Thoracic Outlet Syndrome: Anatomy, Causes, and Treatment with Clinical Somatics Thoracic outlet syndrome might sound a little scary, but most cases are functional—meaning they can be prevented and often eliminated completely. When tight muscles or poor posture compress the thoracic outlet, you may experience symptoms such as pain and numbness in your shoulder, arm, [...]
The Functional Cause of Sciatica Sciatica often occurs along with back pain, which 80% of Americans will experience at some point in their lives. By the time your doctor diagnoses you with sciatica, the cause may appear to be structural—most commonly, a herniated disc pressing on the root of the sciatic nerve. However, as [...]
Getting out of the Fibromyalgia Pain Cycle Fibromyalgia is a painful, often debilitating condition with many symptoms. The causes can seem mysterious, so determining a successful treatment approach can be daunting. In this post I'll discuss how fibromyalgia can be the result of an ongoing, self-perpetuating cycle of chronic pain, psychological stress, overactive immune system [...]
Mechanical Back Pain What is mechanical back pain? If you're suffering from back pain, you're not alone--between 50% and 80% of Americans will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives.1 It's estimated that 97% of cases of back pain are mechanical in nature,2 meaning that the pain is a result of [...]
Chronic Muscle Soreness: The Cause and Cure Chronic muscle soreness is, quite literally, a pain to live with. Often, no amount of stretching, massage, heat, ice, or ibuprofen can provide much lasting relief. To understand the cause of chronic muscle soreness, we need to start by examining what's happening inside our muscles when they're actively [...]
Why We're in Pain It's not an understatement to say that we have a health epidemic in our country: an epidemic of lifestyle-related conditions that includes heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and chronic pain. By and large, these conditions can be prevented, alleviated, and often completely eliminated with proper self-care. So why aren't we taking care [...]
How Muscular Learning Leads to Pain and Degeneration We've come to accept the fact that a healthy diet and regular exercise will help us live a longer life and avoid conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Even if we don't follow that advice all the time, we know it to be true: our cardiovascular health [...]
