Trigger points,myofascial pain

[junevarn]

HI all,

I have trigger points in my left leg as well as disc problems. Any advice to help trigger points or myofascial pain that is not healing? Should I take branched chain amino acids or some other healthy supplements?

Thanks,

June

[Tom Denham]

A clean diet should help with healing, but foam rolling and massage is probably necessary to workout trigger points and myofascial pain. I doubt supplements would help.

[AmyB]

I'm a massage therapist - myofascial and trigger point massage should help immensely. Be patient with your process - these problems don't happen overnight, and it may take several visits to see some relief. I hope you start to feel better soon! Do lots of stretching, too.

[Cheryl]

Recently diagnosed with Myofascial Pain Syndrome, I just ordered a couple books from Amazon:

Myofascial Stretching: A Guide to Self-Treatment

Jill Stedronsky Morton, et al

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition

Clair Davies, et al

Dallas had me taking magnesium in a powder form before bed at night. I also take vitamin d3 and cal/mag powder in the a.m. and B12 at lunchtime. My naturopathic doc gave me Cortisol Manager to take for a couple weeks to help reset my sleep cycle.

The key words with the above mentioned books are self treatment. Some of the books out there are for therapists doing the work. I am hopeful these books will help me. Are you eating Paleo? I'm fairly new here and I'm 3 days into my 2nd Whole30. The first time was 3 years ago when it helped tremendously--zero pain. It lasted quite a long time. About 2 1/2 years later my pain came back. Along with weight gain, high blood pressure, high glucose levels, severe anxiety and depression--again. The Cymbalta I've been on have hardly touched the pain. In the last month I've been to massage therapy (using trigger point), osteopathic manipulation and acupuncture. Nothing brought relief. So three days ago I started this program and this morning I felt great, like I wanted to go running great. And I had very little pain. Instead, I carted 6 14 y/o girls to the mall for a 5 hour school shopping spree. When we got home I made supper, cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry and even have energy to write. One week ago I would have taken 8 ibuprophen and 4 tylenol throughout the day struggling through work, soccer practices and games, supper, laundry, etc., then top off my day with a flexeril before crashing. Tonight's supper was pizza and raw veggies. I had chili instead of pizza. The pain I've experienced in the last several months was so bad that I passed on yummy cheesy pizza. The little sore spots in my upper spine, neck and arms are completely gone. My exhaustion is gone. It's only been 3 days so I'm hopeful eating Paleo is the right thing. Where I've done it before and it worked I think it will. I hope what I wrote will help you. I know it's a lot, but I've been through a lot lately with pain and I feel like an expert. Good luck!