The social prescription: why do we need to pay attention to the social environment and support of our patients?   July 23rd, 2024
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine identifies social connection as one of the essential pillars of therapeutic lifestyle interventions for treating chronic conditions. This pillar, alongside others such as nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, and the avoidance of risky substances like tobacco and alcohol, plays a crucial role in promoting health.
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Chronic pain: The brain didn’t get the message.   May 31st, 2024
Lisa Feldman Barrett, a well-respected neuroscientist, psychologist and known for her groundbreaking research on emotion, the brain, and the mind, shares some sublime insights in her book “How Emotions are Made.
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The Healing Power of Breath: Exploring Deep Breathing Exercises for Pain Management   May 31st, 2024
In the hustle and bustle of modern life, it's easy to overlook the simple yet profound act of breathing. However, for centuries, cultures around the world have recognized the therapeutic benefits of deep breathing exercises. In this blog post, we delve into the realm of breathwork and its remarkable potential in managing pain, offering a holistic approach to well-being that harnesses the power of the breath.
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Phenotyping nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic pain in the past, present and future   May 30th, 2024
​Do you consider all myofascial pain to be nociceptive pain? Do you consider all carpal tunnel syndrome and/or all post-chemotherapy pain pure neuropathic pain? Do you explain pain in the same way to patients with nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociceptive pain?1 If you respond positively to at least one of these questions, we invite you to continue reading. You see, phenotyping persistent pain into predominantly nociceptive, neuropathic or nociplastic pain is not that straightforward and potentially, pain phenotyping has clinical implications.
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A paradigm shift from a tissue- and disease-based approach towards multimodal lifestyle interventions for chronic pain   May 29th, 2024
It’s been two decades since we started studying the role of central nervous and immune systems in patients with chronic pain. Back then, we could not imagine what massive, global impact pain science would have on our profession and healthcare for patients suffering from pain in general.
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Does pain intensity still serve as gold standard to measure pain?   April 11th, 2024
The individual feeling of suffering and the personal translation of that experience into a patient’s daily living is the signature of the heterogenous subjectivity of chronic pain. By definition, a painful experience is always a personal interpretation. Yet, despite this knowledge, clinicians, pain physicians and clinical researchers still often use oversimplifications and minimizations of a patient’s health status through unidimensional constructs such as pain intensity.
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Let’s connect:
The importance of person-centered communication in pain management   April 11th, 2024
Pain is a complex and subjective experience that requires a person-centered approach in its management. In the realm of healthcare, person-centered communication is often underestimated in the management of pain. It extends beyond the mere collection of information: it serves as a gateway to understanding and a crucial alliance between the healthcare provider and the patient.
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Left out in the cold – hallmarks of nociplastic pain yet remaining unclassifiable   April 10th, 2024
Nociplastic pain may not be characterized only by sensory hypersensitivity. What about persistent, widespread pain with numbness and sensory loss or hypo-sensitivity? How do we classify people with no allodynia to light touch, stroking nor hot/cold applied to the skin, no hyperpathia nor temporal summation but with widespread, unpredictable pain, perhaps some weakness, fatigue, sleep dysfunction and/or cognitive difficulties?
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The interplay between breathing and experienced symptoms in cancer patients   April 9th, 2024
Patients with cancer experience acute and chronic symptoms such as pain, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment. The co-occurence of these symptoms has been described as the symptom cluster, which is negatively associated with quality of life.
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Unpacking the Impact of Social Support on Physical Activity in Cancer Survivors   February 14th, 2024
One in four cancer survivors will experience persistent pain after ending cancer treatment. In our exploration of chronic pain among cancer survivors, evidence shows time and time again that physical activity plays a vital role in alleviating symptoms and improving quality of life.
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Pain management around the clock: the significance of sleep   February 12th, 2024
Our work and lifestyle choices are contributing to the normalization of poor sleep1,2. This is in contrast with the extensive research linking good quality sleep with positive mood, learning, memory consolidation, and physical recovery. Conversely, poor sleep leads to important consequences for our health1.
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Does my body need protection, right here, right now?   February 10th, 2024
​Before delving into the topic of interest for this post, I would first like you to take a look at the image of the two tables. To most people, this image depicts two tables of which one appears longer and thinner than the other. However, the truth is that the two tables are of the exact same size, both in terms of length and width.
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