Dry needling involves inserting tiny needles into patients’ trigger points to relieve musculoskeletal pain, stimulate muscles and increase your range of motion. This process requires that physical therapists receive specialized training. Although Dry needling Louisville, KY helps with pain management, it is often only part of a comprehensive pain management plan. However, it does have specific benefits
Relax Muscles and Increase Blood Flow
You may begin to feel muscle pain for a number of reasons, but typically, your muscles are not receiving enough oxygen and nutrients due to restricted blood flow. This increases the acidity of the tissues near your trigger points, sensitizing your nerves and causing pain. The lack of oxygen and nutrients also prevent your muscles from relaxing or resting.
Needle therapy activates your trigger points or nerves. Your therapist may want to ensure that your muscles react properly by moving the needle around a bit. Your nerves then send a message to your brain to release endorphins as the needle encourages more blood flow to the area. At this point, your muscles can begin flushing out toxins and other acids from your muscles.
Increase Range of Motion
When you are in pain, you change the way your body moves to avoid that pain. This limits your range of motion. When your muscles are tight and painful, you don’t want to move or aggravate them. This tightness also creates trigger points that further limit your mobility. When you aren’t moving your muscles like you normally would, they become weak and you lose muscle mass.
Because it addresses pain and relaxes your muscles, dry needling also helps you increase your range of motion. When you include physical therapy, you can prevent the development of trigger points in the future.
Improve Chronic Pain
Chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome benefits from dry needling. Myofascial pain develops in the tissues that connect and support your muscles, blood vessels, organs and nerves. When this connective tissue, called fascia, develops trigger points, pain occurs.
Fibromyalgia is a condition in which your muscles become tender, causing you to adjust your movements. When you do this, you create trigger points in these muscles that cause pain.
Because dry needling relaxes your muscles, relieves pain in your trigger points and allows you to gain range of movement, both these conditions benefit from this treatment. However, exercise through physical therapy Louisville, KY often coincides with chronic pain treatments.
Manual Trigger for the Healing Process
Moving your body promotes healing because it causes blood to move through the areas you move. However, when you cannot or do not want to move specific muscles due to injuries or pain, this can delay your healing. Dry needling actually speeds up the healing process for two reasons. First, it encourages blood flow to the injured area, and second, it allows you to move the area more, encouraging additional blood flow and healing.
If you think dry needling can help you, search for a local physical therapy clinic, such as physical therapy in Evansville, IN, that has professionals who have received specialized training in this area.