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 for 20 years now, and full-time since 2010. Useful new references are added almost daily. I am always working on an endless list of improvements, and corrections and mea culpas are always the highest priority items. This page lists everything that’s new or changed lately. ~ Paul Ingraham, Publisher
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The 15 newest featured articles on PainScience.com (out of 229)
- Mind Over Pain » Sep 2021
- Neurodynamic Stretching » Jun 2021
- The Science of Pain-Killers » May 2021
- Marijuana for Pain » May 2021
- Vaginismus » Mar 2021
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Chronic Pain » Oct 2020
- Reviews of Pain Professions » Aug 2020
- Chronic Pain and Inequality » Jun 2020
- Chronic Pain as a Conditioned Behaviour » May 2020
- The Role of “Spasm” in Frozen Shoulder » Mar 2020
- “Windows of Opportunity” in Rehab » Mar 2020
- Vibration Therapies, from Massage Guns to Jacuzzis » Mar 2020
- Reassurance for Massage Therapists » Feb 2020
- The False Humility of “Facilitating” Healing » Nov 2019
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 33 articles & books in 113 days, breaking down into 10 major updates, 21 medium, 19 minor (use the button below to include/exclude the medium and minor updates). That’s an update every 2.3 days in recent history; there have been 2257 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. Go to the complete update archives.
- Voltaren Gel: Does It Work? — Meaningful science update, kind of the opposite of a “nail in the coffin” — topical diclofenac has now been clearly established by extensive testing as effective and safe. This is about as close to “proven” as we get in this business. » Dec 3
- The Science of Pain-Killers — Minor science update, new citation for the safety and efficacy of topical diclofenac. » Dec 3
- Complete Guide to Frozen Shoulder — New chapter — A substantive new chapter about the possible role of the mind and muscle guarding in frozen shoulder. » Dec 2
- The Role of “Spasm” in Frozen Shoulder — Minor clarifications to the submersion tip. » Nov 22
- Complete Guide to Low Back Pain — Major upgrade — Substantial clarifications and new information about ominous neuropathy symptoms, based primarily on Hoeritzauer and Angus, and initially inspired by Tom Jesson’s writing about the prevalence of cauda equina syndrome. » Nov 19
- When to Worry About Low Back Pain — Minor science update, added information and data about the rarity of cauda equina syndrome. » Nov 18
- Complete Guide to Low Back Pain — New chapter, back pain as a disease of civilization — » Nov 16
- Pain is Weird — New section — At last! This article has long needed a definition and explanation of nociception. It finally has one. » Nov 9
- The Complete Guide to Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain — Science update, dry needling chapter — Almost an echo of last year’s science update on this topic: a second study of needling for neck pain, also quite good, and also quite negative. » Nov 8
- When to Worry About Neck Pain … and when not to! — New red flag. Added “facial numbness,” based on Ugradar et al. » Nov 3
- Pain is Weird — Editing — Some cleanup and clarification. » Oct 30
- Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements for Pain & Healing — Added warning about the slaughter of sharks required for collagen production. » Oct 29
- Proprioception, the True Sixth Sense — This may be the first update this article has ever gotten, since I first wrote it in the mid-2000s. For its age, it wasn’t in terrible shape! But I corrected some overconfident speculations, got a little more specific with some of the science, added a number of interesting details, especially a lot more information about Piezo1 and Piezo2 receptors… science that won a Nobel prize in 2021, but was done back when this was first written! The article doubled in size. » Oct 29
- Opioids for Chronic Aches & Pains — Clarified the distinction between standard opioid receptor downregulation versus the stranger phenomenon of opioid hyperalgesia. » Oct 29
- A Deep Dive into Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness — Important corrections and clarifications, acknowledging ongoing debate about the relationship between lactate, lactic acid, and acidosis. Importantly, however, this is only relevant to the biology of fatigue, not soreness. » Oct 27
- Reviews of Pain Professions — Added orthopedics. » Oct 26
- Strength Training Frequency — Science update. Added a citation to Sheng et al about the excellent fitness bang-for-buck delivered by walking, building on the point that there’s a theme of efficiency throughout exercise science. » Oct 24
- A Deep Dive into Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness — Substantial upgrade to the debunking of the lactic acid myth, from a sidebar with a couple key points to a new section of the article. » Oct 24
