"Your pain wont damage you"  - it sounds a strange thing to say but it is a phrase I use regularly in my clinic particularly with those who suffer chronic back pain. I have blogged about this before. Beliefs about how pain is experienced and interpreted are key to managing conditions in people ...

I have often wondered if people who have a  slight difference in the length of their legs would wonder around in a circle if they got lost in a desert?. I regularly see patients who, when they lie down, will appear to have one leg significantly shorter than the other. This is called leg length alignment asymmetry  (LLAA) or apparent leg length Inequality  (LLI) in ...

I went rowing this morning as I usually do on cold crisp bright Sunday mornings. My son initially started rowing and I joined in. Some of my patients on learning that I spend my Sunday mornings in an offshore rowing boat  get quite animated as I have often advised them that rowing  can only lead to a lifetime of pain. I exaggerate, however I have made the observation that ...

Thoracic pain can be very painful; patients often describe difficulty taking a deep breath without considerable pain. It is generally the sort of discomfort that comes in sharp waves and feels like a cramp. It is often paradoxically relieved by gentle movement and aggravated by rest. Sufferers often have sleepless nights. Many GPs regard thoracic onset as a so called Red Flag symptom ie ...

I've got tennis elbow. It's a real pain. I've never had it before and although I've treated it many times there is nothing like personal experience to bring home its effect on your life. I find it difficult to lift a cup of coffee with my left hand never mind the stack of gardening I had set aside for this weekend. So what do I do. Well evidentially I could opt for one of two paths; firstly I could rush ...

[caption id="attachment_260" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Fat or Fit?"][/caption] There is very little strong evidence of a firm link between loving your doughnuts and getting back pain. Too many patients tell me that their Doctor has told them to lose weight and their back pain will disappear. It is used as an excuse sometimes to avoid confronting what for most GP's is a heart sink problem; "If only the patient would loose a bit of weight then they would stop asking ...

Keith Walker has been quoted in a recent article on The Body Browser. Keith Walker, a chiropractor in England, is already using the tool in his clinic. And so far, it’s been a hit. “As a patient education tool, it’s one of the best I’ve seen,” he said. “There are other things like this on the Web, and they tend to be not as usable, or on medical university Web sites and directed at students.” Mr. Walker wishes that the 3-D model had limbs that rotated. For example, users can’t lift the wrists of the model, which happen to ...

I see lots of patients who ask me what exercises to do for back pain. My reply is as formulaic as the exercises are. I generally reply firstly with, "Will you do them?"because it is my experience both personal and professional that folks just don't. And therefore I argue to myself why go through a very specific well thought out exercise regime with people who, with the best will in the world, are not going carry them out in any therapeutic fashion. It is better in ...

I was intrigued to see a campaign launched in Wales to help with treatment of acute low back pain. Or perhaps the word should be management rather than treatment as they don't seem to mention any treatment for folks who have acute low back pain at all. Quite correctly they (and they are "a joint initiative developed in response to Health Challenge Wales") point out that the medicalisation of back pain is a bad thing and therefore "treatment' can be unhelpful in the resolution of the back pain symptoms. Quite correctly they talk about ...

There is nothing like a comfy bed when you are not feeling 100% especially if your back is painful but as most back sufferers know the last place you want to be is lying down. Getting horizontal for even a short period of time is often excruciating for those with certain types of back conditions and waking up in the morning and trying to move is positively dreadful. For some the natural conclusion to be drawn by the early morning nightmare is that the bed needs replacing but with what? By common assent ...