Welcome to the first issue of my CTB Newsletter! I plan to write an article each week or so on topics  of interest to our community.  Please let me know if there's a specific topic you would like to see covered.

The Diagnosis Trap

Today I want to talk about diagnoses. A diagnosis from a medical professional determines the appropriate medical treatment options within standard of care guidelines. It also determines the amount of coverage you will receive from your insurance company.

Unfortunately, when pain is the complaint, your chance of receiving an accurate diagnosis is quite low. And the procedures and medications covered by your insurance most likely won’t give you long-term relief.

When I started out as a bodyworker, I was intimidated by diagnoses. If someone with pain on the side of their hip received a diagnosis of trochanteric bursitis, meaning inflammation of the connective tissue sac where your femur protrudes, it seemed to eliminate any possibility that my work with trigger points, muscles and fascia would have any effect.

A Better Way

I soon learned to try anyway. My experience when I eventually just went ahead and used my CTB approach was almost universally successful.

Diagnoses like bursitis or tendinitis imply inflammation of connective tissue under the area where pain is felt. These are extremely common diagnoses in the shoulder, wrist, hip, anywhere pain happens to occur over a bursa or tendon. While this superficially seems logical, I was always bothered by the complete absence of any explanation of where this inflammation originated.

Why would you suddenly develop inflammation in some part of your body, out of the blue? And if you have no idea where the inflammation originated, how can you possibly expect to address it in a lasting way?

The answer is that you can’t. Your doctor will give you a prescription for an anti-inflammatory drug in an attempt to make the symptom go away. When it inevitably returns, you would go through the whole process again, perhaps with escalating, more invasive treatment recommendations.

Getting to the Source

When I encountered trigger point therapy in 2002, I was struck by the idea, proposed by Janet Travell, MD and her collaborators, that muscles can and do cause a high percentage of pain that patients experience.

If dysfunction in a muscle can cause pain in a remote area of the body, then we can examine what functional stresses that muscle is experiencing rather than just try to mask the symptoms with painkillers.

In the case of trochanteric bursitis, pain in that area is almost always caused by trigger points in the tensor fascia latae muscle (TFL), and is relatively easy to address.

Because of its key function during gait, the TFL is easily disturbed by very common issues like hyperpronation at the ankle and leg length differences. So we have a functional avenue to pursue that can discover the true origin of the pain, as opposed to a shot in the dark diagnosis and at best symptomatic relief.

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Highly Effective - Yet Still Obscure

Trigger point therapy seemed like a more promising path for my learning and practice. And it motivated my development of Coaching The Body®, which incorporates a new approach to trigger point therapy, including movement and neuroscience.

I have never looked back. The results spoke for themselves, and I and my clients were much happier for it.

Even though trigger point therapy was developed by doctors, it is highly unlikely that you will receive a trigger-point related diagnosis from an MD. It just isn’t on their normal educational radar.

A few enlightened MDs are aware of trigger points and may diagnose you with Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS). That’s a start, and then your next problem will be finding someone who is actually educated enough in this area to be effective.

More about that in a future newsletter.

It’s Worth a Try

Now, not all pain is caused by trigger points. But the vast majority is, and generally there are additional cues that point to injury or disease if those are present. In any case, trigger point work represents a low financial and health risk for someone in pain.

Ill-conceived invasive procedures, such as inappropriate spinal fusions as highlighted by my friend Dr. David Hanscom, represent an extreme risk, often don’t help and can leave a horrible, life-changing trail of immobility and pain.

Whether you are a professional therapist or an interested consumer with your own pain, I encourage you to become educated about some of these topics, and I’ve included some resources below for your own discovery if you’re so inclined.

See you next week,
Chuck

Some additional things to explore:

My new book, ENDING PAIN, is a #1 Amazon Bestseller and is a great source of more information about the pain industry, our flawed understanding of the origins of pain, and what to do about it.

I'll be teaching one of our most popular in-person classes, HandsFree CTB, on March 3-5. Learn to work without stress on your hands and shoulders, using efficient techniques informed by Thai bodywork and martial arts. We still have some room, but space is limited. 17 NCBTMB CEs.

Our CTB Clinic in Evanston has reopened. Josh is an Advanced CTB Practitioner and experienced yoga instructor, and has availability if you want to get some high-quality clinical work for yourself or someone you know.

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