Myofascial Pain Syndrome Support Group
Myofascial Pain Syndrome (or MPS) is a term used to describe one of the conditions characterized by chronic pain. It is associated with and caused by "trigger points" (TrPs), sensitive and painful areas between the muscle and fascia. The symptoms can range from referred pain through myofascial trigger points to specific pains in other areas of the body. It may be related...
I got this in an email from a doctor who practices a special therapy for MPS in Philadelphia:
"Myofascial pain: This type of pain is muscle pain related to early spinal nerve involvement or nerve irritation from degenerative spine disease. This leads to muscle spasms constricting the nerves and blood vessels within the spasm in multiple muscles.. It is most responsive to eToims since the pain is related to ischemia (poor circulation) of the neuromuscular junctions (trigger points) compounded by traction effects of the deepest tight and spasmed muscles on underlying bone and joints.
In myofascial pain, stimulating the trigger points elicit good force twitches and the trigger points are easy to find. By getting the twitch, we make the muscles softer by muscle relaxation through focal stretching of individual deep muscles and relieving muscle spasms. Also, the twitches give pain-free exercise to each muscle individually one at a time. In that fashion, microcirculation to the problematic and injured trigger points within the muscle is increased. This encourages immediate nerve recovery in the case with nerve irritation or transient conduction block (neurapraxia). In myofascial pain with muscle aches, tightness, stiffness, tender muscles, taut tendons and swollen muscles, eToims is used as a stand alone treatment.
When the condition becomes chronic due to permanent nerve damage, the pain is permanent and the treatments have to be ongoing to facilitate further improvement as well as to maintain the improvements attained."
Here is an article she wrote:
http://www.singaporedoc.com/index.php/preventing-and-treating-the-mediate-cause-of-myofascial-pain.html
"Myofascial pain: This type of pain is muscle pain related to early spinal nerve involvement or nerve irritation from degenerative spine disease. This leads to muscle spasms constricting the nerves and blood vessels within the spasm in multiple muscles.. It is most responsive to eToims since the pain is related to ischemia (poor circulation) of the neuromuscular junctions (trigger points) compounded by traction effects of the deepest tight and spasmed muscles on underlying bone and joints.
In myofascial pain, stimulating the trigger points elicit good force twitches and the trigger points are easy to find. By getting the twitch, we make the muscles softer by muscle relaxation through focal stretching of individual deep muscles and relieving muscle spasms. Also, the twitches give pain-free exercise to each muscle individually one at a time. In that fashion, microcirculation to the problematic and injured trigger points within the muscle is increased. This encourages immediate nerve recovery in the case with nerve irritation or transient conduction block (neurapraxia). In myofascial pain with muscle aches, tightness, stiffness, tender muscles, taut tendons and swollen muscles, eToims is used as a stand alone treatment.
When the condition becomes chronic due to permanent nerve damage, the pain is permanent and the treatments have to be ongoing to facilitate further improvement as well as to maintain the improvements attained."
Here is an article she wrote:
http://www.singaporedoc.com/index.php/preventing-and-treating-the-mediate-cause-of-myofascial-pain.html
Here is the machine...
http://www.etoims.com/
Utter hogwash and total balderdash!
My view? It's scare tactics to get money from patients desperate for a cure or just desperate for help and to avoid this 'permanent nerve damage'.
Remember that MPS mimics nerve pain but it isn't actual nerve pain. MPS does not damage nerves, it just irritates the hell out of them. An extreme example? The trigger points that mimiced a heart attack - the heart was healthy and it was all coming from some good ol' trigger points. Still painful as heck but not life threatening.
Remember, too, that the vast majority of mps cases can be resolved through self care, adjusting lifestyle factors and ongoing excercise. Success is possible like this even where there are additional conditions present.
I've no doubt the Etoims machine helps a lot of people. No doubt at all. But there's a strong possibility they could have achieved the same results without having to shell out lots of money for this treatment.
I think what worries me the most is someone with newly diagnosed mps who can't afford the treatment - how will that affect them in the long run? Would they still seek out further knowledge about the condition and other, different, forms of treatment? Or longterm maintenance via pilates or similar? Would they still seek to understand the cause and to eliminate or change it?
---for example: sitting awkwardly (such as the wrong chair using a computer for work) for long periods of time is a common cause of mild developing into really severe mps.
---treating the mps (in whatever way) will only ever be a temporary solution because the cause (the chair) remains active. No matter the amount of pain relievers taken and physical therapy received eventually the mps will flare up again, and is always so much worse the second and the next after and after that.
The subject of eToims has come up before in the group and if I remember correctly the eToims weren't responsible for the eventual relief that person found. And they did indeed go on to get what they said was a '100% cure' of mps.
I have nothing against eToims and am sure it helps a lot of people, and lets face it anything that helps, that we can add into our pain management 'toolbox', is a good thing. My objection is with the statement that mps causes permanent nerve damage.