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[post_content] => Oh, Imbue. How I love thee. Let me count the ways.
Last September I started playing ice hockey again. It had been about 12 years since I’d played and I wasn’t sure if I remembered how to skate or how well my body was going to take it.
I play in a lower level, no checking league, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be some accidental hits or falls on occasion. Such was the case last night. I’m a defensive player, so I don’t get the glory of scoring the goals, but I get to battle behind the scenes to prevent the other team from scoring. Last night, I was having a little battle for the puck behind the net with a man who was quite a bit bigger than me. We both went down and I jammed my wrist and thumb in the process.
Enter our very own Imbue Pain Relief Patch! I had a couple in my bag and immediately wrapped my wrist up. I figured that it would be pretty stiff today, butImbue does its job and it does it well! I have a little bit of soreness in an area not covered by the patch, but my wrist feels like nothing happened!
Considering I’ve had random issues with this wrist in the past, I am continually impressed with the amazing positive effects I get from Imbue. I’ve used it on my back, neck, shoulders, and wrists and it is always such a relief.
But you don’t have to take my word for it; you can try it for yourself.
http://imbuebody.com/
Meredith
Assistant Spa Director, Dragontree PDX
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A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the differences between acupuncture and “dry needling” to alleviate pain, and in that article I explained a bit about the phenomenon of myofascial trigger points. After I said I believe these are the cause of most of the physical pain humans experience, a number of readers asked me to explain more. For the science lovers out there, I’m going to dive deeper this week.
Besides the most common forms of pain, like lower back and headaches, I’ve had patients with digestive problems, sinus congestion, chest pain, ear ringing, numb hands, painful intercourse, acid reflux, vision changes, and other health issues that were eventually discovered to be due to myofascial trigger points. I believe everyone should know about them and how they work – it could save us a lot of time and worry.
Basically, a trigger point is a small, irritable region in a muscle (or the surrounding connective tissue – “fascia”) that stays stuck in a contracted state, making the muscle fibers taut. This can cause reduced muscle strength and range of motion, pain, numbness, itching, and other forms of dysfunction. Sometimes a trigger point feels like a palpable nodule or “knot,” but to untrained fingers they’re often tricky to find.
A unique property of trigger points is that they’re able to produce symptoms in other parts of the body – from a few inches to a couple feet away. For instance, there’s a trigger point that can form in the soleus muscle of the calf that’s capable of producing pain in the lower back. For this reason, the work of Janet Travell, MD and her colleague David Simons, MD, was groundbreaking. For each muscle in the body, they mapped where trigger points tend to form and what kinds of symptoms they cause.
If you were experiencing pain along the outside of your leg, you might assume that something was wrong with that part of your leg, perhaps with the often-tight iliotibial band (IT band). But this diagram might be helpful. The X’s show where trigger points can occur in a muscle called gluteus minimus above the hip socket. The red shading shows the potential areas of pain that can result. You might not suspect this muscle because, as you can see, there’s no pain at the site of the problem!
There are a handful of mechanisms that can promote trigger point formation, such as irritation of nerves, chronic organ problems, nutritional deficiencies, and autoimmune disorders. Most often, though, the cause is trauma to our connective tissue. When a muscle is strained by being worked too hard, too fast, or beyond its natural range, there is frequently a sort of “recoil” that occurs as segments of the muscle fibers bunch up and remain that way.
This is especially common when someone works out without warming up; when someone does a very ambitious workout after not having exercised for a long time; when someone makes a sudden movement (like reaching out to catch something or trying to stop oneself from falling); and especially when someone does any of the above when in a state of diminished resilience (e.g, when stressed, upset, sleep deprived, eating poorly, etc.).
Even more commonly, the trauma is a form of “postural stress” that’s demanding on muscles in a way that’s difficult to perceive at the time – such as doing the same relatively motionless activity (like sitting at a desk or driving) for hours, days, months, or years. One possible mechanism is known as the “Cinderella hypothesis.” During static muscle exertion – holding a position for a long time, as dentists, musicians, typists, and others engaged in precision handwork do – the body tends to engage a certain group of small muscle fibers, called Cinderella fibers because they’re put to work first and are the last to be disengaged. Even though they’re not doing heavy lifting, these muscle fibers (often in the neck, shoulders, back, and forearms) are continually activated and overworked, which makes them susceptible to trigger point formation.
