MRCO BLOG
Medical Musings, Health Hypotheses & Therapeutic Thoughts
In the last blog, we considered some common causes of pain in the front (anterior) and back (posterior) knee.
3/12/2018 Common Causes Of Knee Pain Pt ISo, we have discussed how the poor 'design' of the knee joint means it is prone to various injuries and dysfunctions, but what does that mean in your everyday life? Here we will consider the anatomy of the knee a bit further, and discuss some of the ways our knees can give us grief. It is important to remember that, like most of the other joints in the body, the knee requires its neighbours to be doing a relatively good job in order to perform its own.
9/10/2018 What is Chronic Pain?NOTE: This blog post is essentially a copypasta of the page on the same topic; but it is so important a subject I wanted to make the information was available to all of our blog subscribers as well... Chronic PainWhen we talk about 'chronic pain', we're not just talking about pain that has been going on for a long time; although that it is part of the definition. Chronic pain, in this sense, involves changes to the way that information is carried and processed in our bodies. To understand this a little better, we will have to consider (briefly!) the nature of pain and what it means. Pain is an outputWhat this means is that all pain is produced by your central nervous system; that is, pain is the label your brain applies to information it really wants you to pay attention to. When you injure yourself, like burning your hand on a hotplate, your nerves send signals up to your spinal cord and brain. We call this nociception, or something like 'detection of something harmful or noxious'. Your brain then decides whether or not to call those signals 'pain'. From this point of view, the pain itself is just as real in something like phantom limb pain (when you (e.g.) have an arm amputated but can still feel pain in the hand) as when you accidentally stab yourself in the thigh while cutting a recipe out of a magazine (just a random example that sprang to mind). So pain is not something you feel in your body, it is something that is created and projected out by your brain. Put simply, it is an output, not an input. Pain is an evolutionary strategyIn the case of touching your hand to a hot stove, you have already started moving your hand away by the time you feel the pain. What the pain is intended to do is to point out to you that your unprotected hand is not the best way to turn that pancake, and that maybe next time you should use a spatula! So the memory of pain makes us less likely to try and use our digits as kitchen utensils in the future as well as making us stop the behaviour causing the pain in the first place. It also makes you take care of an area while it is healing, so serves a protective function. So pain is just a warning signal, and in normal circumstances, it is a good thing. Another way of saying this is that it is a adaptive strategy, or one that makes you more likely to stay alive. People who can't feel pain for one reason or another run a very real risk of ignoring a seemingly small injury that then becomes infected, and possibly life-threatening. Pain is normal!Leading on from the above two points, it should be clear that pain is a normal function of our bodies when everything is working as it should, albeit one most of us don't really want! It is meant to be unpleasant, otherwise it wouldn't work the way it does. Pain is what we experience when our brains have decided we are threatened or in danger, and wants us to do something about it. In the case of chronic pain, where the pain has persisted long past the point where we might have expected any injury to heal, the key is to identify why the brain feels threatened. 'Pain' is, tellingly, also used with respect to grief or loss, or loneliness. This emotionally-laden 'pain' is crucial in understanding chronic pain - indeed, all pain! - as it reinforces the idea that these sensations are the result of many different inputs, and our emotions, thoughts, beliefs and behaviours are all important contributors to how we experience pain. Pain and damage are not necessarily relatedThis starts to explain the idea that pain is an output, where trauma or tissue damage is not the only factor (as mentioned over on the page on age-related conditions like arthritis.) We know from decades of medical imaging that people can have the most spectacular structural failures, like compression of the spinal cord or broken bones, and experience little to no pain or dysfunction. Sheehan (2010) for example, found that among asymptomatic (i.e. not having any symptoms) 60 year-olds, over 90% had degenerative or bulging discs. 21% had spinal stenosis, narrowing of the hollow middle bit of the spinal column, where your spinal cord sits. One might imagine that squishing your spinal cord would result in some sort of symptoms, but not necessarily! See the image on the left for a truly mindboggling scan of a compressed spinal cord that did not result in any pain at all (they had the scan done for other reasons). Anecdotal reports from wounded in wartime often describe bullet wounds and even severe trauma as an impact, like being bumped or knocked in a crowd. At the other end of the spectrum, consider a paper cut. If pain is just an evolutionary mechanism to warn you about damage, why does the bloody thing hurt so much! It is not deep, or (under normal circumstances) anything close to a serious danger to the body, but we react as if it was the next thing to losing a limb. Chronic Pain
