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"Low back and neck pain led 154 conditions in healthcare spending in 2016, costing an estimated $134.5 billion."

Maybe we're barking up the wrong tree here. I remember years ago reading in the newspaper about a guy claiming sickness benefit and he was on the golf course.

Then, when I was at the doctor's with a bad back, I was thinking, "How can the doc possibly know how much pain I'm in- I could be making the whole thing up."

Scientists and doctors are now looking at the possibilty that playing golf/football/tennis might be pain-free for your back but everything else hurts it.

The "problem" here is that there's no real way to monetise this but the savings are enormous.

Why things hurt Lorimer Moseley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwd-wLdIHjs

Dr Hanscom at google https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5cwZ2iu8jU&t=2327s

Dr Howard Schubiner at google https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VyH1laOd2M&t=1052s

2 articles in slate

https://slate.com/technology/2021/02/chronic-pain-neuroscience-education-running-joy.html?

https://slate.com/technology/2022/06/chronic-pain-identity-spoonies-support-recovery.html

“100% of the time, pain is a construct of the brain.”

“The longer you have pain, the better your spinal cord gets at producing danger messages to the brain, even if there is no danger in the tissue”

Lorimer Moseley, a scientist who specialises in pain.

“I don’t believe in pain management anymore, I believe in trying to cure persistent pain.”

Dr Moskowitz, a doctor turned pain specialist, who became completely free from his own chronic pain.

“You can change your brain. This is not wishful thinking, it is science, and we know people can do it even in the most difficult times, when pain is at its most severe.”

Dr Neil Pearson,

I think you are suffering from what we call neurophysiologic disorder (NPD). Your brain is creating its own endogenous pain stimuli, rather like it does with phantom limb pain, registering pain even though the offending appendage has been removed.” David went on to explain that research in neuroscience has confirmed that after about three months, chronic pain sufferers’ brains are rewired with neural connections to newly developed brain centers that generate their own pain signals. These signals are independent of any dysfunction in the body below the victim’s head.

A large, four-year study in Israel showed that it was lack of sleep that induced chronic pain, and not the other way around

The unconscious brain processes data many more times per second than the conscious brain. Any time spent solving your anxiety with rational means is a complete mismatch and counter-productive.

This is the basis of a branch of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). According to the theory behind CBT you can, through a series of directed exercises, reprogram or re-structure your thinking and improve your mental health.

Dr David Hanscom

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