All posts tagged: Pain

The 9 best massage guns for pain in 2024

The 9 best massage guns for pain in 2024

Published by skeptic

Massage gun FAQ   What is a massage gun? “Put simply, it’s a handheld device that sends vibrations through your muscle at a high frequency of around 40 percussions per second”, says Jonathan Codling, a physiotherapist at luxury health club Third Space in London. “These vibrations are called percussive therapy, which is based on the principles of massage, vibration therapy and foam rollers.”  When used before or after a workout, many claim the ‘pummelling’ motion variously improves athletic performance, reduces your risk of injury, reduces Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and increases your range of motion by increasing blood flow to your muscles. Anecdotal evidence also suggests massage guns (also known as muscle guns) can help ease chronic pain and improve sleep. What is the most effective massage gun? While plenty of people report positive experience with the devices, experts maintain that there will need to be more research into the benefits of percussive therapy to say for sure.  “The current research is a promising start,” says Sam MacGregor, clinical lead in the physiotherapy team at Loughborough University. “There are studies …

‘They are trying to eradicate us completely’: the passion and pain of telling the stories of Afghan women | Press freedom

‘They are trying to eradicate us completely’: the passion and pain of telling the stories of Afghan women | Press freedom

Published by skeptic

On the nights that she manages to fall asleep, Zahra Joya always returns to Afghanistan in her dreams. On good nights she travels back to Bamyan, her home province, with its green mountains and bright blue lakes, or to her parents as they looked when she was a little girl. Increasingly though, her dreams are full of roadside bombs or men with guns. Some nights, memories of her last hours in Afghanistan play over and over on a loop: the panicked crowds outside Kabul airport, people being whipped and beaten, the sound of her sisters crying. When she wakes in her small flat in London, where she, three of her sisters and her teenage brother have been living as refugees since their escape from the Taliban in August 2021, Afghanistan is also the first thing she thinks of. Within a few hours of getting up she will be back at her laptop, her waking hours spent reporting on what is happening to the women and girls she left behind. In the three and a half …

Champions Cup pain fuels Leinster’s Andrew Porter in Croke Park clash | Champions Cup

Champions Cup pain fuels Leinster’s Andrew Porter in Croke Park clash | Champions Cup

Published by skeptic

Leinster have not won the Champions Cup since 2018, which is the sort of fact to send those of a certain age scurrying to the record books to see if it can really be true. Turns out it can. No doubt this awkward truth will be brandished in their changing room at Croke Park on Saturday, when Leinster’s latest tilt at the title will continue with their semi-final against Northampton. The only other time Leinster have played on Ireland’s hallowed turf was for their semi-final against Munster in 2009, a win that might be said to have launched their dynasty. Toulouse, who host Harlequins in the other semi-final, on Sunday, have won five titles to Leinster’s four, but one of those was in 1996, the very first edition when, with the best will in the world, the competition had yet to find its mojo. Their other titles have been spread out more thinly across its history. For the past 15 seasons, Leinster have been the dominant force, appearing in seven finals, winning the first four of …

The Common Running Mistake That’s Causing You Knee Pain

The Common Running Mistake That’s Causing You Knee Pain

Published by skeptic

Running is a fantastic form of cardio that can help improve long term heart health, our quality of sleep, and even our overall mood and mental health. However, for many of us, running is difficult or even painful, making us wonder if our bodies simply aren’t built for this kind of high-impact workout. But could we just be running wrong? The unfortunate reality is that many of us are. Running isn’t inherently bad for our bodies and, contrary to what many believe, it won’t ruin your knees. But if your form is even a little off, it can stress out your joints and cause short or long term pain. So as fun as it can be to demonise the exercise itself, too often we’re the problem. It’s us. “There are specific things that you do when you are running that can lead to increased risk for injury,” Heather Milton, exercise physiologist at NYU Langone Health in New York, recently told us, Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong Podcast?” …

Children in Gaza underplaying their pain due to extent of trauma around them, say doctors | Global development

Children in Gaza underplaying their pain due to extent of trauma around them, say doctors | Global development

Published by skeptic

Children being treated in Gaza’s hospitals are “underplaying” pain because it “seems trivial” in the context of the wider conflict, doctors have said. International medics met in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday to discuss plans for a new trauma pain management manual to support professionals treating children in Gaza and other conflict zones. Dr Paul Reavley, a paediatric emergency medicine consultant and former British Army medic is leading the project. He said attenders who originated from Gaza, and are in close contact with colleagues there, had passed on descriptions of how child patients behaved. “The children sort of underplay their pain,” he said. “There has been so much around them, that it’s almost [as if] expression of pain and complaints about pain seem trivial.” They feel “they have to be stronger”, Reavley said. “They’re observing children who are being treated next to their parents who’ve been resuscitated and dying. Compared with that, they lie there and think ‘I have pain’, but if someone asked about it, they don’t want to express it.” The new manual will …

‘Don’t push into pain!’ How to rescue your knees from everything from torn ligaments to injured tendons | Health & wellbeing

