A recent great article about Active Release technique from Health Alert, If you don't already subscribe you should, Dr. Bruce West has some very informative information in the newsletters.
I have found ART to a tremendously effective treatment protocol for dealing with soft tissue injuries. I use it daily in my NYC Physical therapy office
SECRET TREATMENT OF THE MONTH from Health Alert.
PAIN, NUMBNESS, AND IMPAIRED MOVEMENT -
ACTIVE RELEASE TECHNIQUE (ART)
There are more misdiagnoses, more wrong treatments and over-treatments, more useless surgical interventions, more powerful prescribed painkillers, more missed work and school, more waste of health care funds, and more chronic disabilities due to soft tissue problems than most all other pain syndromes combined.
The soft tissues that cause all this pain and suffering are the non-bony tissues of the body, usually associated with joints - such as muscles, muscle sheaths, tendons, and ligaments. Soft tissues are frequently damaged through injuries and accidents, repetitive motion, and constant pressure or tension. If they do not heal properly, they form scars, fibrosis (tough, fibrous tissue), or adhesions that can entrap nerves, blood vessels, and other tissues. These adhesions cause severe pain, numbness, joint dysfunctions, muscle impairment to near paralysis, movement problems, and even complete disability.
When you develop a soft tissue problem with adhesions, the first symptom is pain. It can be head, hand, wrist, arm, jaw, neck, back, hip, leg, knee, ankle, foot, rib, or other pain. Examples are headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, sciatica, tendonitis of any joint, backaches of all kinds, and other diagnostic pain syndromes.
The trip to the doctor will usually begin with some painkillers to see if the pain goes away. This is usually followed by x0rays or scans. The abnormalities found on x-rays and scans (including MRIs) are often diagnosed as the cause of the problem when they are not. Almost everyone has abnormalities that show up on these tests, including spinal disk disease, herniated disk, arthritis, and the like. These are rarely the underlying cause of the problem. Rather, they are most frequently inconsequential joint abnormalities that are best left alone.
If the pain continues, you may end up headed for some form of surgery to treat the “abnormality” on your scan. With soft tissue injury and adhesions, this is an expensive, dangerous, and useless procedure - with the disappointing surgery results proving that your diagnosis was completely incorrect. In fact, scans are almost completely incapable of locating soft tissue adhesions that cause most of these chronic, agonizing problems. As with all things in health, the underlying cause of the problem must be addressed. And that means removing the adhesions or fibrosis. Enter the active release technique.
ACTIVE RELEASE TECHNIQUE (ART)
I suffered an injury to my heel that really laid me up. I simply could not walk well, and athletics were out of the question. For 6 months I pursued all types of treatment to no avail. Then I went to a chiropractor who was an expert in the active release technique. He quickly discovered that I had probably stepped on a rock on the beach, developed a soft tissue injury in the arch of my foot that did not heal properly, and then formed a scar. The scar was interfering with the nerves and tendons in the bottom of my foot, referring the pain into my heel. The ART treatment used pressure on the adhesion while I forcefully moved my foot through its range of motion - breaking free the tissues from the adhesion. After four treatments my pain was gone.
Although I am no longer in any pain, I now see an ART expert (Dr. Jay Cook, Monterey, CA) three times a week to determine if I have old soft tissue injuries that are impairing my physical performance. We have already cleared out adhesions in my legs and calves, resulting in my ability to jump higher. We will together be checking for and clearing out any adhesions throughout my back, neck, shoulders, and arms.
The type of soft tissue injury and resultant adhesion I had is extremely common - not always in the arch of the foot, but in any joint. And this could have easily resulted in $50,000 or more in drugs, surgical expenses, and more - all of which would have been completely useless. It could have resulted in disability, limping (which would have eventually affected my other joints), arthritis, and most important for me, a forced retirement from physical activity and athletics. In other words, this kind of injury could have ruined my life.
That is how serious soft tissue injuries are. And literally millions suffer from them - getting wrong diagnoses, wrong treatments, and over-treatments. Still very few doctors talk about these injuries. And why would they? Not one in 10,000 physicians understands these injuries. There are no diagnostic scans, x-rays, or images that can detect these injuries. And almost no orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon understands them. So unless you are lucky enough to run across an article like this, if you suffer a soft tissue injury with scarring or adhesions, you are up a creek without a paddle. You would be wasting your time on standard medical care, drugs, or even surgery.
What to Do
If you develop chronic pain, especially in the joints - and if standard, conservative, treatment, including chiropractic therapy, fails - you must:
Consider that you have a soft tissue injury.
Get to an ART expert. If you are recommended for surgery, get to an ART expert first, no matter how long you have suffered.
Find one of these experts by going to www.activereleasetechniques.com (techniques with an “s”). Click on “Find a Provider” to find experts near you.
If you are in NYC visit our office at Active release NYC You will see that each doctor has the courses he/she has taken displayed in emblems (with initials inside the emblem) after his/her name. You can click on each of these to see if this doctor is an expert in the problem that you have. If you absolutely cannot use a computer, call 1-888-396-2727 and ask to find a doctor who specializes in your problem.
The first treatment or two can be a little uncomfortable or even painful, but it is not unbearable. Treatments usually take 15 to 30 minutes each. Many people experience some relief after the first treatment. You will generally know if you can be helped within six treatments. Most people who are cured with ART have already been unsuccessfully treated by other health care providers.
Chronic soft tissue injury with adhesion and fibrosis can eventually cause bony problems as well. It is not unusual for arthritis to develop subsequent to these types of injuries simply because the joint can no longer function properly. In all chronic cases, you can get better results in you also incorporate nutrition for joints.
If you have chronic injuries, use the following Standard Process nutrition products while getting ART treatments: Calcified Wafers (6-12 daily) and Glucosamine Synergy (3-4 daily). Also be sure to take Blue Ice Fermented Cod Liver Oil (3 capsules daily) to get adequate vitamin D. And if you have arthritis, take X-Factor Gold High Vitamin Butter Oil (3-12 capsules daily 0 to ensure you get an adequate quantities for the anti-stiffness factor, also known as Activator X (or the Wulzen Factor).
Do not give up. You can be helped. Most individuals do not need surgery. Fin an expert near you, start treatments, use the proper nutrition, and start planning on your new, pain-free life. Now that is a real miracle treatment of the month.
West, Bruce “Then All Other Treatments Fail” Health Alert 27.5 (2010): 2-3
Dr. Steven Shoshany utulizes The Graston technique,ART,Spinal decompression,Cox flexion distraction technique and many other cutting adge techniques in NYC
If you are suffering and would like to schedule an appointment give us a call
at (212)645-8151 today.
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