EstablishedBack Pain
Why Your MRI Does Not Explain Your Back Pain
Disc bulges, degeneration, and annular tears appear in large numbers of people who feel nothing at all. Here is how to read your scan without fear.
JOJulian Okafor11 min read
Where pain science meets mind-body healing
The Hidden Causes of Chronic Pain
Evidence. Curiosity. Hope.
Discover what modern pain science, nervous system research, and mind-body medicine can teach us about chronic pain — with every claim labelled by the strength of the evidence behind it.
Featured
All articlesEstablishedCentral Sensitization
Central Sensitization, Explained Without Jargon
When the nervous system amplifies its own signals, ordinary sensations start to hurt. This is a real, measurable process — and it is not the same as imagining pain.
EMDr. Elena Marsh13 min read
EstablishedSleep
Sleep Is Not a Side Issue in Chronic Pain
Experimental sleep restriction lowers pain thresholds in healthy volunteers within days. In longitudinal studies, poor sleep predicts future pain more strongly than pain predicts future sleep.
SLSara Lindqvist9 min read
Latest Research
Papers, read carefully and reported plainly
Established9 min
Sciatica: Realistic Recovery Timelines
Most lumbar radicular pain improves substantially within twelve weeks. Knowing the shape of that curve changes how the middle of it feels.
Established14 min
Fibromyalgia: What We Know, What We Suspect, What We Don't
A condition once dismissed as unexplained is now one of the best-characterised examples of altered central pain processing.
How we label everything
Four levels of evidence
Every article carries a label. It tells you how much weight the claim can bear before you read a word of it — and we downgrade our own work when the research does not hold up.
Established Evidence
Supported by multiple high-quality trials, systematic reviews, or broad scientific consensus.
Emerging Research
Early but credible findings — small trials, mechanistic studies, or replication still in progress.
Clinical Observation
Patterns widely reported by experienced clinicians that have not yet been formally tested at scale.
Debated Perspective
Credible researchers disagree. We present the strongest case on each side rather than picking a winner.
Latest
- Clinical8 min
Graded Exposure: The Least Exciting Treatment That Keeps Working
Systematically approaching feared movements — slowly, deliberately, with success built in — remains one of the most reliably effective tools in persistent pain rehabilitation.
- Established9 min
Sleep Is Not a Side Issue in Chronic Pain
Experimental sleep restriction lowers pain thresholds in healthy volunteers within days. In longitudinal studies, poor sleep predicts future pain more strongly than pain predicts future sleep.
- Established9 min
Sciatica: Realistic Recovery Timelines
Most lumbar radicular pain improves substantially within twelve weeks. Knowing the shape of that curve changes how the middle of it feels.
- Established11 min
Why Your MRI Does Not Explain Your Back Pain
Disc bulges, degeneration, and annular tears appear in large numbers of people who feel nothing at all. Here is how to read your scan without fear.
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Guides & Workbooks
Visit the shopWorkbook
The Back Pain Recovery Workbook
A structured twelve-week programme for persistent low back pain, built around graded exposure, sleep repair, and load tolerance. Written to be used, not admired.
$29 · 84-page PDF
Guide
Understanding Your Nervous System
What sensitization is, how threat states change pain thresholds, and which regulation practices have actual research behind them — with the weak claims clearly marked as weak.
$19 · 56-page PDF
Guide
The Sleep Repair Protocol
A CBT-I-informed self-guided programme adapted for people whose sleep is interrupted by pain, including a planned response to 3am wake-ups.
$19 · 48-page PDF
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From readers
“The first resource I have read that tells me what is uncertain. That is precisely why I trust the rest of it.”
“I stopped reading my MRI report as a verdict. Six months later I am hiking again. The change started with an explanation.”
“I send patients here between appointments. The evidence labelling does work I do not have time to do in twenty minutes.”