Skip to content
Log in Join free
The Sciatica Podcast cover art

Tom Jesson

The Sciatica Podcast

A Medicine and Health & Fitness podcast

#134 in Medicine · 🇵🇰
Good podcast? Give it some love!

About the show

Interviews, stories and research all about radicular pain! By @thomas_jesson tomjesson.substack.com

Newest episodes

The mechanisms of radicular pain, with Annina Schmid [Repost!]

54 min

We’re still working on the cover design for our upcoming book Understanding Sciatica - a frustratingly long back-and-forth process with the designer that I wish I’d started much earlier… In the meantime, I thought I’d re-send this podcast that Annina and I recorded in September 2020. It’s still the most popular episode of the pod. Might nerve pain be the most interesting thing in the world? Below are the timestamps for the Q&A, with some relevant pictures and links. (Please by aware if you are reading this through your podcast app, the pictures and links may not show). If you have not heard from Annina before, I recommend her episode of The Physio Matters Podcast as a good introduction on this topic. Today’s podcast takes more of a deep dive! Timestamps 0.00 - 2:55: intro 2:55: is radicular pain neuropathic? I reference Annina and Brigitte Tampin's classification for low back related leg pain which you can see more about here Annina mentions the NeuPSIG grading system for neuropathic pain: 6:48: ectopic activity from abnormal impulse generating sites  Ectopic means "in the wrong place". Ectopic activity means action potentials arising from the wrong place in the nerve. For example, instead of arising in the peripheral terminals as they should, action potentials can be generated in the nerve trunk or the dorsal root ganglion. In entrapment neuropathies, this will typically happen when a patch of the nerve becomes demyelinated and ion channels lodge in that part of the cell membrane. This picture shows the process in a nerve that has been completely cut, but the concept is the same for nerves that are merely crowded out. 9:07: mechanisms of stress-induced radicular pain I mention a paper by Elspeth McLachlan which found that after sciatic nerve ligation, noradrenergic axons in rats sprout into the dorsal root ganglion and form basket-like structures which can activate sensory neurons. 12:19: allodynia, wind up and other neuropathic pain features in radicular pain 14:5...

Sciatica Story with Harris Ashraff

1 hr 1 min

Thanks for reading the 38th edition of my newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain! EDIT - The sound quality of this podcast is quite poor - you have been warned. I will try to transcribe it one day. This edition, it’s my pleasure to bring you my conversation with Ash, a project manager from Chennai, India, who has a long history of back pain and sciatica but has nevertheless pursued his powerlifting goals and, to a great extent, recovered from pain. Ash is deeply insightful about his journey and about his pain. During our conversation, he told me not only about how he approaches training with pain, both practically and psychologically, but also how he has found that things like sleep, stress, work and friendship all have a bearing on how his back pain and sciatica feel. One thing that struck me during our conversation was how much work Ash has put in to teaching himself about pain and exercise. He showed me piles of notebooks and, on his laptop, reams of pdfs. He’s a skilled and tenacious autodidact. This is greatly to his credit, but it did also serve as a reminder to me of how hard it is for all of us - laypeople and clinicians - to get our heads round this pain thing. I think this episode will be useful for clinicians who want a reminder of the power of education and of the right approach to training. I also think that, like my conversations with triathlete Kate Charlton (here and here), this episode will be useful for athletes with sciatica who want to get back to training. Finally, here are some links to the resources Ash mentions during our conversation (asterisk = particularly strong endorsement from Ash): * The Gift of Injury book by McGill and Carroll * *Austin Baraki lecture * *Explain Pain book * *Barbell Medicine * *Recovery Strategies by Greg Lehman * Muscle Strength Pyramid approach * Stronger by Science website * Strength System, biopsychosocially enlightened gym in Chennai * Back Pain talk by Mar...

