{"id":30330,"date":"2022-07-18T12:20:13","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30330"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:48:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:48:02","slug":"wholehealth-chicago-partners-with-chicagos-finest-trigger-point-therapy-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/18\/wholehealth-chicago-partners-with-chicagos-finest-trigger-point-therapy-team","title":{"rendered":"Wholehealth Chicago Partners With Chicago\u2019s Finest Trigger Point Therapy Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let me tell you about Mary Biancalana and the value of myofascial trigger point therapy. A lifelong fitness expert and personal trainer, in her early thirties Mary found herself with chronic headaches. First, she was told they were \u2018psychological,\u2019 then a manifestation of a little understood term called \u201ctrigger points\u201d and another condition she\u2019d never heard of called Myofascial pain syndrome (a lesser problematic, distant cousin of fibromyalgia)<\/em>. <\/strong>She wanted to use holistic medicine, so first she consulted me as a patient in 1993 and started her personal quest for wellness. That lead her to study and become an expert in the treatment for eliminating myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia and we have referred patients to each other ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1999 she discovered myofascial trigger point therapy and knew her life would never be the same. After just a few myofascial trigger point treatments and simple lifestyle changes her headaches were gone! Mary worked for 7 years at the holistically oriented Fibromyalgia Treatment Centers of America with integrative physician Dr. Mike McNett but soon saw her mission was not only to treat patients but to teach physical therapists and massage therapists how to expand their professional skills by learning myofascial trigger point therapy. So, she has been teaching advanced courses one weekend per month all over the country since 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 she founded The Chicago Center for Myofascial Pain Relief<\/a> incorporating wellness education, personal training, and myofascial trigger point therapy on the far northwest side of Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since opening WholeHealth Chicago in 2000 (initially named Chicago Holistic Center in 1993), I realized I am now reaching my third decade<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>of referring patients to Mary Biancalana. Then, when I published my own books on fibromyalgia, \u201cThe Triple Whammy Cure<\/a>\u201d and \u201cHealing Fibromyalgia<\/a>\u201d, that kept a steady flow of traffic between Mary\u2019s office and WholeHealth Chicago. We are now especially happy to have found a myofascial trigger point therapist of her skills to now be on our staff. But it\u2019s not just Mary Biancalana, she has brought with her two of her highly trained colleagues, Mike Pilney and Sue Dimbert. Together they make up one of the most highly trained and skilled group of practitioners ready to eliminate muscle problems and restore full, pain-free function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Trigger Points And What Is Their Relationship To Fibromyalgia And Chronic Pain Or Muscle Problems?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By themselves, myofascial trigger points<\/em> are a very common cause of pain and usually localized to one or two areas of the body. They have an interesting property in that they can refer pain to an area not necessarily where they are located, a trigger point in your neck can refer pain all the way down your arm or to your upper back. Picture Myofascial Trigger Points as a tight, highly contracted area in your muscles and fascia stuck in a feedback loop of pain which tries to protect itself by more tightness, the result being more pain. As you can imagine, Trigger Points are not only painful, but the efficiency of muscles nearby are impaired. A golfer notices a change in his swing, a dentist has difficulty using her hand, a professional violinist starts worrying about his career. The list goes on and on, and the pain can be every day. Just to clarify; \u201cmyo\u201d means muscle, and \u201cfascia\u201d is the three-dimensional connective tissue matrix that surrounds and interpenetrates all soft tissue areas of the body. This modality is not myofascial release per se. This modality addresses the fascia as well as the muscle. The two cannot ever be separated nor can one be treated without the other, thus the name Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myofascial Trigger Points Are A Message From The Rest Of Your Body That Something\u2019s Not Quite Right.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to treating the actual \u2018stuck\u2019 Trigger Points, a good myofascial trigger point therapist will review your lifestyle, stresses, nutrition, posture, how you once held your violin in comparison to the way you are holding it now, the weight of that backpack (or that child you\u2019re carrying), the posture in which you sleep or drive and any number of other \u201cperpetuating factors\u201d or things we all may do that keep the muscles in this \u201cstuck\u201d state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fibromyalgia is definitely real<\/a>. We\u2019re learning more about Fibromyalgia every year but there are several things we do know for sure, including that there is a direct relationship with myofascial trigger points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n