Scars and Chronic Pain - The Unknown Connection
I commonly get people in my office that have pretty serious chronic issues including - but not limited to - low back pain, frozen shoulder, sciatica (which is pain that runs down the leg), migraines, hormonal issues, numbness or tingling in the fingers and toes… you name it. One of the first questions that I like to ask is “do you have any scars?”
This throws people off a bit. Why would a scar be connected to my issue?
Well, scars - especially the large and poorly healed ones - are very commonly the source of chronic symptoms.
Lets take c-section scars for example. Once I had a client that came in with a frozen shoulder. Now, this wasn’t the type of frozen shoulder that only limited her life a little. She could not lift her arm past about 45-degrees of flexion. For those who don’t know what that is, that is about as high as it would take to point to something on the floor about one meter (or 3.3 feet) away from you. She was also experiencing numbness and tingling in her fingers on the same side.
You could just imagine how hard this must have been for her. Over the past few years as her shoulder became worse and worse, she had seen every specialist under the sun and no one could see anything wrong physically to her shoulder. She was ready to give up…
This is a common type of person I see come to my office. People usually refer to me when nothing else works. I can’t tell you how many people have come into my office saying “my friend told me to come to you. They said that they have no idea what you do, they just know it works.”
What I do is assess the whole body and use my skills in anatomy and physiology to figure out how someone could develop these types of symptoms. I figure out the root cause of an issue, fix that, then the symptoms simply go away on their own once the body re-balances itself.
So with this client of mine, after a long assessment of course, it was pretty obvious that all the manual therapists, doctors, and specialists that she had seen were completely right - there was nothing wrong with her shoulder. However, she had a very adhered c-section scar from the birth of her now 4-year old child (remember that all these symptoms started happening a few years ago).
That made me wonder - could the c-section scar be pulling the fascia of the shoulder down, locking it so she couldn’t lift her arm? Could it really be that simple?
Try it yourself. Roll your shoulder forward so that the top of it is facing as forward and down as you can, then while keeping it in place try to lift you arms overhead - it is impossible.
Now, put you hand on your abdomen, fingers spread with your thumb above the belly button and the fingers below your belly button, then - very slowly - try to bring the skin under your thumbs toward the skin under your fingers. What happens to your shoulders? They have to roll forward to accommodate the new tension that you have bought to your abdomen!
This is exactly what happens is the body when a scar does not heal well - it starts to harden and adhere to surrounding structures in the body, causing a whole bunch of issues.
So, we worked on the scar. Pulling it, massaging it, doing whatever we could to break apart the bad adhesions until the scar could move freely without pulling on anything underneath or around it.
Sure enough, after we were done, she was able to lift her arm overhead. Instant fix.
Now, that doesn’t always happen - this was a pretty dramatic case - but it goes to show how important it is to work out your scars.
Think box - so you have any scars? Do you have any issues is the general location of the scar that the scar could be affecting?
So today I wanted to shows you 5 ways to work on a scar.
Now, please note - it is important to be cleared by your doctor before starting scar work. Do NOT start doing these techniques on a fresh scar. This is more for people will old, healed, and adhered scars to help bring more mobility and vitality to the area.
If your scar is healed, old, and has been cleared by a medical professional, then here are some tips to how you can work out your scars:
Bring into the ease.
If a scar was just approved by the doctor for scar work, it can sometimes be a bit painful to bring the scar into tension. So, the lightest and easiest way to work on these types of scar is to bring it into its “ease”. That means, put your hand on the scar and slightly bring it left, right, up, down, etc., until you find which direction feels the lightest and brings you ease. If you hold there for a while the tissue will "unwind” itself and start to loosen up.
2. Bring into the restriction (reciprocal tension)
Of course, if that doesn’t work or you feel like it needs a bit more of a push, you can bring the scar into tension. Just like before you bring it up, down, left, right, etc., and find which direction produces the most tension. Hold it there for a while the the tissue will start to release. This is similar to stretching a muscle.
3. Add compression or separation.
Ok. So now that you have the basics, you can add compression or separation. You compress by using your thumb and index finger to pinch the scar towards its centre. You separate by pulling them apart. You can also combine the first 2 with this:
compression + tension
compression + ease
separation + tension
separation + ease
Whatever feels right to you, go for it!
4. Top-to-bottom OR side-to-side
This step is simple. After you have worked the scar as a whole, you can also go along and find spots that are worse and work those areas separately by placing one finger on the top of the scar and one finger on the bottom of the scar (and add a combination from step 3), or place one finger on one side of the affected area and another finger on the other side and do the same.
5. Pinch and roll.
Now this is my favourite one - probably because it has such an awesome name. In this technique you pinch the scar to see if it bubbles up or pulls in. With normal healthy skin, when you pinch it the skin should bubble up between your fingers. Sometimes with scars when you pinch it there will be a part of the scar that doesn’t bubble up the same - it instead pulls in. You especially want to break those up. To do that you pinch the scar where it is stick roll it around until it is free. This can take a couple of tries to get, but once you have it it is great for the scar.
And thats it! Pretty simple, right? You just keep working at it until the skin sides with ease over the tissue underneath and isn’t pulling in any direction.
If you have any questions, let me know! Or if you are too nervous to try on yourself feel free to make an appointment with me and I’ll help you get started.
With Love,
Britte
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