Why I wrote ‘Common Pain Syndromes’
As a clinician, I find it not only natural to pass on knowledge, I believe it is also an obligation. My initial idea for this book was to create a workbook for new medical graduates that summarised all the common musculoskeletal pain syndromes seen in primary care, their diagnostic features, investigations and conventional treatments, as few publications cover this important topic well. There are about 100 conditions listed in the book.
I then decided to include the concept of myofascial trigger points (TrPs) and how to palpate for 40 common ones. Like many other clinicians over millennia and across cultures, I observed that TrPs are often involved in the causation of pain. For example TrPs such as one in the levator scapulae or the trapezius causing a recurrent headache, or a TrP in a piriformis causing crippling pain down the leg.
However, eradicating TrPs, especially chronic ones or ones resulted from severe injuries are difficult and frustrating. Over many years I tried different modalities of treatments, manual therapies, mobilisation methods, various massage techniques, stretches, numerous disciplines of exercises, and referrals to other practitioners. I also used acupuncture, cupping, moxa, heat treatments, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and injections into the TrPs with saline, local anaesthetic and corticosteroids, often without consistent success. Other doctors have also tried injecting them with botox (the PREEMPT protocol for treating chronic migraines), and that's not curative either.
In 2008, I learned a relatively new (50 year old) acupuncture technique called Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture (YNSA). It was extremely effective in eradicating TrPs. Consequently I included instructions on how to practise YNSA in this book, as I felt it would be incomplete without it.
As I began to run YNSA workshops at the NSW Australian Medical Acupuncture College (AMAC), I discovered a very efficient way to teach this method. An acupuncturist can practise effective YNSA in 30 minutes if they just use the J and K somatotope of the YNSA system, and watch the four YouTube videos (under Dr Joe Cheung) I made to support my book.
I hope that Common Pain Syndromes, A New Approach, passes on the art of treating TrPs that has served me very well in the last 17 years.
I know that new graduates will also find the conventional synopsis of the book useful, despite not practising acupuncture. It was the original reason and motivation for writing the book.
Dr Joe Cheung
Watch the short tutorial video’s that accompany the book here.