Our views about how hard to press on a trigger
point in the treatment of pelvic floor dysfunction
To begin, this blog as with all of our blogs and podcasts do not represent medical advice but simply a report of our experience and opinions in treating pelvic pain.
I want to discuss the
In this blog, I want to describe the road I travelled in my full recovery from
chronic pelvic pain and my realistic view of such recovery for others. Nothing
animates my enthusiasm and has enduringly given me confidence and optimism
about recovering from pelvic pain for others like my own recovery and the
recovery
• In this blog, I will explain the Wise-Anderson Protocol and why it helps significantly reduce pain and symptoms, of chronic pelvic floor related pain in majority of men and women who are trained in it.
• I suffered from pelvic floor related pain and symptoms for over 20 years before
The Wise-Anderson Protocol treats muscle-based pelvic pain. This typically includes diagnostic categories like pelvic floor dysfunction, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, prostatitis/abacterial prostatitis/non-bacterial prostatitis or sometimes simply diagnosed as prostatitis, levator ani syndrome, pudendal neuralgia, coccydynia, anal and rectal pain, and perineal pain among others.
The way
Why a disciplined, focused daily program is necessary to have a chance of recovering from pelvic pain (including prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, CPPS, pelvic floor dysfunction, levator ani syndrome, pudendal neuralgia, perineal pain among others)
We tell people who do our program that it takes time and diligent practice to
Healing pelvic pain means both stopping the local clenched muscular pain in the pelvis and reducing the arousal of the nervous system that is driving the chronic clenching of the pelvic floor.
It is indisputable that when someone has pelvic floor pain, selected muscles inside and outside the pelvis are painful
HOME TREATMENT PROGRAM FOR PROSTATITIS / PELVIC PAIN / PELVIC FLOOR DYSFUNCTION
Doing Our New Program At Home Without Coming To See Us
Pelvic pain robs the quality of life. I know this. I lived with it for over 20 years and tried everything I could find to no avail until I
In my long experience with pelvic pain, before it resolved for me, I had no idea how to stop my pain, it was there, I woke up with it every day, it didn’t go away, some things made it worse sometimes some things made it better or it just got
In the original version of our book A Headache in the Pelvis, we described pelvic floor pain as a condition in which the tissue of the pelvic floor is caught in an inhospitable environment of chronic contraction, pain, and tension. We stated simply that our therapeutic approach – called the
Plato reportedly said, “Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.” What he meant is that for many people, underneath the surface is a struggle that isn’t visible. Inside each of us is a daily fight to deal with survival and the many obstacles in life, and the unseen
After consulting with my physician colleagues in our program about our experience with many patients who have undergone some surgery or invasive procedure for their pelvic floor related pain, it has been our conclusion that there is no convincing basis for a surgical approach to treating chronic pelvic pain syndromes.
Hidden in plain sight is an oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear together in a phrase yet both are true. When something is hidden you can’t see it, but when something is in plain sight, you can. How peculiar! Yet in my view, this figure
It’s easy to medicalize pelvic pain; to view it as a purely physical disease or disorder instead of a stress response tied to chronically tighten up the pelvic floor. In seeing it simply as a physical pathology and a medical problem, you miss out in understanding what pelvic pain in
The concept of intense and relaxation practice as a necessary therapy for the resolution of what is diagnosed as prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, pelvic floor dysfunction among other diagnoses, may well produce a head scratch to the casual observer. What does relaxation have to do with pelvic pain? In
Men who suffer from pelvic floor pain, whether it’s called prostatitis or pelvic floor dysfunction, tend to be intelligent, successful, ambitious, conscientious, and accomplished type-A personalities. And these men share the common characteristic of worrying. Pelvic floor dysfunction related to pelvic pain often occurs in men who work too much,
I’d like to talk about the length of time it can take for pelvic-floor pain and symptoms to significantly improve or resolve when they do using the Wise-Anderson Protocol. Typically when an injury or illness happens – when people get a cold, cut themselves, break a bone, or have some
In this essay I want to discuss an invisible source of the creation and perpetuation of pelvic floor pain. It is the issue I’m calling pleasure anxiety. This is something we’ve discussed in our book A Headache in the Pelvis and it’s not something, to my knowledge, that has ever
There is a large and growing body of literature documenting how emotional arousal interferes with the body’s ability to heal. Wounds are typically slower to heal in the presence of anxiety; the area of medicine called psychoneuroimmunology has much literature to show how one’s troubled psychological state negatively affects the
