Understanding Muscle Pain
Understanding Muscle Pain
By Dr. Daniel Rocha DN LMT CPT CNS
As a Naprapath is assessing a patients connective tissue health and applying that to the overall health of an individual, the understanding of protein and the components is required.
Understanding when there is a restriction in the muscle or myofascial layer, the tissue is deprived of oxygen. Most muscle pain is due to the muscle not receiving oxygen and nutrients. Magnesium is one nutrient that ensures muscles are being nourished by binding to an amino acid for bioavailability
Myoglobin holds oxygen inside heart and skeletal muscle. It is continually released into the blood in small amounts due to normal turnover of muscle cells. Kidneys discard the myoglobin into urine.
Myoglobin is the first test done to determine if a person with chest pain is having a heart attack. This is because when muscle is damaged, as in a heart attack, larger amounts of myoglobin are released and blood levels rise rapidly. Myoglobin is the first of blood tests to become abnormal. Damage or injury to skeletal muscle will also cause myoglobin to be released into the blood.
Hemoglobin on the other hand is a two-way respiratory carrier, transporting oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and then returning transport of carbon dioxide. Hemoglobin as an oxygen carrier reacts when blood reaches an oxygen-deficient tissue. The oxygen is dissociated from hemoglobin and diffused into the tissue through oxidative phosphorylation in the production of ATP. Hemoglobin as a carbon dioxide carrier binds to the protein structure other than iron-binding position because carbon dioxide will not compete with the oxygen binding site of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin, in the arterial circulation, has a high affinity for oxygen and a low affinity for carbon dioxide, organic phosphates, and hydrogen and chloride ions.
During nutritional counseling session as a naprapath, supplements and nutritional guidance can be provided to support folks with either low hemoglobin or high hemoglobin. This is dependent on the root cause of the deficiency or over abundance.
Nordenson, N. J. (2020). Myoglobin Test. In J. L. Longe (Ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (6th ed., Vol. 6, pp. 3545-3546). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Retrieved from https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX7986601279/HWRC?u=lirn33148&sid=HWRC&xid=31923b6a