Just a thought.

You cannot “proof yourself” against low back pain.

You can reduce some risk factors like obesity, smoking, lack of sleep, low activity levels.

But push come to shove (pun intended) you will by chance alone develop low back pain sometime in your lifetime.

❌ Pain isn't just about our bad back or knee.

🧠 Pain is also COGNITIVE, controlled by beliefs, perception & ATTENTION.

🌟 This is the science behind why distracting a child with screens during a shot makes it HURT LESS 💉👇🏼

#MedTwitter #MedEd #painexplained 🔥🔥🔥

These are my babies, #microglia (🟡); they are the specific macrophages of the brain! Many neuroscientists I know think these are some of the coolest cells in the brain, and I agree. 😁 #FluorescenceFriday

How much does placebo account for #ketamine and #esketamine benefits? 72%, from new analysis:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38525254

Similar to placebo contribution for antidepressants (62-82%).

Meds make a real difference, but the power of the placebo is welcome news for the human spirit.

There is no 'pain center' in the brain.

Rather, pain is a diffuse neurological process involving MANY brain sites, including PFC (attention), cerebral cortex (thoughts), & limbic system - the brain's EMOTION CENTER💥💥

📣Pain is BOTH physical AND emotional ALWAYS 👏🏼
#MedTwitter

Top 2 reasons we mismanage pain:
1. Our profit-driven healthcare system cares more about 💰 from 💊💉🔪 than actual healing
2. The egregious lack of pain education in med school & other disciplines: 96% of med schools have ZERO compulsory pain ed.

Additions?
#medtwitter #FOAMed

Neurons (🟠) and microglia (🔵), brain's immune cells! Check the number of microglia available for each neuron. That's because this photo was taken in the cerebral cortex 🧠🔬.
In humans, the glia-to-neuron ratio in the cerebral cortex is 3.72 (72% glia), while that in the…

Phenomenal talk on the neuroscience of sex-differences in pain processing
- including analgesia induced by mindfulness meditation -
by the brilliant Fadel Zeidan Diana Tavares Ferreira + Jeff Mogil 🧠🔥

I love this sh*t
#neuroscience
#usasp2024

Touch is an important part of therapy. Don’t let the doubters say otherwise.

Who's going to the USASP conference in Seattle in April??? Hands up please
🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️

Looking forward to seeing my pain people, long overdue! 🤓

US Association for the Study of Pain The Journal of Pain tor wager Fadel Zeidan Burel Goodin Nackley Lab IASP Dr. Tyler Bell Katie Martucci PhD Kate Nicholson

👉🏼 Diagnoses that respond to diet, exercise, sunshine, nature, social support, sleep + stress reduction:

✔️high cholesterol
✔️heart disease
✔️anxiety
✔️depression
✔️diabetes
✅ CHRONIC PAIN 🔥🔥🔥

Health is biopsychosocial, so
Treatment must be, too. 🙏🏼
#MedTwitter #MedEd 🧠

Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain! Our new study reveals how perceptions of pain can emerge from the interplay between thermal sensations, expectations, and uncertainty. Check out our thread for all the details! 🧵👇 biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Oof. In fairness to the doc this person is complaining about, if I agreed to consult with every colleague who asked, I'd have zero time for my patients -- let alone a personal life. 😅
Boundaries are important, even for the most compassionate among us 🙏🏼

Question:

Is the 'sharp rise in adolescent depression' (and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, ADHD, etc.) due to exogenous causes like social media/smart phones, parental coddling, life history theory, etc?

What if the cause is endogenous—an artifact of…

STRESS is a well-established pain amplifier. 🔥

Stress
💪🏼increases muscle tension
💦triggers the SNS
🫀alters endocrine, digestive, cardiac + immune function
🚨AMPLIFIES THE BRAIN'S PAIN ALARM

Pain is physical AND emotional 📣
✨Always.✨

#MedTwitter #MedEd

Why is the insula the most interesting region in the brain?

Here are 6 things worth knowing. This is topic #3 for our lab's Friday 'Ode to Neuroanatomy' series.

Suicidality does NOT = a 'chemical imbalance' ❌❌

👉🏼Contributors include trauma, hopelessness, loneliness, life events, sleep/diet/exercise/sunlight, despair + desperation, lack of meaning + purpose.

Thanks Tim Ferriss for shining a light 🌤️
tinyurl.com/SuicideTF

Jonas Salk creates the first polio vaccine, 1955.

Salk decided not to patent his polio vaccine so that it would be affordable for millions of people who couldn't afford it. In an interview, Edward R. Murrow asked Salk who owned the patent to the polio vaccine.

'Well, the…

Who's going to the USASP conference in Seattle in April??? Hands up please
🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️

Looking forward to seeing my pain people, long overdue! 🤓

US Association for the Study of Pain The Journal of Pain tor wager Fadel Zeidan Burel Goodin Nackley Lab IASP Dr. Tyler Bell Katie Martucci PhD Kate Nicholson

In a survey of 27 different fields and ~300 participants, Andrei Cimpian's team found that neuroscience had the HIGHEST scores in both perceived masculinity-content culture AND perceived emphasis on brilliance.

Friends, we need to be talking about this.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…