Movement Pulse · Chronic pain
Chronic-pain research and a practitioner perspective on what's worth trying.
Pain climbed through working years for one in five women, then eased
Aches that build for years don't always keep climbing. In 42 years of Swedish surveys, the group in most pain peaked around retirement age.
Nov 3, 2026
With knee or back pain after 65, exercise may change how you walk more than how much
52 adults over 65 wore ankle sensors for twelve weeks. Their daily steps stayed flat while each ordinary step grew about an inch, a signal the authors call suggestive.
Oct 11, 2026
A live class or a recording? For chronic back pain, the format barely changed the outcome
A Montreal trial gave the same twelve week program over Zoom with an instructor, or as videos done alone. Pain eased about equally. It is the fourth study since June where the detail people argue about most turned out to matter least.
Oct 1, 2026
People chose between mindfulness and Tai Chi, and choosing did not make it work better
A trial of 587 adults let people pick their own gentle practice. Both helped sleep, fatigue and pain. The picking made no measurable difference.
Sep 17, 2026
Patients rated massage and opioids as their most helpful chronic pain treatments
A retrospective review asked 226 chronic pain patients to rate 56 treatments they had tried. The top of the list runs from massage to oxycodone, and the arrangement is the interesting part.
Aug 24, 2026
Self guided pain therapy beat seeing a therapist, and the gap is smaller than it sounds
A trial of 764 adults found the self guided version came out ahead on every measure it tracked. The most useful number in it is not the headline one.
Aug 11, 2026
Why the first swimming trial for back pain is really a story about fear of moving
The first randomized trial of swimming for chronic low back pain compared it to education alone, not to other exercise. That comparison is the real story.
Jul 26, 2026
How much walking is enough for back pain
A 2026 analysis pooled 13 trials to put a number on walking for chronic back pain. The surprising part is how modest that number turned out to be.
Jul 23, 2026
Group mindfulness visits and chronic back pain
A large new trial tested telehealth mindfulness group visits for chronic low back pain. The result was telling. Here is what to raise with your doctor.
Jul 7, 2026
45 back pain trials, and still no single best method
A network meta analysis pooled 45 trials of movement and manual therapy for chronic low back pain. No approach clearly won, which changes how to choose.
Jul 2, 2026
Tai Chi changed how older brains process back pain
An 8 week randomized neuroimaging trial found Tai Chi lowered chronic back pain and quieted the brain circuits that build the pain. The mechanism is the interesting part.
Jun 21, 2026
A new no-surgery knee procedure looks promising
A single-center prospective study in Radiology reports 80 percent of arthritic-knee patients hit a meaningful pain drop at 12 months from genicular artery embolization. Whatever you decide about the procedure, five minutes of attention is worth spending.
Jun 19, 2026Ready to start moving better?
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