Sensible Sciatica pt. 2, with Adam Dobson

1 hr 3 min

Thanks for reading the 31st edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain! Hi from San Jose, California, where I’m visiting the in-laws! Here’s part two of my chat with Adam Dobson, where we discuss neuropathic pain, nerve assessment, exercise and rehab for sciatica, and more! Find part 1 here. And here’s a few links to stuff Adam mentioned during our conversation: * The IASP grading system for neuropathic pain * The work of Dilley and Bove * This trial by Mathieson and colleagues * My newsletter on dermatomes * Kerezoudis on the effect of epidural steroid injections on bone mineral density * Adam’s bengal cat I hope you enjoy our conversation - let me know what you think! You can contact me by replying to this email. Lastly, a quick reminder of the free sciatica email mini-course, which is for anyone who wants to get up to scratch on the basics! Til next time, Tom Lectures for clinical teams This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomjesson.substack.com

Similar podcasts

All episodes

The mechanisms of radicular pain, with Annina Schmid [Repost!]

54 min

We’re still working on the cover design for our upcoming book Understanding Sciatica - a frustratingly long back-and-forth process with the designer that I wish I’d started much earlier… In the meantime, I thought I’d re-send this podcast that Annina and I recorded in September 2020. It’s still the most popular episode of the pod. Might nerve pain be the most interesting thing in the world? Below are the timestamps for the Q&A, with some relevant pictures and links. (Please by aware if you are reading this through your podcast app, the pictures and links may not show). If you have not heard from Annina before, I recommend her episode of The Physio Matters Podcast as a good introduction on this topic. Today’s podcast takes more of a deep dive! Timestamps 0.00 - 2:55: intro 2:55: is radicular pain neuropathic? I reference Annina and Brigitte Tampin's classification for low back related leg pain which you can see more about here Annina mentions the NeuPSIG grading system for neuropathic pain: 6:48: ectopic activity from abnormal impulse generating sites  Ectopic means "in the wrong place". Ectopic activity means action potentials arising from the wrong place in the nerve. For example, instead of arising in the peripheral terminals as they should, action potentials can be generated in the nerve trunk or the dorsal root ganglion. In entrapment neuropathies, this will typically happen when a patch of the nerve becomes demyelinated and ion channels lodge in that part of the cell membrane. This picture shows the process in a nerve that has been completely cut, but the concept is the same for nerves that are merely crowded out. 9:07: mechanisms of stress-induced radicular pain I mention a paper by Elspeth McLachlan which found that after sciatic nerve ligation, noradrenergic axons in rats sprout into the dorsal root ganglion and form basket-like structures which can activate sensory neurons. 12:19: allodynia, wind up and other neuropathic pain features in radicular pain 14:5...

Sciatica Story with Harris Ashraff

1 hr 1 min

Thanks for reading the 38th edition of my newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain! EDIT - The sound quality of this podcast is quite poor - you have been warned. I will try to transcribe it one day. This edition, it’s my pleasure to bring you my conversation with Ash, a project manager from Chennai, India, who has a long history of back pain and sciatica but has nevertheless pursued his powerlifting goals and, to a great extent, recovered from pain. Ash is deeply insightful about his journey and about his pain. During our conversation, he told me not only about how he approaches training with pain, both practically and psychologically, but also how he has found that things like sleep, stress, work and friendship all have a bearing on how his back pain and sciatica feel. One thing that struck me during our conversation was how much work Ash has put in to teaching himself about pain and exercise. He showed me piles of notebooks and, on his laptop, reams of pdfs. He’s a skilled and tenacious autodidact. This is greatly to his credit, but it did also serve as a reminder to me of how hard it is for all of us - laypeople and clinicians - to get our heads round this pain thing. I think this episode will be useful for clinicians who want a reminder of the power of education and of the right approach to training. I also think that, like my conversations with triathlete Kate Charlton (here and here), this episode will be useful for athletes with sciatica who want to get back to training. Finally, here are some links to the resources Ash mentions during our conversation (asterisk = particularly strong endorsement from Ash): * The Gift of Injury book by McGill and Carroll * *Austin Baraki lecture * *Explain Pain book * *Barbell Medicine * *Recovery Strategies by Greg Lehman * Muscle Strength Pyramid approach * Stronger by Science website * Strength System, biopsychosocially enlightened gym in Chennai * Back Pain talk by Mar...

