It’s been a year, to the day, since I started this blog. Hundreds of hours have gone into researching, reading and writing the articles. Although it’s been tough at times and even challenging just to find something to write about, I’ve enjoyed the process and learnt a lot from it. I’ve now got a lot…
A study by Arthur English and Nancy Thompson has found that exercise can promote the regeneration of peripheral nerve injuries. In both males and females, the effect requires the assistance of androgens such as testosterone.
“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters” Nathaniel Emmons
Although mainly about the effects of emotion on reason, ‘Descartes’ Error‘ by Antonio Damasio contains a few fascinating nuggets on pain. He distinguishes 2 components to pain: Sensory perception from skin, mucosa, muscle, organ, etc. – the nerve endings stimulated in an area of the body lead to a ‘pain image’, a temporary representation of body…
There’s been a lot of talk in the press (BBC, The Telegraph, Yahoo, Medical News Today, etc.) this week about finding the gene that causes back pain. So now back pain can be added to a host of other inherited conditions such as obesity, depression, cancer and diabetes. Before I give my opinion, I’d like…
I read an interesting passage in ‘Mindfulness’, Ellen Langer’s insightful book on social psychology. “Patients are often certain that pain is inevitable in a hospital. Caught in such a mindset, they assume that, without the help of medication, pain cannot be controlled. In our experiment, we tried to learn whether people could control their experience…
“I saw Gauthier after being involved in a major motorcycle accident and had big problems with my shoulder and thumb afterwards. I had restricted movement in my shoulder and weakness with my thumb and grip strength. Gauthier gave me a course of acupuncture and ultrasound which worked wonders. I was a bit sceptical about the…
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has released its first clinical guideline on how to diagnose and manage headaches. It differentiates 4 types of headache: tension-type headaches, migraines, cluster headaches and medication overuse headaches. NICE recommends acupuncture as a treatment option for tension-type headaches and it says we should “consider a course of…
“All limitations are illusions“ Harry Houdini
“Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.’ Epictetus