I’ve been in communication with a wonderful doctor in New Zealand. Dr.Jonathan Kuttner has been a medical doctor for many years and then found trigger points and how they are a key factor in the vast majority of medical problems that focus on joint pain. He then began a study on the subject and is prolific in his writing on the topic.
We found each other through the searching of a dear friend of mine, and we have begun to converse about our mutual findings. It’s so amazing to me that I live in Chapel Hill, NC, and half-way around the world, a medical doctor is speaking and teaching the same thing that I’m doing here in the USA. We both believe that people can self-treat trigger points successfully and eliminate pain from their lives. I teach it primarily in books and DVDs, plus the clinics that I teach around the USA, and Dr. Kuttner teaches in an online course.
I’ll be bringing his course information to my eNewsletter readers, and when it’s ready I’ll certainly be telling you about it. But meanwhile, here is something I received from him that I think will be of interest to you:
“Something important you should know to follow up on treating
your trigger points: once you’ve switched a trigger point off, that’s
not the end of the story. Trigger points usually occur in vulnerable
posture muscles because we’re using these muscles all the time.
Posture muscles are usually not terribly strong or powerful. Therefore triggers will recur in these muscles unless we start looking after them.
To look after these muscles you need to think prevention. The
real secret is to change how you use the muscle in which triggers
occur.
1. This means you have to look at your posture and how you
use your body. So, examine how you sit, your workstation, how you
stand, walk, what repetitive movement you do- especially check if
your pain occurs during any of these activities. There are more
effective ways to sit, stand or move. We shall explore these later.
2. Keep your muscles strong and supple. This involves
strengthening core muscles and doing regular stretches. (Note from Julie: it also means doing self-treatments to release the spasms before you stretch)
3. Become aware of where you put your stress. Often people
will put their stress into certain posture muscles. Most commonly ,
people put their stress and tension into the lower back or in their
neck muscles and this is where most trigger points occur.
You need to remember these three points every day and change what
you can. Once you can internalize these changes and they become
part of your daily routine, trigger points will not recur.”
Dr. Jonathan Kuttner
Which leads me to a quote that describes how I feel about teaching people to self-treat for the trigger points that cause pain…
We cannot teach people anything….we can only help them to discover it in themselves. ~Galileo
Wishing you well,
Julie