Sensible Sciatica pt. 2, with Adam Dobson

1 hr 3 min

Thanks for reading the 31st edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain! Hi from San Jose, California, where I’m visiting the in-laws! Here’s part two of my chat with Adam Dobson, where we discuss neuropathic pain, nerve assessment, exercise and rehab for sciatica, and more! Find part 1 here. And here’s a few links to stuff Adam mentioned during our conversation: * The IASP grading system for neuropathic pain * The work of Dilley and Bove * This trial by Mathieson and colleagues * My newsletter on dermatomes * Kerezoudis on the effect of epidural steroid injections on bone mineral density * Adam’s bengal cat I hope you enjoy our conversation - let me know what you think! You can contact me by replying to this email. Lastly, a quick reminder of the free sciatica email mini-course, which is for anyone who wants to get up to scratch on the basics! Til next time, Tom Lectures for clinical teams This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomjesson.substack.com

Sensible Sciatica with Adam Dobson, pt. 1

55 min

Thanks for reading the 30th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain! I must say things have been pretty quiet on the book front this week! In the time I’ve had to work on it, I’ve mostly just been wading through the literature. It seems like on any topic there’s really only a few key papers that give you most of what you need. But you have to read all of them to find out which are the key ones! It’s slow going at times… Anyway, this week I want to share with you a podcast I recorded with Adam Dobson, a physiotherapist from the North of England with a keen interest in spinal pain (and author of this patient info leaflet). I would describe Adam’s approach to assessment and treatment as pragmatic and sensible! I think our conversation will be particularly interesting for people who are used to assessing and treating people with low back related leg pain, and know a bit about the basics of radicular pain, but still feel like they’re trying to put the pieces together to come up with an approach that works for them and their patients. This first podcast, part one of two, focuses on assessment including referred pain, vascular masqueraders and other peripheral neuropathies! At the end of this email, I have put some links to some of the papers and resources that Adam mentions. Lastly I just want to say a huge thank you to Adam, not only for taking the time to talk but also for putting himself out there to talk about his practice! Til next time! Tom Papers and resources mentioned in this podcast: * Adam refers to Schmid and Tampin’s schema for understanding low-back related leg pain * Here’s Adams extension of that schema, where he’s cast the net a bit wider (if this is too small, click here to see a bigger version) * Here’s Adam’s summary of the ABPI test * On referred pain, Adam mentions Kellgren, McCall on facet pain, and Lesher on hip pain. * On entrapment neuropathies, Bowley and Doughty * The...

Sciatica story part 2 with physio and triathlete Kate Charlton

45 min

Thanks for reading the 25th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain! This week I spoke to Kate Charlton again! When we spoke last year, she was recovering from her second bout of radicular pain, getting back into her training and everything was going well. Since then, Kate’s pain returned. She chose to have surgery and so far, her recovery is going really well. In the podcast, we talk about: * Her decision to have surgery * Returning to training after surgery * Attitude and mindset * And much more! And, after last week’s newsletter, it was interesting to hear that Kate’s cold foot recovered immediately after her operation! This conversation, and our previous one, will be useful for any of your patients who have radicular pain and want to return to sport, especially if they train and compete at a high level. That’s it for this week! With a deadline looming, I’ve got to get back to work! Til next time, Tom P.S. Here are some photos of some mourning doves that have started visiting our balcony. I’ve given them some seeds. Lectures for clinical teams This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomjesson.substack.com

