Highlights, updates, and skeptical snark from https://xitter.cf/t.co/Jxovxz38Qu publisher Paul Ingraham. The salamander symbolizes healing & legit biological marvels.
Vancouver, Canada
Joined November 2009
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Does “severe” spinal #stenosis on MRI mean exercise is futile and surgery should happen sooner rather than later? Big new study says nope: how bad it looked on the scan didn’t predict who improved. At all. Or their symptoms! Study of the week, 3m read:
painscience.com/blog/stenosi…
Burning, numb skin on the outer thigh? That’s “meralgia paresthetica,” a pinched nerve at the front of the hip. It gets confused with #sciatica and blamed on things like muscle knots and “fascia”…which do NOT cause it.
NEW POST, audio for members:
painscience.com/blog/meralgi…
In 2021, “bad blood” from #fibromyalgia patients made mice sick. Crazy! So…can lowering those antibodies help PEOPLE? 5 years later, we have a trial: antibodies down 60%… and … and pain didn’t budge. ☹️ A setback for the autoimmune theory. NEW POST, 3m:
painscience.com/blog/fibromy…
PainScience.com just sped up. New server, ~3× faster where it counts the most, like showing member account pages & books.
It’s also a new KIND of server: one that I manage for myself, a “self-managed Virtual Private Server (VPS).”
Nerrrrd. 🤓
PainScience.com/blog/painsci…
Does #sleepapnea make #chronicpain worse? Less than you’d think: in a huge study, the link mostly evaporated once age, weight & health were accounted for. Link likely real…but weak & messy.
NEW POST, 4-min read, audio for members:
painscience.com/blog/sleep-a…
Another night, another #moon. It was photogenic for a 6th night—but only just barely! Sharp focus wasn't possible due to high, thin cloud, but I did get a ghostly halo! 👻 This was Sep 21 in Vancouver: waxing gibbous 78% illuminated. I also got a nice wide shot of moonlit clouds.
“Your body’s natural painkillers” is a cliché without much to it. A new meta-analysis of 67 opioid-blockade experiments showed that, without endogenous opioids, pain rose only ¼ point on a 10-scale. 🤯
Tiny NEW POST:
painscience.com/blog/not-so-…
2 more nights, 2 more moons: now gibbous waxing, 62% and 72%. That's five nights in a row now with no cloud and in a convenient location at a good time. Good run!
Third night in a row of a conveniently positioned waxing moon with good clear skies, 53% illumination now. I wonder if I'll get a fourth?
FWIW, #stretching will boost flexibility…but HOW? Probably not by making soft tissues softer—now ruled out by a big new meta-analysis.
Best remaining bet: we just learn to tolerate a harder pull. And yet still unproven! 🤷🏻♂️ NEW POST, audio for members:
painscience.com/blog/stretch…
ALT Dot-and-whisker chart of six effect sizes from Ingram et al. 2025. After weeks of regular stretching, stretch tolerance rises moderately (0.74) and stiffness falls slightly (0.37), while muscle fibre length does not change (0.07). A single session reduces stiffness a little (0.42) but changes neither tolerance nor fibre length.
A PainSci bibliography historical highlight…
Weppler & Magnusson 2010, my long-term go-to citation for HOW flexibility happens: stretch-tolerance. Ordinary stretching does NOT actually change anything physically. Soft-tissue doesn’t get softer. 🤯
painscience.com/biblio/flexi…
A reader reported some embarrassing mistakes in my #homeopathy arnica article…in, yikes, 2014. I finally fixed them! 🦥 🐌 The errors were real, but the bottom line isn't: a microgram of arnica is still basically nothing. The corrections, and the story: painscience.com/blog/arnica-…
That “well there’s your problem!” massage moment: finding a sore spot that "reproduces" your pain elsewhere. You found the CAUSE…right?
Hm, might be the REVERSE, actually. Because neurology.
Huge new member post, free intro for the basics: painscience.com/blog/reverse…
Pseudoscience is like porn: you know it when you see it… IF you know enough real science to spot the mimicry. 🧐 Most clinicians were never taught anywhere near enough science — and what they are taught often actually crowds out what what they need.
painscience.com/blog/pseudos…
Does adding weight 🏋🏻♂️ to back exercises help #backpain?
An unusually clear answer from a decent (!) new review: NOPE. Heavier training built more muscle in these trials—but no pain payoff. Looks like strength isn't much of an active ingredient.
painscience.com/blog/load-me…
That too-good-to-be-true 2022 Pain Reprocessing Therapy study for #backpain? Still unreplicated…but the same team now reports a 5-year “lasting win.” The actual long-term pain reduction vs doing nothing: 0.67 points out of 10. Sheesh. 🙄 The receipts: painscience.com/blog/pain-re…
#Melatonin could plausibly help people with #chronicpain by improving #sleep. Alas, a new review shows it doesn’t get the job done. Might improve sleep slightly, but that does not appear to translate into pain relief. Bit more detail here (tiny post):
PainScience.com/blog/melaton…
