High Stress Silicon Valley Lifestyles And Painful Trigger Points Can Make Your Days Unpleasant.

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When our bodies are subjected to chronic and repetitive stress the local nerve structures in that area tend to become sensitized, over-excitable, hyper-irritable and more easily activated, this is a process known as “facilitation“.

Two types of stress/facilitation occurs:

Segmental facilitation - organ dysfunction (heart, kidney, liver etc) will result in facilitation of the paraspinal structures (your spine) at the same level of the nerve supply to that organ. For example let’s say that you have kidney disease, there will be a “feedback loop” of impulses along these same nerves of your kidney towards the spine, and the paraspinal muscles in that same level will be tight, in this case lumbar area.

While Heart disease would show in the thoracic (mid to upper back) paraspinal muscles. EMG readings in the area affected will show very active hypertonic (tight) muscles that are painful to the touch. A hyper-irritable neural central nervous system will operate as if it were in a state of “physiologic alarm”

Local Trigger Point facilitation – a process similar the organ dysfunction occurs when stressed parts of muscle origin and insertion are abused. Areas on and around the muscle will be tight, be accompanied by oedema (swelling), and be painful with touch or pressure. These myofascial trigger points are not only painful themselves when pressed but when trigger points are active they will transmit pain to other parts of the body as well. When TP’s are not active they are considered, latent. The nerves serve your central nervous system; a message to your brain that will cause excessive or diminished neural activity.

At the core of a Trigger Point

Lies a muscle spindle cell, muscle fibers are a microscopic unit called a sarcomere. Millions of sarcomeres have to contract in order for a muscle to make even the smallest of movements. A trigger point exists when over-stimulated sarcomeres become unable to release their contraction.

Normally sarcomeres act like tiny pumps contracting and releasing to circulate blood through capillaries to function properly. When sarcomeres within a trigger point contract, blood flow is essentially stops in that area. This result is an oxygen starved muscle fiber that also has a buildup of metabolic waste product, this triggers an emergency pain response to your brain.

Your brain responds with a message that relaxes the muscle, you stop using this muscle which further tightens and shortens up. During this process the muscle spindle cell does not have enough energy to pump-out the calcium where it belongs.

Please be advised that our knowledge and training as your massage therapist is only just that. We are not qualified to diagnosis organ dysfunction or anything else. We do have an Osteopathic Doctor, Harry Friedman in our facility who may be able to assist you in this area.

As massage therapists, we can palpate and identify abnormal ranges of movement in soft tissues, locate fluid restriction, muscle spasms, swelling, fibrotic tissues and decreased range of motion of your joints. We offer a lot more experience and knowledge than our Spa competitors in helping you deal with the stresses that, your body is dealing with.

Massage Rate:

• 60 min session = $90
• 75 min. session = $105 (recommended length)
• 90 min. session = $130 (recommended length)
• 120 min. session = $180