The Relationship Between Chronic Stress and Health Stress is commonly perceived as a psychological term. That is simply not true. Life is not guaranteed for any living creature. Stress represents our reaction to ongoing daily threats to remaining safe. Any real or perceived mental or physical threat causes your body … Read More
Overview The essence of healing is feeling safe. Your body regenerates and heals. Not being able to support yourself or have access to basic resources is incredibly damaging to your mental and physical health. Medicine must look at a patient in the context of their whole environment – especially work. … Read More
I am sharing these letters from a former patient to explain why I continue to work to help people escape from pain. As a complex spine surgeon, much of my practice involved treating patients deeply in The Abyss who had lost hope of escape. What drives me is not just … Read More
I had a rough start living in a chaotic household with an angry mother who suffered from chronic pain. I did not figure out for 50 years that the migraine headache I suffered at age five would be the beginning of a lifetime filled with chronic pain. I eventually experienced … Read More
Objectives Most of us intellectually understand that the only moment we have in life is this very one. That is it. Being in medicine for over 40 years has shown me the incredible unpredictability of life. Life changes in second – sudden heart attack, bad car accident, diagnosis of terminal … Read More
Schadenfreude—the pleasure derived from another’s misfortune—is biologically rooted in the brain’s reward system. Brain imaging studies reveal that when we witness the downfall of someone we envy or dislike, the ventral striatum activates—the same reward center associated with pleasure, food, and financial gain. By the way, remember that this is merely a sensation … Read More
I am part of a documentary titled “Who is Luigi Mangione?” It will air this coming Monday evening, February 17th, at 8 pm ET on HBO Max. Many of you have heard about the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare. The shooter was Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old … Read More
Holding your hand over a hot burner triggers an immediate threat response (anxiety) and prompts action to address that threat. This sequence is part of the protective pain response known as the nociceptive pain system. Numerous danger cues activate this response. As your nervous system memorizes dangerous situations, this system … Read More
Humanity Won’t Survive Without Engaging its Thinking Brain No Action in a Reaction The Human Survival Paradox Consider a time long ago when survival required outrunning predators or gathering enough food to last through the day. For our early ancestors, every rustle in the grass could signal a threat, and … Read More
A friend of mine asked me for an opinion a couple of years ago about his back. I was giving him advice as a friend, not as a surgeon. He was having some pain and numbness down the side of his leg. It was down the distribution of his 5th … Read More