I am very fortunate to work with a team of amazing massage therapists, physiotherapists, and chiropractors. I really believe that a team approach can be beneficial to healing. There are so many things that can enhance & impede healing that it can be important to have more than one pair of eyes with more than one view point looking at the same problem.
I wanted to discuss a few conditions and how I might view treatments differently than my musculoskeletal focused team mates.
Muscle or Joint injury - there's often a clear cause of injury but what other things do I think about? What are the inflammatory patterns like and do we need to work on decreasing inflammation using herbs to speed healing? Is the injury impeding sleep and how do we improve sleep when dealing with pain?
Chronic Muscle or Joint pain/discomfort - are your food choices helping or hindering your pain levels? Does your menstrual cycle (if you have one) change your pain pattern and should we look to balance hormones? Is stress contributing to tight muscles that are causing discomfort? Should we be working on stress management?
Arthritis - there's lot of research on staying active with an arthritis diagnosis. How are you managing inflammation - through diet or herbs or prescription medications?
Muscle Recovery - are you recovering quickly after a good workout? There's lots of supplements to help your body recover after exercise, and its important to also think again about what you're eating and how its contributing.
A couple of other things that often come to mind when I'm treating musculoskeletal complaints are acupuncture & contrast baths.
I don't use dry needling in my practice, though many of the therapists in my office do. I use a combination of Eastern and Western philosophy when I do acupuncture for muscle & joint issues and it's sometimes nice to try both approaches and see what works better for your body.
Last but not least, contrast baths (alternating hot and cold water over an area) can be amazing at changing inflammation and swelling patterns for certain conditions.
I hope that this helped expand your brain to think about muscles & joints in a bit more holistic way.
As always, if you've got questions - please reach out!