- The Complete Guide to Chronic Tension Headaches — Science update, cervicogenic headache — Updated the chapter with a citation to an important new study showing that there are no obvious neck abnormalities in headache patients. » Oct 16
- Massage Therapy for Bruxism, Jaw Clenching, and TMJ Syndrome — Added a short section about the (bogus) relationship between jaw pain and a tight lingual frenulum. » Oct 14
- The Complete Guide to Neck Pain & Cricks — New silly treatment, frenuloplasty — Added frenuloplasty to the hall of treatment shame. » Oct 14
- The Complete Guide to Muscle Strains — Correction — I misinterpreted a study of the relationship between range of motion and recovery time. While the general principle was sound — greater ROM loss correlates strongly with recovery time) — my more specific “rule of thumb” based on it was a bit wonky. So I fixed that. » Oct 14
- The Complete Guide to Chronic Tension Headaches — New chapter, tongue-ties as a cause of headache — Adapted from the recent blog post, with some substantive extra speculation about the plausibility of a tight frenulum causing headaches. » Oct 14
- The Complete Guide to Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain — Modernized — Dramatically improved the tone of the introduction to the “medical” section of the book with a healthy dose of skepticism. I’ve added what I hope is a persuasive warning about how easy and dangerous it is to start blaming things we don’t really understand. » Oct 9
- Pain is Weird — Update — New short section about the modern alternative to the “naive view” of pain, so basically a definition and explanation of the “neuromatrix.” » Oct 8
- Does Posture Matter? — Science update — Cited Richards, a study with a delightfully counter-intuitive result, and extremely helpful to the thesis of this article. » Oct 6
- The Complete Guide to Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain — Polishing — Long overdue proofreading of the entire book, correcting several dozen typos that have snuck into it over the years. This is by far the longest of my books, and so it had by far the most typos, and no doubt there are still a few — but it’s greatly improved. Also for this project, I updated all references made to my work as a massage therapist, a great many of which still read like I have appointments schedule next week, when in fact I haven’t seen massage therapy client in over a decade now. » Oct 1
- The Science of Pain-Killers — Science and safety update about acetaminophen safety during pregnancy. See Bauer. » Sep 27
- The Complete Guide to Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain — Added anecdote — Added a solid anecdote from a physician reader about “appendicitis” cases treated with lidocaine injections in the abdominal muscles. Also added some extra medical information about pain in this area. » Sep 22
- Mind Over Pain — Added examples, sensory novelty section — The big idea of this section here was too abstract, so I added several concrete examples of how you “change something about how a painful area feels.” » Sep 17
- Mind Over Pain — New section, cognitive behavioural therapy — » Sep 16
- Vaginismus — Several minor improvements for Vaginismus Awareness Day. I added a list of good Twitter accounts to follow, some statistics, a good quote, and some clarifications about the relationship of vaginismus to other kinds of pain (with more links). Lorna Meehan’s work is now included in the resources. » Sep 15
- Complete Guide to Low Back Pain — Science update — Added a citation and expert opinion. » Sep 11
- Complete Guide to Low Back Pain — Minor improvements, alignment — Added some colour and did a little editing. » Sep 11
- Achilles Tendinitis Treatment Science — Two new sections about muscle: “Massage for Achilles tendinitis” and “The role of the plantaris muscle in Achilles tendinitis.” » Sep 11
- Achilles Tendinitis Treatment Science — Science updated: added two citations and an expert quote on the topic of eccentric training. » Sep 11
- A Rational Guide to Fibromyalgia — New sidebar — Added a bit of comic relief: “Demon tries to inhabit my body … and regrets it.” » Sep 10
- The Complete Guide to Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome — New section, about plantaris hypertonia — » Sep 10
- A Rational Guide to Fibromyalgia — Revised — Significant improvements to the clarity of some tricky concepts. » Sep 3
- Medical Errors in Perspective — Added a new intro with more information and citations about the claim that medicine is the “third leading cause of death in America.” (It’s not.) » Aug 31
- Cold Laser Therapy Reviewed — Added a small new section, “Lasers versus LEDs,” explaining one of the hottest ongoing controversies about photobiomodulation therapy (and much ado about not much). » Aug 11
- Cramps, Spasms, Tremors & Twitches — Added mentions of restless leg syndrome and myoclonus, clarified the description of clonus, and expanded on my own experience with fasciculations. » Aug 11