Talking certainty, uncertainty and EBP with Raymond Ostelo

43 min

Thanks for reading the 19th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research into all things lumbar radicular pain! This week I spoke to Professor Raymond Ostelo! Raymond recently published a fantastic review of the evidence behind the treatment options for sciatica (link should be open access). In our conversation, we talk about the evidence behind the conclusions of his review. I ask Raymond about: * How much confidence we should have in the evidence around sciatica * Whether our research methods are sensitive enough to pick up on differences between treatments * How clinical expertise fits in with evidence based practice * What study he would conduct if money and recruitment were no object! * How he thinks two trials he has been involved in - those lead by van Helvoirt and Luijsterburg - should inform our practice * And more! I hope you enjoy the podcast. Other bits and bobs * I recommend the latest episode of The Back Pain Podcast, a conversation with David Poulter about discs. He describes disc material as being like crab meat with added water… * I learned a lot from the conversation under this tweet by Luke Murray, asking for advice for his friend with severe acute radicular pain. Here’s some highlights: It strikes me that a lot of the options for Luke’s friend are based on no research evidence or poor research evidence. In fact, there is high level evidence that says that oral steroids, anti-neuropathics and steroid injection have little meaningful benefit for people with sciatica. But anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that this doesn’t mean these things “don’t work”, and anyone with half a heart would know this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about using them. So much of the decisionmaking in this space comes down to clinical experience, knowledge of the mechanisms, and your own philosophical stance on what research evidence *is*. (Which Raymond and I talk about in the podcast!) * Book update! Here’s a photo the kanban for...

Tricky clinical questions with Mark Laslett

48 min

Thanks for reading the 17th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research into all things lumbar radicular pain! For this week’s podcast I spoke to Mark Laslett! Here’s the timestamps for our conversation, with some links to one or two papers Mark mentions: 1:38: On somatic referred pain. 2:40: “Do you have a theory of what's going on when someone has radicular pain but their MRI does not show anything to explain it?” 7:11: “Does largely compressive radicular pain have a different clinical picture to largely chemical?” 12:10: The role of injections in the wider treatment plan. Mark refers to this study. 16:20: Using screening questionnaires. 19:25: Mark's approach to practice and different treatment modalities. 24:50: How treatment of radicular pain has changed over time, the natural time course of radicular pain and speed of onset as a predictor of recovery. 30:44: “Is there a role for exercise in treating someone whose radicular pain does not centralise?” 33:33: “Are there any long term restrictions on movement after radicular pain has settled? And for squatting and deadlifting specifically?” Mark refers to this paper. 39:39: The role of anti-neuropathic pain medications. 43:40: Coming changes to Mark's online course and treating low back pain when research and guidelines feel vague Thanks to Mark for taking the time to talk. I sent him a list of questions ahead of time but it got lost in an email thread so he didn’t see it. When we realised this before recording, he said “Well if I needed to prepare to answer your questions, I shouldn’t be answering your questions!”. What a pro! Other bits and bobs * I was mortified to notice I’d commited a typo in the *title* of last week’s newsletter. But, no one noticed… right? * Tina has updated her already-brilliant website Living Well With Pain so now it’s even better. Great, practical information for patients and clinicians on sciatica, in particular persistent sciatica. * Here’s another really imp...

The mechanisms of radicular pain, with Annina Schmid [Repost!]

