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Dr. Lowe How to Prepare Patient-to-Patient Fibromyalgia Research Foundation
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Metabolic Treatment
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 Dr. John C. Lowe Myofascial therapy is any treatment technique or procedure that either prevents or relieves symptoms and signs related to the myofascial tissues. This is a broad-brush use of the term allows for various treatment. Most practitioners and patients today use the term "myofascial therapy" as a generic term to describe physical treatment methods applied to skeletal muscles and their connective tissues. These tissues, as a anatomical and function unit are referred to as "myofascia" or "myofascial tissues." The earliest use of the term myofascial therapy appears to have been in the 1950s by an osteopathic physician in Beverly Hills, California. Travell and Simons, in the famous Trigger Point Manual, used the term sparingly. In the early 1990s, Dr. John C. Lowe used the term in 20 or so articles published in chiropractic publications. He also promoted use of the term in seminars across the USA. Soon, other writers and practitioners within chiropractic and massage therapy followed suit. The term "myofascial therapy" originally referred to the diagnosis and treatment of myofascial trigger points. During the 1990s, however, some practitioners and patients began using the term in a more generic sense. They began using the term to refer to most any form of bodywork in which practitioners address their patients' soft tissue problems. Accordingly, some people use the term to refer to different types of massage, rolfing, and neuromuscular technique (Europe) or therapy (USA). As long as the practitioners of the different approaches address their patients' myofascial tissues, the term seems to properly apply. Some people use the term myofascial therapy to refer to any form of soft tissue treatment. It's debatable whether this is always proper. For example, a practitioner (such as a chiropractic sports physician) may focus treatment on injured ligaments. In this case, to apply the term myofascial therapy seems imprecise. It does so because ligaments aren't properly classified as muscle (myo) or the connective tissue coverings of muscle (fascia). But one could argue in the other direction: Through reflexes, an injured ligament may induced protective muscle contractions, and the contractions may become a clinical problem. For example, they may cause a biomechanical imbalance. Or they may compress and activate myofascial trigger points. If speeding the healing and repair of the ligament helps relieve the myofascial complication, it seems proper to classify the treatment of ligaments as myofascial therapy. Opinions as to the proper use of the term "myofascial therapy" will differ. Probably the best policy is for each person who uses the term to stipulate what he or she means. Otherwise, the term may in general have little meaning. On drlowe.com, we use the term in a very broad sense. We certainly include physical treatment techniques, such as myofascial trigger point therapy. But we also include any biomechanical, psychological, or biochemical treatment that can relieve patients of myofascial pain and dysfunction. This is consistent with the use by authorities such as Richard Finn, MTPM; and Dr. Leon Chaitow; and Judith Walker DeLany. |
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