What’s New on PainScience.com?
New featured articles, updates to articles, recent blog posts, and noteworthy new scientific papers
See also the about page, complete articles index, and sitemap.
I have been expanding and upgrading this website since the early 2000s, and full-time since 2010. Useful new references are added almost daily. I am always working on an endless list of improvements. Corrections and mea culpas are always the highest priority items. This page lists everything that’s new or changed lately. ~ Paul Ingraham, Publisher
The 15 newest featured articles on PainScience.com (out of 241)
- “Windows of Opportunity” in Rehab » Mar 2020
- Vibration Therapy » Mar 2020
- The Role of “Spasm” in Frozen Shoulder » Mar 2020
- Reassurance for Massage Therapists » Feb 2020
- Vulnerability to Chronic Pain » Jun 2019
- Painful Lessons » Jun 2019
- Achilles Tendinitis Treatment Science » May 2019
- Does Massage Increase Circulation? » May 2019
- Baxter’s Neuritis and Plantar Fasciitis » Mar 2019
- Knee Replacement Surgery Doubts » Feb 2019
- Deep Cervical Flexor Training » Oct 2018
- Cold Laser Therapy Reviewed » Sep 2018
- 💩 Massage Therapists Say » Sep 2017
- Dupuytren’s Contracture » Jul 2017
The last 50 updates to featured articles and tutorials
Like good footnotes, update logging sets PainScience.com apart from most other health websites and blogs. It’s fine print, but important fine print, in the same spirit of transparency as the editing history available for Wikipedia pages. I log any change to articles that might be of interest to a keen reader.
Current Update Stats — 50 updates to 31 articles & books in 69 days, breaking down into 20 major updates, 17 medium, 13 minor (use the button below to include/exclude the medium and minor updates). That’s an update every 1.4 days in recent history; there have been 1779 updates since comprehensive logging started in mid-2016,?Comprehensive update logging started in the summer of 2016. Prior to that, I only logged major updates for the most popular and controversial articles. and many tens of thousands since the early 2000s.
- Heat for Pain — Added substantial section about infrared heating. » Mar 27
- Does Massage Therapy Work? — Minor addition — Added an infographic of massage benefits as a negative example of typical claims about the profession. » Mar 27
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — New chapter — » Mar 27
- Achilles Tendinitis Treatment Science — Important science update, largely overturning my earlier interpretation of Heinemeier et al: while healthy tendon is a very stable tissue that doesn’t get recycled, unhealthy tendon does. I had to completely rewrite that section. » Mar 27
- Morning Back Pain — Comprehensive editing. Re-wrote the summary. Refined advice on treating inflammation. Explained fibromyalgia more clearly and accurately. Added more about mattresses. Improved organization, in-document navigation, and added a few sprinkles of humour. » Mar 21
- The Role of “Spasm” in Frozen Shoulder — Post-publication polishing. My first crack at this was pretty rushed and messy — apologies to early readers. It’s been cleaned up and significantly improved. » Mar 20
- “Windows of Opportunity” in Rehab — More context and detail, extensive editing, some new citations and examples — a significant overall upgrade the week after publication. » Mar 18
- Does barefoot running prevent injuries? — A couple science updates and a little editing. I haven’t dipped into this topic in quite a while! » Mar 17
- “Windows of Opportunity” in Rehab — Publication. » Mar 12
- Vibration Therapy — Publication. » Mar 12
- The Role of “Spasm” in Frozen Shoulder — Publication. » Mar 12
- Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome — Rewrite, other theories chapter — A substantial upgzrade. This chapter had become embarrassingly basic, falling behind my personal knowledge. It now has more summaries of competing hypotheses about the nature of trigger points, one particularly important new one, and a big and entertaining list of examples of bad ones. More improvements and refinements soon, but this is a good start. » Mar 11
- How to Simplify Chronic Pain Puzzles — Added an important clarification, distinguishing between “simpler” and “fewer assumptions.” » Mar 10
- Complete Guide to Headaches — More information, prognosis — Expanded the description in the spirit of helping people understand “what to expect,” what are the limits, with some new examples. » Mar 10
- Anxiety & Chronic Pain — Science update, added a paragraph about the evidence of the protective and therapeutic effects of exercise, supported by several new citations. » Mar 4
- Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — Science update — Added a citation about the safety of BFR training (it’s not entirely safe, turns out). » Mar 2
- Does Fascia Matter? — New section, etymology of fascia — This is not an important addition to the article, but it does add a lot of colour, and was a delight to write about an extremely rare convergence of three major but extremely different interests: language, musculoskeletal medicine, and ancient Rome. » Feb 29
- Pain is Weird — Added a large digression about whether “Pain Science” is “paralyzing” clinicians (TL;DR not any good ones). » Feb 27
- Alternative Medicine’s Choice: Alternative to What? — Added a section about the legal hazards of anti-quackery activism. » Feb 27
- Post-Exercise, Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness — Added more information and references about protein supplementation, especially the branched-chain amino acids. » Feb 23
- Quite a Stretch — More information — Added detail about the practical importance of flexibility. Or lack thereof. Weirdly, this update was harvested from a decade-old Facebook comment. » Feb 22
- Reassurance for Massage Therapists — Publication. » Feb 20
- Achilles Tendinitis Treatment Science — Added short but important section warning readers about fluoroquinolone toxicity. » Feb 18
