In Tuscany, Manual Medicine is among the five accredited “complementary” medical disciplines, together with Acupuncture, Phytotherapy, Homeopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine, as considered scientifically appropriate, of proven efficacy and widely appreciated by the public.

MM reveals a particular efficacy in everything that can be classified as osteo-myo-articular pathology, which overall represents the first cause of consultation with the general practitioner.

Often the general practitioner subjects the patient with myo-articular problems to useless eidological tests (X-ray, ECHO, MRI, …) and / or equally useless specialist mailings, with the result of demoralizing or dispersing him in “alternative practices” , which sometimes give positive results, but the most disappointing or only partial and temporary.

Unfortunately, the family doctor has the constant tendency to delegate the care of such patients to others, since, while perhaps recognizing the validity of the manual approach, he has the feeling that it is something unattainable, or understandable only to those who are specialists. in the sector or “initiated” in particularly demanding practices and studies. The complex philosophical system of certain schools and disciplines (such as Chiropractic and Osteopathy) contributes even more to fuel the confusion.  

Doctors and researchers Jane Travell and David Simons are responsible for a long research work, supported by a consistent team of collaborators and students, which led to the discovery in the skeletal muscle of particular anatomical-pathological entities called  Trigger Point and Tender Area , directly connected with every type of osteo-myo-articular pathology and more.

Thanks to their work, we have a method that fully responds to four characteristics that have always been desired in medicine: causal validity, ability to achieve stable results, ease of learning, few or no contraindications.

In my opinion the most competent operator in the field of Manual Medicine turns out to be the family doctor, if only he finds the opportunity and the will to try his hand.

More than anyone else, he knows his patient, his particularities, the environment in which he lives and his clinical history. For all this, he has the best foundations for achieving a personalization of therapy, a necessary condition for the effective application of the manual method in medicine.

The Travell-Simons method – I repeat – is easy to learn, does not have particular difficulties in its execution and above all does not involve dangers or contraindications, present instead in certain techniques that involve impulse mobilization and manipulation.