The brain is different if you have depression, but are these changes caused by the condition or do they precede it? It seems now that depression appears to affect brain structure. Before looking at this, aRead More…
Vulvodynia is one of the most horribly painful conditions for a woman to suffer Imagine that your vulva is so sensitive that it is agonising to wear pants or tight clothing, to try to insert aRead More…
Don’t lose touch Touch is the perfected sense that plays a unique role in generating and maintaining the sense of self. In short, as humans we need touch. Yet in modern society we are losing touchRead More…
What are your triggers? Jaw pain is a common problem. It is rarely stand alone, co-existing with other painful problems such as neck pain, headaches, migraines, IBS, pelvic pain and other persistent issues. People describe tension,Read More…
Persistent pain and injury in football ~ better outcomes needed We know that professional football commands an enormous amount of money. Lesser known is the huge cost of persistent pain and injury in football — theRead More…
5k runner to ultra marathons There is one important reason why the transformation from 5k runner to ultra marathon happened. Purpose. In 2015 I co-founded Understand Pain with a then patient, Georgie, who was suffering CRPSRead More…
It’s been a great weekend in Brighton, but now it’s straight back into training to be ready for the Isle of Wight Challenge at the start of May. That means a 20k trot today. The routeRead More…
Pain Points series this week In the build up to the Brighton Marathon, I have been posting daily Pain Points. These are the based on the last east understanding of pain, addressing one of the majorRead More…
This is a brief post about one aspect of addressing pudendal neuralgia (PN), often a very troubling and painful condition. I see this in men and women (see Sanjay’s story here). Here I tap into someRead More…
Are you missing out on touch? Recently I was re-reading ‘The science of interpersonal touch’ by Gallace and Spence (2010) and several thoughts struck me. This excellent review considers the importance of touch for emotional wellbeing, childRead More…