| Podcast
There are many potential underlying causes for neck and upper extremity pain. All too often, only the most common conditions such as a disk herniation or carpal tunnel syndrome are explored.
The purpose of this course is to review other common problems (such as radiculitis), and not so common...
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Bracing statistics from the journal Addiction show that medical marijuana to combat chronic pain has, for some patients, negative consequences. In a group of 527 people—82% white, 49% male, average age 45.6 years—looking to be certified or recertified for medical marijuana it was found that over 40%...
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As outlined in a Journal of Urology article, researchers sought to confirm the theory that pollen is a culprit in flare-ups of chronic pelvic pain. A crossover study, the Multidisciplinary Approach to the study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP), looked at time lines of flare of urologic chronic pelvic...
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In an article in JAMA Network Open, the authors reviewed studies to determine the most successful treatment of frozen shoulder—adhesive capsulitis—a common, painful fibroproliferative tissue fibrosis affecting 2.4 out of 100,000 people per year. The researchers looked at 65 studies and almost 4100...
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An article published in the Annals of Family Medicine journal states that painkillers may not address all aspects of pain, and may add to dysfunction. In their abstract, pain experts Mark Sullivan and Jane Ballantyne, from the University of Washington School of Medicine, state, "The US opioid...
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Exercise is often recommended by doctors for patients with low back pain (LBP), the leading cause of disability worldwide. Acute LBP frequently becomes chronic. Many interventions to manage chronic LBP "have modest benefits for improving outcomes." A article published in the journal of Musculoskelet...
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As reported in the journal Neuron, researchers studied the reflexes that help us avoid pain, such as pulling our hand away from a hot stove. These protective reflexes, seen even in newborns, are the result of cutaneous somatosensory modalities and sensorimotor behaviors. When the sensorimotor system...
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Researchers at Tufts University studied omega 3 fatty acids and determined they have different impacts on inflammation. In a 34 week trial, 21 adults aged 50 to 75 years received either eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplements. In earlier studies, EPA and DHA were...
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The Clinical Journal of Pain reports a comparative analysis that looked at children ages 13 to 17 and how chronic pain affects executive functioning (EF). Although there have been studies which demonstrated that chronic pain causes differences in working memory and attention in adults, this study...
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Astrocytes, a star-shaped glial cell of the central nervous system, carry general sensory information to the brain, information such as pressure, pain, and heat. Researchers in Japan have discovered a unique population of spinal cord astrocytes, found in gray matter outer layers near the back of the...