I can't comment on the conflict of interest as I do not know the practitioners personally, but from additional/supplementary research in this space as well as the massive amount of people this work has appearerd to help recover (look at reviews/discussion for books like the 'The Way Out') - it does seem to be having a big impact.
I'm aiming to link supplementary research in follow-on articles (e.g. the relation b/w pain and injury where nociplastic pain is present, the impact of psychological factors on pain etc) to paint a comprehensive (yet digestible) picture.
> by selling the "the cure" on a newsletter basis and using organic growth to make more money.
I am not selling anything, the information from what is happening -> to how to recover (if it is relevant to you) is and will be freely available on this substack. It is not paywalled and I'm not intending for it to be.
Additionally where are you quoting "the cure" from? I will be sharing information for people to use to self assess if it applies to them. Recovery from chronic pain is rarely simple as your quote implies - instead it requires daily concentrated effort.
> his solution is not backed by extensive medical studies.
> He could just write a document laying it all out, and letting people download it, easier for everyone.
Readers are more than welcome to download an offline copy from their browser if they'd prefer to consume it that way.
> (and try to get some researchers do the chekcing).
This is a valid point and I'll see how I can integrate it into future pieces, even if it's just collaborating with (legitimate) researchers. Thanks.
Something to understand is until yesterday no one knew I was in this space. Me DM'ing a researcher and asking them to vet my writing would likely have at best resulted in them letting me know they're busy. That likely isn't the case anymore.
> This is damn close to snakeoil.
Happy to discuss this in more depth. I don't see which part is comparable to snakeoil.
Just woke up and this post's traction has surpassed my wildest imagination.
Similar to what pedalpete has said, I'm looking to release this in parts to ensure:
1. I am not overwhelming people and losing their interest
2. Quality remains as high as possible (I invested only a few hours into this last week as an experiment). I want this blog to be the most easily accessible, engaging + factual source for chronic pain sufferers. That requires sufficient time to nail (and it seems like I've struck a chord so far).
3. Get signals from readers week by week and tailor to the audience which is forming.
This will help me helpfully reach the most pain sufferers.
RE feel like you're being sold something. This series will cover what is needed to recover from chronic pain and be offered for free. I am looking to build a product eventually (why wouldn't I want help as many people as posssible while building a career which does good - I don't believe they're exclusive), but the information in this blog will remain free.
RE not calling out Pain reprocessing theory/therapy - I'll go through the post today and see if it makes sense to add this into #1 (or if it's better for #4). It's not something I consciously omitted when writting this post last week.
1. You've lost my interest with no "meat", as the GP stated.
2. There is no "quality" in using a couple thousand words of text to say "I'll be writing about what helped with my chronic pain over time".
3. Here's the signal: I am not in for "weekly" sessions. I do have chronic pain, but what you want to be producing is utterly incompatible with what I need.
here is what helped reduce my chronic neck pain: red meat (beef) with no side dish, eating healthy in general (and I mean truly healthy, not "oh one small candy bar every two days is proably okay..." no, it actually isn't. It's poison.) and exercise, a foam roller, bench press. Also definitely don't eat leafy greens, if you do that then you should stop in my opinion. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to truly eat perfectly. You can't make a single mistake or it will start the sickness cycle again. Not immediately but even a single piece of chocolate will make it so that the body is susceptible to further damage the next day. Then if I eat another piece the second day I'm really risking it and the damage left a hole in my health. I've had multiple instances where I ate a piece of cake and a donut and I was getting sickly with a hot head within 2h. I think it's hard to emphasize enough how important health is, it should be your top hobby to be healthy and eat healthy. It should be your nr.1 pasttime to research health and draw joy from doing health related things.
TBH I couldn't tell what the condition was or what general kind of treatment it was from the article without making big assumptions. Chronic pain is a symptom, viz. pain that doesn't go away after a short time. What was your disease? Or was it never given a name but the pain was treated?
Then I had to click a link "a landmark study" to get an idea of what the treatment is. Why not put the title of the treatment there?
Finally, that article is about back pain. But you had tendon pain. Obviously a psychological technique can be applied to multiple diseases, but you might say something about that.
Your reply seems disingenuous, like marketing-speak. You're telling people "I have a solution to your chronic pain" and then they read the article only to find out "tune in next week for the next bread crumb".
Chronic pain drives people to suicide. You're toying with people's emotions.
> used me to change my routine and avoid certain activities which only exacerbated the issues, which led to more avoidance. Eventually I couldn’t walk.
Anecdotally, I had a phase where pretty much the same thing happened to me with the Achilles (+ calf/ankle) flare-ups I was having (during this part of my chronic journey). Eventually got through it by doing small walks around my home, then outside but keeping the frequency high each day (i.e. instead of 1 "long" walk, doing 3-4 short ones). I.e. Desensitisation / daily movement
Splitting up activity to bite sized chunks was critical for me as well. It prevents over straining but I think more importantly it also prevents you from being stagnant for an extended period of time.
> and making comments implying that they know better than doctors about chronic pain (while putting an obligatory “not a doctor” disclaimer juxtaposed to their comments complaining that doctors don’t know what they know).
I am not claiming to know better than doctors whom are proficient in pain science/medicine.
Rather, that most doctors are not adequately educated on this topic. If you ask the average doctor they will tell you how little it is taught in most medical education programs. Case in point, most pain sufferers will tell you how many doctors they had to bounce between before they finally got some answers/direction (if they were lucky).
FWIW I was preparing for two months this year after I left my job to sit the Australian med school entry exam. Ultimately, I decided I would be able to help more people today, with tools readily available (including a computer and substack) than spending the next decade of my life preparing for a medical career.
I would consider amending that part of my post to say something more narrow like "Not a pain doctor", but it seems more straightforward as it is now.
The link between the gut and brain (especially in the case of dietary intolerances) is an interesting one! Keen to see if others have come across good research in the space
On your first point, the moving of symptoms is not uncommon in patients with chronic pain - and yes definitely a sign something not normal is going on!
On the second, I've mentioned it elsewhere in this thread (on a different comment) that it's critical to determine if a structural cause is at play (i.e. tissue/nerve damage or something else causing inflammation). It is unfortunate however that many doctors are not familiar with modern pain science so I'm hoping spreading awareness via patients (and some practitioners) will change this.
In the next few blog posts this very thing will be discussed (i.e. exploring when it's likely something is mind related vs the body [though I will focus primarily on the former in this series] - as you're 100% correct sometimes it's the body and sometimes it's the mind, and sometimes it's both!).
Very much agree it's critical to get an accurate assessment, ideally from a doctor who understands pain science to rule out a structural cause. In saying this, I recognise many practitioners are not fully across this so I'm hoping this series will help increase awareness.
This first blog is meant as a quick intro to the series - blog post #2 will break down the different categories of chronic pain (i.e. broadly including tissue, nerve damage and pain due to brain plasticity - what the series is primarily focused on).
I can't comment on the conflict of interest as I do not know the practitioners personally, but from additional/supplementary research in this space as well as the massive amount of people this work has appearerd to help recover (look at reviews/discussion for books like the 'The Way Out') - it does seem to be having a big impact.
I'm aiming to link supplementary research in follow-on articles (e.g. the relation b/w pain and injury where nociplastic pain is present, the impact of psychological factors on pain etc) to paint a comprehensive (yet digestible) picture.