Most long distance runners have experienced the “runner’s high” — a feeling of enhanced mood and relaxation following a strenuous run. Its presence is unmistakable, but also hard to explain, and even harder to scientifically prove. Recently, researchers used high-tech brain imaging to demonstrate changes in brain activity that correlate with this phenomenon. Perhaps more importantly, this runner’s high is also linked to decreased pain perception, providing a potential therapeutic mechanism for sufferers of chronic pain. Read more →

In medicine, we often see patients with chronic neck and back pain. I previously posted about patients who present with neuropathic pain and how they can be some of the most difficult patients to treat. Often, the etiology of their pain is unknown and treatment often involves a long trial and error approach.

Health professionals have always been taught that chronic neck and back pain is a phenomenon of industrialized nations. Read more →

Pain is generally considered a symptom of disease. The uniqueness of the disease of pain, of course, is that it cannot be seen by the physician. It is experienced and reported by the patient. Understanding how pain is generated and more importantly, how to treat pain, is the focus of this lecture. Among the topics to be discussed are the many different types of pain that can be produced, the difference between acute and chronic pain, whether placeboes really work and if so, how, and where in the brain is pain perceived. Read more →