SaveYourself.ca • Sensible advice for aches, pains & injuries
This is a listing of updates made to the muscle strain and pain tutorial prior to 2010. They are provided for historical interest only, and as a “paper trail” demonstrating how the documents have been maintained. All newer updates are listed in the tutorial itself. Note: most of the links to specific locations within the muscle strain and pain tutorial will not work, as they are from obsolete editions.
Thursday, October 1, 2009 — Added a section on anti-inflammatory medications, and included Voltaren® Gel, an excellent treatment option for muscle strain that only recently got into my radar. You can read about Voltaren in a free article as well as here in the tutorial, but the tutorial covers the topic specifically as it relates to muscle strain.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 — Major bibliography update. The SaveYourself.ca bibliography has long been the largest of its kind. It contains an incredible amount of surprisingly readable information about musculoskeletal health science, and it is now possible for visitors to search and sort the bibliography with powerful new features. For instance, every source about muscle strain and pain referenced in this tutorial can now easily be displayed in a single search, with a variety of options.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 — Added an intriguing new section about a new treatment for muscle strains, a drug called “suramin,” that may be slightly miraculous. For a little while, you can read about this for free on the front page of SaveYourself.ca.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 — The visual design of the site was upgraded over the past several days. Although this is not an update to the content of this tutorial, it is nevertheless a significant upgrade for all of them — like publishing new editions of books with better typesetting and layout. The new design is even cleaner and reader-friendly; it now looks that good in most web browsers; and pages load as much as 50% faster. Many under-the-hood improvements will make it much easier for me to improve tutorial content. The tutorials are now well-oiled machines of digital publishing goodness, vastly superior to the low-production values of most eBooks. More information about the upgrade is published on the front page.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 — Added a small new section about Traumeel, a popular but questionable remedy that I often get asked about. See the section, “Don’t bother with Traumeel either,” or the free article, Does Traumeel Work?.
Thursday, December 4, 2008 — It’s been a long time since the last update to this tutorial! It doesn’t get much love, because muscle strain is actually pretty straightforward compared to the other subjects I write about. Most of the complexity of treating muscle strain concerns its interactions with trigger points, and that is what this update is about! I recently published a (free) article about a serious shoulder injury I suffered (not a strain, but same difference) which became even more seriously complicated by the formation of trigger points. I’ve integrated some of these ideas, and a nice new graph, into the muscle strain tutorial in the section, “Muscle strains that don’t heal have usually been hijacked by trigger points”. You can also read the story of my own injury, Into the Fire: Trigger point pain as a major injury complication, and how I finally “miraculously” healed from a serious and stubborn shoulder injury by untying the muscle knots.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 — Introduced special offer: all muscle strain and pain tutorial customers now receive a second, companion tutorial at no charge, Save Yourself from Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome! This is a really great deal, and a valuable extension to this tutorial.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 — This tutorial has been around for quite a while (2 or 3 years I think), but I just started tracking changes! I made a bunch of improvements to the introductory sections so that it’s clearer who the tutorial is for. Also beefed up descriptions of conditions that get mistaken for muscle strain.