- Chronic, Subtle, Systemic Inflammation — More upgrades to the intermittent fasting section. » Feb 16
- Complete Guide to Headaches — Upgraded, over-the-counter pain killers — More detail, more references, and more advice. » Feb 14
- Opioids for Chronic Aches & Pains — Miscellaneous editing and improvements. Nost notable: a new footnote about mechanism, and a new sub-section about weak versus strong opioids. » Feb 13
- Complete Guide to Headaches — New chapter, medication-overuse headaches — » Feb 8
- Chronic, Subtle, Systemic Inflammation — Added a new section on the alleged anti-inflammatory effects of intermittent fasting. Bottom line: plausible but far from proven, safe and cheap to experiment with. This section will expand and may even be spun-off into its own article. » Feb 7
- Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — Science update — Added some information about the potential harms of platelet-rich plasma injection. » Feb 6
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — New chapter, opioids — » Feb 6
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — More content, hall of treatment shame — Added magnesium supplementation. » Feb 5
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — More detail, strengthening section — Added a general intro to therapeutic strength training and some commentary on intrinsic foot muscle strengthening and “corrective” exercise. » Feb 5
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — New chapter, prolotherapy — » Feb 5
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — Improvements — Added some significant improvents while reviewing a couple weeks after first publishing the chapter, most notably a good summary of recent icing controversies. » Feb 3
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — Updated — Added some basic information about intermittent fasting. » Feb 3
- A Rational Guide to Fibromyalgia — Added still more emphasis to the distinction between an explanatory diagnosis and a descriptive one, including a good example of this common point of confusion. » Feb 2
- Strength Training for Pain & Injury Rehab — Added a citation about anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects of resistance training. » Feb 1
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Addition, back mice chapter — Added a fun pet theory and personal anecdote about the clinical relevance of lipomas. » Jan 30
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Expanded, specific back pain chapter — Some final elaborations and editing. This topic is now more or less completely addressed, I think. » Jan 30
- Quite a Stretch — Science update — Added an important example, stretching the hamstrings for back pain, with a few relevant references. » Jan 29
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Polishing, hamstring stretching chapter — Miscellaneous editing and improvements. » Jan 29
- Vulnerability to Chronic Pain — Added some quotes and context from Sapolsky on the stresses of combatting loneliness, and the intractability of severe stresses. » Jan 28
- Does Cartilage Regeneration Work? — Added a footnote to clarify the source of claims about autologous chondrocyte implantation side effects. » Jan 28
- Does Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection Work? — Added references to a pair of recent meta-analyses… plus a sidebar about the problems with meta-analysis. 😜 » Jan 25
- Strength Training for Pain & Injury Rehab — Another batch of miscellaneous improvements. » Jan 24
- Save Yourself from Shin Splints! — Expanded, strength training — Added sub-topic: “More ways to go wrong getting strong (especially with shin pain)” » Jan 22
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — New section, icing and heating — » Jan 22
- Strength Training for Pain & Injury Rehab — Lots of general editing and modernizing, plus a bunch of new stuff about the “corrective exercise trap,” and idea that was represented here before, but too haphazardly. It’s now much more focused and relevant. » Jan 21
- Save Yourself from Shin Splints! — Science update, hip strength — Expanded on the sub-topic of hip strength, based on three new studies. » Jan 20
- Massage Therapy Side Effects — Added a significant case study of severe injury to the colon from strong abdominal massage, and a story of a woman who was badly injured falling off her massage table. Also edited the intro to make it clear that the severe injuries we can read about are probably outnumbered by unreported/milder ones. » Jan 19
The last 20 blog posts
- Honour is not dead » Mar 24, 20
- Antiviral Kinesio Tape (and hot yoga) » Mar 20, 20
- Running a website is expensive » Mar 20, 20
- This post is not about COVID-19 » Mar 19, 20
- How is PainScience.com like Chernobyl? » Mar 11, 20
- Is exercise good for anxiety? We still don’t quite know » Mar 11, 20
- “Consider the information” and qualifications versus credentials » Mar 6, 20
- Fascinating! The words “fascia” and “fascism” both come from the same symbol » Feb 29, 20
- The Body of Evidence Interview: Massage myths » Feb 28, 20
- Getting “old” » Feb 28, 20
- Are clinicians becoming paralyzed by Pain Science? » Feb 20, 20
- Yet another sneaky pathological pain culprit » Feb 16, 20
- Reassurance for massage therapists » Feb 15, 20
- Is intermittent fasting anti-inflammatory? » Feb 11, 20
- Does sitting cause back pain? Following the evidence back to a previously abandoned position » Feb 4, 20
- Are the chemical ingredients of a human really worth only a couple bucks? » Jan 28, 20
- Getting stronger is corrective » Jan 22, 20
- The year of “finally”! PainScience.com highlights from 2019 » Jan 19, 20
- Personal chronic pain update 2020 » Jan 16, 20
- One kind of muscle memory » Jan 15, 20
The last 20 bibliography items with beefier summaries
Many scientific papers added to the bibliography are boring and utilitarian. But some are much more interesting, and the pages for those papers are like blog posts about them.
