Researchers analyzed electronic medical records of patients’ reports of pain across a range of different diseases, and found a distinct gender-driven difference in how much discomfort patients say they felt. The study included 47 disorders — from cancer to back conditions and infectious diseases — and more than 161,000 patient-reported pain scores. The patients were all asked by nurses or other health personnel to rate their pain on an 11-point scale, with 0 representing “no pain” and 11 signifying the “worst pain imaginable.”

Not surprisingly, most responses clustered around either the two extremes of very little pain or extreme pain or the middle score of 5. But overall, women were more likely to indicate higher pain levels than men, says lead author Dr. Atul Butte, chief of systems medicine in the department of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. And that was true across almost all of the different diseases. “That was the most surprising finding,” says Butte. “We completely wouldn’t have expected such a difference across almost all disorders, where women were reporting a whole pain point higher on the 0-to-10 scale than men.”

Of course, self-reports can’t account for the fact that people may define tolerable and intolerable pain in vastly different ways, says Butte, but the fact that a gender difference emerged from such a large number of patients suggests that the effect is real.

What accounts for the gender gap? Hormones may explain some of the difference — studies have shown that estrogen in women can help dampen the activity of pain receptors, helping them to tolerate higher levels of pain. That means, however, that they may become more sensitive to pain during low-estrogen parts of the menstrual cycle.

There may also be explanations that have nothing to do with biology. Men, for example, may feel compelled by cultural stereotypes to be tough, and therefore report feeling less pain than they really do —especially when asked by the mostly female nursing staff.

Still, even if non-biological factors are influencing how much pain men and women report, Butte says the difference is worth noting. “The reasons may be biological or they may not be, but we should still be aware of the bias that patients have in reporting pain,” he says. He is hoping to continue the research by following up these results with surveys of patients’ ratings after they were treated for pain. That may help doctors to better address the real pain patients may be feeling.

One example that Scott gave of how 3D printing is impacting people around the world is in the construction of prosthetic limbs. Losing a limb can be devastating for people; imagine jumping off a diving board and waking up 30 minutes later to be told that you’ll never walk again. Such trauma can cause many patients to want to commit suicide as they believe they’ll never lead a normal life again.

When it comes to thinking about prosthetic limbs, it’s normally expensive and impractical to create original and individual designs; thus prosthetic limbs can often take on a “one size fits all” approach and the limb developed for you may be entirely different to those you already had, e.g. your new prosthetic leg may have a shoe size many size larger than your other. However 3D copying combined with 3D printing technology makes complex design and production efficient, affordable and environmentally friendly.

The production of prosthetic limbs using this technology can be described in a most basic sense as: scan in your right leg, flip the image on the computer and use the 3D printer to print out a new left leg. With this technology, because the limb is an entirely mirrored image of your other limb, patients can work on rebuilding their confidence, knowing that their limb doesn’t look out of place. Aside from prosthetic limbs, the future potential of this technology is immense; from printing new organs to printing real life limbs (not just prosthetic ones).

Derek Jacoby, who spent more than a decade working at Microsoft, shared his thoughts on the future of 3D printing: “This is a truly disruptive technology, the ability to trade objects like people currently trade files will change everything. It will empower individuals to repair broken objects rather than replace them because some supplier doesn’t sell just the specific part that they need. It will enable people to design precisely what they want, rather than subsisting on a generic solution. There’s currently a lot of discussion about software and music piracy, just wait until that discussion extends to everything you use throughout the day.”

A nationally representative sample of more than 2,600 men and women, ages 18-85, found that 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week, which is the national guideline, provided a 65 percent improvement in sleep quality. People also said they felt less sleepy during the day, compared to those with less physical activity.

The study, out in the December issue of the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity, lends more evidence to mounting research showing the importance of exercise to a number of health factors. Among adults in the United States, about 35 to 40 percent of the population has problems with falling asleep or with daytime sleepiness.

“We were using the physical activity guidelines set forth for cardiovascular health, but it appears that those guidelines might have a spillover effect to other areas of health,” said Brad Cardinal, a professor of exercise science at Oregon State University and one of the study’s authors.

