Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Unveiling Fibromyalgia_ The Science Behind Trigger Points | Acupuncture & TCM

24 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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Aaron Hartman, MD explains fibromyalgia trigger points and why they matter. The tender points doctors have used to diagnose fibromyalgia for decades actually contain elevated inflammatory markers and connect to internal organs through reflex arcs, which may explain why bodywork therapies reduce systemic inflammation.

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One of the interesting things about these centralized pain syndromes, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. Back when I did my training initially, the American College of Rheumatologists had these trigger points for diagnosing fibromyalgia. And there's certain trigger points you touch on the thigh, shoulders. We actually know those trigger points now actually contain increased inflammatory markers, which is kind of cool, but they actually correspond with internal organs that actually are part of this reflex arc. Well, this is really interesting because now I'll talk about therapies here towards the end, but it kind of helps explain why bodywork, different kinds of body work actually can help with systemic inflammation.