they move. It also promotes deterioration and contributes to degenerative changes resulting in tendonitis and osteoarthritis. Because these conditions are often diagnosed as ‘local’ conditions, they might not receive the appropriate diagnosis or treatment.

Muscle shortening affects most of us whether symptomatic or not, usually related to a repetitive work at low level of force like driving, typing, holding the phone, or after an injury where a person will have a reflex spasm of certain muscles, in addition to stress. All of which tends to affect our Tonic (postural muscles) and leads to over working of Phasic (movement) muscles and results in abnormal posture all of us can see in people around us and maybe in ourselves.

Shortened muscles also tend to harbor what's called latent trigger points which are not painful but can lead to muscle weakness, muscle spasm, muscle imbalance and altered muscle activation in the affected muscles or functionally related muscles.

The musculature (arrangement of muscles in the body) is the largest system in the body with the highest prevalence of painful disorders. Muscle pain is also felt due to other areas of the body being in dysfunction, i.e. central nervous system, abdominal organs, etc. Currently, no clinical discipline deals with muscle pain. The musculature is an "Orphan organ", which is why treating pain is so difficult. Only about 10% of patients with acute and chronic pain complaints in the neck or lower back areas have a definable cause. Studies show that even degenerative and spondylotic changes that appear severe on an MRI aren't necessarily the source of the pain complaint.

Surgical procedures are of value only for relief of demonstrated nerve root compression, correction of fixed deformity, or stabilization of an unstable segment. Using alternative methods to treat chronic and acute pain has been Dr. Sammour's formula for success. Chronic pain is an illness itself. Let us develop a compassionate, comprehensive approach to relieving your pain. To learn more please visit our treatment page.