Here’s an example: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is very often caused by trigger points in your muscles.  The trigger points in this case are in the neck, upper chest, front of the arm and lower arm.  They “fire,” or refer, pain into the area of the carpal tunnel in the wrist.

A “syndrome” is a collection of symptoms.  Symptoms are things like pain, numbness, tingling.  If you can get rid of the symptoms, or the causes (triggers) of the symptoms, you get rid of the syndrome, too.

Trigger points are hyper-irritable (very irritated or crabby) areas of muscle.  Trigger points can also be found in other soft tissues like skin and organs.  Soft tissues are everything except our bones.

What do trigger points do?  They cause pain and symptoms in other parts of the body, sometimes at a far distance from the trigger point.  This is called “referred” pain.

We ALL have the potential to have them, because we all have soft tissues.

When a nagging pain or symptom won’t go away with treatment, that most likely means that a trigger point is causing the pain and needs to be released. Whatever caused the trigger point also needs to be corrected.  Everything has a cause!

When I was making my notes for a recent Carpal Tunnel Radio show, I noticed a relationship between Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and trigger points:  All of the things that cause trigger points also cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!  And, so it is with a lot of our body pain.

A great deal of our pain and other uncomfortable symptoms are caused by trigger points.  Trigger points and muscles are largely overlooked by the medical community (your doctor) as a cause of pain.  It’s just not widely taught in medical schools.  In fact, very few doctors understand the roles of muscles in pain syndromes and fewer still understand trigger points.

Here are some of the things that cause (create) trigger points:

* abnormal bone structure that you may have been born with (like a leg or arm length difference or a partially formed spinal bone)
* posture that causes muscle stress (poor or collapsed posture is a very common cause)
* doing repetitive motions, especially doing them incorrectly
* vitamin & mineral deficiencies or incorrect levels of needed nutrients
* thyroid or certain blood disorders
* stress; allergies and chronic infections

How are trigger points treated?  A manual or massage therapist can release trigger points naturally by locating them, pressing into them AND releasing the surrounding muscles that caused them in the first place.  A few doctors use a “spray and stretch” method or injections to release the trigger points.  Sometimes the injections help, sometimes not.  Depends on the knowledge and ability of the doctor.

There is a very good book on self-treating trigger points.  You can learn about it here.  You can release many of your own trigger points when you understand where they are and how to get to them.

And, there are trigger point charts that show the areas they distribute pain to.  A good manual therapist or massage therapist will know by your symptoms where your trigger points are and will be able to release them.  A good therapist will also help you get rid of the cause of the trigger points.

No more trigger points equals no more muscle pain!