The prefrontal cortex is a part of our brain that controls what’s called ‘higher executive functioning’. This is the cognitive area of the brain that houses our conscious perception and decision making abilities, as well as the ability to send inhibitory messages to down-regulate pain. The prefrontal cortex is number one in my opinion as […]
As a PT (physio) I realized a long time ago that we are not just mechanical bodies cut off from the mind at the neck, but that in fact, our brains and nervous systems have a greater impact on our bodies than we could ever imagine. In this study that premise bears out as whiplash […]
Psychotherapist Julie Markowitz and myself Jim Prussack PT are teaming up to offer a 8 week course on healing chronic pain and other chronic health ailments starting in January 2021. The course is titled: ‘Feeling Safe, Feeling Well.’ There is such a need for this type of work as we know changes in the brain […]
2019 study article looking at emotional repression and chronic inflammatory rheumatisms (CIR) ( rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis). It also highlights how adverse childhood experiences increase the risk for CIR later in life. What they found: “Our results and those reported in the literature highlight the importance of emotional dysregulation, especially emotional repression, on CIR etiology […]
One of the interesting things with recent fMRI imaging studies of the brain is that we can see what’s happening in the brain when there is pain. This study on acute pain also sheds light on the transition to chronic pain via a couple of brain pathways we have spoken about before. We are talking […]
New research article titled: “Is lumbar fusion necessary for chronic low back pain associated with degenerative disc disease? A meta-analysis.” The short answer is “NO”. The researchers came to this conclusion after looking at multiple studies: ‘The present meta-analysis determined that fusion surgery was no better than nonoperative treatment in terms of the pain and […]
New study November 2020 that looked at 375 women coming to an inner city emergency department for acute pain. They followed these people for 3 months. 162 people still had pain at the end of 3 months while the others recovered. What they found was: “The no recovery group reported significantly greater PTSD symptoms, anger, […]
This is one of those research articles I refer to often. It’s titled: ‘Predicting transition to chronic pain’. What is so interesting about this research is they did brain scans at the time of an acute low back pain episode and then again a year later. In the people whose pain became chronic, they found […]
The Amygdala is known as the emotional center of the brain. It has been implicated in anxiety and depression and now studies are clearly showing it is implicated with chronic pain. This study showed exactly that, and it also highlighted that pain catastrophizing had the greatest impact on the abnormal amygdala to central executive network […]
Pain Catastrophizing is a ‘tendency to magnify and ruminate about pain and having a helpless attitude toward actual or anticipated pain.’ Studies show that people who catastrophize about their pain have higher pain levels. This occurs through mechanisms in the brain. This review study below from 2019 highlights some of the brain areas that are […]