54 min

We’re still working on the cover design for our upcoming book Understanding Sciatica - an annoyingly long back-and-forth process with the designer that I wish I’d started much earlier… In the meantime, I thought I’d re-send this podcast that Annina and I recorded in September 2020. It’s still the most popular episode of the pod. Might nerve pain be the most interesting thing in the world? Below are the timestamps for the Q&A, with some relevant pictures and links. (Please by aware if you are reading this through your podcast app, the pictures and links may not show). If you have not heard from Annina before, I recommend her episode of The Physio Matters Podcast as a good introduction on this topic. Today’s podcast takes more of a deep dive! Timestamps 0.00 - 2:55: intro 2:55: is radicular pain neuropathic? I reference Annina and Brigitte Tampin's classification for low back related leg pain which you can see more about here Annina mentions the NeuPSIG grading system for neuropathic pain: 6:48: ectopic activity from abnormal impulse generating sites  Ectopic means "in the wrong place". Ectopic activity means action potentials arising from the wrong place in the nerve. For example, instead of arising in the peripheral terminals as they should, action potentials can be generated in the nerve trunk or the dorsal root ganglion. In entrapment neuropathies, this will typically happen when a patch of the nerve becomes demyelinated and ion channels lodge in that part of the cell membrane. This picture shows the process in a nerve that has been completely cut, but the concept is the same for nerves that are merely crowded out. 9:07: mechanisms of stress-induced radicular pain I mention a paper by Elspeth McLachlan which found that after sciatic nerve ligation, noradrenergic axons in rats sprout into the dorsal root ganglion and form basket-like structures which can activate sensory neurons. 12:19: allodynia, wind up and other neuropathic pain features in radicular pain 14:55:...

Neurorepair and neuroplasticity with Giacomo Carta

1 hr 4 min

Thanks for reading the 13th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research into all things lumbar radicular pain! This week I’m talking to Giacomo Carta. Giacomo is a basic science researcher in neuromechanics, neurorepair and neuroplasticity. He’s also a physical therapist! We discussed his research and his hopes for the future of neurodynamics, nerve pain treatment and physiotherapy in general. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Tom Lectures for clinical teams This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomjesson.substack.com

Sciatica Story with Drew Jordan

1 hr 20 min

Thanks for reading the 11th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research into all things lumbar radicular pain! This week's podcast is a Sciatica Story with Drew Jordan Drew got sciatica about one year ago. He was on holiday and tried surfing for the first time which seems to have triggered it, and he spent a lot of time sitting which seemed to make it worse. After one or two false starts and misdiagnoses, he found out what was causing the pain, found a physical therapist who helped him a lot, and started making progress with his pain. He recently made a video on youtube explaining his approach and what worked for him called Sciatica Survival Guide. Drew has an incredible systematic, reflective, “big picture” approach to getting on top of his pain. His video, and I hope this podcast, will be helpful to clinicians and people with pain alike. I think it will be particularly useful for anyone who is trying to work out their personal “pain triggers” and how to manage them. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Tom Links:⚡ Drew’s Sciatica Survival Guide ⚡ Drew’s Sciatica Playlist Lectures for clinical teams This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomjesson.substack.com

Wired into Pain

48 min

This is a repost from 2018, an article caled Wired Into Pain: a history of the science of pain. I hope you enjoy it. I’ve also recorded an audio version to go with it! [2024 AUTHOR’S NOTE: I think this piece (from 2018) is still a hugely valuable introduction to the history of pain science, rich in detail. But there are some mis-steps towards the end, where it veers into a bit of a triumphalist view of recent pain science. I can’t spot much that is flat-out wrong, but I wish there were other perspectives. Don’t let that put you off reading]. I am a Physiotherapist. Almost every person I see in clinic is in pain, and most already have an idea about what has caused their pain. If they are old enough, they might say ‘overuse’, or ‘wear and tear’; if they are younger, they might say ‘bad posture’ or ‘tight muscles’; if they have had a scan, they might say a ‘slipped disc’ or a ‘bone spur’. We accept these explanations prima facie. We consider pain to be a readout on the state of the body’s tissues. Or, as one doctor wrote in 1917, it is “the unerring medical compass that serves as a guide to the pathological lesion”. But it is only very recently that we have come to understand our aches and pains in this way. Since medieval times, until surprisingly recently, people commonly understood their pains in terms of their relationship to God, often as punishment for sin. Physical and emotional pain were entangled, along with mind, body and soul. This was the grim logic of medieval torture and self-flagellation: the truth of the soul could be accessed through the pain of the body. But, as historian Joanna Bourke records in her book The Story of Pain, this mixture of mind, body, soul and God also allowed people to feel pain as comforting: a “vigilant sentinel […] stationed in the frail body by Providence”, as one writer put it in 1832. For others, pain was redemptive: take, for example, the early nineteenth-century labourer Joseph Townend, who resolved himself to God after under...

