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Pain gone = problem solved? I hear this often. People think that since they are out of pain, they are good to go. It makes sense why. Pain is the thing you can feel, so it becomes the thing you use to judge progress. But pain and the actual problem are not always the same thing, and confusing the two is one of the most common reasons people end up back where they started. Pain can settle for many reasons that have nothing to do with the root cause: Avoiding movements that bo

I recently watched The Invite where Penélope Cruz and Seth Rogen are navigating a chaotic dinner party, and Seth Rogen's character has a history of chronic low back pain. "Oh no," I thought. "Here comes some movie nonsense about back pain." Shockingly, they got it right. Mostly. At one point, Cruz calls out Seth Rogen, pointing out that his back never bothered him when he was happily distracted, but the second things stop going his way, the pain comes roaring back. It's playe

This is the story of a patient of mine and how avoiding the problem altogether made things worse. Throughout this story, I want to highlight some issues I see often in how we manage knee osteoarthritis. The Flare-Up I recently had a patient referred to me for a knee "flare-up" after an activity outside their normal routine. They had two weeks of swelling and pain, and I was the first medical professional they saw after the physician they wanted to see had a wait list of a mon

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that adults over the age of 18 complete 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of...