Lower Back Pain Can Improve After Hip Replacement

Lower Back Pain Can Improve After Total Hip Replacement –, by Hospital for Special Surgery – July 2020

A new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City reveals that symptomatic lower back pain resolved in 82% of patients after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and identifies which patients are more likely to have their back pain resolved. This study is available online as part of the AAOS 2020 Virtual Education Experience.

This is another example of “everything is connected to everything else” theory. It seems obvious that any asymmetry in the pelvis or hips would affect how we walk and an uneven gait would then stress the low back.

“For patients, it is important to know that hip and spine arthritis often coexist, and the majority of the time, an individual’s back pain is better after hip replacement surgery,”

Physical Activity as Cause and Cure of Muscular Pain

Physical Activity as Cause and Cure of Muscular Pain: Evidence of Underlying Mechanisms – free full-text /PMC5473374/ – July 2017

This article interested me because I’ve long noticed that exercise both increases and decreases pain, usually initially increasing but over time (days or weeks) decreasing.

I’m always having to balance my activity and rest to keep a positive effect, doing both, but not too much of either one.

I had not paid attention to the difference between occupational (or physical) therapy (OT) and “leisure time physical activity” (LTPA). This article explains why I haven’t progressed much in my physical therapy routines: they involve static load, repetitive movements, and high peak forces, All of these are damaging to a body with a connective tissue disorder, like EDS. 

Neurological and Spinal Manifestations of EDS

Neurological and spinal manifestations of the Ehlers–Danlos syndromes – Henderson – 2017 – American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C: Seminars in Medical Genetics – Wiley Online Library – Feb 2017

This research review makes it very clear that people with EDS suffer a great deal of pain from the neck up, that EDS is a physically disabling condition, and that its effects are multi-systemic.

This is the article I will present to the new doctor that is taking over from the wonderful doctor who has been prescribing me sufficient opioid pain medication for the last 10 years.  They work in the same medical group and this new doctor has on occasion refilled my opioid prescriptions when my regular doctor wasn’t available, so I hope she will continue doing so.

Just reading this review crushes any hope I’ve had of ever “getting better” because there are so many physical issues that arise when our body structures are held together (or rather, not held together) by defective connective tissue.

Fascia Research from the NIH

Because fascia is made from collagen, the genetic defect from EDS will often cause us problems with this tissue. It’s thin, fragile, stretches too much, and gives way too easily.

PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).

Research on the body’s fascia (connective tissue) is finding more and more of its functions and abilities, going far beyond just “holding stuff together”.  I’ve posted here the abstracts of the following 4 articles and you can decide for yourself if they’re worth reading in full.

1. Smooth Muscle
2. Visceral Fascia
3. Bone Tissue
4. Hormone Receptor Expression in Human Fascial Tissue

Joint Hypermobility -> Anxiety in Dogs too

First evidence for an association between joint hypermobility and excitability in a non-human species, the domestic dog – Free full-text /PMC6565730/ – Jun 2019

There is a well-established relationship between joint hypermobility and anxiety in humans, that has not previously been investigated in other species.

A population of 5575 assistance dogs were scored for both hip hypermobility and 13 behaviour characteristics using previously validated methods.

Our results suggest a positive association between hip joint hypermobility and emotional arousal in domestic dogs, which parallel results found in people.   

Fat tissue can communicate with other organs

Fat tissue can communicate with other organs | National Institutes of Health (NIH) – by Tianna Hicklin, Ph.D. – Feb 2017

I’m posting this because it upends the common belief that fat is inert. We usually view fat as an unnecessary and monolithic “blob” to be pared down as much as we can, but here we see it’s much more complicated than that.

At a Glance

• Researchers discovered that fat tissue releases signals called microRNAs into the bloodstream that regulate genes in another organ.
• The findings suggest new ways to treat metabolism-related diseases like obesity and diabetes.

Low Energy Production and Pain in Fibromyalgia

Low Energy Production and Pain in Fibromyalgia – Is Your Microcirculation To Blame? – Health Rising – https://www.healthrising.org – by Cort Johnson | May 25, 2014

Exercise is highly recommended as an adjunct therapy in fibromyalgia. 

Those of us with fibromyalgia know how extremely difficult this becomes. Our bodies seem to resist us with all their might and this article offers a possible explanation.

A 2010 review of exercise studies found that ‘slight to moderate’ intensity aerobic exercise sessions done two to three times a week worked best, and that appropriate levels of exercise result in improved fitness but only modestly improved pain.  

Different Types of Back Pain

Back Pain – By Peter J. Moley – 2017

This article describes and suggests certain treatments for 6 different types of back pain:

1. Lumbosacral radiculopathy
2. Facet (zygapophyseal) arthropathy
3. Spondylolysis
4. Spondylolisthesis
5. Spinal stenosis
6. Discogenic low back pain 

Mobile Cecum in a Young Woman with EDS

Mobile Cecum in a Young Woman with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility type: A Case Report and Review of the Literature – Oct 2017 – free full-text /PMC5675945/

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, hypermobility type (EDS-HT) is unexpectedly common and is associated with a high rate of gastrointestinal manifestations.

We herein report the first documented case of mobile cecum associated with EDS-HT. A 21-year-old woman with repeated right lower abdominal pain was initially diagnosed with EDS-HT.

The cecum is an intraperitoneal pouch that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is typically located on the right side of the body (the same side of the body as the appendix, to which it is joined). 

Hotter bodies fight infections and tumors better

Hotter bodies fight infections and tumors better — researchers show how — ScienceDaily – May 21, 2018 – Source: University of Warwick

I’ve always wondered about this: if our bodies deliberately start a fever to fight an infection, why do we always want to lower it? Now it looks like fevers also help with

The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defense system that fights against tumors, wounds or infections

The researchers have demonstrated that small rises in temperature (such as during a fever) speed up the speed of a cellular ‘clock’ that controls the response to infections — and this new understanding could lead to more effective and fast-working drugs which target a key protein involved in this process.