Navigating back pain treatments: Can a physiatrist help?
If self-care steps for back pain such as gentle activity, local heat, or massage don’t ease discomfort within a few weeks to a month, or if you struggle with chronic low back pain, a physiatrist can help you navigate the dizzying number of treatment options. These range from conservative therapies (such as medicines, physical therapy, and chiropractic care) to more invasive options (such as spine injections and spinal surgery).
What is a physiatrist?
Physiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation. We focus on holistic, nonsurgical care aimed at improving function for people who ar...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Edward N. Wei, MD Tags: Back Pain Bones and joints Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
On “ us ” and “ them ” : what if we ’ re one of “ them ” ?
Over the past few years I’ve been pondering the presumed gap between people living with pain and the people who “treat” or work with them. Most of my readers will know that I live with widespread pain (aka fibromyalgia) or pain that is present in many parts of my body, and the associated other symptoms like DOMS that last for weeks not a day or two, and increased sensitivity to heat, cold, pressure, chilli, sound and so on.
I first “came out” with my pain about 15 years ago: that is, I first disclosed to people I worked with that I had this weird ongoing pain – and finally joined the...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - October 7, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Professional topics Research Therapeutic approaches inclusion inequality Source Type: blogs
Wandering back from the IASP World Congress
Meetings, meanderings, mind-expansions
I’ve been away for abut 10 days, attending the World Congress of the International Association for the Study of Pain. It was a time of meetings with wonderful people I’ve met via the interwebs, with researchers and clinicians, and most importantly, with people living with pain.
It was also a time for meanderings – around the very walkable city of Boston, embracing history and looking towards the future, and mind meanderings as well.
And because it was a conference, it was also mind-expanding. New ideas, new ways of investigating this human experience of pain, ne...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - September 23, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Low back pain Chronic pain Research Occupational therapy Pain conditions Coping strategies Professional topics biopsychosocial pain management conference pain research Source Type: blogs
Do uninsured patients receive more unnecessary care?
American physicians dole out lots of unnecessary medical care to their patients. They prescribe things like antibiotics for people with viral infections, order expensive CT scans for patients with transitory back pain, and obtain screening EKGs for people with no signs or symptoms of heart disease. Some critics even accuse physicians of ordering such services to bolster their revenue.
So what happens when uninsured patients make it to the doctor’s office with coughs, low back pain, or other problems? Do physicians stop ordering all these unnecessary tests and services, out of recognition that most of these patients won...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 17, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/peter-ubel" rel="tag" > Peter Ubel, MD < /a > Tags: Policy Medicare Public Health & Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 6th 2018
In this study, we analyzed FGF21 levels and alterations in the expression of genes encoding components of the FGF21-responsive molecular machinery in adipose tissue from aged individuals so as to ascertain whether altered FGF21 responsiveness that develops with aging jeopardizes human health and/or accelerates metabolic disturbances associated with aging.
We studied a cohort of 28 healthy elderly individuals (≥70 years) with no overt signs of metabolic or other pathologies and compared them with a cohort of 35 young healthy controls (≤40 years). Serum FGF21 levels were significantly increased in elderly individ...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 5, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Survey of Approaches to Intervertebral Disc Regeneration
The intervertebral discs of the spine are one of many small body parts that one will never put any thought into until they start to fail, at which point pain and disability ensure that they are never far from mind. One section of the large regenerative medicine community is focused on the spine and its supporting tissues; this open access paper is a review of approaches intended to repair damaged and worn intervertebral discs, from the expected stem cell therapies to more esoteric and novel options. This is all work in progress, and sadly it remains the case that benefits for patients as a result of these lines of work are...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 30, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The dynasty of the disc! More history in pain management
Low back pain, despite the multitude of explanations and increasing disability associated with it, has been with humans since forever. Who knows why and I’m not about to conjecture. What’s interesting is that despite ergonomic solutions (fail), increased fitness amongst many people (also a fail), surgical solutions (fail), hands on solutions (fail, fail), and a whole bunch of “special” exercises (fail, fail, fail) we still don’t have a handle on how to reduce disability from it.
I don’t think there will be many people who haven’t seen this:
I’ve never quite worked out why, w...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 29, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Back pain Low back pain Pain conditions Research biopsychosocial Chronic pain Clinical reasoning disability pain management Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs
Learning from old research (digging into history)
I recently submitted a manuscript to a journal. After the usual delay as the reviewers commented on my draft, I received the feedback – one comment stood out to me: “the references are quite old”. I scurried around to find some more recent references and resubmitted, but as I did, I started pondering this drive to continually draw on recent research even if the findings of the older references had not been superseded. There is a sense that maybe journal editors and perhaps people reading the journals think that old research has no merit.
