Dr. Danny Shapiro

The Muscle Whisperer | Here to educate, entertain and eradicate that pain! | IG: OfficialDannyShapiro

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Have the courage to seek help when you need it! Take care of yourself 🤗

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Source: Horga LM, Hirschmann AC, Henckel J, et al. Prevalence of abnormal findings in 230 knees of asymptomatic adults
using 3.0 T MRI. Skeletal Radiol. 2020

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

“Bone on bone."

Three words and people stop walking, stop squatting, and start treating their knee
like it's made of glass…

That phrase describes one thing: the space between two bones on an x-ray. But did you know that you can be “bone on bone” and be PAIN-FREE?

Researchers scanned 230 knees of 115 people with ZERO knee pain. 97% had "findings." 30% had meniscal tears. 57% had cartilage damage at the kneecap.

Let go of the label and focus on pushing FUNCTION!

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Source: Watson et al., “High-Intensity Resistance and Impact Training Improves Bone Mineral Density and Physical Function in Postmenopausal Women With Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: The LIFTMOR Randomized Controlled Trial,” Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2018

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

101 postmenopausal women with low bone density were put in a randomized trial. Average age 65.

Half did heavy barbell training. Deadlifts, squats, overhead press. Five sets of five reps at over 85% of their max. 2x/week, 30 minutes.

The other half did a gentle home program.

The heavy lifting group INCREASED spine bone density by 2.9%. The gentle group LOST 1.2%.

They got stronger.
Every single functional test improved.

Your body is NOT fragile!! Stop treating it that way!

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

The source:
Chiu CC, Chuang TY, Chang KH, et al. The probability of spontaneous regression of lumbar herniated disc: a systematic review. Clinical Rehabilitation. 2015;29(2):184–195.

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Researchers pooled 31 studies of people with lumbar disc herniations who were treated without surgery, then scanned them again later to see what happened.

And guess what… The disc issues SHRANK.

The conclusion:
Bulging discs regressed 13% of the time.
Protrusions 41%.
Extrusions 70%.
And sequestered discs, the ones where material breaks off completely and looks the most catastrophic on a scan, regressed
96% of the time.

The worse it looks, the more likely your body is to clean it up!

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Source:
Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. Systematic Literature Review of Imaging Features of Spinal Degeneration in Asymptomatic Populations. AJNR. 2015

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Someone telling you that you have arthritis is like someone telling me I have brown hair.

Okay. And?

After about age 20 to 30, everyone starts developing arthritis. Just at different times and
different speeds. EVERYONE!

Disc herniations, normal. Stenosis, normal. Labrum tears, normal. Degenerative disc disease isn't even really a disease, it's arthritis with a scarier name attached to it.

Arthritic changes aren’t a death sentence. It’s often not even the source of pain!

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

The source:
Horga et al., “Prevalence of abnormal findings in 230 knees of asymptomatic adults using 3.0 T MRI,” Skeletal Radiology, 2020.

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Researchers did MRIs on 230 knees of 115 completely PAIN-FREE adults. No injuries. No complaints. Nothing wrong.

97% of those knees showed abnormalities 30% had meniscal tears. 57% had cartilage damage at the kneecap. 48% had bone marrow changes.

These are people living their lives with knees full of “findings” that a doctor would point at and say “there’s your problem.” And yet, there’s NO PAIN!

An MRI finding is not a diagnosis. It’s just a picture and it doesn’t always tell the whole story

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

The source:

Zanetti et al., “Patients with Suspected Meniscal Tears: Prevalence of Abnormalities Seen on MRI of 100 Symptomatic and 100 Contralateral Asymptomatic Knees,” American Journal of Roentgenology

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Researchers took 100 people with a suspected meniscal tear in one knee and did MRIs on BOTH knees. The painful one and the pain-free one.

63% of the people who had a tear on their painful side also had a tear on their completely pain-free side.

Same type of tear. Same location. One knee hurt. The other didn’t.

Your “bad” knee and your “good” knee often look exactly the same on imaging. The tear isn’t always what’s causing your pain. And cutting it out won’t always fix it…

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

About 2/3 of disc herniations physically resorb on their own! Your body sends immune cells to break down the herniated material and reabsorb it. It’s called phagocytosis and it’s confirmed across multiple studies.

And you know what’s crazy? The WORSE the herniation looks on MRI, the MORE likely it is to resorb. Sequestered discs, the scariest looking ones, resorb 93% of the time.

Your body was designed to heal but nobody really tells you that before recommending surgery huh…

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Oh and throwing pain meds and injections at you doesn’t count as “treatment”. That’s short term management for long term further decay.

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Almost half of US doctors say their training in chronic pain management was unsatisfactory.

The average medical student gets 11 hours of pain education across their ENTIRE degree. 11 hours out of 6,000+.

So the person you’re trusting with your pain barely learned how to treat it. They don’t have the tools. They don’t have the time. And the system they work in doesn’t reward them for figuring it out.

And somehow YOU’RE the difficult patient?

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

If you can anticipate negative outcomes, why not anticipate positive ones?

Because believing your body CAN’T get better is just as much of a prediction as believing it CAN.

One leads to pulling back, avoiding, and staying stuck. The other leads to action, progress, and change.

Both are thoughts about your future. Only one of them actually moves you forward…

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

When you’ve been in pain for months or years, that system gets stuck in overdrive. It’s called central sensitization.

Normal sensations start registering as painful. Everything feels like a threat.

But the good news?
That can CHANGE! That sensitization is NOT permanent!

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Your nervous system responds to EVERYTHING.

Your stress. Your sleep. Your mood. Your relationships. Your beliefs about your own body.

It takes ALL of that information and decides how much danger you’re in.

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Meaning: the way your Dr described your body literally made your pain worse while also scaring you into believing your body is crumbling.

Words matter. And the wrong ones can trap you in a cycle of pain and avoidance for years…

[Dr. Danny Shapiro @project__PT]

Your doctor told you that you have “degeneration” and “wear and tear.”

That’s ridiculous…

Research shows that language like “degeneration,” “wear and tear,” and “bone on bone” actually INCREASES catastrophizing and avoidance in patients.