Healing through Trigger Point Therapy: A Guide to Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction

by Devin J. Starlanyl, John Sharkey, Amanda Williams (Illustrations)

This book is about empowerment for chronic pain patients and care providers
alike. Every chronic pain condition has a treatable myofascial trigger point component, including fibromyalgia. Many of the localized symptoms now considered as fibromyalgia are actually due to trigger points. The central sensitization of fibromyalgia amplifies symptoms that trigger points cause, and this book teaches care providers and patients how to identify and treat those causes.
 
Chronic myofascial pain due to trigger points can be body-wide, and can cause or maintain fibromyalgia central sensitization. Trigger points can cause and/or maintain or contribute to many types of pain and dysfunction, including numbness and tingling, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, osteoarthritis, cognitive dysfunctions and disorientation, impotence, incontinence, loss of voice, pelvic pain, muscle weakness, menstrual pain, TMJ dysfunction, shortness of breath, and many symptoms attributed to old age or "atypical" or psychological sources.
 
Trigger point therapy has been around for decades, but only recently have trigger points been imaged at the Mayo Clinic and National Institutes of Health. Their ubiquity and importance is only now being recognized.
 
Devin Starlanyl is a medically trained chronic myofascial pain and fibromyalgia researcher and educator, as well as a patient with both of these conditions. She has provided chronic pain education and support to thousands of patients and care providers around the world for decades. John Sharkey is a physiologist with more than twenty-seven years of anatomy experience, and the director of a myofascial pain facility. Together they have written a comprehensive reference to trigger point treatment to help patients with fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, and many other conditions.
 
This guide will be useful for all types of doctors, nurses, therapists, bodyworkers, and lay people, facilitating communication between care providers and patients and empowering patients who now struggle with all kinds of misunderstood and unexplained symptoms.
 
Part 1 explains what trigger points are and how they generate symptoms, refer pain and other symptoms to other parts of the body, and create a downward spiral of dysfunction. The authors look at the interconnection between fibromyalgia and myofascial trigger points and their possible causes and symptoms; identify stressors that perpetuate trigger points such as poor posture, poor breathing habits, nutritional inadequacies, lack of sleep, and environmental and psychological factors; and provide a list of over one hundred pain symptoms and their most common corresponding trigger point sources.
 
Part 2 describes the sites of trigger points and their referral patterns within each region of the body, and provides pain relief solutions for fibromyalgia and trigger point patients and others with debilitating symptoms. Pain treatment plans include both self-help remedies for the patient—stretching or postural exercises, self-massage techniques and prevention strategies—as well as diagnostic and treatment hints for care providers.
 
Part 3 offers guidance for both patients and care providers in history taking, examination, and palpation skills, as well as treatment options. It offers a vision for the future that includes early assessment, adequate medical training, prevention of fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, changes to chronic pain management and possible solutions to the health care crisis, and a healthier version of our middle age and golden years, asserting that patients have a vital role to play in the management of their own health.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Celeste Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starlanyl and Sharkey make it very clear that trigger points (TrPs), and the pain and other symptoms they cause, can be mistaken for many things. As the authors point out, TrPs have been imaged by the National Institutes of Health and the Mayo Clinic. The authors explain the role of the mitochondria, muscles, connective tissue, metabolic problems, kinetics, and chemical reactions in detail. Chronic myofascial pain (CMP) is a physiological condition. You can't relax a shortened, dysfunctional muscle with TrPs without physical intervention, and tissues close to the TrPs develop a serious energy deficit. Trigger points are "very real," state the authors. The authors are clearly invested in education and offer information on probably every helpful therapy available; they leave no stone is left unturned.

Of particular interest to the reader, is the author's use of different scenarios to explain what it is like to live with CMP (also known as myofascial pain syndrome, MPS). They explain the importance of identifying perpetuating factors. Some factors can be addressed by life-style changes; however, there are those that cannot, such as anatomical deformity. Starlanyl and Sharkey offer extensive information on perpetuating factors responsible for development and sustenance of TrPs that cause chronic myofascial pain, but they don't leave you there; they offer solutions to every possible perpetuating factor.

There is great deal of confusion between fibromyalgia (FM) and CMP. Starlanyl and Sharkey clear up the confusion by explaining that FM is the centralization (amplification) of pain, which is perpetuated by untended trigger points. As the authors clearly state, if a healthcare professional doesn't understand that CMP can mimic the symptoms of FM, patients are frequently misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia. On the other hand, they also know that the two, FM and CMP can, and often do, cohabitate, but most doctors, medical students, and other healthcare providers do not understand this or the appropriate and different treatments. One only has to study the comprehensive muscle review and graphics that show exactly how TrPs create symptoms throughout the body. The visual aids by illustrator Amanda Williams are amazing.

According to Starlanyl and Sharkey there are two stages to chronic myofascial pain (CMP). As someone who studies this, writes about this, and lives with this, I can say the authors have given a great explanation between the two and every provider who treats a patient with chronic pain should understand the key factors in both stages.

The scenarios offered and the presentation of the material connects the reader on a personal level and they are particularly important if the reader is a physician or medical student, because understanding how CMP affects one's life and livelihood is of extreme significance. Every patient that experiences chronic pain should have access to this information. I urge patient readers to share this book with their healthcare provider because education is power and patient empowerment creates the same ripple effect of a stone that skips across a body of water, just like TrPs, there is no end to the effect it can have.

[Jerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writers are funny and try and make it very readable so it's fun to go through and learn about all the muscles. Can be dense and technical in some parts but overall it's a great resource and tool for treatment. The book also helps you get a great understanding of what you can do to ease certain discomforts. It also helps you not be afraid to press, prod and stretch different muscle groups.

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great pictures but found the explanation of what stretches to do, etc, hard to understand