In their landmark reference book on Trigger Points, Drs. Janet Travell and David Simons devote an entire chapter to perpetuating factors. (Volume one, chapter four). Why?
Easy. Because without addressing the factors that perpetuate a health condition, the condition is sure to persist. They are really important!
People sometimes are disappointed to hear this. "Poor nutrition didn't cause my neck pain," they'll say. "So what does it matter how I eat now? I just want to get rid of the pain. I'm just not ready for an entire healthy lifestyle makeover."
However...
That is the exact nature of a perpetuating factor. It stands to perpetuate a condition it may not have directly caused.
Think about it.
Sometimes there are different things required for healing a condition than were required to maintain a person's uninjured status quo.
We all get that, right? Most of us, when we catch the occasional cold or sniffle, immediately head for the Vitamin C (or Zinc), some extra fluids, and a nap. We know that Vitamin C, fluids, and extra rest will help us heal more quickly from a cold. It's easy enough to do and we want to feel better fast. Yet low Vitamin C levels, dehydration, and tiredness did not necessarily directly cause the cold. It was some little bug we picked up somewhere.
Travell and Simons list the following categories of perpetuating factors common to the efficient healing of persons with trigger point pain patterns:
* mechanical stress (such as leg length differences, poor posture, and certain movement patterns that stress muscles),
* nutritional inadequacies,
* metabolic and endocrine inadequacies that affect muscle metabolism,
* psychological factors,
* chronic infection,
* and other factors such as allergies and impaired sleep.
* We might also single out the factor of tobacco use, which they mention but do not emphasize.
Many people resist making lifestyle changes. They want healing (which is a change) to occur without leaving the comfort zone of their everyday habits.
It's easy to understand why.
We've learned to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living in a particular way. We survive. We get by. Some part of us feels that if we were to change our coping habits, we would cease to survive. In the moment, the prospect of making those changes can be terrifying!
Yet change is necessary for healing. Pills don't cause healing. Healthy living does.
As a practitioner who works daily with people who desire healing in their lives, it's easy to recognize some of these perpetuating factors. It's also easy to see that making the transformation to healthy living usually goes better for people when they have support.
And that's why we're here. To support your healthy lifestyle!
Elizabeth Eckert can help you explore how simple everyday choices create health — or undermine even the best of intentions. With a background that ranges from energy medicine to structural bodywork to developmental psychology, this "Stick-To-It Coach" has the experience to support you in creating the healthiest possible expression of — you!
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