Myofascial Release Therapy: What Is It and How Does It Work?
February 9, 2022 by Kezia
Are you familiar with the term myofascial release? It’s a therapy technique commonly used to treat myofascial pain syndrome, which is a chronic pain disorder that affects the musculoskeletal system, caused by sensitivity and tightness in your myofascial tissues (“myo” means muscle, and “fascial” means fascia). Fascia itself is a thin casing of connective tissues that surrounds every organ, muscle, blood vessel, bone, and nerve fiber to keep each one of them in place. The muscle tightness sets off the trigger points within your myofascial tissues, where the pain originates.
Due to the pressure upon these sensitive trigger points, you may even feel pain in seemingly unrelated body parts. For instance, the trigger point is located somewhere in your upper back, yet you can feel the pain from your upper back all the way to your arm. Myofascial pain occurs in about 85% of people sometime throughout their life stages, yet it is often underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or overlooked. Both men and women are equally impacted, although middle-aged inactive women possess the highest risk.
To help people with this chronic pain disorder, healthcare professionals and physical therapists often resort to myofascial release therapy. Myofascial release aims to ease the tightness and tension of your trigger points, thus reducing the pain you feel. However, determining the source of your pain might not be an easy task, which is why myofascial release is often applied over a broad area of muscle and tissue instead of at single points.
How does this work? Normally, myofascia should feel elastic and pliable, so, first, your therapist will gently apply pressure to the myofascial areas on your body while searching for stiff or tensed areas. Next, your therapist will conduct focused manual pressure, massaging, and stretching to loosen up restricted movement, and thus, lessening the pain. Sometimes, therapists will use essential oils as well during the therapy.
Due to its non-invasive and non-opioid nature, myofascial release has little to no side effects and risks. Nonetheless, this kind of treatment is not suitable for people with: burns and painful wounds, fractured or fragile bones, deep vein issues, and under blood-thinning medications. Overall, myofascial release therapy is beneficial and effective in treating pain—both mild and chronic. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Now, are you wondering where you can receive myofascial release therapy? We got you! Located in Scottsdale, AZ is a non-invasive and non-opioid pain clinic: Hope Clinic Care! Here, you can get myofascial release therapy for your muscle strains and any other injuries.
With an over 93% success rate, they offer other various excellent treatment procedures that are 100% drug-free! Using verified hands-on techniques and dual modality devices, Hope Clinic Care provides solutions to relieve pain by facilitating your body to maximize its healing and repairing ability. No drugs needed, yet just as effective—if not more.
Learn more and make appointments at www.hopecliniccare.com.
Read more about myofascial release:
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https://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-pain/myofascial-release
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https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-your-body-can-benefit-from-myofascial-release/