Whatever the cause, the result is that eventually the muscle never completely relaxes. Muscles are composed of numerous parallel fibers that work together to shorten (contraction of the muscle) and lengthen (the return of the muscle to its relaxed state). Within each of these fibers are many end-to-end contractile units called sarcomeres, and in the case of a trigger point, a group of sarcomeres gets “stuck” in a shortened state. This makes the affected fibers taut and often “stringy” feeling.
To make matters worse, the contracted region clamps down on tiny blood vessels causing local ischemia (inadequate blood supply), reducing in-flow of fresh, oxygenated blood and out-flow of toxins. This leads to a localized hypoxic state (not enough oxygen). The tissue pH changes, local metabolism is impaired, and fluid and waste products tend to build up in the area. This combination of factors ultimately activates pain receptors – it starts to hurt – and when this happens you use the affected muscle less.
Instead, you overload “synergists” – nearby helper muscles. The body makes the surrounding musculature tense as a protective mechanism. Meanwhile, there’s a disruption of the balance between the affected muscles and their “antagonists” – those muscles that lengthen when the primary muscles shorten and vice-versa (for example, the triceps is an antagonist of the biceps). Altogether, this restricts natural movement of the original muscle, which just perpetuates the imbalance. Finally, with longstanding trigger points, the body may deposit gooey lubricant compounds called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) between these triggered muscle fibers, resulting in a gummy lump called a “myogelosis.”
The good news is that there are now books, charts, online tools, and practitioners that can help track down likely trigger points that may be implicated in your discomfort. I have such a tool in my online pain relief course, Live Pain Free, and I teach many approaches for deactivating trigger points.
The most basic methods involve simple mechanical disruption of this holding pattern. First, drink some water if you’re not well hydrated. Second, you or a friend can methodically feel around (ideally guided by a trigger point chart) for points that are sore, and ideally that reproduce the very sensation you’ve been experiencing. Third, maintain firm pressure on the epicenter of the point (with a finger, elbow, ball, or other tool) for about half a minute, consciously breathing into the area and intending to let it go, until there’s a palpable release. Then move on to all the other nearby points that are tight and tender and do the same.
This approach is called ischemic compression. By compressing the tissue enough to block blood flow, the body responds with reflex vasodilation, meaning it opens these vessels and flushes the tissue with a dramatic increase of blood. This will usually produce a significant improvement in the pain or dysfunction, though it will typically return sooner or later. These points tend to go from being active trigger points to “latent” trigger points, which have a certain “memory” (not the good kind of muscle memory) and are capable of getting reactivated. For this reason, persistence is important. The best results come from working on a trigger point consistently – usually from one to several short sessions per day (or less frequent if the sessions are intense) – and continuing for a while even after everything seems better.
As I said, this is a most basic approach, and while it’s often effective, sometimes a more nuanced intervention is required. There are many techniques that build on compression. We can replace fixed pressure with slow, deep strokes in the direction of the muscle fiber, as if re-lengthening this segment. We can work the trigger point back and forth across the direction of the muscle fibers. We can combine pressure on the trigger point with engagement of the affected muscle or antagonistic muscles. We can combine manual work on trigger points with topical herbs and/or internal herbs and nutrients that improve circulation and reduce inflammation. We can utilize release points on the same acupuncture meridian as where the trigger point occurs - or complementary points on other parts of the body. And more.
If all of this sounds interesting and relevant to you, I encourage you to do a little research. It might well be the end of a problem you thought had no solution. And if you need more guidance, check out my online course, Live Pain Free, where I go deeper into trigger points and much, much more to help people get out of pain of all kinds.
While I said I believe trigger points are the cause of most of our physical pain, I think it’s worth mentioning there are usually even deeper causes, such as stress and withheld emotions, poor body mechanics, dehydration, and an inflammatory diet. Holistically addressing these issues will lead to a more complete resolution of the condition. Always look at the big picture.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => The Science Behind Our Pain: Inquiring Minds Want to Know
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[post_date] => 2020-03-18 18:57:58
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Dear Community,
We’ve closed our spas in Portland and Boulder in order to help flatten the curve (slow the emergence of new cases of coronavirus to lessen the impact.) We hope to be back open and sharing our healing gifts with you soon. In the meantime, here are some of the other ways we’re continuing to help without breathing on you.
Community Support
We invite you to join us on our Facebook group, Dragontree Community and Conversations. Briana and Peter will be going live in the group for March:
Mondays with Briana and Peter at 9:00 AM Pacific Time
| Noon Eastern
Wednesday with Briana at 11:00 AM Pacific
| 2:00 Eastern
Fridays with Peter at 8:00 AM Pacific
| 11 AM Eastern
Their intention is to foster community, connection, and on-going wisdom including immune support and meditations.
