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Here are some scenarios I see as a massage therapist:

“I had this chest pain that radiated to the arm last week but had gone to emergency and had all of the tests and nothing could be found.”

Or

“I have low back pain that keeps recurring intermittently for the last few years. But no matter how much I get direct treatment on my low back, the pain doesn’t seem to go away.”

Or

“I had a sore throat last week and thought I was getting sick but noticed that it seemed to be relieved slightly by massaging my own neck.”

 

What do all of these have in common?

The human body is complex. Our nervous systems rely on nerve endings which in some areas of the body are less plentiful than others. There are multiple pathways for a signal to lead up to our brains to interpret. And, that interpretation may also be imperfect.

Sometimes pain is perceived in one area but can originate from a different area altogether. That is the definition of referred pain.

If you have ever wondered why your Physiotherapist or RMT worked on your neck when you came in with an arm or shoulder ache or you have been told that your sore leg issue is coming from your hip, referred pain could explain it.

In the chest pain scenario, the general public (or search engines) commonly flag that as referred pain from a heart attack as shown in this picture:

 

but that had been ruled out by medical tests. Sometimes, tight areas of the muscles can account for pain being perceived in an adjacent area. In that case, a myofascial trigger point (some would call this a muscle knot) in the pecs were to blame as shown in the photo below.

Obviously, if you experience worrying symptoms such as a possible heart attack, go to the hospital! But if the tests come back negative, there are other explanations. Recognizing a possible referral pattern from other causes is part of our job. Our team here would be glad to assist you!

Brian Redillas, RMT