Sciatica in the ED with Michelle Angus. And, So long, gabapentinoids?

53 min

Welcome to the eighth edition of my sciatica newsletter! This week’s podcast In this week’s podcast, I talk to Michelle Angus. Michelle is a consultant physiotherapist working for the Complex Spinal Team in the Emergency Village of a tertiary spinal referral centre at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. In this podcast, she tells me about: * Managing radicular pain in the ED * Spinal injections * Spinal surgery * Medications for radicular pain * And much more! So long, gabapentinoids? In the podcast, Michelle shares her clinical experience with prescribing gabapentinoids to people with acute radicular pain. Her impression is that while they do not work for everybody, some of her patients get meaningful relief. In last week's podcast, Kate told me that gabapentin helped her own radicular pain. When I asked on twitter, I heard (mostly) similar stories: "gabapentinoids are sometimes the only thing that allows my patients/allowed me to get any relief". At the time of writing, NICE guidelines for sciatica don’t make a specific recommendation on gabapentinoids; instead, they direct the reader to the general guidelines for prescribing for neuropathic pain, which approve them.  But, the draft version of the updated NICE guidelines for low back pain and sciatica (released some weeks after my conversation with Michelle) recommends against them. According to the draft update, there is no evidence to support their use for people with sciatica. Where do we go from here? Gabapentin was developed in the early 1970s. It was approved in 1993 for seizures and marketed for pain soon after. Pregabalin arrived on the scene about ten years later. In the last two decades, their use has increased dramatically. Much of this has been “off label”, and the drugs have nontrivial side effects, so this increase is a cause for concern. (Graph taken from Montastruc et al.) Together we can call gabapentin and pregabalin gabapentinoids or anti-epileptics. Sometimes the term "anti-neuropathics" is us...

Sciatica Story with physio and triathlete Kate Charlton; and, recurrance rate of radicular pain

1 hr 5 min

Hi and welcome to the seventh edition of my sciatica newsletter! This week's conversation is with Kate Charlton, a physiotherapist and triathlete from Northumberland, England. Kate has had two nasty episodes of sciatica and in this podcast she tells me about what it was like, what did and didn't work for her, and how she graded her return to sport. Our conversation will be a good resource to give to any of your patients who have radicular pain and train and compete at a high level. We talk about * Graded return to activity and “poking the bear” * Kate’s very positive experience with gabapentin and neural gliding exercises * Having hope and breaking negative cycles As I mentioned, Kate has had two episodes of sciatica, both pretty intense. In my experience, the recurrence of sciatica can leave some patients completely distraught. After the first episode dies down, the relief must be immense. I can only imagine how sickening it must be to feel those same symptoms again. How likely is it that lumbar radicular pain will recur after subsiding? We don't have a huge amount of information. In 2012, Suri et al. tracked 97 patients with MRI-confirmed disc herniation who received conservative care only. 79 of those patients reported a full recovery (not bad!). But of the patients who recovered, 25% reported a recurrence of their symptoms. A few years later, Suri et al. investigated this further with a retrospective analysis of a large, multicentre trial of conservative treatment. After one year, the risk of recurrence was 23% - strikingly close to the 25% the authors found in their previous study. But at two years, this number rose to 41%, and at three years 51%! To me, these numbers are disappointingly high. But Suri et al. do write that they may be over-estimating slightly. For one thing, there is a "background rate" of symptom reporting even in a non-clinical population. If you ask a lot of people whether they had radiating leg pain recently, as many as 10% will say ye...