So how can osteopathy help? An analogy I often use with my patients is to think about your central nervous system (or CNS, consisting of your brain and spinal cord) as a genius four year-old. It is incredibly discriminating and intelligent in some ways, and unsophisticated and stupid in others. Like a four year-old, it also has a tendency to throw tantrums (overreact with pain, for example). And also like a four year-old, the best way of getting through to it is repetition. By repeatedly moving and stretching areas where the body perceives pain, we can increase the 'positive feedback' coming from that area. "Look, we are moving this painful shoulder in all these different ways, and the arm has not fallen off! Maybe it's OK to decrease the number of pain labels we are attaching to this area. Maybe it's OK to relax a little!" This makes the CNS feel a little safer. We can also help you with some of the other facets of your pain. The folks over at NOI (the neuro-orthopaedic institute) have come up with this wonderful concept of DIMs ("Dangers In Me") and SIMs (Safeties in me) that can help identify unhelpful and helpful factors in your life that influence whether or not you feel pain. The more factors we can identify, the more chance we have of helping you get your CNS to a place where it feels safe, and where you do not feel pain. References Eliott, JM, Fleming, H & K Tucker (2010) "Asymptomatic spondylolisthesis and pregnancy" J Ortho Sports Phys Ther 40:324 Gifford, LS (1998) "Pain, the tissues, and the nervous system: a conceptual model" Physiotherapy 84(1):27-36 Sheehan, NJ (2010) "Magnetic resonance imaging for low back pain: indications and limitations" Ann Rheum Dis 2010; 69:7-11 Special mentions to The Sensitive Nervous System (Butler et al, 2000) and Explain Pain Supercharged (Butler et al, 2017), which are great resources around explaining both central and peripheral nueropathic pain and have informed my whole approach to chronic pain management. 8/10/2018 Lower back painLow back pain (LBP) can be due to any one of a number of different causes. Obviously, stressing/straining the local muscles, ligaments, joints etc. will cause pain and discomfort, but as with the shoulder, other structures in the body are also capable of ‘throwing’ pain to a distant location. The kidneys, small intestine, colon/rectum, stomach, pancreas, spleen, gallbladder etc. are all known to cause low back pain. Surprising few of the female readers of this blog, the ovaries and uterus (womb) are also more than capable of causing low back discomfort (especially at ‘that time of the month’ or during pregnancy); as are problems with the blood vessels, heart, various types of infection, cancers, and hormone disorders. Because of this, it is always important to have your back pain screened by an appropriately-trained healthcare professional, especially if you have noticed other changes before or after the onset of the pain. For the purposes of this blog, we will ignore all of the slightly more esoteric factors, and instead focus on non-specific (or mechanical) low back pain. As mentioned above, this is usually due to irritation of the moving parts of the spinal column, namely muscles, tendons, ligaments, vertebral bodies, intervertebral discs (the ‘shock absorbers’ between the vertebrae), and facet joints (the joints between one level of the spine and another). Most mechanical low back pain resolves on its own, most often within 2-4 weeks. However, that can feel like a long time when you are in pain! So, what can you do to help speed that process up? Manual therapySuch as osteopathy can help to alleviate the symptoms of low back pain. This is largely done by influencing the central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord) rather than directly affecting the areas being worked on, but mobilising restricted joints, stretching out tight muscles, and improving blood flow to the affected areas, can all help to mitigate the impact of mechanical LBP. MovementIt might feel like the last thing we want to do when we are in pain, especially when we have not identified which movements trigger pain, but movement is medicine, as many of my patients have heard time and again. The key here is pain-free movement. If it hurts to bend backwards too far, then only go as far as you can without causing yourself undue discomfort! You should nearly always be able to find some positions or movements that do not aggravate your pain too much, even if it is a bit uncomfortable to do so. The problem with inactivity is that it impairs the blood flow to and from the affected areas, slowing the healing process. The spinal column has up to eight (depending on definition) pump systems that help to support its