for Chronic Pain and Dysfunctional Movement
By Miranda McGovern
If you follow the latest in the health and wellness industry, you’ll hear a lot these days about identifying and correcting the “source” of pain. That will mean something different to various practitioners, depending on their background. For nutritionists it might mean, “you are what you eat.” Their philosophy is that health is built from the inside out, starting with the very building blocks of your physical body. To a chiropractor it might mean skeletal alignment. To a yogi, it could be something more metaphysical, like spiritual alignment. None of them are wrong.
However, if we want to be literal, there really is an actual physiological source of pain: it is what we refer to as a “pain receptor.” Logical, right? These receptors are tasked with sensing “damage” to the body. If they are stimulated enough, their signal reaches the brain, and the brain responds by telling you, “Ouch!” The key here is that when functioning normally, there is a threshold. Again, they have to be not just stimulated, but stimulated to an extent that the signal reaches the brain. For example: these receptors cover your entire body. If you lightly touch a spot on your arm, you wouldn’t expect that to cause pain because even though you are stimulating the pain receptors, the stimulation isn’t enough for the signal to reach the brain. Now poke yourself with a needle. (Ok, don’t really.) That is a lot more stimulation. Enough to reach the brain, and for the brain to respond by telling you, “Hey, that hurts!”
So what happens when you have dysfunctional pain receptors? They become hyperactive, sending far too much signal to the brain than they should. In a case like that, maybe you do simply touch yourself on the arm and get a pain response in return. Does that make you a wimp? No. Now, you might be a wimp anyway, but not because of that. In this case, your dysfunctional pain receptors are sending bad information to the brain, and the brain can only respond to what it’s being told. This can be correct and the pain can be eliminated!
One aspect of functional neurology and P-DTR® that makes it so powerful is its ability to specifically target not just muscular dysfunction, but dysfunction in specific types of receptors, including those that send information up the pain pathways to the brain. Here at Studio M we use a variety of methods to help asses and find the root cause of pain, limited mobility and dysfunction; for example, a woman suffering from pain in the anterior hip. She could not take a full-length stride and felt pain with every step. A few quick tests revealed dysfunctional pain receptors in the front and side of the hip. After clearing just one dysfunctional pair of pain receptors, she was able to take a full-length stride and felt very little pain. After clearing a second set of receptors, her pain was completely gone. Now that is truly addressing pain at its source.
Here at Studio M we work to find and recognize these receptors that are signaling the brain that there is pain when there is no longer a need for a pain signal to go to the brain. The feedback loop needs to be broken and reset. The proprioception (sensation of touch, pressure, hot, cold, pain, etc.), and the way the body processes the information from these receptors, is paramount in determining neuromuscular responses throughout the entire body. Motor function is not just determined by the motor system, but rather is modified by the inputs of these receptors.
Using a comprehensive system of muscle testing and neural challenges, involved receptors can be located and normal function can be quickly restored. Most therapeutic modalities address only the “hardware” of the body, neglecting the fact that most of the pain and dysfunction we experience is often actually a problem with our “software.” We use therapies to provide access to the software coding of the human nervous system, allowing us to quickly identify and resolve the root causes of pain and dysfunction throughout the entire body. The evaluation and treatment process is fast, non-invasive, and permanent. Most physical therapy and other therapeutic modalities deal with the “hardware” of the body, neglecting the fact that much of the pain and dysfunction we experience is often actually a problem with our “software”.
Studio M deals with the various sensory receptors (proprioceptors) of the body and the way they affect and modify our movement patterns. These receptors (those for pain, stretch, pressure, hot, cold, vibration, etc.) all send information to the brain for processing and the brain takes this feedback into account when making decisions regarding our movement.
Who can benefit from this type of therapy? Almost everyone! This type of therapy most importantly finds and corrects problems not just the symptoms. Accelerates recovery from an acute injury. Eliminates lingering pain from chronic illnesses, debilitating stress of repetitive exercises or stress and optimizes athletic performance, restores muscle function quickly. Most importantly it resolves problems you thought you would “just have to live with.” This is the future of healing!
Miranda McGovern is the owner of Studio M Pilates and Healing 1731 Mangrove Ave Chico CA 95926