Speaking | Talking Points

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Talking Points for Crooked

(Most lectures will include aspects of each of these.)

• I’ve been everywhere and done everything, but nothing helps: I explore the lists of things people try—what the scientists call “serial ineffective therapies.”From chiropractic to injections to painkillers to TENS units, I explain downsides, upsides, and better options.

• The thing that made all the difference: Everyone is searching for that “thing,” but not everyone finds it. In this talk, I walk the audience through approaches and procedures that help, and some things you’d expect to work that actually don’t.

• Heroin’s first cousin: How opioid painkillers became the go-to prescription drug for back pain, the mayhem that’s caused, and how you can escape.

• My doctor says I have the biggest disc herniation he’s ever seen (or my spine’s unstable, or I have degenerative disc disease) and he has to operate: How to figure out whether a surgeon’s priority is your recovery, feathering his own nest, or a promise he made to a device manufacturer.

• “Minimally invasive” spine procedures and artificial disc replacement: A rundown of what the new technologies and devices can—and can’t—do for you.

• Back pain, elsewhere: An around-the-world tour of hands-on approaches and options for treating back pain, some of which will blow your mind.

• Do I really need a $1,200 desk chair? A discussion of the “science” of ergonomics, how it evolved, and why much of what’s on the market is unnecessary.