Scar Tissue Relief Portland OR

Deep-Down Pain Relief

Provided by: 

By Jennifer Lang

As soon as I got out of bed, I knew something was wrong. My left foot felt fine, but my right one hurt each time I took a step. I did a quick mental check of potential causes: a bike ride with kids—OK. A vigorous yoga class—maybe. A 30-minute jump-roping session in my lightweight, snazzy sneakers—ouch!

For the following two weeks, I winced when I walked. An orthopedist, who X-rayed my foot, discovered a bone spur and the beginnings of mild arthritis in both feet. He concluded that I’d pinched a nerve jumping rope in non-supportive shoes. Prescription: time, patience, and no more strenuous yoga.

A week later, still in pain, I went to a chiropractor. After reviewing the doctor’s report, he felt my right foot, then left, then right again. New diagnosis: scar tissue. It’s normal, he said, but because of a severely sprained ankle 13 years ago, I had a lot of it.

Hearing about everyone else’s aches, my guess is I’m not alone. Many people walk around with vague pain in their shoulders or backs thinking they’ve got tendonitis or arthritis. What if it’s not one of those catchall “itises,” but really scar tissue? And what if healing requires a more hands-on approach and some yoga-like stretching instead of an anti-inflammatory and a sling?

Moving the matrix
“The reality is if you’ve ever had an injury, you have scar tissue,” says Natalie Nevins, a medical doctor and a certified yoga instructor in Hollywood, California. Scar tissue forms as the body’s natural response to trauma, such as sprains, strains, and repetitive stress injuries to muscles and joints. It consists primarily of collagen, which is a type of connective tissue that assists healing of the damaged tissues. “We often think of it as bad, but without it our bodies would never heal,” says Nevins.

But scar tissue formation isn’t always problem-free. Unlike soft tissue—which has fibers running alongside each other in the same direction—scar tissue can form randomly, potentially causing pain and limiting function. “Think of a game of pick-up sticks where you stand the sticks upright in your hand and then gently let go, allowing them to drop any which way,” says Nevins. “That’s what scar tissue can do if you don’t help your body heal properly.” Meaning? Say you sprain your wrist. Most likely, your instinct is to immobilize it based on the RICE theory—rest, ice, compression, and elevation. But what you really need to do is keep moving. “Rest doesn’t mean immobilize,” says Nevins. “It means do what you can do—gentle, pain-free, range-of-motion, non-weight-bearing exercises—and slowly work your way up each day.” If you keep proper motion going and strengthen the surrounding area, slowly working to rehabilitate the injury and stretch the surrounding areas that are tight, scar tissue will lay down in the same pattern as the original tissue.

Easy does it
Because scar tissue takes years to form and is created any time you damage skin, tendons, ligaments, fascia, muscle...

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