Possible side effects

During session

• sweating
• coldness
• dizziness (when patient is in a sitting position)
• nausea (when patient is in a sitting position)

Post-session

• soreness
• bruising
• if a patient does not drink water post session, the patient may suffer a recurrence of pain with sleeplessness
• pain and headache (patients who suffer from fatigue may feel more pain after a session than before; especially they may suffer an early morning headache the next day, even a migraine headache)

If the clinician does not carefully release both the agonists and antagonists in the functional unit, the patient may soon develop acute problems in the antagonists. It is imperative that both the agonists and antagonists be released in any one session, even if the patient is pain-free with agonist release. Exception: because it can be difficult to tell when the psoas is completely released, I do not release the quadratus lumborum trigger points through a stretched position unless there are clear and problematic quadratus lumborum referred pain patterns; even then the iliopsoas is released first. It is important to work on all sides of the neck.

Finally, patients may suffer a recurrence of an old problem after the current problem has been resolved. Example: Patient presents with TMJ syndrome, which resolves in one session. She returns two weeks later with a recurrence of anterior knee pain, which has become much more severe since her TMJ pain is gone. The knee pain resolves in one session, and the patient does not return for more treatment. Chinese medicine theory explains this phenomenon, but I will not attempt to explain it in western terms now.