What is ‘Gunn IMS’ and How Can it Help You?

Dry needling, as implied by its name, uses needles with no injection. A different name for dry needling is intramuscular stimulation (IMS), which I find more accurate.

IMS uses the same types of needles as acupuncture, but they are not inserted at the traditional acupuncture points, and the practice is not part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Instead, in IMS, needles are inserted at points determined by Western scientific knowledge of anatomy and physiology.

When an IMS needle is inserted, you may feel your muscle release immediately. You may also feel your muscle jump or slowly cramp, then relax. A deep aching is normal. All of these sensations are caused by your muscle lengthening. In most cases, IMS will immediately improve a patient’s range of motion. Lengthening muscles addresses the root cause of many problems and can reduce pain.

How Gunn IMS Can Help Reduce Pain

I was trained in a particular form of IMS called Gunn IMS, developed by C. Chan Gunn, MD, and I find Gunn IMS to be the most effective form of IMS. Dr. Gunn developed a theory to explain why people develop shortened muscles and chronic, painful trigger points (TrPs). His theories explain that our spine slowly degenerates as we age, and that there may be changes to our spine very early on, even before x-rays show abnormalities. These early changes, Gunn’s theories suggest, put subtle pressure on nerves as they exit the spinal column, which causes muscles to be hypersensitive and leads to short, tightened muscles and TrPs. According to Gunn, an individual’s symptoms change depending on the spinal nerves affected, and Gunn has shown that an individual’s distribution of TrPs follows the pattern of her affected spinal nerves.

Those trained in Gunn IMS, myself included, pay close attention to the muscles close to the spine and nerve roots, while IMS practitioners unfamiliar with Gunn’s work usually do not examine or treat the spine as a matter of course. Additionally, Gunn IMS practitioners usually treat more of the muscles than regular IMS practitioners do.