Neuroinflammation in radicular pain with Daniel Albrecht

1 hr 9 min

Hello and welcome to the sixth copy of the newsletter! In my TherapyLive talk I pitched that when we treat radicular pain we should think in terms of nerve health and sensitivity rather than nerve compression (although the former includes the latter!). To illustrate what I mean by "nerve health" I showed pictures from a study by Albrecht et al. in which the authors image neuroinflammation in people with chronic radicular pain. The first picture is cool but not unexpected: the green arrow points to a small patch of yellow in the intervertebral foramen which represents neuroinflammation (or, more accurately, a marker of neuroinflammation).  We have known for some decades that lumbar disc herniations are pro-inflammatory to the surrounding tissues and that this probably drives a lot of acute "radiculitis". In fact, Albrecht was a bit surprised that the signs of neuroinflammation in the foramen were not stronger and more consistent. Maybe it's because the participants in his study had chronic, not acute pain.  The second image is less intuitive: run your eyes down the aggregated images of the spinal columns of the control patients and the patients with radicular pain and you will see that there is more of a yellow hue to the spinal cords of patients with pain.  Although these patients have (or have had) an insult to the nerve roots in their lower lumbar spine, they also have neuroinflammation in their spinal cords, in the lower thoracic and upper lumbar spine. The neuroinflammation has "spread". In cross section, it is more clear.  Whenever I show this image a few people will message me afterwards saying how striking it is. So there is something important here that I want to "zoom in on". And my main stumbling block is, what on earth is neuroinflammation? This week’s podcast This week's podcast is an interview with the lead author of the study, Daniel Albrecht (pron. Albright). Dan speaks really well on this subject. In the podcast, he describes the basics of neuroinfla...

My conversation with David Butler

1 hr 5 min

Hello everyone! Welcome to the fifth copy of the newsletter. I was delighted to speak with David Butler a couple of weeks ago about nerve root pain. With his permission, I recorded our chat so everyone could listen. And then I realised I’d started a podcast! I’ve avoided the temptation to give it a cringey pun title and just gone with “The Sciatica Podcast”. This will be the first of many episodes. I’ll be speaking with experts in the field and people with sciatica. And I think it would be a nice idea too to have the odd journal club or case study; do get in touch if you want to be involved with those. As you can see, you can listen to my chat with David in this email. By searching for “The Sciatica Podcast”, you should also find it on Itunes, Spotify etc. It’s a great chat with David, I think. My main goal going into our conversation was to find new perspectives on a topic that David has already written so much about. I think we succeeded. In other news, * I spoke at TherapyLive on the topic “5 Simple Things We Can Do To Improve Care For People With Sciatica”. I proposed: * We take our time during our assessment to help the person with radicular pain to understand what is going on, using simple language to explain what are often unusual symptoms. * We set the right expectations early on, not implying that acute nerve root pain will inevitably get better in a couple of months or so. * We straight away explain the conditon with reference not only to mechanical compression, but also nerve sensitivity. * We shouldn’t be referral-shy when people have severe acute sciatica (something David and I discuss in our podcast). * We forget about spinal stability and frame our exercises as improving nerve health, instead. The talk is available as part of a bundle with the other talks on Therapist Learning. * I had an enjoyable, quite rambly and discursive chat with Oliver Thompson on the Words Matter Podcast. * This edition of the newsletter is late because I couldn’t quite...

–

0 ratings from members

5
4
3
2
1

Rate this podcast

Log in to rate and review the shows you listen to.

No reviews yet — be the first member to rate "The Sciatica Podcast".

This podcast, its content and its artwork are not owned by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Castquire.

Keep listening

Discover more podcasts like this.

Browse podcasts See the charts

Up next

  1. Nothing queued. Use + Queue on any episode to line it up.

0:00 0:00

Cookies

We set only what the site needs to sign you in and remember your theme. No advertising, no analytics. Read more.