Balance

Keeping balance in our lives is important to our overall mental health. The Yin of our professional careers needs to meld with the Yang of our home lives before we may achieve enlightenment. In the same vein, maintaining physical balance is important to keeping our bodies in an…

If you have been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, you have also probably been told there is nothing that can be done. Before sinking into despair, take a moment to consider the facts of the diagnosis.

First of all, degenerative disc disease is a misnomer. The condition is not a…

Live

Too many of us--myself included--live in the past, worry about future, and virtually ignore the present. “Should’ve”, “could’ve”, and “if only” moments run through our brains. But since we can’t change the past; we can only learn from it as best we can.  Worrying about the…

We often take the simple things in life for granted -- until they are no longer simple to enjoy. As illustration, consider a patient of mine who complained about severe pain in her hands. As is typically the case, I began the hunt for a diagnosis by investigating her behavior just before her…

Like you, Mr. Smith has a desk job and every now and again he gets pain in his low back. He showed up the other day and asked for help because the pain was not going away like it usually does.

When I asked where it hurt, he said it was around his beltline and occasionally the front of his…

Case Study

• In my family, foot pain is common. My grandmother, a farmer’s wife, had feet that always hurt and she could never afford shoes that fit well. My feet hurt and my sister’s feet hurt. We have metatarsalgia.
• In theory, neither of us should have this problem.
…

One evening Michael called. He is a percussionist who had just started his freshman year in college. He is an avid heavy-metal, funk, and jazz drummer who will probably major in music with a view to going professional. He had started having wrist pain—which could severely disrupt his…