‘Don’t push into pain!’ How to rescue your knees from everything from torn ligaments to injured tendons | Health & wellbeing

Published by skeptic

“I could talk for days about knees,” says physiotherapist Patricia Collins. “After backs, they are the most common area we treat.” According to a recent paper in the British Medical Journal, 41% of sports injuries are knee-related. But just because knee issues are common, that doesn’t mean we should ignore them and soldier on. These knobbly little joints bear a heavy load, and problems and solutions can take some untangling. “Not only does the knee have the two major leg bones, the femur and the tibia,” says Bhanu Ramaswamy, physio and visiting fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, “but you’ve got the kneecap, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, and any changes in those will make a knee prone to becoming more stiff or inflamed.” Here are some of the most common problems – and ways to tackle them. Tendon issues Tendons usually attach muscle to bone but the most commonly pranged one in the knee is the stretch of patellar tendon that connects the shin bone (AKA tibia) to the kneecap on its way to the quad …

Medical breakthrough eliminates kidney stones with little to no pain, study finds

Medical breakthrough eliminates kidney stones with little to no pain, study finds

Published by skeptic

This innovative approach relocates or disintegrates kidney stones within the ureter, all without the need for anesthesia and with minimal discomfort. (CREDIT: Creative Commons) Kidney stones, those painful crystalline formations that can wreak havoc in the human urinary system, may soon meet their match in a groundbreaking medical technique that merges two ultrasound technologies. A recently published feasibility study in The Journal of Urology has demonstrated the potential of this innovative approach to relocate or disintegrate kidney stones within the ureter, all without the need for anesthesia and with minimal discomfort. The procedure relies on a handheld transducer placed on the patient’s skin, directing ultrasound waves toward the stone. These waves serve a dual purpose: they can gently maneuver and reposition the stones to facilitate their passage, a process known as ultrasound propulsion, or they can effectively disintegrate the stones, employing a technique termed burst wave lithotripsy (BWL). Procedure diagrams of use in the ED or clinic as performed in this study (left) and as envisioned by our National Aeronautics and Space Administration sponsors for …

Psilocybin for chronic pain? Preliminary research sheds light on psychedelic’s potential

Psilocybin for chronic pain? Preliminary research sheds light on psychedelic’s potential

Published by José

Scientists have recently discovered that psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” can significantly reduce chronic pain in rats. Notably, this pain relief was related to pain from touch, but not pain from heat. The study was published in Current Biology. Psychedelic drugs have recently gained attention for their potential to treat various psychiatric disorders. Psilocybin, in particular, has been the subject of research for its therapeutic effects on treatment-resistant depression as well as alcohol and tobacco abuse. Led by Nicholas Kolbman, researchers from the University of Michigan set out to explore the possibility of psilocybin as a treatment for chronic pain, an area that had not been systematically studied before despite the growing evidence for it. The team utilized a rat model where chronic pain was induced using intravenous formalin injections, which is a compound known to cause long-lasting pain sensitivity. In this study, two types of pain responses were analyzed. Mechanical hypersensitivity, which is increased sensitivity to pain from physical touch that wouldn’t normally be painful, was measured in the rats using a …

I’m a fitness and nutrition expert – here’s how to help joint pain during menopause

I’m a fitness and nutrition expert – here’s how to help joint pain during menopause

Published by skeptic

Flexibility and joint pain are common issues during menopause. And according to fitness and nutrition expert Zana Morris, the decline in oestrogen and testosterone levels, coupled with age-related sarcopenia (which is muscle loss to you and me) and increased stress are to blame. “These factors will all lead to weaker muscles, poor flexibility and of course aching joints,” Zana explains to HELLO! The good news is, there are simple things we can do everyday to help minimise achy joints and to keep our bodies moving more flexibly during menopause. However Zana, who is also the founder of Strong Nutrients says that we need to make simple stretching and certain exercises part of our routine throughout the day, rather than expect that one stretch in the morning to make all the aches and pains go away!  “Given that we have approximately 650 skeletal muscles in our bodies, no single exercise or stretch will help,” Zana explains. “Stretching can help reduce the muscle tightness that can pull at joints, and strength training is essential to strengthen the muscles …

Ashley Biden, in unsealed letter to judge, detailed ‘pain’ from diary theft

Ashley Biden, in unsealed letter to judge, detailed ‘pain’ from diary theft

Published by skeptic

US social worker and daughter of the US president Ashley Biden speaks on stage during the Human Rights Campaign’s 2024 Los Angeles dinner at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, March 23, 2024.  Michael Tran | AFP | Getty Images Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden, wrote a judge to say she would not attend the criminal sentencing earlier this month of the woman who stole her diary because “it would only increase my pain.” The highly emotional letter was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain more than three weeks after the judge sentenced Aimee Harris to one month in federal jail and three months of home detention. “My goal in asking Your Honor to impose a term of incarceration is to ensure that another woman isn’t bullied and shamed like this ever again,” Ashley Biden wrote. “The despair I have often felt will never truly go away. But I ask Your Honor to hold Ms. Harris accountable so that she thinks twice before doing it to someone else.” She …