Men who suffer from pelvic floor pain, whether it’s called prostatitis or pelvic floor dysfunction, tend to be intelligent, successful, ambitious, conscientious, and accomplished type-A personalities who worry. Pelvic floor dysfunction related to pelvic pain often occurs in men who work too much, care too much, want too much, desire
There’s an ancient parable about ten blind men who come upon an elephant. One touches the elephant’s leg and says, “Oh, this is a tree trunk.” Another finds himself under the elephant’s stomach, pushes up and says, “No, this is a soft ceiling.” A third one pulls the elephant’s tail
I’d like to talk about the opioid epidemic that has been in the news the past several years in relationship to the inside job of healing pelvic pain that is outside the reach of all drugs. In recent years, there is what is now called an opioid epidemic has been
Pelvic pain is invisible. It can’t be seen, it can’t be visualized with fancy technologies, there are no fluid tests for it; it’s a difficult phenomenon to understand if you’ve never had it. I want to use a metaphor here that I’m hoping is easy to understand, to understand the
The word commodity comes originally from the Latin commodus meaning ‘a useful or valuable thing’. By the early 15th century commodity was being used in English to refer to “an article of merchandise, anything movable of value that can be bought or sold.” Implicit in this definition is that a
There is a large and growing body of literature documenting how emotional arousal interferes with the body’s ability to heal. Wounds are typically slower to heal in the presence of anxiety; the area of medicine called psychoneuroimmunology has much literature to show how one’s troubled psychological state negatively affects the
In our experience, and that reported by other centers and physicians who have worked in this field, it is quite common for both men and women who develop a chronic pelvic pain condition also exhibit urinary dysfunction. Urinary frequency and urgency is one of the most common symptoms of patients
In the 1920s, a well-known physiologist at Harvard named Walter Cannon introduced the concept of fight, flight, freeze. Coincidentally, Walter Cannon was a teacher of my relaxation teacher, Edmund Jacobsen. Commonly, the term Cannon coined is called “fight or flight.” This means that in the presence of something threatening, you
What makes a difference in the journey of healing pelvic pain is seeing when you are doing something that reliably helps your symptoms. When I was symptomatic, I tried all kinds of things: acupuncture, supplements, reflexology, medications, considered surgical procedures which I gratefully didn’t pursue. My symptoms waxed and waned,
What makes a difference in the journey of healing pelvic pain is seeing when you are doing something that reliably helps your symptoms. When I was symptomatic, I tried all kinds of things: acupuncture, supplements, reflexology, medications, considered surgical procedures which I gratefully didn’t pursue. My symptoms waxed and waned,
With all the discoveries of modern medicine, there remains a certain arrogance in the idea that medicine is the source of health and longevity. Yes, we live longer, and illnesses and conditions that killed our ancestors are cured by the remedies of modern treatments. But we also often forget that
There is a deep insight in a book called the Course in Miracles that says: “ In my defenselessness my safety lies”. This means that we only feel safe when we are not tightening up in self-defense and self-protection. Protective guarding typically reflects a state of fear, a state
In an earlier podcast I discussed ‘letting go’ as the medicine of the Wise-Anderson Protocol. By letting go, I mean the release of muscle tension inside and outside the body and daily reduction of nervous arousal enabling the healing of sore pelvic tissue. By letting go I mean ceasing
PART 1 – INTRODUCTION: PELVIC PAIN IS A PSYCHO-PHYSICAL EVENT TO REDUCE ANXIETY
Learn the importance to reduce Psycho-Physical events to help reduce Anxiety. During the writing of the fourth edition of our book, a physical therapy colleague of ours reported an important story that occurred with one of her patients.
Pelvic Pain Symptoms and Treatments: Using Modern Terms to Explain Nervous System Arousal
Airplane mode, in fact, is an excellent metaphor in terms of describing the pelvic pain symptoms and treatments of the pelvic pain sufferer.
Using the term “airplane mode” to explain the nervous system of the pelvic pain sufferer.
“Airplane mode”
Abstract
Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback DOI 10.1007/s10484-015-9273-1
February 2015
Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: Reduction of Medication Use After Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy with an Internal Myofascial Trigger Point Wand
R. U. Anderson Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA e-mail: rua@stanford.edu: R. H. Harvey Department of Health Education, San Francisco State University, San
There are a growing number of scientific articles on stress and pelvic pain syndromes.
