171 | Breaking Down the Neuroscience of Pain, Trigger Points and Manual Therapy with Dr. Alex Anderson - a podcast by Jen Esquer & Dom Fraboni

Dealing with recurrent, current chronic pain? Is pain all in the mind? Wondering how different techniques are helping your pain? We have Dr. Alex Anderson, Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, on to break down the shifts in pain science and why pain is important.  Using the biopsychosocial model, Dr. Alex addresses pain through a biomedical perspective, and how psychosocial factors can affect pain perception too. Then, she dives into chronic pain and how pain is interpreted in the brain through inputs of threat stimuli. Discussing chronic pain modulation, she dives into the physiology of  Fibromyalgia and how plasticity in the brain makes pain plastic too! Finally, she provides insight into how manual therapy techniques modulate pain, specifically looking at joint mobilizations, trigger points, and dry needling. Let(s dive into the science of pain!

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What You Will Learn in this Interview with Dr. Alex Anderson

4:07 - Consent on pain education

6:23 - Shifts in pain science & do we need to get rid of pain?

9:51  - Contributors to pain

12:35 - How the Central Nervous System works

14:46 - Brain & Physiology of Chronic Pain

18:54 - Fibromyalgia

20:21 - Plasticity of pain

23:39 - How do manual therapy techniques and tools help pain?

26:30 - What is manual therapy doing physiologically in the body?

32:18 - What are Joint Mobilizations?

33:47 - Dry Needling

39:27 - How do trigger points form?

43:03 - How does acupuncture differ from dry needling?

45:00 - How Dr. Alex is exploring her pain

49:58 - Learn more with Dr. Alex

Items mentioned:

• Dr. Alex's Website


• Dr. Alex's Instagram

To learn more about Dr. Alex and view full show notes, please visit the full website here: https://www.docjenfit.com/podcast/episode170/

Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Optimal Body Podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute to subscribe and leave a quick rating and review of the show!

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Further episodes of The Optimal Body

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Website of Jen Esquer & Dom Fraboni