- Carbon-14 bomb pulse dating shows that tendinopathy is preceded by years of abnormally high collagen turnover. Heinemeier et al., 2018, FASEB J. » added Mar 2020
- Dermatome and fasciatome. Stecco et al., 2019, Clin Anat. » added Mar 2020
- Running ground reaction forces across footwear conditions are predicted from the motion of two body mass components. Udofa et al., 2019, J Appl Physiol (1985). » added Mar 2020
- Short-term resistance exercise inhibits neuroinflammation and attenuates neuropathological changes in 3xTg Alzheimer's disease mice. Liu et al., 2020, Journal of neuroinflammation. » added Feb 2020
- Is objectively measured sitting time associated with low back pain? A cross-sectional investigation in the NOMAD study. Gupta et al., 2015, PLoS One. » added Jan 2020
- Factors Contributing to Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome in Runners: A Prospective Study. Becker et al., 2018, Med Sci Sports Exerc. » added Jan 2020
- Laceration of the transverse mesocolon in an old man with a habit of abdominal massage for constipation: a case report. Mori et al., 2020, Surg Case Rep. » added Jan 2020
- Inactivity induces resistance to the metabolic benefits following acute exercise. Akins et al., 2019, J Appl Physiol (1985). » added Nov 2019
- [Evidence of the efficacy and safety of cannabis medicines for chronic pain management: A methodological minefield]. Häuser et al., 2019, Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. » added Nov 2019
- Skeletal Muscles Do Not Undergo Apoptosis During Either Atrophy or Programmed Cell Death-Revisiting the Myonuclear Domain Hypothesis. Schwartz et al., 2018, Front Physiol. » added Nov 2019
- Pain-Free Versus Pain-Threshold Rehabilitation Following Acute Hamstring Strain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Hickey et al., 2019, J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. » added Oct 2019
- The vagus nerve and the inflammatory reflex—linking immunity and metabolism. Pavlov et al., 2012, Nat Rev Endocrinol. » added Oct 2019
- The Effectiveness of PNF Versus Static Stretching on Increasing Hip-Flexion Range of Motion. Lempke et al., 2018, J Sport Rehabil. » added Oct 2019
- Pain Neurophysiology Education and Therapeutic Exercise for Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial. Pardo et al., 2018, Arch Phys Med Rehabil. » added Sep 2019
- Blended-Learning Pain Neuroscience Education for People With Chronic Spinal Pain: Randomized Controlled Multicenter Trial. Malfliet et al., 2018, Phys Ther. » added Sep 2019
- A questionnaire survey of muscular symptoms in chronic headache. An age- and sex-controlled study. Lebbink et al., 1991, Clin J Pain. » added Aug 2019
- Mechanical loading inhibits cartilage inflammatory signalling via an HDAC6 and IFT-dependent mechanism regulating primary cilia elongation. Fu et al., 2019, Osteoarthritis Cartilage. » added Aug 2019
- Exercise-induced hypoalgesia: A meta-analysis of exercise dosing for the treatment of chronic pain. Polaski et al., 2019, PLoS One. » added Jul 2019
- Borrelia burgdorferi peptidoglycan is a persistent antigen in patients with Lyme arthritis. Jutras et al., 2019, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. » added Jul 2019
- Potential role of the common food additive manufactured citric acid in eliciting significant inflammatory reactions contributing to serious disease states: A series of four case reports. Sweis et al., 2018, Toxicol Rep. » added Jul 2019
