updated 9/16/09

About SaveYourself.ca

Ten years of publishing science-powered advice about your stubborn aches, pains and injuries

SaveYourself.ca publishes helpful and interesting information about common problems with muscles, bones and joints — the kinds of aches, pains and injuries that I have been helping patients with for the last decade. (Obviously, this information is meant to complement and not replace any advice or information received directly from a health professional.) I particularly enjoy studying and writing about conditions that are often misunderstood, and I try to do it in a particularly interesting way. This website is meant to be read like a good book. I want visitors to arrive here and quickly start thinking, “Jackpot! I’ve been looking for something like this!” There’s just nothing else like SaveYourself.ca on the internet:

What kind of chronic pain?

Chronic pain is a huge topic. SaveYourself.ca focuses primarily on the kinds of pain problems that I’ve dealt with clinically as a Registered Massage Therapist: low back and neck pain, of course, plus a slew of common overuse and tissue fatigue injuries such as plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome and shin splints (and many other similar problems). Notably, I do not offer detailed information about arthritis, fibromyalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), or any other disease-driven pain problems.

What’s here?

Lots! You will find about a dozen books-worth of articles and tutorials here (about 765,000 words). I offer a constantly updated collection of eight advanced tutorials — e-books, really — offered for sale, which is supported by a library of more than 420 other free articles, plus a huge, annotated bibliographic database with powerful searching and sorting features (invaluable for therapists and keen patients).

Smarter, Funnier

Why do so many readers describe SaveYourself.ca as “surprisingly interesting”? Because they don’t expect to have a such a good time reading about low back pain and runner’s knee research. There are literally millions of health care articles on the internet, and most of them are boring. The site is written in the spirit of the best health science journalism: clear and referenced, sure, but also a bit sassy and irreverent. For more information, see:

Smarter and Funnier: Publication standards for SaveYourself.ca and why you can trust the information published here

Alternative to What?

I am an “alternative” health care professional. But what am I an alternative to? Unfortunately, many alternative health care practitioners see themselves as the alternative to medical science. Like democracy, science is not be perfect, but it is the best option we’ve got. Being against science is like being against honesty.

Alternative to What? “Alternative” health care professionals need to decide what they are really the alternative to

Historical Perspective

Chronic pain problems, overuse injuries and other musculoskeletal conditions were surprisingly neglected by medical science until about the 1980s. Aches and pains may not be life threatenening, but they do account for a lot of human suffering. Unfortunately, most therapists and doctors offer obsolete conventional wisdom that predates the current “golden age” of scientific research, and so many patients receive poor care for pain problems. For more information, see:

A Historical Perspective On Aches and Pains: We are living in a “golden age” of musculoskeletal health care … sort of

About the Publisher

SaveYourself.ca is mostly the work of one person, me, Paul Ingraham, a health science journalist and former Registered Massage Therapist. From 2000-2009, I had a busy massage therapy practice in Vancouver, Canada, and published SaveYourself.ca in my “spare” time. Eventually SaveYourself.ca took over, and it is now a full-time job.

A little more about me.

Tell Me Your Story

SaveYourself.ca is a collaboration with thousands of readers like you. Our articles and tutorials are enriched by anecdotes and case studies from around the world. If you like what you read, please show your support by telling me your story, or telling me which articles you like, or making a donation or purchasing a tutorial. Thank you.

Paul Ingraham, SaveYourself.ca publisher

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