Have you ever had a workout and experienced soreness afterwards? We can go into the details of the lactic acid buildup in your tissues and so forth to explain why this pain happens, yet the point we would like to drive right off the bat, is that this sort of pain/discomfort is a necessary temporary side effect that happens when we ameliorate our health through exercise. Some people experience some discomfort while going through Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) therapy that induces rapid healing in your body.

Similarly, if you experience an acute accident or injury, like spraining your ankle, it is easy to understand why your ankle may hurt.  You likely tore some of the ligaments and or muscles around the joint and experienced subsequent swelling, bruising and inflammation.  Over a four to six week period your body typically fills in the torn tissue with scar tissue and then slowly remodels it back to its original state.  Sometimes the pain persists beyond six weeks even though the entire swelling and bruising have long disappeared.  Other times pain appears for no apparent reason in the complete absence of an injury and you can’t understand why or what you did wrong.

Nerves are the electrical wiring of your body.  They supply the energy for all your muscles and organs to do their jobs.  Your brain and spinal cord are like the electrical fuse box of your body and your spine and skull are their protective coverings.  Peripheral nerves extend out from your spine at every level on both the left and right sides.  The nerves that extend from your neck are responsible for most of the muscles in your shoulders, arms and hands, while the nerves that come from your low back enervate all of the muscles in your hips, legs and feet.  The nerves in the middle are responsible for your trunk and a lot of your organs.

Muscles are comprised of a whole bunch of stringy tissue that can stretch and contract.  The muscle should have a certain amount of resting tone in it, i.e. at rest it is slightly contracted, not flaccid or extremely tense; this is dictated by the input of the nerve.  If the nerve is irritated as it extends from the spine, or anywhere in the periphery it will result in an altered signal getting to the muscle.  This altered signal can create bands of tension in the muscle, which results in one or more tiny condensed portions of the muscle, otherwise known as trigger points. This will strain the joint that are moved by this muscle, as well as the tendons and likely create pain.  Muscles are attached to bones on either side of a joint by tendons.  Tendons are a tougher tissue that only stretch a small amount; when the muscle is in a banded state, the tendons will have to endure a lot more stress and strain when the joint is used and the result is typically tendonitis.

Let us get back to IMS. It is a needling technique that involves an insertion of a dry needle into aforementioned trigger point in your muscle. Naturally, this may produce a sensation of temporary discomfort. Yet, the results are incredible. The trigger points get released from this technique, the muscles unwind, the joints relax, and the irritated peripheral nerves that run from these muscles to the brain are finally able to relax. In other words, this temporary discomfort that people experience from having a dry needle inserted just below the skin is a side effect of a technique that gets rid of the major pain that people chronically feel from having tense muscles, taught joints, and irritated peripheral nerves.

Do you have chronic pain or an injury? Despite treatment, have the aches and pains just not gone away? Don’t give up! If you have been suffering aches, pains or numbness in your back, neck, arms, shoulders or legs, PRI is pleased to offer Intra-Muscular Stimulation, which may be just the right solution for your chronic pain.

 

Treatments can be scheduled by contacting our office.

Phone: (416) 477-1101

E-mail: reception@priclinic.com

Web:   www.priclinic.com