What’s happening when our joints crack and is it bad?

What’s happening when our joints crack and is it bad?

We’ve all had the experience of standing up and hearing a loud pop in our back or hip, or trying to tiptoe through the house only to have our foot make a cracking sound each time we take a step. So what’s happening in our joints when this happens, and is it a bad sign?

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Massage Therapy and Concussions

Massage Therapy and Concussions

This year has been my third year attending the annual See The Line Concussion Research Symposium. Every year there is something new that I learn and someone brings up old information that I have forgotten, so here I put together some of my notes so massage therapists can have a reference page if they are looking to get into working with a patient population who have suffered a concussion or is suffering from post-concussion syndrome.

Image Credit: Andreas Vesalius' Fabrica, published in 1543, showing the base of the human brain, including optic chiasma, cerebellum, olfactory bulbs, etc.

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Acupuncture for neck pain

Acupuncture for neck pain

Last week I provided some studies that look at the effect of acupuncture on patients with knee osteoarthritis.  It is clear that the placebo response is a big part of why patients feel better, but it is also a within the realm of reasons that patients have a complex biopsychosocial response to acupuncture that INCLUDES but is not LIMITED to placebo. 

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Acupuncture for knee pain

Acupuncture for knee pain

This week, I came across a new study published in The Clinical Journal of Pain, this study looks at the effect of acupuncture on patients with osteoarthritis, reading through the study I was impressed because the treatment approach is similar to the neurofunctional approach taught by Alejandro Elorriaga. Slowly but surely modern approaches to acupuncture are being evaluated in a scientific manner. This is a good thing, because there is a plethora of anecdotal evidence that acupuncture is effective and a growing body of scientific evidence that patients benefit from evidence based acupuncture treatments.

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