Rodney Dangerfield and your muscles – They don’t get no respect!
Rodney Dangerfield. He didn’t get no respect. You know what else don’t get no respect? Your muscles. Try this little test if you think it ain’t so:
When you need a heart doctor, you see ….. a cardiologist
When you need an eye doctor, you see ….. an ophthalmologist
When you need a skin doctor, you see ….. a dermatologist
When you need a doctor for your muscles, you see ……???
Muscle doctors - they don't get any respect either!
Just about every other body part has its own doctor, but there isn’t a muscle doctor specialist. Muscles are an afterthought, at best. Since there is no doctor who specializes in the study and treatment of muscles, it is easy to overlook them as either the source of your pain, or at least a major contributing factor.
"Muscle is an orphan organ. No medical specialty claims it. As a consequence, no medical specialty is concerned with promoting funded research into the muscular causes of pain."
David G. Simons, M.D.
Maybe someone who comes the closest to being a muscle doctor specialist is the late Dr. Janet Travell. Dr. Travell was the White House physician during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. But before that, early in her medical career, she was working simultaneously on pulmonary (lungs), cardiology (heart), and general medical services. Even if the patient had been admitted with a life-threatening condition, she noted that the most common daily complaint was of pain. For example, three different patients, admitted with three different diagnoses might all complain of shoulder pain that was keeping them from sleeping on that side.
The resident doctor on the pulmonary service attributed the pain to some reflex from the lungs.
The resident doctor on the cardiology service explained the pain as reflex from the heart.
The resident doctor on the general medical service might encounter a secretary who spent her days typing and pulling heavy file drawers. Her shoulder pain could be chalked up as ‘psychosomatic.’
In each case, there was no muscle doctor to suggest that all three patients might be suffering from muscle pain that was not related to their original diagnosis.
"In none of these patients did the doctors find objective evidence of disease to account for the patient’s pain, but the skeletal muscles had not been examined."
Preface to Travell and Simons’ Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, The Trigger Point Manual Vol.1
The PUSH Therapy program focuses on muscles and other soft tissue (tendons, ligaments, connective tissue). From my own experience dealing with chronic pain and from working with hundreds of clients at Foster Muscle Therapy, I have come to firmly believe that muscles, and the havoc that unhealthy muscles can cause, are too often overlooked. Chronic muscle tension can play a part in ailments as varied as slipped discs, sciatica, plantar fasciitis and bursitis. I have seen clients with diagnoses of Restless Legs Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Osteoarthritis all improve when they were treated appropriately for their persistently tight muscles.
There may not be a muscle doctor, but you can show your muscles some respect.
If you have been struggling with finding lasting pain relief, it might be because your muscles have not been properly treated. Call (970) 590-2856 to get started on your pain-free life.
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Base of my neck, top of my shoulders, down my back around to my stomach, it's as an ache'ing pain, a bad catch in the center of my shoulder blades, makes me sick at ths stomach, seem as if i need to vomick at times, it get very tight at times at the top of my shoulders, up the back of my head, this is some mean stuff. Got any ideas, please share.
It sounds like you have a bad case of chronic muscle tension. This can be a negative reinforcing loop that is tough to break with treatment alone. That is why with PUSH therapy we put an emphasis on retraining the body to function differently. Treatment is used to help jump start the positive changes and get some immediate relief, but if you don’t change the muscle memory, there is a very strong likelihood that the body will revert back to its old habits – the ones that got you into this spot in the first place. Unfortunately, the re-training is not something I can explain in a post. It’s best done either one-on-one or in a small group setting so that you can be sure that the body is doing exactly what it should be doing rather than slipping back into old, unproductive habits. Call for a consult and let’s see what we can do.
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