Dry Needling Explained:

Bring Your Headaches and Muscle Pain Under Control

We all dream of a stress-free life, but the reality is that a certain amount of stress is unavoidable. Parents age, bad weather threatens, and other stressful events occur every day. For many women, stress leads to the additional problem of physical pain, such as muscular tension headaches and upper-back knots. PT/OT Partners of Fargo wants these individuals to know that they’re here to help.

PT/OT Partners specializes in treating muscle pain, including muscular tension headaches. This type of headache as well as certain other muscle-related pain arises from trigger points, which are areas of muscle locked in a state of contraction. As PT/OT co-owner Mike Kroke explained, “When a muscle is working, it tightens, but sometimes part of the muscle doesn’t relax.” While chronic headaches don’t plague everyone, Kroke points out that “there really isn’t an active living adult who doesn’t have trigger points.”

The trigger points in our bodies are either inactive (not causing pain but lying in wait) or active. They can be activated by emotional or physical stressors—conflict with a loved one, or sitting at a desk too long with poor posture. A variety of treatments can provide relief for the pain caused by trigger points, including manual physical therapy, massage therapy and chiropractic treatment. These are all effective, Kroke believes, and in fact PT/OT regularly provides physical therapy. “But there’s some pain that’s very stubborn and requires more aggressive interventions,” Kroke said. “And you can’t always afford to go to massage or therapy every week, all year long.” For these reasons, Kroke and his colleagues want to educate the public about dry needling, another effective option.

This treatment, which is based on Western medicine and research, is frequently confused with acupuncture, based on Eastern medicine. “Dry needling is new medicine,” Kroke says, “but conventional. There is science behind it.” Dry needling does use the same tool as acupuncture: a thin, monofilament needle that is tapped into the skin. As the needle moves through healthy muscle, patients don’t feel it, but a muscle twitch or cramp occurs when the needle hits a trigger point. Though the twitch can be uncomfortable, it is brief and necessary. “It’s the therapeutic part of the treatment,” Kroke explains, “so there’s no treatment without that twitch.”

Needle anxiety is common, but PT/OT staff are able to work through mild anxiety with most patients. A more serious needle phobia makes it much more difficult to attempt dry needling, so they do manual physical therapy with this type of patient. “The amount of needling we do varies by person,” Kroke said. “We go more slowly with the people that need it.”

Dry needling is only one component of the comprehensive treatment plans at PT/OT Partners. Their team of three certified myofascial trigger point therapists combines dry needling with physical therapy, and also teaches patients about lifestyle changes that can reduce trigger point activation. Kroke said, “Dry needling is not a panacea for every condition, but part of treating the specific problem of muscle pain.” And yet in contrast to conventional therapies, dry needling can produce meaningful results in fewer visits, with more immediate and lasting results.

Though stress persists throughout a person’s life, “our goal is not to create lifetime patients,” Kroke stated. Rather, they work with patients and often in partnership with family physicians to achieve a plan for ongoing pain management. Prevention is possible, too, through keeping active, staying hydrated, and proper nutrition. Kroke also mentioned the importance of supportive relationships. “A lot of people don’t tend to address their emotional stress, so we hope people seek support from others in their lives.” Finally, ergonomics at the workplace deserve attention, especially since a growing number of Fargo-Moorhead companies provide ergonomic assessment.

When prevention isn’t enough, the team at PT/ OT Partners hopes headache sufferers will try dry needling, or at least begin by making an appointment to learn more about this technique. “Headaches are complex and can be stubborn,” Kroke said, “but there’s no need to live with them without trying a treatment that we know delivers quick results.”