What’s New on PainScience.com?
New featured articles, updates to articles, recent blog posts, and noteworthy new scientific papers
I have been expanding and upgrading this website since the early 2000s. Relevant new science is added almost daily. I tend an endless to-do list like a garden, and corrections and mea culpas are always the highest priority items. In 2016 I (finally) began logging all updates, mostly so that I could promote them here: a record of everything significant that’s new or changed lately. ~ Paul Ingraham, Publisher
The 15 newest featured articles on PainScience.com (out of 231)
- 💩 Massage Therapists Say » Sep 29, 17
- Dupuytren’s Contracture » Jul 6, 17
- Get in the Pool for Pain » Jan 24, 17
- A Rational Guide to Fibromyalgia » Jan 21, 17
- Cramps, Spasms, Tremors & Twitches » Nov 16, 16
- Science versus Experience in Musculoskeletal Medicine » Nov 9, 16
- Chronic, Subtle, Systemic Inflammation » Sep 8, 16
- The Basic Types of Pain » Aug 29, 16
- Opioids for Chronic Aches & Pains » Jul 16, 16
- When to Worry About Neck Pain…and when not to! » Jul 2, 16
- IT Band Syndrome: Does the iliotibial band move after all? » Jun 30, 16
- What if You Could Wipe the Chronic Pain Slate Clean? » Jun 15, 16
- Trigger Points on Trial » Jun 1, 16
- The Trigger Point Identity Crisis » Jun 1, 16
The last 50 updates to featured articles and tutorials (of 1333 total logged updates)
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. Complete update logging started in the summer of 2016. Prior to that, I only logged major updates for the most popular and controversial articles.
hide 16 minor updates
- Post-Exercise, Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness — New section about “That troublesome 2018 study that declared victory for massage therapy” (Dupuy et al. » May 23, 18
- Strength Training Surprises — New section, “Can strength training prevent overuse injuries?” » May 18, 18
- Does Acupuncture Work for Pain? — Covered the fresh PLoS ONE scandal over “one of the worst acupuncture studies I have ever seen.” » May 16, 18
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong With Massage? — Added discussion of dizziness, vertigo, and Meniere’s disease. » May 15, 18
- Microbreaking — Added a microbreaking reminder method. » May 12, 18
- Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — Science update, acupuncture section — Added information about dry needling, a cousin of acupuncture, and a neglected sub-topic. Note that information about dry needling has always been available in the companion book about trigger points, but its presence here in the neck pain book is long overdue. » May 12, 18
- Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome — Science update, dry needling section — A new sub-section about Llamas-Ramos et al, a study by dry needling proponents with surprisingly negative results (even if they didn’t see it that way). Plus a bunch of miscellaneous minor improvements. » May 11, 18
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Science update, radiculopathy section — A science update… with quarter century old science about blood supply and radiculopathy (see Jayson). This is just a quick drop-in for now, but it’s fascinating, so I’ll be elaborating more in another update. » May 3, 18
- Eccentric Contraction — Two new sections, about titin and isometric contractions, and numerous other minor improvements. » May 1, 18
- Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — Revision, microbreaking section — Substantial improvements, harmonizing with the ergonomics revision. Much stronger focus on the scientific case for microbreaking despite the lack of evidence that stagnacy is a problem in the first place. Added a practical tip, and a comic. » May 1, 18
- Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — Revised, ergonomics section — Substantial miscellaneous modernization. Still some work to do — the correction on computer display position! — but it’s been improved enough already to log an update. Much more clear and useful information on the critical distinction between “poor posture” and “postural strain.” » May 1, 18
- Does Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection Work? — Science update, added new meta-analysis of PRP for muscle strain, Grassi et al. » Apr 27, 18
- Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — Science update, platelet-rich plasma section — Added a highly relevant citation to Grassi et al. » Apr 27, 18
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — Added new stretch, arch stretchg section — A reader suggested yoga’s ‘broken toe pose.’ » Apr 26, 18
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — Added a section about Oolo-Austin Technique, which many readers have asked for. » Apr 26, 18
- Does Hip Strengthening Work for IT Band Syndrome? — Additional improvements following the February reboot of this excerpt, tying up some loose ends, adding some colour and detail. » Apr 24, 18
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — New section, about back mice (lipomas) — » Apr 24, 18
- Save Yourself from IT Band Syndrome! — Improvements, hip strengthening section — Basically a continuation of the February reboot of this chapter, tying up some loose ends, adding some colour and detail. » Apr 23, 18
- The Runners Knee Diagnostic Checklist — Added a short section about causes, continuing to work on making the page more of a useful on-stop resource. » Apr 21, 18
