The Real Source

Pain is a complex and multifaceted symptom that each of us will experience at some point in our lives. The majority of the pain we have is caused by one or several of the following factors:
  • Acute trauma (i.e. fall of auto accident)
  • Repetitive Motion Injury & Overuse (i.e. pitching, typing, gardening)
  • Sustained Contraction (i.e. sitting in poor posture all day)

Muscle and joint imbalances develop as a result of these irritations. Your muscles become tense and uncomfortable, preventing normal movement in your joints. Nerve fibers are sensitized in the area of pain, and send disrupted signals to the central nervous system.

Over time, this becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of distress signals going into the spinal cord and nervous system from the muscles and joints, and disrupted signals going from the central nervous system and spinal cord back out to the muscles and joints. The brain and the spinal cord continuously make subtle micro-adjustments to remedy the disruption. Other muscle fibers and groups are called in for backup to keep the body functioning normally.

We go on with our lives, mostly unaware that any of this is happening. Eventually, the overworked muscles begin to fatigue. Then suddenly all at once our nerves become so sensitized that the irritation reaches the level of the conscious mind and we have a pain that seems to have come out of nowhere.

Except for in acute injuries, pain is usually the last symptom. Damage was already being done long before we even notice. This pain-tension cycle continues, unless it is disrupted.

The Nimmo trigger point technique is that disruption. The doctors at Cohen Chiropractic Trigger Point Center focus their efforts on relieving your overworked muscles and returning them to normalcy, breaking the cycle. We set the body in balance, and keep your muscles on the road to recovery through postural improvements, exercises, stretches, and small lifestyle changes.

A Detailed Look

Figure 1: The normal reflex arc

Figure 2: The physiopathological reflex arc

Figure 3: The spread and continuation of pain

This is a normally functioning neuromusculoskeletal system.

Information comes into the spinal cord via specific nerve pathways from the body's muscles, joints, blood vessels, organs, and skin. These are called peripheral structures.

The brain and spinal cord evaluate the information coming in, making adjustments as needed, and send appropriate signals back to these structures via other specific nerve paths.

This is a normal reflex arc and it permits the body to function properly as one unit.

When the peripheral structures become injured or irritated it creates an increased amount of information entering the spinal cord.

The normal neurological pattern and reflex arc are disrupted and a new reflex cycle of dysfunctional (neuro-pathophysiological) changes are created. If these changes are not corrected they can eventually lead to muscle spasm, joint restriction, pain, decreased circulation, and inefficient function of the organ systems.

The central nervous system evaluates and adjusts for the increased irritated signals coming in, and sends increased neurological information (akin to neurological static) back to the initial site of injury, and to other parts of the body.

This leads to altered mechanical, and increased neurological changes in secondary and even tertiary structures all over the body. These distant areas can then fall into their own irregular reflex cycle. Over time, these self-perpetuating reflex cycles are the mechanism that causes more global body involvement and pain.

These actions create a neurological pathway that repeats itself and continues to exist even if the injury is healed. This is how chronic pain gets wired into your system.

Treatment of the trigger points will temporarily cut off the blood supply and will interrupt the neurological signal, which will result in reduced muscle spasm, inflammation and pain.

This “resets” the muscles and stops the neurological pain pattern.

The result is a normally functioning neuromusculoskeletal system.