There is a popular belief that our fingers wrinkle in water because they absorb water and swell. The effect is actually controlled by the autonomic nervous system which contracts blood vessels in the area making the fingers shrink. In a 2011 paper Mark Changizi proposed that wrinkling the finger tips made gripping wet objects easier […]
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Two reasons why your injury rehabilitation is not working.
I recently assessed a former professional football player who was still having pain in his knee following ligament damage sustained 6 years ago. He accurately summed up the problem with the rehabilitation he had received so far, “every physiotherapist starts me with a squat, I can’t squat without pain.” In that one sentence he had […]
Get a grip on chronic pain.
Chronic pain is the most burdensome health issue on the planet. Professor Lorimer Moseley explains what pain represents and how education can help us to reduce its emotional and financial cost.
Knee arthroscopy does not work says study
If you have knee pain and are considering an arthroscopic debridement or ‘clean out’ of the knee then read on. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that the operation provides no greater benefit than physical therapy alone. This follows a Cochrane Review on the effectiveness of the procedure […]
Sciatica: Study finds no advantage to surgery after 2 years.
A Dutch study into the long term outcomes of surgical intervention for patients suffering from Sciatica, has found there is no difference after 2 years between those that have surgery and those that manage their symptoms with more conservative means. In both groups 1 in 5 had a re-occurrence of their symptoms by the 2 […]