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Years ago I struggled with RSI as well, and found suggestions to read about the methods of John Sarno here on HN. While it initially triggered by BS radar, I wa

Years ago I struggled with RSI as well, and found suggestions to read about the methods of John Sarno here on HN. While it initially triggered by BS radar, I was desperate enough to try his methods - and they worked! Additionally look into trigger points: http://www.triggerpoints.net/ http://www.triggerpoints.net/ There's certain points in my arms and back, which when pressed hard enough, lead to complete and immediate pain relief (which led me to experiment with Sarno's method in the first place, as he suggests psychosomatic causes)

proto-n 3y ago
Trigger points afaik are a widely accepted concept, my physical therapist tells me that something like 90% of the time her patients' problems are due to trigger points. Or more correctly due to cramping and tense muscles, which trigger points can help alleviate. The trigger point is basically just a place where you can push on the muscle, and apparently when you push on a muscle that's tense, it's forced to relax itself. It's painful, but only as long as the muscle is tense. Relaxed muscles are not painful when pushed.
- andrekandre 3y ago
  > The trigger point is basically just a place where you can push on the muscle, and apparently when you push on a muscle that's tense, it's forced to relax itself. It's painful, but only as long as the muscle is tense. Relaxed muscles are not painful when pushed. thats interesting. after getting injured i started getting intense tension headaches from the back of my neck/head and at one point went to various massage therapists, and the best ones would find the right muscle and press real hard... which would hurt like hell but would solve my headache pretty fast in a lot of cases. fast-forward many sessions later, i learned how to do the same for myself whenever i'd feel a tension headache coming on, just find that tense knot and press hard; works like magic many times
- frob 3y ago
  I had debilitating sciatica for 4 to 5 months to the point where I could only get a few intermittent hours of sleep every night even with strong muscle relaxants. I worked with a PT for months on stretches and strengthening exercises. A few months in, they off-handedly suggested dry needling, which seems to operate on the same principles as trigger point massage. I gave it a shot because I was open to any possible treatment at that time. Literally one session cured my sciatica. Within minutes, the pain was less than half of what it had been before and by the next morning, it was over 90% gone. It was quite fortunate timing as this was March 2020 and I cannot fathom how I would have survived the fear and isolation of the early months of the COVID pandemic coupled with that pain.
scandox 3y ago
My wife had serious back issues. MRI showed multiple issues with lower discs etc...surgery was being pushed strongly. She wasn't keen because her sister's surgery had not really helped much. She found Dr Sarno. To this day I'm not entirely on board with it...but whatever went on it worked. The surgeons looking at her MRI were totally baffled. It still showed all the issues and as one said "you shouldn't be able to even walk around without pain". One thing Sarno says which I find interesting: he claims that the correlation between MRI imagery and pain is very weak. In other words you have people with a clean MRI who are in agony and you have people with all kinds of issues showing who are absolutely fine.
- d0mine 3y ago
  > correlation between MRI imagery and pain is very weak It is not just some fringe opinion from a single doctor e.g., here's recommendations from Barbell Medicine https://youtu.be/mdwj5ORPmX0?si=DOVVJCGgLe_U0GDT https://youtu.be/mdwj5ORPmX0?si=DOVVJCGgLe_U0GDT
- _cenw 3y ago
  A lot of people have bulging disks without pain. About half in this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8208267/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8208267/ So the MRI should be treated as a correlating factor only. No bulging disk and pain is probably the more immediately useful finding, because you take out a likely cause.
- slekker 3y ago
  Personal/anectodal/non-scientific: having read his book, I understood that in my specific case my wrist pain was psychosomatic in nature and the pain itself could be caused by blood flow restriction. Just being aware of this and what may be causing it (stress, anxiety) helped alleviate the pain. I imagined the veins in my wrist expanding and allowing more blood to flow through it.
Beijinger 3y ago
You reminded me of this product from the German "Shark Tank": https://www.triggin.de/en https://www.triggin.de/en I have no experience with it nor affiliation but maybe it is interesting for you.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

proto-n 3y ago

Trigger points afaik are a widely accepted concept, my physical therapist tells me that something like 90% of the time her patients' problems are due to trigger points. Or more correctly due to cramping and tense muscles, which trigger points can help alleviate. The trigger point is basically just a place where you can push on the muscle, and apparently when you push on a muscle that's tense, it's forced to relax itself. It's painful, but only as long as the muscle is tense. Relaxed muscles are not painful when pushed.

andrekandre 3y ago
> The trigger point is basically just a place where you can push on the muscle, and apparently when you push on a muscle that's tense, it's forced to relax itself. It's painful, but only as long as the muscle is tense. Relaxed muscles are not painful when pushed. thats interesting. after getting injured i started getting intense tension headaches from the back of my neck/head and at one point went to various massage therapists, and the best ones would find the right muscle and press real hard... which would hurt like hell but would solve my headache pretty fast in a lot of cases. fast-forward many sessions later, i learned how to do the same for myself whenever i'd feel a tension headache coming on, just find that tense knot and press hard; works like magic many times
frob 3y ago
I had debilitating sciatica for 4 to 5 months to the point where I could only get a few intermittent hours of sleep every night even with strong muscle relaxants. I worked with a PT for months on stretches and strengthening exercises. A few months in, they off-handedly suggested dry needling, which seems to operate on the same principles as trigger point massage. I gave it a shot because I was open to any possible treatment at that time. Literally one session cured my sciatica. Within minutes, the pain was less than half of what it had been before and by the next morning, it was over 90% gone. It was quite fortunate timing as this was March 2020 and I cannot fathom how I would have survived the fear and isolation of the early months of the COVID pandemic coupled with that pain.

scandox 3y ago

My wife had serious back issues. MRI showed multiple issues with lower discs etc...surgery was being pushed strongly. She wasn't keen because her sister's surgery had not really helped much. She found Dr Sarno. To this day I'm not entirely on board with it...but whatever went on it worked. The surgeons looking at her MRI were totally baffled. It still showed all the issues and as one said "you shouldn't be able to even walk around without pain". One thing Sarno says which I find interesting: he claims that the correlation between MRI imagery and pain is very weak. In other words you have people with a clean MRI who are in agony and you have people with all kinds of issues showing who are absolutely fine.

d0mine 3y ago
> correlation between MRI imagery and pain is very weak It is not just some fringe opinion from a single doctor e.g., here's recommendations from Barbell Medicine https://youtu.be/mdwj5ORPmX0?si=DOVVJCGgLe_U0GDT https://youtu.be/mdwj5ORPmX0?si=DOVVJCGgLe_U0GDT
_cenw 3y ago
A lot of people have bulging disks without pain. About half in this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8208267/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8208267/ So the MRI should be treated as a correlating factor only. No bulging disk and pain is probably the more immediately useful finding, because you take out a likely cause.
slekker 3y ago
Personal/anectodal/non-scientific: having read his book, I understood that in my specific case my wrist pain was psychosomatic in nature and the pain itself could be caused by blood flow restriction. Just being aware of this and what may be causing it (stress, anxiety) helped alleviate the pain. I imagined the veins in my wrist expanding and allowing more blood to flow through it.

Beijinger 3y ago

You reminded me of this product from the German "Shark Tank": https://www.triggin.de/en https://www.triggin.de/en I have no experience with it nor affiliation but maybe it is interesting for you.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]