- Mind Over Pain — More information, the story of “power posing” — » Aug 9
- Mind Over Pain — New section, The power of positive thinking versus toxic positivity — » Aug 9
- Pain is Weird — New section, pain as a conditioned behaviour — » Aug 4
- Mind Over Pain — New section, unlearning learned pain — » Aug 4
- Mind Over Pain — New section, on pain hacks and false hope — » Aug 3
- Chronic Pain as a Conditioned Behaviour — New section about threat hyper-vigilance, with a cool analogy to pet reward hyper-vigilance. » Jul 31
- Cold Laser Therapy Reviewed — Added detailed analysis of a major new trial of laser therapy for back pain. » Jul 31
- A Rational Guide to Fibromyalgia — New section, fibromyalgia transplanted to mice in blood — » Jul 30
The last 20 blog posts
- We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t fix most chronic pain » Dec 1, 21
- The proteins of pain and threatening spice (part 2) [PREMIUM] » Nov 30, 21
- Education versus experience » Nov 24, 21
- Demonization regrets » Nov 23, 21
- An updated red flag for a rare type of back pain » Nov 20, 21
- Is back pain a disease of civilization? A modern lifestyle disease? » Nov 16, 21
- The overdiagnosis of pain as a “false alarm” [premium] » Nov 12, 21
- Neck needling? Study says: nope! » Nov 5, 21
- Can you define “nociception”? » Nov 5, 21
- Join a chronic pain treatment study » Nov 5, 21
- Facial numbness is a Very Serious Symptom » Nov 4, 21
- Will exercising while sore help or harm? » Nov 1, 21
- Robotic mouse massage: is it “regenerative” and “anti-inflammatory”? [premium post] » Oct 27, 21
- Lactic acid does not cause soreness or fatigue » Oct 25, 21
- Big health benefits from far fewer than 10k steps per day » Oct 22, 21
- The proteins that help us feel the world: transduction (part 1) » Oct 19, 21
- No obvious neck abnormalities in headache patients » Oct 16, 21
- Painfully tongue-tied » Oct 13, 21
- History? What history? An imaging foul [premium post] » Oct 9, 21
- A more diplomatic massage interview » Oct 7, 21
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, like small blog posts about the science.
- What is the incidence of cauda equina syndrome? A systematic review. Hoeritzauer et al., 2020, J Neurosurg Spine. » added Nov 2021
- Skeletal muscle regeneration with robotic actuation-mediated clearance of neutrophils. Seo et al., 2021, Sci Transl Med. » added Oct 2021
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards et al., 2021, Phys Ther. » added Oct 2021
- A comparative shape analysis of the cervical spine between individuals with cervicogenic headaches and asymptomatic controls. Masharawi et al., 2021, Scientific Reports. » added Oct 2021
- Paracetamol use during pregnancy - a call for precautionary action. Bauer et al., 2021, Nat Rev Endocrinol. » added Sep 2021
- Relationship between pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and self-efficacy in patients with frozen shoulder: a cross-sectional study. Hirata et al., 2021, J Orthop Surg Res. » added Sep 2021
- Common elective orthopaedic procedures and their clinical effectiveness: umbrella review of level 1 evidence. Blom et al., 2021, BMJ. » added Jul 2021
- Photobiomodulation therapy is not better than placebo in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Guimarães et al., 2021, Pain. » added Jul 2021
- Lower-Limb Pain Differentiation by a Physical Therapist in an Amateur Cyclist: A Case Report. Brindisino et al., 2021, JOSPT Cases. » added Jul 2021
- Pain mechanisms: a new theory. Melzack et al., 1965, Science. » added Jun 2021
- A prototype closed-loop brain-machine interface for the study and treatment of pain. Zhang et al., 2021, Nat Biomed Eng. » added Jun 2021
- Differences in Knee and Hip Adduction and Hip Muscle Activation in Runners With and Without Iliotibial Band Syndrome. Baker et al., 2018, PM R. » added Jun 2021
- Users' views of dietary supplements. Blendon et al., 2013, JAMA Intern Med. » added Jun 2021
- Can Adhesive Capsulitis of the shoulder be a consequence of COVID-19? Case series of 12 patients. Ascani et al., 2021, J Shoulder Elbow Surg. » added Jun 2021
- Patients follow three distinct outcome trajectories following total knee arthroplasty. Hamilton et al., 2021, Bone Joint J. » added Jun 2021
- Aromatherapy for health care: an overview of systematic reviews. Lee et al., 2012, Maturitas. » added May 2021
- No effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation on inflammatory and cartilage degradation biomarkers in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Cornish et al., 2018, Nutr Res. » added May 2021
- Leg massage during pregnancy with unrecognized deep vein thrombosis could be life threatening: a case report. Sutham et al., 2020, BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. » added May 2021
- Massive pulmonary emboli after legs massage. Jabr et al., 2007, Am J Phys Med Rehabil. » added May 2021
- Massaging the outcome: an unusual presentation of pulmonary embolism. Lim et al., 2009, BMJ Case Rep. » added May 2021
