Every day and literally every minute, millions of people around the globe suffer from chronic pain. Whether that pain is genetic or is the result of an injury or some other reason, one thing is certain: the pain is constant and unbearable. It affects them in everyday life, prohibiting them from performing simple tasks or doing activities they love.
Chronic pain can also affect an individual’s muscle strength, making it difficult to walk or run or jog or even walk up and down flights of stairs.
Thankfully, there are many kinds of therapy available for those who suffer from chronic pain and there are also many forms of testing, which can measure a person’s pain tolerance and muscle strength.
One of the ways muscle strength is tested is through manual muscle testing (MMT), an alternative form of medicine that can diagnose muscular, structural, chemical and medical ailments. The basic idea is to figure out what a body’s reaction is to certain types of action. As an example, muscle strength testing equipment can be used on a person’s bicep. If the testing deems the bicep weak, the principles of MMT may be applied to determine that there’s an underlying issue somewhere else in your body that needs to be addressed.
It should be noted that MMT isn’t a foolproof way to diagnose every kind of illness or ailment, but it’s a noninvasive, inexpensive and effective way to really identify the source of pain in an individual’s body. With all kinds of muscle strength testing equipment, professionals can use gravity and resistance to access muscle strength, muscle power and muscle endurance.
If you’re wondering how MMT works, doctors will usually manipulate your muscles, perhaps asking you to lift an arm or a leg and then apply pressure. Muscle testing with muscle strength testing equipment isn’t painful, but it can be if you’re injured. Essentially doctors are trying to figure out how good your range of motion is.
It’s estimated that more than 1.5 billion people around the world suffer from chronic pain—identified as pain that lasts for 12 months or longer. It’s also estimated that Americans spend at least $50 billion annually on back pain—identified as the single leading cause of disability worldwide.
So how do you know if MMT will work for you? If you come into a muscle testing center with a chiropractic evaluation, you’re a candidate for MMT. Doctors who are very experienced can identify areas of weakness within a single muscle or a particular group of muscles and trace it back to a point of origin in the body. For all you know, there may be a build-up of toxins in your body that are inhibiting your ability to move and function. By identifying things like this, doctors can determine which kinds of treatment or rehab tools (therapy, massage or manipulations) are going to work best.
Pain can be crippling and debilitating, but it can also be very complex because sometimes you may not even know where the source of your pain is. By using tools such as digital pressure algometers or dynamometer muscle testing equipment, doctors can test your range of motion, test your pain tolerance, pinpoint the source of your pain and ultimately figure out how to treat it.
Chronic pain can greatly impact a person’s ability to function on an everyday basis, but you don’t have to be a slave to your pain with MMT. Instead, you can take control of your life again and improve your daily motion and function by getting help to better manage your pain.
