Entries by The Pain PT

What Role Do Emotions Play in Bodily Symptoms?

One of the least talked about things in the medical community is how emotions play a role in somatic symptoms. Many of these bodily symptoms don’t have a physical or structural cause. This study was review study looking at 64 studies from 1985 to 2018. It pools all the data from many studies so we […]

Ignoring Your Emotions is Bad For Your Health

A little article in TIME magazine to remind us that our emotions have the capacity to create physical symptoms in the body. If you have ruled out structural and organic causes with your physical symptoms, one of the next steps would be to look at how you deal with your emotions. Chronic pain and other […]

Emotions & Somatic Symptoms: What Does the Research Say?

This study published June 7, 2019 was a systematic review looking at multiple studies and the role of emotions in somatic (bodily) symptoms. This is the first review to look at the combination of results in 64 studies over the years. The results show a link between emotion regulation and somatic body symptoms. This is […]

What Predicts Back Pain Becoming Chronic? Your Brain!

How common are getting X-ray and MRI’s of your back? How about a brain MRI? Well, one day hopefully we will include brain MRI’s with acute low back pain. Why? Because certain brain activation patterns predict with 85% accuracy who will still have pain a year later. This shows us 2 things: 1) who could […]

The Natural Course of Healing

Natural healing happens with time no matter what treatment you have, unless your pain goes chronic. I have known this for awhile as a PT (physiotherapist). I can’t take credit for healing, the body heals itself. In this case, this research review covers low back pain and spans 15 years in 18 different countries and […]

Learn to Go with the Flow

We hear the saying “Go with the Flow” and it sounds cliche. But there is power in opening up and letting life unfold as it does with all its ups and downs and in-betweens. This means letting our thoughts, feelings, and symptoms flow through us when they arise. If we obstruct the natural flow, we […]

Anxiety Can Be the Cause of Physical Symptoms

I work with a lot of people with chronic symptoms and anxiety is one of the top things I see in many patients. What many people don’t realize is that anxiety alone can create physical symptoms in the body like pain, digestive issues, headaches, muscle aches, fatigue, etc. Anxiety works through the brain which then […]

How To Use Reverse Psychology On Your Symptoms/Feelings

Have you ever thought about doing the complete opposite of what you’ve been doing with your symptoms? We know fighting and resisting what we feel doesn’t really work. What we resist persists. The opposite of resisting is embracing- what we embrace we erase. This is reverse psychology, or what is called paradoxical intention in psychological […]

Chronic Pain: A Protective Response from Psychological Threats

All pain is meant to protect us from something. It is always a protective response to try to help us as it thinks something is too dangerous or threatening. The definition of pain is that it is both a sensory (physical) and emotional experience. Once we’ve ruled out the physical side of protection, meaning acute […]