I. Introduction: The Enigma of Pain – Setting the StagePain, a seemingly universal experience, presents a profound paradox: while it serves as a vital alarm system, its intensity and impact vary wildly among individuals, even in response to similar injuries. It is a phenomenon that is both deeply personal and globally ubiquitous, prompting a deeper…
Last week I picked up a copy of Metro and came across an article entitled “Back pain ‘cured with a £114 dose of antibiotics’”. The story has also been covered by theguardian, The Times and the NHS. It’s based on the results of 2 studies published in the European Spine Journal by Hanne B Albert…
Last week Yahoo! News reported that physiotherapy was as good as knee surgery. The claims were based on results of a recent study by Jeffrey Katz, Professor of Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard University. The randomised controlled trial involved symptomatic patients aged 45 years or older with a meniscal tear and evidence of mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis on…
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…
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…
I read an interesting article in BBC News Health a couple of weeks ago. It reviewed 2 recent studies on pain. The first was published in The Journal of Pain by Atsuo Yoshino et al. Subjects were shocked with an electric current whilst they were shown pictures of sad, happy or neutral faces. Photos of…
An article in Medical News Today reviews a study in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine on the treatment of low back pain. A combined program of complementary and conventional therapies was found to be more helpful than the usual care provided by the primary care physician. The benefits of the program were a…
A BBC Newsnight and British Medical Journal investigation has prompted a lot of discussion regarding metal on metal total hip replacements. Lately, a study has found that the metal components rub against each other causing small particles to break away into surrounding tissues. This leads to elevated blood levels of metal ions such as cobalt…
This week the British Acupuncture Council is launching the very first Acupuncture Awareness Week and their website is full of useful information. Of all the treatments I use, acupuncture is by far the one that most clients are curious about. Acupuncture has been used in China for over 2000 years. Fine needles are inserted into…
Hypermobility can simply be described as joints bending and stretching further than normal. For instance, knees or elbows that bend backwards, a little finger that can bend backwards past 90 degrees, a thumb that can be bent to touch the forearm, etc. An article in Reuters has summarised research that proves that hypermobile sportsmen are…