As someone who relishes reading about the history of pain and pain m...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 22, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Back pain Low back pain Professional topics history Source Type: blogs
Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing – Theodore Roosevelt
I’m not certain Theodore Roosevelt actually said that – but who cares?! It’s a great statement. For the person living with persistent pain, though, it can be the last thing you want to hear. After all, it’s tough enough getting up and just doing the normal things let alone challenge yourself! So… how can a health professional help?
Let’s briefly recap. Self efficacy is the confidence I can do something successfully if I wanted to. It’s a robust predictor of many health behaviours including exercise, stopping smoking, eating healthily and coping well with persistent pain (Jackson, W...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 15, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Back pain Chronic pain Clinical reasoning Coping Skills Coping strategies Professional topics Research Resilience Science in practice biopsychosocial function healthcare pain management physiotherapy rehabilitation self effic Source Type: blogs
The confidence that you ’ ll succeed if you try …
Self efficacy. It’s a word bandied about a lot in pain management, and for a group of clinicians in NZ, it’s been a shock to find out that – oh no! They’re not supporting self efficacy with their patients very much! It means “confidence that if I do this under these conditions, I’ll be successful”.
Self efficacy is part of Bandura’s social learning theory (click here for the Wikipedia entry) where he proposed that much of psychological treatment is driven by a common underlying mechanism: to create and strengthen expectations of personal effectiveness. Bandura recognised that...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 8, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Clinical reasoning Coping Skills Coping strategies Motivation Pain Pain conditions Professional topics Research Resilience Science in practice biopsychosocial Chronic pain function healthcare pain management rehabilitation Source Type: blogs
Here ’s What Yoga Can Do For You
You're reading Here’s What Yoga Can Do For You, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
It`s International Yoga Day people. I was thinking about doing yoga over the past three months, and because of my analytical nature, I decided to do some quick research on its benefits. And since we're celebrating International Yoga Day this month, I decided to show you the six key benefits practicing yoga will give you. Here they are:
Yoga will make you calmer
Yoga is so great at regulating stress that researchers ...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - June 22, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Marwan Jamal Tags: featured happiness health and fitness anxiety benefits of yoga international yoga day mental health pickthebrain Source Type: blogs
How to Use Yoga Therapy for Anxiety
Anxiety can stymie our lives in so many ways. Whether it’s a debilitating panic attack, constant worry or an all pervading fear, anxiety is often an unwanted companion that seemingly only wants the worst for us. However with the right help, guidance and support, there are a variety of techniques that can help. Of course it’s important to note that we’re all different, and what works for one person may not be as effective on another, but from personal experience, my own road to recovery led me, thankfully, to yoga therapy.
After years of struggling with depression and anxiety, I moved to to South East Asia and embarke...
Source: World of Psychology - June 20, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Heather Mason Tags: Alternative and Nutritional Supplements Anxiety and Panic Brain and Behavior Exercise & Fitness General Habits Happiness Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Mindfulness Personal Compassion Integrative Medicine Mind Body Wel Source Type: blogs
Pain – or disability?
One of the fundamental distinctions we need to make when working with people who experience pain is to understand the difference between experiencing pain – and the behaviour or actions or responses we make to this experience. This is crucial because we can never know “what it is like” to experience pain – and all we have to rely on as external observers is what we see the person doing. Differentiating between the various dimensions associated with our experience of pain makes it far easier to address each part in the distinct ways needed.
Let me explain. We know the current definition of pain ̵...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - May 27, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Clinical reasoning Cognitive skills Education/CME Pain Pain conditions biopsychosocial disability Research theory Source Type: blogs
Treatments Prescribed For Lower Back Pain Are Often Ineffective, Report Says : NPR
Chances are, you — or someone you know — has suffered from lower back pain.It can be debilitating. It's a leading cause of disability globally.And the number of people with the often-chronic condition is likely to increase.This warning comes via a series of articles published in the medical journal Lancet in March. They state that about 540 million people have lower back pain — and they predict that the number will jump as the world's population ages and as populations in lower- and middle-income countries move to urban centers and adopt more sedentary lives."We don't think about [back pain] the same...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 10, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: blogs
Insurance denials: the law of the land
It all started out with Malaysian methimazole, and didn’t end until two highly trained medical professionals sat on opposite ends of a telephone call, scratching their heads and wondering how two digits being transposed could lead to so many problems.
Those two transposed digits caused a thyroid uptake scan to become a bone marrow scan (whatever that is). But look at all it took to get there.
Mystery illness, mystery medicine
It started when a new patient came to see one of my colleagues with a mystery illness, and a medication in a pill bottle with a label in another language.
After figuring out what this medicine w...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 7, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/fred-n-pelzman" rel="tag" > Fred N. Pelzman, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary Care Source Type: blogs
