Chronic pain that has lasted over a year or two, In my professional experience, is usually driven by a severe buildup of scar tissue. I look first to the contribution of scar tissue to an injury or condition.

To understand the stuff, “Knots” are made of scar tissue. Scars are what we call scar tissue that gets outside of the skin. Issues that are usually driven by scar tissue include, but are not limited to: Lower back pain, neck pain, some headaches and migraines, (especially those around or behind the eyes) numbness or tingling or shooting pain in the hands arms legs or feet.

When I talk about scar tissue I like to ask people to think of super glue. Your body will put it places for a few specific reasons. A common one is in the event of a trauma or injury. The body places a ‘patch’ of scar tissue. Inside of this patch, healing will attempt to take place. Less commonly understood is when the body decides a muscle is working too hard. The muscle pulls beyond its limit, and the body fills it with “glue” to turn it more into a rope. The muscle now has the strength it needs but the downside is the muscle is stuck, and complains.

Multiple things cause this reinforcement. It is the essence of “postural compensation”. Let’s pretend you work a desk job where you use a laptop, and you literally keep the thing in your lap. For this, you would need to bend your head forward 45 degrees to see your monitor. To hold your head in this position, two muscles in your neck will start to work. If you do this long enough, your body will glue them down. They will be strong, stuck, and in pain.

Our bodies don’t get rid of scar tissue very well. It continuously builds up over the years. If you have something that you want to stretch out, but this doesn’t seem to be enough, I can probably help. I can’t cover everything in the article so shoot me an email and tell me what you’ve been dealing with!