It is known that physically active patients who have stiff muscles frequently develop pain. What is less known is that patients with overly flexible joints will also frequently develop muscle pain. Congenital diseases, such as Marfan Syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), may cause joints to repeatedly dislocate, resulting in stiffness in the muscles surrounding the […]
“We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone.” If only we had a dime for every time we heard this. Perhaps the reason it is such a common expression is the simple truth in it. This certainly applies to our health, but specifically our backs. We probably all take our good health in vain,
There is an old expression, “beauty is pain.” Does it need to be? Is it worth risking your long-term health? Why do women wear high-heeled shoes when they know that looking beautiful in the moment may cause them pain down the road? Scientists from the Universite de Bretagne-Sud recently conducted experiments, which studied the effects
In November, I read this article in The New York Times on How Medical Care Is Being Corrupted. In a nutshell — Insurance carriers have been incentivizing care for more than 20 years by selectively paying for some services whilst denying others. To successfully address a complicated problem, such as long-standing pain, more than one
Why Health Insurances Carriers Should Not Be For Profit Enterprises Read Post »
I had dinner with Dr. Robert Atkins years before his untimely death. He ordered a juicy marbleized steak with a baked potato drowning in butter and sour cream. At the time I thought this wasn’t a healthy choice- I was wrong! A front page article in the NY Times earlier this week reports on a
Eating forbidden foods, losing weight and helping your heart Read Post »
A New York Times article Weather May Not Affect Back Pain, printed mid-July, cited a study showing that weather may not affect back pain. The purpose of the study was to explore the often-heard complaint from patients diagnosed with persistent pain related to muscles and bones (musculoskeletal pain) that weather changes cause an increase in pain.
Is Bad Weather To Blame For Your Lower Back Pain? Read Post »
Because of the growing problem of addiction, misuse, and diversion, 49 states have now adopted a state prescription drug database. You may have read an article recently in The New York Times about Missouri being the only state that has not adopted such a database. In New York, as a prescriber of controlled substances, each
49 States Adopt Prescription Drug Database to Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse Read Post »
From 1991 to 2009, the number of prescriptions written for the strongest pain medications tripled. These medications are collectively named opioids and include morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone.Opioids are a type of pain drug that may cause serious side effects. From 2005 to 2009, the number of emergency room visits for nonmedical use of prescribed pain
Concerns about the Growing Misuse of Opioids – Prescription Painkillers Read Post »
You may have read several articles in the news lately about opioids and pain medications. Earlier in July, The New York Times printed two separate articles on the dangers and abuse of prescriptions drugs in the States. On July 1st, Sabrina Tavernise’s Prescription Overdose Deaths in Florida Plunge After Tough Measures, Report Says, appeared in
PRP injections have become a frequently used treatment for painful muscle and tendon injuries despite there being no rigorous studies of its effectiveness[1]. PRP involves the drawing of blood from the injured patient, spinning it down to collect the platelets and then injecting the platelets into the injured tissue. The rationale is that platelets will
Platelet Rich Plasma Injections (PRP) are not effective for Hamstring injuries Read Post »
I have been suggesting for many years that there is an overuse of spinal injections and surgeries for low back and leg pain, so it was no surprise when I read an article in The New York Times (NYT) that reported on a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine[1] about patients
Epidural steroids are not effective for spinal stenosis Read Post »
Low level laser therapy (LLLT) is a promising new treatment for a variety of painful conditions which is believed to reduce inflammation and stimulate healing of wounds. Interest in the laser first developed when Endre Mester at Semmelweis University noticed that applying the laser to the backs of shaven mice caused hair to regrow faster
Many patients with chronic pain become depressed; therefore it is not surprising that many of these patients will receive antidepressant medications. What is very interesting is that these antidepressants not only can decrease depression associated with pain, but they can also decrease pain itself. They are frequently used to treat persistent pain associated with problems
How antidepressant medication can affect your pain Read Post »
Gregory is a 29 year old manager whose job requires that he travel often. He came to see me for pain at the back of the left side of his neck which he often felt upon waking up, and during or after jogging over the past 4-5 years. An MRI showed that his neck did
The most common method in treating trigger points is with trigger point injections. Simply put, trigger point injections are needles being placed into the taut, tender points of the muscle. However, there are different techniques in injecting the muscle fibers. There are two major types of needles used in injecting the muscle. With dry needling,
Have you ever felt a painful tightness that just won’t go away no matter how much you stretch? Even if the pain subsides or goes away temporarily, when it recurs you still feel a tender knot that’s always in the same area. This may be due to trigger points (TrPs). TrPs are tender nodules which
Muscles are the largest organ system in the body, accounting for approximately 50% of our body weight. We have different ways of categorizing muscles: how they look, how they move, and where they’re located. We are going to focus on muscles that move voluntarily, which means we tell the muscles to move, as opposed to
