Is this you?
"My hands get numb & tingly...especially when I lay in bed at night on my phone! I must have carpal tunnel..."
"I told my massage therapist I my calves cramp frequently....why is he/she working on my hips so much?"
"I get chronic headaches, but I just take an NSAID and then I feel better"
....listen, friends, you're not alone. Pain is an alarm system for our bodies. It's trying to alert us that there is a problem...somewhere. The thing is...that pain, numbness, or tingling in your hands....your hands aren't these detached floppy mitts...they are connected to a network of nerves that run from your hand all the way up your arm, through your shoulder, and pass through the bones in your neck, into your spinal cord (aka the biggest information highway in your body). And to make it more confusing... your spinal cord may also be receiving pain signals in an area of your body that's not correlated to muscles or nerves, but to the ORGANS!
Confusing, yes, it can be. But really, humans are this giant interconnected map of highways, waterways, and bridges. And if you live in Hampton Roads, you know that all it takes is one bridge opening, one rainstorm, one traffic accident to cause a domino effect of delays and congestion. Luckily, a clinically trained massage therapist will know how to decipher the messages that your body is sending. Many, many times, manual therapy can unlock that congestion in just a few visits.