health, which rely on normal physiological (to do with normal function of living organisms and their systems) movement to drive them. This is, in part, what osteopathic treatment does: to mimic these normal movements and restore some of these pumps. It also helps to ‘show’ the body that nothing catastrophic will happen if it allows a little bit more movement through the area (the influencing of the central nervous system we were talking about earlier), thus promoting further relaxation and decrease of nociception (the nervous system’s response to harmful/potentially harmful stimuli, i.e. the first part of feeling pain). Having said all of that, exercising when your back is in full spasm (i.e. just after the injury) may be counterproductive, if the body feels like it is under attack, it will try to protect itself (largely by tightening up the muscles further). Make sure you listen to your body, and don’t perform any movements or activities that actually hurt (some discomfort is normal, and to be expected). If you cannot move at all without pain, then consider: RestThis does not mean weeks of bed-rest, as may have been recommended a few decades ago. That is pretty much the worst thing you can do (see above!). Rest for no more than 48 hours following the injury (or the first time you notice the pain, if there is no traumatic cause). Getting up and at ‘em (with slowly increasing activity levels) once you notice that initial acute phase subsiding will ease pain and stiffness, and speed up the healing process (again, see above!). Heat & ColdAs a general rule of thumb, cold is good for decreasing inflammation (the first part of the body’s response to injury, and the start – theoretically, at least – of the healing process), so is advised in the first 72 hours or so after injury. Cold also ‘confuses’ the nervous system – it can’t work out whether to focus on the cold or the pain signals, an effect know as pain-gating. It is the same mechanism when a parent rubs on the banged elbow or barked knee of a child: the pressure of the rubbing decreases the amount of attention the brain pays to the pain stimulus. You don’t need an ice-pack, specifically, just wrap a tea-towel or similar around a bag of frozen peas or other vegetables (never put anything too cold into direct contact with the skin). Heat is very good for helping tight and sore muscles relax, and increasing the blood flow to an area. How good does a nice hot bath (or shower) feel after a long day of working hard?! However, both have their caveats: Heat will aggravate any inflammation present, and part of the inflammatory process is to increase fluid in the area (swelling), so the last thing you need is more blood flow to the injured part. Cold also has the potential to cause muscles to contract to protect themselves and keep warm. So, the golden rule is: if you put on ice/heat and it makes it feel worse, then stop! Ask your osteopath whether heat or ice would be more appropriate given the nature of your injury. Pharmacological (drug) managementOver-the-counter (OTC) medications, such as acetaminophen (Panadol) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (e.g. Neurofen) or sodium diclofenac (Voltaren), may help with your back pain. We know that these drugs are not very good at helping with chronic back pain, and are not a good long-term management strategy, but in acute cases they may help to ease a bit of discomfort, which then allows you to move a little more easily, which speeds up the healing process (as noted above, the protective spasm or muscle guarding that normally takes place in response to an injury actually restricts blood-flow to an area, slowing down the healing process). Please note: I am not qualified to give pharmaceutical advise. Always read the label, and consult your doctor or pharmacist regarding the suitability of any given medication for you and your condition. Stretching and ExerciseThis is such a big topic that I will only devote a few words to it here, saving the rest for another blog post. Maintaining mobility and flexibility is one of the biggest things you can do to help prevent injury, but in the instance that it’s a little bit late (after all, you’re reading this looking for tips as to how to manage your existing low back pain), there is also a lot you can do now. In general, the basic tenet is that movement is medicine, and both stretching to relax muscles and general mobilisation (taking the joints and muscles through their normal range repeatedly) can help significantly with your symptoms. For further details, please see here. 15/3/2017 Why is the shoulder such a pain? A brief intro to a common (and sometimes debilitating) problemShoulder pain is pretty common, with only the back and the knee giving more of us grief (1,2). It can also be stubborn. According to the British Medical Journal and the British Journal of General Practice, only about 50% of new episodes of shoulder pain presenting to medical doctors show a complete recovery after six months (3,4), After a year, that figure has only risen to 60% (5)! So why is it that the shoulder causes so many - and seemingly such persistent - issues? Largely, it