Myofascial Pain
Myofascial pain is a diagnosis closely related to
fibromyalgia.
The condition is characterized by severe and
chronic pain
which does not seem to occur for any explainable anatomical reason whatsoever. Patients with this condition typically suffer for many years without hope, since medical management of the syndrome is generally grossly inadequate and often misdirected.Remember, none of the variations of the fibromyalgia diagnosis have any definitive known cause or cure, making them some of the most enigmatic of all health crises.
Myofascial Pain Syndrome
MPS is the short medical terminology used to represent this dreaded diagnosis. The term myofascial stands for pain which occurs in the muscle and fascia. Although most MPS sufferers do complain of muscular aches and pains, some also clearly have neurological involvement, which typically is ignored during the diagnostic process. MPS is a diagnosis of exclusion, since there is no known cause and no known cure. In recent years, most people who might have suffered a diagnosis of MPS have now been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, since that particular condition is far more in vogue and offers more treatment options. Generally, fibromyalgia is pronounced when pain is widespread and MPS is uttered when the pain is more localized to a regional area. However, there are many exceptions to this rule. Regardless of the actual diagnostic term used, the treatments are mostly the same and offer slim chance for symptomatic resolution despite active and sometimes dangerous care.
Myofascial Pain Treatment
Therapy options for MPS span the gamut from traditional medical to barely logical. There are numerous often contrasting and conflicting thoughts as to what exactly causes MPS and just as many varying opinions circulating about how to cope with it. Typically,
treatment
revolves around drug therapy to control agonizing and functionally debilitating symptoms. Many of the prescription
drugs
used are mind numbing and subject the user to a host of physical and psychological side effects. The effects of these drugs may be worse to experience than the pain syndrome itself.
Dietary
alteration is also a wildly popular therapy, but there is no standard practice applicable for every patient. Eliminating or adding any particular food item might help one suffering individual, while the same dietary change will escalate another’s symptoms. There seems to be little standardization or logic involved in most of these treatments.
Myofascial Pain Advice
In my own experience working with countless fibromyalgia patients, I have seen
knowledge therapy
succeed far more often than any other treatment choice. The fact that the therapy has no inherent risks and does not cost any money makes it far more palatable for most people than the expensive and unhealthy medical treatment modalities. MPS can be very difficult to overcome, since the underlying psycho-emotional reasons for the pain are typically well hidden and deeply repressed. However, just like all
psychologically induced pain syndromes,
MPS can be cured, once the patient gives up on pursuing a mistakenly identified anatomical source for their symptoms and accepts the possibility that their pain is the result of a
psychosomatic
process. If you have tried everything to cure your MPS without success, consider knowledge therapy. You have nothing at all to lose… except your chronic pain!
Myofascial Pain to Back Pain
4/29/09 Revised 12/19/11
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