- Does Acupuncture Work for Pain? — Added two recent citations to the introduction to keep things fresh, and a good quote to the conclusion. » Apr 17, 18
- Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome — Improvements, dry needling section — Significantly expanded discussion of the rationale for needling with an interesting example and a helpful image. » Apr 17, 18
- MRI and X-Ray Often Worse than Useless for Back Pain — Clarified that MRI isn’t always useless for back pain. » Apr 14, 18
- Why do Muscles feel Stiff and Tight? — Added results of a poll on how stiff people with hypermobility syndromes feel. Noted an exception to the rule that stiffness is uncomfortable. Added a brief, broad explanation of why stiffness correlates so poorly with ROM. Elaborated on examples of pathological causes of dystonia and put them in lists. Added a new example, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Many other minor additions and edits for clarity. » Apr 12, 18
- Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — Upgrade — Added much more detail about the crisis in orthopedic surgeries — very important context — and more detail to the descriptions of surgical options. » Apr 5, 18
- When to Worry About Low Back Pain — Cited Premkumar et al on red flag reliability (which ain’t great). » Mar 12, 18
- Voltaren® Gel Review — Science update. Added several citations substantiating what was previously presented only as a rational opinion: topical NSAIDs are a lot safer than oral NSAIDs. » Mar 11, 18
- Opioids for Chronic Aches & Pains — Science update: updated rebooted referencing of studies comparing opioids to over-the-counter pain killers, most notably with Krebs et al. » Mar 8, 18
- Why do Muscles feel Stiff and Tight? — Miscellaneous additions and improvements about inflammatory diseases, myotonia, dystonia induced by tranquilizer withdrawal, contracture, and frozen shoulder. » Mar 7, 18
- Anxiety & Chronic Pain — Added sidebar debunking the over-hyped idea that “stress is your friend,” which came from a wildly popular TED talk. » Mar 5, 18
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — Clarification — Added more thorough explanation of guidelines for “total” and “profound” rest. » Mar 3, 18
- Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — New section, the role of weight — Long overdue discussion of a minor sub-topic! » Mar 3, 18
- Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Major revision, introduction to care options — Phase 1 of a reboot of this part of the book. Today I’ve added much more detail to the intro, emphasizing good and bad reasons for seeking help. » Mar 2, 18
- Does Ultrasound Therapy Work? — A couple minor science updates on shockwave therapy (one good news, one bad). » Mar 1, 18
- Deep Friction Massage Therapy for Tendinitis — Two new sections exploring theoretical arguments against frictions. » Mar 1, 18
- Frozen Shoulder Guide — New section about shockwave ultrasound… with predictably gloomy conclusions. But it’s there for thoroughness. » Mar 1, 18
- Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — Cleanup, preventing re-injury — No new science, but a bunch of clarifications and editorial improvements. It’s a clearer and more useful section. » Feb 28, 18
- Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — New tips, healing time section — Added two evidence-based tips to help estimate how long a strain takes to heal. » Feb 28, 18
- Does Hip Strengthening Work for IT Band Syndrome? — Completely rebooted. This article is now a near-verbatim excerpt from the IT band syndrome book. » Feb 27, 18
- Save Yourself from IT Band Syndrome! — Major science update, hip strengthening chapter — After a long delay, I finally came back to the topic of hip weakness and just started over, reviewing the evidence from scratch. No change to the bottom line, but now more persuasive, thorough, and fully up-to-date. » Feb 26, 18
- Why do Muscles feel Stiff and Tight? — New section about dystonia-powered stiffness, plus numerous other clarifications and improvements. » Feb 23, 18
- Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — Major improvements — Extensive new material about the relationship between neuropathy and neck pain, focused on clues that neuropathy is a factor in a case of chronic neck pain. » Feb 22, 18
- Anxiety & Chronic Pain — Science update, based on Carpenter et al on the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy: “more effective treatments needed.” » Feb 20, 18
- Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome — Improvements, dry needling section — Miscellaneous clarifications and elaborations, especially about schools of thought and mechanisms of effect. How does dry needling supposedly work? It’s hard for proponents to answer that question directly. » Feb 20, 18
- Chronic, Subtle, Systemic Inflammation — Added a bit more detail on anti-inflammatory foods and dieting. » Feb 19, 18
- Pain Relief from Personal Growth — New section: “Practical example #2: ditching toxic relationships.” Inspired by Wilson et al (spousal empathy, sympathy have an impact on chronic pain). » Feb 16, 18
- Many Pages — I just turned on an interesting speed boost tech for PainScience.com: CloudFlare’s “Argo Smart Routing,” which is kind of like Waze for internet traffic: it finds the quickest route for the data delivery. This may actually make a significant difference for many of my international visitors. » Feb 16, 18
- Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — Minor improvement — Added a footnote about the long-term risks of poor neck posture and text neck. » Feb 14, 18
- Zapped! Does TENS work for pain? — Science update, cited Luedtke et al on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). » Feb 11, 18
- Save Yourself from IT Band Syndrome! — New section, on leg length differences — » Feb 11, 18
- 12 Surprising Causes of Pain — More information about other drugs with painful side effects. » Feb 10, 18
The last 20 blog posts
- Too many tests, and quality versus quantity of life » May 25, 18
- Feeling your uterus in your leg » May 25, 18
- Pushing back against that massage-for-exercise-soreness paper » May 24, 18
- Immortality not included » May 24, 18
- Many nuggets of wisdom about back pain » May 21, 18
- Can strength training prevent overuse injuries? » May 21, 18
- Prescribing opioids is a huge bummer » May 21, 18
- Extreme chilli blows man’s head off » May 17, 18
- New store » May 17, 18
- Strength training “essential for patients with diabetes” » May 14, 18
- Not even wrong claims, and why pain “cures” are impossible in principle » May 11, 18
- Stop the scaremongering about sitting » May 10, 18
- Laser therapy “biology” » May 9, 18
- Pain cups and energy spoons » May 4, 18
- Motion MRI of singing » May 4, 18
- Raise a little heel » May 4, 18
- Scaring and irritating pain patients is bad » May 1, 18
- Text neck over the long term » Apr 30, 18
- Is pain educational? » Apr 30, 18
- Awkward conversation » Apr 30, 18
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.
- An Evidence-Based Approach for Choosing Post-exercise Recovery Techniques to Reduce Markers of Muscle Damage, Soreness, Fatigue, and Inflammation: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis. Dupuy et al., 2018, Front Physiol. » added May 23, 18
- The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Lauersen et al., 2014, Br J Sports Med. » added May 15, 18
- Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis. Vickers et al., 2017, J Pain. » added Apr 17, 18
- Red Flags for Low Back Pain Are Not Always Really Red: A Prospective Evaluation of the Clinical Utility of Commonly Used Screening Questions for Low Back Pain. Premkumar et al., 2018, J Bone Joint Surg Am. » added Mar 10, 18
- The efficacy of radial extracorporeal shockwave therapy in shoulder adhesive capsulitis: a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical study. Hussein et al., 2016, European Journal of Physiotherapy. » added Mar 1, 18
- Is the rationale more important than deception? A randomized controlled trial of open-label placebo analgesia. Locher et al., 2017, Pain. » added Dec 11, 17
- The effectiveness of a neck and shoulder stretching exercise program among office workers with neck pain: a randomized controlled trial. Tunwattanapong et al., 2016, Clin Rehabil. » added Dec 2, 17
- Subgrouping Patients With Nonspecific Low Back Pain: Hope or Hype? Saragiotto et al., 2017, J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. » added Nov 13, 17
- The relationships between low back pain and lumbar lordosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Chun et al., 2017, Spine J. » added Nov 1, 17
- A fundamental critique of the fascial distortion model and its application in clinical practice. Thalhamer et al., 2017, Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. » added Oct 31, 17
- Clinical evidence for cervical myelopathy due to Chiari malformation and spinal stenosis in a non-randomized group of patients with the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Heffez et al., 2004, Eur Spine J. » added Oct 27, 17
- The relationship between latent trigger point and muscle strength in healthy subjects: a double-blind study. Celik et al., 2011, J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. » added Oct 5, 17
- Increased pain from muscle fascia following eccentric exercise: animal and human findings. Gibson et al., 2009, Exp Brain Res. » added Oct 4, 17
- Effect of stretching on thoracolumbar fascia injury and movement restriction in a porcine model. Langevin et al., 2017, Am J Phys Med Rehabil. » added Oct 2, 17
- The effect of heat on skin permeability. Park et al., 2008, Int J Pharm. » added Sep 27, 17
- Adverse events associated with unblinded, but not with blinded, statin therapy in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial-Lipid-Lowering Arm (ASCOT-LLA): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial and its non-randomised non-blind extension phase. Gupta et al., 2017, Lancet. » added Sep 13, 17
- Exercise induced hypoalgesia is elicited by isometric, but not aerobic exercise in individuals with chronic whiplash associated disorders. Smith et al., 2017, Scand J Pain. » added Sep 13, 17
- Patterns of sedentary behavior and mortality in US middle-aged and older adults: a national cohort study. Diaz et al., 2017, Ann Intern Med. » added Sep 13, 17
- Root compression on MRI compared with clinical findings in patients with recent onset cervical radiculopathy. Kuijper et al., 2011, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. » added Sep 6, 17
- Knee osteoarthritis has doubled in prevalence since the mid-20th century. Wallace et al., 2017, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. » added Sep 1, 17