There have been a growing number of articles appearing in the major journals like the Journal of Urology and World Urology that point out the significant association between stress and prostatitis and related pelvic pain syndromes. This
Symptoms of prostatitis and pain in the pelvis typically don’t respond to conventional medical treatment.
Traditionally, when men have complained to their doctor about pain in the pelvis, anus or genitals, urinary frequency and urgency, post-ejaculatory discomfort, or sitting pain or the sensation of a ‘golf ball’ in the rectum, they
Treating chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain: their relationship to mind and body
We are often asked whether the physical or behavioral parts of the Wise-Anderson Protocol for treating chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain is more important for its connection to the relationship to the Mind and body. This is
In an article in 2000 in Physical Therapy, investigators found that teaching patients to do ischemic compression (pressure on Myofascial trigger points) in the neck and upper back was effective in reducing pain and sensitivity. We are gratified to see some studies showing the efficacy of physical therapy self-treatment for myofascial pain. We
Paradoxical Relaxation and the Treatment of Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome
In a recent New York Times article (see excerpt below), the usefulness of concentration as an integral part of a discussion of mindfulness is discussed. The ability to concentrate is not a subject that is often discussed in the psychological literature
Pain Blog – The Invisible Patient: The Symptoms of Chronic Prostatitis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Patients
Our Pain Blog covers research on chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain.
A recent article in the Korean Journal of Urology (see below) documented that men diagnosed with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (chronic prostatitis, chronic
New Findings About Emotional Brain Changes in Prostatitis: What to do About it
Swiss researchers looking into brain activity in men with prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome report that in a small group of men there is a reduction in relative gray matter volume in a part of the cortex.
A new
Reflections on The Prostatitis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Treatment and the path to Recovery
By David Wise, PhD
This paper is about sharing my observations about healing my own pelvic pain and my road to recovery.
Millions of men suffer from urinary frequency, urgency, pain with sitting, pain after sex, genital pain and pelvic
Effective Prostatitis Treatment and its Impact on the Quality of Life
Assessing a New Study
First, it should be noted that it is not the symptoms of chronic prostatitis that can destroy one’s quality of life, but the thought that the symptoms will never go away. A group of European urologists reported in
Is There a Cure for Chronic Prostatitis?
The question as to whether there is a cure for chronic prostatitis does not offer a simple answer. When prostatitis is bacterial, antibiotics can cure the problem and eradicate the bacteria. However, in most cases of men diagnosed with prostatitis, the prostate is not the source
What to Know About Antibiotics and Alpha Blockers for Prostatitis
Despite the almost universal use of antibiotics for prostatitis symptoms diagnosed as chronic prostatitis, credible and highly regarded studies over the past years have shown that antibiotics, alpha blockers, and anti-inflammatory drugs are usually no better than placebos.
Traditionally, those suffering from prostatitis
About Chronic Prostatitis and Surgery
To begin, there is no credible evidence to show that surgery helps prostatitis. While there is sporadic experimentation with prostate surgery and pelvic surgery, it has been our clinical experience that surgery typically complicates or worsens someone’s situation. We never recommend surgery for prostatitis or chronic pelvic
About Chronic Prostatitis and Diet
Many men we have seen diagnosed with symptoms of chronic prostatitis report no benefit from diet modification. In fact, some men report that their symptoms temporarily improve with alcohol.
When it comes to pelvic pain syndromes and chronic prostatitis, when the pain or discomfort does not go away, there
About Ejaculation Discomfort in Chronic Prostatitis
Many men who see a urologist for chronic prostatitis will be given the advice to increase ejaculation. In fact, it is very common for men with prostatitis/ chronic pelvic pain syndrome to experience discomfort during and/ or after ejaculation.
There is often an increase in discomfort
What to Know About Prostatodynia
Read below to discover facts about Prostatodynia:
Prostatodynia is a chronic and painful disease in which patients experience prostate pain.
Prostatodynia is synonymous with chronic nonbacterial prostatitis, chronic abacterial prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and pelvic floor dysfunction.
When left untreated, this disorder is likely to lead to pain in
What to Know About Levator Ani Syndrome and its Association with Rectal Pain.
Levator Ani Syndrome is a condition of chronic muscle-based pelvic pain up inside the muscles of the pelvic floor commonly associated with rectal pain . If you are experiencing chronic rectal and/or anal pain, there is a chance
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