Pain Relief Tips

The ER paperwork says "lumbar muscle spasm." The prescription is a muscle relaxant and maybe a short steroid taper. But the pain running down the leg and the numb patch on the shin aren't a spasm — they're a nerve root being mechanically narrowed at the point it exits the spine. Dr. Lucas Marchand explains why muscle relaxants treat the guarding instead of the cause, why steroid relief often doesn't outlast the prescription, and what an accurate assessment changes about the p

Some of my longest-standing patients occasionally show up with a thoracic or lumbar spine that simply won't move. Not because they're guarding, not because they're tense — the tissue itself resists. They sometimes say "must not need it then" when nothing releases. That conclusion is understandable and almost entirely wrong. Dr. Lucas Marchand explains what's actually happening when a joint won't release — and what changes when the right technique finds it.

She came in convinced it was her rotator cuff. She'd also been worried about a wrist fracture — though nothing had happened, no fall, no acute injury. Just chronic right shoulder and neck pain that had been building for months. The assessment told a different story. Dr. Lucas Marchand explains how neck pathology refers pain into the shoulder, why the rotator cuff often gets blamed incorrectly, and what the clinical tests actually show.