muscle inflammation after exercise in microscope

How to Get Rid of Muscle Soreness

Muscle soreness, sometimes called “delayed onset muscle soreness” (DOMS) is a dull, achy pain that you may have experienced after a hard workout, especially if you’re not used to exercising. It’s a “functional muscle disorder” without any obvious visible signs of muscle structure damage due to overexertion and eccentric muscle

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Sports massage therapists help athletes after a marathon race in Saint-Petersburg on Sept. 7, 2017. (Photo by aleksandr72)

Massage Therapy: an Alternative to Opioids, But Is It Cost Effective?

Six years after releasing their initial recommendations on prescribing opioids for chronic pain, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated the federal guidelines last February, emphasizing on trying other treatments in the management of acute and chronic pain before prescribing opioid medications.  The suggested non-opioid treatment options are both pharmaceutical

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Daria Oller, DPT, ATC, shares her experience of long COVID at the 2022 San Diego Pain Summit. Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. (Photo by Nick Ng)

2022 San Diego Pain Summit: Manual Therapy Community Re-emerges

The San Diego Pain Summit resumed its first in-person conference since 2020 on Feb. 26 and 27, 2022 with a line-up of new and old voices that tackles the difficult (and often uncomfortable) topics that few manual therapy and medical conferences address. Speakers in this year’s event presented a range

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Interviewing with Jeanie Blair on Feb. 16, 2022. (Photo by Nick Ng)

Ursa Foundation Leaves Legacy in Manual Therapy Communities

Many healthcare professionals have teachers who have made an impact in their career and personal lives where their influence continues to thrive even after they pass on. One such teacher was Dr. Loren “Bear” Rex, who was an osteopathic physician and founder of the nonprofit Ursa Foundation in Edmonds, Washington.

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Triple Crown-winning jockey Victor Espinoza stretches with the help of physical therapist Christina Dinh on Wednesday, August 15, 2018 at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. Espinoza fractured his C3 vertebrae in a training accident at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in July. (K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS)

How Physical Therapy Can Help the Opioid Crisis (2022)

For the first time in U.S. history, more than 100,000 Americans have died from opioid overdose in a 12-month period from April 2020 to April 2021, according to a report from last November from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most data from each state show similar patterns

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CRPS advocate Kris Leong's spinal cord stimulation implant (SCS). (Image courtesy of Kris Leong)

Does Spinal Cord Stimulation Work for CRPS?

Living with chronic pain can leave you feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. Spinal cord stimulators are small implantable devices that are placed under your skin. They can help you manage pain and restore your quality of life and sleep by masking the pain signal before it can reach your brain. Spinal

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Kris Leong sketched her limbs. (Image courtesy of Kris Leong)

Causalgia, RSD, CRPS : Does the Name Matter?

Causalgia, algodystrophy, shoulder-hand syndrome, Sudeck’s atrophy: these are some of the names complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) was called since the late 19th century as each generation of physicians get a better understanding of the disease. Until the end of World War II, CRPS was called “causalgia,” stemming from the

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femoral slump test side lying

What Does a Positive Slump Test Mean?

There are a lot of special tests in physical therapy that aren’t all that special. When it comes to low back pain and sciatica, the slump test isn’t one of them. This test checks the important boxes. It’s easy to perform (and hard to mess up!), and when it’s positive,

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Patient with knee brace for jumper's knee

Jumper’s Knee Brace: Do They Work?

Patellar tendinopathy, or jumper’s knee, has a long history of affecting athletes who play a variety of sports at all skill levels. This condition causes pain just below the kneecap in the patellar tendon (sometimes called a patellar ligament).  Teenage athletes who participate in high-impact sports (think running, jumping, and

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tania velasquez teaches massage therapy pinpoint education

What Is Gluteal Tendinopathy and Can Massage Help?

Gluteal tendinopathy typically affects sedentary people, but it can also be problematic among those participating in running and other athletic activities. It’s the most common lower limb tendinopathy, and it’s nearly three times more common in women than men.  Gluteal tendinopathy may affect as many as 25 percent of women

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Beret Loncar Body Mechanics Orthopedic Massage

What is Iliotibial Band Syndrome? 

Iliotibial band syndrome (IT band) is a painful condition that most often affects runners, especially those who run long distances, other athletes whose sports involve a lot of running or legwork, such as skiers, cyclists, and soccer players, or those who are new to exercise. Symptoms can manifest as hip

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