Aggressive pain points are a major cause of low back pain The fearful words herniated disc or osteophyte are often used by most physicians to explain as the cause of low back pain. However, clinical studies have confirmed that more than half of adults without low back pain will have a bulging or herniated disc on CT or MRI, but only 4% of low back pain is caused by a herniated disc. Even though herniated discs are indeed the cause of low back pain, myofascial pain points still play a large role. President John F. Kennedy’s personal physician, Dr. Travell, believes that although you may have a herniated disc and spinal degeneration, you will still find myofascial pain points as the primary cause of low back pain. In fact, provoked pain points cause constant muscle tension, which can lead to disc compression and nerve compression. Therefore, when analyzing the cause of low back pain, the agonist point should be at the top of the list, and the pain caused by the agonist point can be self-treated. Medications, physical therapy or traditional acupuncture may temporarily reduce your pain, but they will not eradicate your radicular pain points. When you stop treatment, the problem remains. In order to get reliable results, treatment needs to be directed at the agonizing pain point. You can treat the pain points yourself. You may be using massage as a relaxing way to unwind, or you may have tried to use it to relieve pain without much success. In fact, a deep massage that directly targets the painful points is often the safest and most effective way to treat them, and the best way to treat yourself. The rhythmic massage of the painful points can relieve muscle tension and artificially metabolize harmful substances. Although professional hospital acupuncture treatment is undoubtedly the best way to treat painful spots, self-massage has the advantage of being economical and convenient. Of course, if self-treatment is not effective or if there are frequent recurrences, it is necessary to seek professional help in order to re-evaluate the cause of the pain, to find the correct site of the agonist point or to correct the spinal deviation at the same time. How to find painful points Misinterpreting the cause of pain can cause every effort to eradicate it to fail. Since the pain point can cause distant pain, you may not be able to find the pain point in the area where you feel the pain, which means that it was a mistake to massage only the area of discomfort in the past. Unless you are able to find the source of the pain well, it will be difficult to remove it. It is helpful to know the characteristics of the following pain points: ① Tight bands can be touched in the muscles. ②Nodules with strong pressure points can be found in the tight band. ③Finger pressure directly on the pressure nodule to the level of ischemia may cause the patient’s usual pain or symptoms to reoccur. The patient usually informs that this is “his usual pain”. A local twitch response may be induced by flicking the painful spot in the direction of the tight bandage. Of course, these diagnostic criteria are too demanding for the non-specialist, and some people may never feel the knot in the muscle. The most important feature of the trigger points is that they are extremely painful to touch, so for self-treatment you just need to find the area that feels the most painful when you press on it. The following two techniques are sufficient to eliminate most myofascial pain points. The first is the deep continuous pressure method, which is generally used for extremely sensitive pain points. This is done by pressing vertically with the thumb or knuckle on each provoked point, pressing the point deeper to the bone surface for about 10 to 30 seconds until the pain subsides or disappears. The pressure should be applied with a moderate degree of soreness without causing muscle tension. The second is the deep pushing and stroking method, which is to use the thumb or knuckle to press moderately on the painful point and make small left-right or up-down strokes. When pushing and stroking, it is not appropriate to rub on the epidermis, but to drive the subcutaneous tissue to move together. This method works faster than continuous pressure on the trigger point of greater force, and repeated pushing and stroking action can be more effective in squeezing out local metabolic waste. In self-massage for some difficult to massage parts of the body can use some massage tools, such as massage sticks, back pounders. Can also be used a hard rubber ball pressed between the body and the wall or floor for massage. Massage after the local skin soreness is normal, which is caused by the release of metabolic products such as lactic acid in soft tissue, generally in 2 to 3 days to relieve. Massage after drinking more plain water and taking vitamin C can help the body metabolize lactic acid. Other radical pain point treatment method 1, radical pain point wet needle or dry needle: for the stubborn radical pain point available the most practical way to attack the radical pain point, that is, with a needle directly needles on the radical pain point, its efficacy is to use the needle directly interfere with the contraction of muscle fibers where the radical pain point. The difference between wet and dry needling lies in whether or not local anesthetics are added. 2.Physical factor treatment for painful points: physical factors such as electrical stimulation, ultrasonic probe and low-intensity laser are directly applied to the painful points to reduce pain. 3.Cold spraying and muscle stretching: relax the muscle by stretching the muscle fibers that have been shortened by the painful point. The pain can be temporarily suppressed with a freezing spray before stretching to prevent defensive tightening of the muscle. Stretching can also be used as part of the patient’s home exercise program.