Join the DragonTree Community
Tele-Sessions with Dr. Peter Borten
Herbal Consultation: Traditional Chinese Medicine has been instrumental in China’s response to COVID-19. 85% of patients are receiving herbs. In one study of 102 patients, those receiving both Chinese herbs and Western medicine had a 33% higher recovery rate than those only receiving Western treatments. Chinese hospitals have established herbal protocols for prevention and every stage of treatment of the virus, and I’m following and modifying these guidelines for my patients. I’ve developed a prevention formula based on the Wuhan formula, which should help boost immune function.
Besides treating and preventing coronavirus, I craft customized herbal formulas (in powder form) for all health issues, including digestive disorders, allergies, depression, and anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, autoimmune diseases, etc. I’ve been studying and practicing herbal medicine for over 25 years and it works! Click here for an Herbal Tele-Consultation.
Healing Session: In these sessions, I use a variety of approaches to help you achieve optimal wellness, including Five Element psychology, guided acupoint tapping (EFT), lifestyle and nutritional counseling, and when appropriate, herbal formulas and/or supplements. Click here for a Healing Session.
Dr. Peter’s Herbal Formulas
Cold and Flu Support. Includes the best of what Chinese and Western herbal medicine have to offer to address all facets of cold and flu symptoms, while also strengthening the immune system. Click here to get Cold and Flu Support
Vitality Tonic. This powerful tonic is a highly sophisticated blend of 23 herbs (including Cordyceps mushroom, Ginseng, Millettia, and Morinda) that support healthy immunity, energy, and circulation. Click here to Get Vitality Tonic.
Anxiety Support. Made from 18 powerfully effective herbs such as: Bupleurum, Magnolia bark, Zizyphus, Rehmannia, and Passionflower to treat a full range of anxiety patterns. Click here to get Anxiety Support.
Sleep Support. Nothing supports the immune system like a good night’s sleep. If we could all go to bed at the first inkling of sickness, much of the time we wouldn’t even get sick. Click here to get Sleep Support.
Digestive Support. Alleviates digestive upset from a variety of causes including: food that you ate, travel sickness, stomach virus, and stress. Click here to get Digestive Support.
Stay tuned for an herbal immune support formula based on the Wuhan preventive formula.
Coaching Sessions
If you’re feeling anxious about current events or just want guidance in getting organized, making plans, achieving goals, healing old wounds, releasing baggage, or clarifying your vision, our life coaches can help. These graduates of The Dragontree Life Coaching training program are skilled and compassionate, and they’ll facilitate tangible, measurable positive changes in your life! Click here for more information.
What's next?
Over the next several weeks, we'll be sharing more ideas for supporting your mind, body, and spirit through this difficult time both here in your email and in our Community Facebook group.
We appreciate you joining us in community.
Much Love,
Briana, Peter, and everyone at The Dragontree
P.S
Catch a Re-play of Briana's Live, how to embrace the unknown and find your footing when there is no ground.
[post_title] => We’re Helping You Without Stepping Into Your 6-Foot Bubble
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[post_content] => Oh, Imbue. How I love thee. Let me count the ways.
Last September I started playing ice hockey again. It had been about 12 years since I’d played and I wasn’t sure if I remembered how to skate or how well my body was going to take it.
I play in a lower level, no checking league, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be some accidental hits or falls on occasion. Such was the case last night. I’m a defensive player, so I don’t get the glory of scoring the goals, but I get to battle behind the scenes to prevent the other team from scoring. Last night, I was having a little battle for the puck behind the net with a man who was quite a bit bigger than me. We both went down and I jammed my wrist and thumb in the process.
Enter our very own Imbue Pain Relief Patch! I had a couple in my bag and immediately wrapped my wrist up. I figured that it would be pretty stiff today, butImbue does its job and it does it well! I have a little bit of soreness in an area not covered by the patch, but my wrist feels like nothing happened!
Considering I’ve had random issues with this wrist in the past, I am continually impressed with the amazing positive effects I get from Imbue. I’ve used it on my back, neck, shoulders, and wrists and it is always such a relief.
But you don’t have to take my word for it; you can try it for yourself.
http://imbuebody.com/
Meredith
Assistant Spa Director, Dragontree PDX
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