Neuromuscular Therapy for Muscle Pain

Neuromuscular Therapy for Muscle Pain

Your muscles and your nervous system are intricately linked, governing posture, movement and balance. When muscle tension throughout your body is in optimal balance, your body naturally aligns and moves with mechanical efficiency, pain-free.

Wear and tear on your muscles and nerves from repetitive daily activities including work and sports can cause some muscles to become excessively tight from overuse, while others may become lax from underuse. Imbalance in muscle tension can lead to postural problems, poor balance, compressed nerves and muscle pain.

What is Neuromuscular Therapy?

Neuromuscular therapy addresses soft tissues to relieve pain and restore normal function. Treatment is targeted to balancing your nervous, muscular and skeletal systems, to bring your body back into optimal alignment.

Neuromuscular therapy addresses

  • postural alignment
  • muscle imbalances
  • nerve entrapment
  • ischemia (restricted blood flow)
  • muscular trigger points

In essence, neuromuscular therapy treats your nervous system through your muscular system.

Treat the Problem, Not the Pain

Medical treatment often focuses on treating the area of complaint. For example, you may seek treatment for hip pain from your regular health care provider. They will carefully investigate the region surrounding the painful area, and may in fact find some anomalies in your hip. Treatment may range from pain medication to surgery, depending on the severity of the diagnosis.

However, although your hip is in pain, the cause may be found elsewhere. You may have muscle imbalances in your core, trunk or legs that eventually caused the pain in your hip. If you only treat your hip pain but ignore the underlying cause, the problem will persist, even after invasive surgery.

Pain is often the result of compensation for imbalances in another area of your body. After careful analysis of your posture, gait and range of motion, your neuromuscular therapist may initiate upper body treatment to address lower body pain, or vice versa.

Pinpointing the Trigger of Pain

Much of neuromuscular therapy centers on Identifying and treating Trigger Points (TrPs), tiny hyper-sensitive nodules that develop in injured muscle tissue. Trigger points may cause pain at the site of the TrP, or pain may be referred elsewhere in your body. TrPs may also cause numbness, tingling, stiffness and weakness.

Trigger points may result from repetitive motion activities, stress, trauma, or postural imbalances. Poor nutrition may even play a role in developing TrPs. In some cases, TrPs can cause pain that lasts for years if left untreated.

Benefits of Neuromuscular Therapy

Neuromuscular therapy gets to the source of your muscle pain to:

  • balance posture
  • increase range of motion
  • eliminate pain
  • restore optimal health

Conditions successfully treated with neuromuscular therapy include:

  • Neck, back or shoulder pain
  • General muscle aches and pains
  • Arm and hand pain, numbness or tingling
  • Leg and foot pain, numbness or tingling
  • Tendonitis
  • Whiplash
  • Muscle strains
  • Headaches
  • Arthritis
  • Circulatory issues
  • Poor flexibility
  • Sciatic nerve pain
  • TMJ syndrome
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome

Neuromuscular Therapy in NYC

If you are tired of being in pain and want to get to the source, not just treat the symptoms, visit the neuromuscular specialists at NYDNRehab. Our professional team treats each patient individually, designing therapy based on comprehensive diagnosis.

The sports medicine specialists at NYDNRehab incorporate years of relevant experience with state-of-the-art technology, bringing you the latest and best treatment options for your neuromuscular pain.

Research at NYDNRehab

Whole-Body Neuromuscular Ultrasound for Evaluating Posture and Targeted Management of Muscle Spasticity and Pain Meeting: 2019 International Congress R. Bubnov, L. Kalika (Kyiv, Ukraine) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336134647_Whole-Body_Neuromuscular_Ultrasound_for_Evaluating_Posture_and_Targeted_Management_of_Muscle_Spasticity_and_Pain
Whole-Body Neuromuscular Ultrasound for Evaluating Posture and Targeted Management of Muscle Spasticity and Pain Meeting: 2019 International Congress R. Bubnov, L. Kalika (Kyiv, Ukraine) (part2) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336134647_Whole-Body_Neuromuscular_Ultrasound_for_Evaluating_Posture_and_Targeted_Management_of_Muscle_Spasticity_and_Pain
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In this instance, an athlete was originally diagnosed with minor quadriceps muscle strain and was treated for four weeks, with unsatisfactory results. When he came to our clinic, the muscle was not healing, and the patients’ muscle tissue had already begun to atrophy.

Upon examination using MSUS, we discovered that he had a full muscle thickness tear that had been overlooked by his previous provider. To mitigate damage and promote healing, surgery should have been performed immediately after the injury occurred. Because of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, the patient now has permanent damage that cannot be corrected.

The most important advantage of Ultrasound over MRI imaging is its ability to zero in on the symptomatic region and obtain imaging, with active participation and feedback from the patient. Using dynamic MSUS, we can see what happens when patients contract their muscles, something that cannot be done with MRI. From a diagnostic perspective, this interaction is invaluable.

Dynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating
the full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy
due to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient
to proper diagnostic workup

Demonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed
to be a complete tear with muscle contraction
under diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)

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Complete tear of rectus femoris
with large hematoma (blood)

image

Separation of muscle ends due to tear elicited
on dynamic sonography examination

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