“Increasingly, the scientific evidence is encouraging as regular physical activity may serve as a non-pharmaceutical alternative to improve sleep.”

After controlling for age, BMI (Body Mass Index), health status, smoking status, and depression, the relative risk of often feeling overly sleepy during the day compared to never feeling overly sleepy during the day decreased by 65 percent for participants meeting physical activity guidelines.

Similar results were also found for having leg cramps while sleeping (68 percent less likely) and having difficulty concentrating when tired (45 percent decrease).

Paul Loprinzi, an assistant professor at Bellarmine University is lead author of the study, which was conducted while he was a doctoral student in Cardinal’s lab at OSU. He said it is the first study to examine the relationship between accelerometer-measured physical activity and sleep while utilizing a nationally representative sample of adults of all ages.

‘Our findings demonstrate a link between regular physical activity and perceptions of sleepiness during the day, which suggests that participation in physical activity on a regular basis may positively influence an individual’s productivity at work, or in the case of a student, influence their ability to pay attention in class,” he said.

Cardinal said past studies linking physical activity and sleep used only self-reports of exercise. The danger with this is that many people tend to overestimate the amount of activity they do, he said.

He added that the take-away for consumers is to remember that exercise has a number of health benefits, and that can include helping feel alert and awake.

“Physical activity may not just be good for the waistline and heart, but it also can help you sleep,” Cardinal said. “There are trade-offs. It may be easier when you are tired to skip the workout and go to sleep, but it may be beneficial for your long-term health to make the hard decision and get your exercise.”

There are well mapped out patterns of headaches relating to multitude of points in the neck and shoulder-blade region. In addition the discs between your vertebrae and each joint level in the upper neck can quite often contribute to headaches. Even headaches located mostly in the forehead, or behind the eyes are very often “referred” pains that come from problem areas at the back of the neck and base of the skull.

The joints connecting the top two or three levels of the neck to the base of the skull handle almost 50% of the total motion of the entire neck and head region. This means they absorb a continuous amount of repetitive stress and strain.

The joints bear the main load of the weight of the head, about that of a bowling ball. Fatigue, poor slouching posture, injuries, disc problems, joint degeneration, muscular stress and even prior neck surgeries all can compound the wear and tear on this critical region of your body.

It is also possible that you may develop a narrowing of the spinal canal itself, through which the spinal cord runs and all of its existing nerves, leading to a condition termed spinal stenosis.

Remember, pain is invisible, very few headaches “show up” on brain MRI scans. There is much to be evaluated in detail and treated through physical therapy for anyone suffering with chronic neck pain or recurring headaches. Even patients with true migraines or cluster headaches will eventually also end up with compounding cervicogenic headaches.

Physical therapy at Reddy-Care Physical Therapy is critical to treatment success for neck pain and headaches. It is important to know that we are here to help you get back to feeling like yourself again.

A good physical therapy program can help maintain your physical abilities, as well as maximize your potential for enjoying normal activities. An effective physical therapy program can also prevent or limit physical deformity, and allow you to enjoy for example walking, bending, reaching, running and playing tennis or golf. Range of motion and strengthening exercises can prolong your mobility which has been proven in reducing other chronic debilitating conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

Knowing the Right Expert to Help You:

Physical therapists are medical musculo-skeletal specialists, meaning they are the experts when it comes to the mechanics of the body and how the muscles, joints and skeletal structure work with one another.

Good physical therapy recognizes that the most effective treatments are not modalities that depend solely on ultrasound, c old or heat therapy, but rather a skilled hands-on approach to examination and treatment. Studies have proven that manual therapy and specific exercises produce better and faster results that traditional exercise based physical therapy.

Treating the Cause of Your Back Pain:

At Reddy-Care Physical Therapy it is our goal to find the cause of the symptoms and correct it, not just treat the symptom. By treating the root cause of the pain, patients can remain in a healthier state longer. At Reddy-Care Physical Therapy our highly trained and skilled physical therapists use proven hands-on manual therapy techniques to help people of all ages become free of pain and get back to living.

If your back pain prevents you from standing for long periods, bending down to pick up objects, or getting up and down from the floor to play with children or grandchildren it’s time to come to Reddy-Care Physical Therapy and restore your quality of life.