is because the shoulder itself is a very complex bit of kit, with a lot of interactions with the structures around it. The "shoulder joint" is actually a constellation of several joints (see figure below): (1) the scapulothoracic joint , which is not a true joint at all, but rather the interface, or articulation, between the shoulder blade and the rest of the thoracic cage (mid back and ribs). (2) the glenohumeral joint , which is the shoulder joint proper (the ball-and-socket, although it's more like a ball-and-tiny-saucer). (3) the acromioclavicular joint between the bony bit at the end of your shoulder and your collarbone, (4) the sternoclavicular joint, between the collarbone and breastbone. This is the only bony connection point between the arm and the rest of the skeleton - everything else is controlled by muscles! In order for your shoulder to do its job, all of these must be working well - and together. The shoulder is incredibly mobile, but to get as much movement as it has, there has to be a trade-off - stability. Because it is unstable, the shoulder relies on a complex balance of muscles around it to function (in an upcoming blog I will talking about a particularly important group of these, the rotator cuff). The diagram below is culled from some of my old student notes, and should give some idea of the complexity of the muscles that act on and around the shoulder, as well as further down the arm. On that note, it is also important to remember that the shoulder does not exist in isolation, but is the attachment point to the rest of the body for your arm, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand. As an (ex-)anthropologist, I could wax lyrical on the majesty and intricacy of all the thingummybobs and anatomical wonders that make your arms - and most importantly, hands - the marvels of nature that they are. Opposable thumbs, baby, they're what make us unique. But I digress...* So the presence of the rest of the upper limb complicates things a bit. The body is a master at compensation, and, if things are going wrong down at the coalface (for example, the hand and wrist), it will quite happily sacrifice anything up the chain to maintain that wonderful hand and wrist mobility. So, hand, wrist and elbow problems can also cause shoulder issues. Likewise, as we touched on briefly in the last shoulder blog) other common contributors to shoulder pain include the neck, thoracic spine (mid-back) and ribs. The viscera (internal organs; heart, lungs, liver, stomach etc.) or neurological issues (such as stroke etc.) can also give rise to pain in the shoulder. This is why it is important to have your shoulder pain checked out by a trained professional. So, in short, there is a lot going on. All the different forces from the arm, your trunk and ribs (including breathing) as well as head and neck are meeting in this area and interacting, so it is no surprise that so many shoulder issues remain unresolved. If you just look at the shoulder in isolation, instead of also looking at these related areas in the rest of the body, you can often miss these crucial predisposing and maintaining factors (vulnerabilities that helped your problem develop, and issues that are preventing your recovery). Your osteopath is trained to examine and assess each of these components and how they relate to each other, and will treat as many of them as possible. In this way, even if some underlying damage is present, the body’s ability to compensate and cope will allow normal function. Specific shoulder issues are presented in our next blog on the rotator cuff. Also stay tuned for further upcoming blogs on other shoulder issues e.g., bursitis, frozen shoulder. *if you are interested in this sort of thing, start with Evolution of the human hand: the role of throwing and clubbing, and follow the references from there....! References 4, Picavet HS, Schouten JS. Musculoskeletal pain in the Netherlands: prevalences, consequences and risk groups, the DMC(3)-study. Pain 2003;102:167–78 5. Urwin M, Symmons D, Allison T, Brammah T, Busby H, Roxby M, Simmons A, Williams G. Estimating the burden of musculoskeletal disorders in the community: the comparative prevalence of symptoms at different anatomical sites, and the relation to social deprivation. Ann Rheum Dis 1998;57:649–55. 1. P. Croft, D. Pope, A. Silman, The clinical course of shoulder pain: prospective cohort study in primary carePrimary Care Rheumatology Society Shoulder Study Group. Br Med J 19963136012 2. D. A. Van der Windt, B. W. Koes, A. J. Boeke, W. Deville, BA Bouter. L. M. De Jong, Shoulder disorders in general practice: prognostic indicators of outcome. Br J Gen Pract 19964651923 3. D. A. Van der Windt, B. W. Koes, A. J. Boeke, W. Deville, BA Bouter. L. M. De Jong, Shoulder disorders in general practice: prognostic indicators of outcome. Br J Gen Pract 19964651923 |
AuthorsDrs. Edmund Bruce-Gardner and Soraya Burrows are osteopaths Categories
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Osteopathy at Moreland Road Clinic
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17/12/2018
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