The Hidden Link Between Pain, Inflammation, and How You Feel The Body Is Not a Machine. It Is a Spring. Most people are taught to think of the body like a machine made of stiff parts. Levers. Hinges. Blocks stacked on top of each other. But that is not how the human body actually works. […]
Many people live for years with strange and scary arm symptoms that don’t seem to make sense. One day the arm feels normal. Another day it feels heavy, tight, and uncomfortable. Sometimes the hand gets cold. Sometimes the arm changes color. Sometimes it swells after activity. Some people notice poor circulation in arm and don’t […]
The Day a Patient Walked In With a Pulse Oximeter One day, a patient walked into Dr. Stoxen’s office holding a small device in his hand. It was a pulse oximeter — the little clip doctors put on your finger to measure oxygen in your blood and your pulse. He said, “Doctor, I want you […]
The Human Spring Approach: Why Tests Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story January 23, 2026 I’m in Hong Kong right now, on my way to a conference in Singapore on orthopedics. Long flights are good for thinking. They give you time to look back over your work and ask an important question: “What do patients […]
Jonathan’s experience did not begin with catastrophe. It began quietly, with shoulder pain not getting better. At the time, he was working long hours in a demanding profession, assuming the discomfort was temporary. Like many patients, he believed rest, therapy, or time would resolve it. Instead, what followed was a slow, relentless escalation into arm […]
The Day Your Body Learned to Absorb the Earth via the Your Amazing Human Spring Every day, without thinking about it, you take thousands of steps. Most people walk about 10,000 steps per day. That means your body collides with the ground about 3,650,000 times per year. By the time you are 30 years old, […]
Why Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Is Not a “One Bone” First Rib, Anterior and Middle Scalene Muscle Problem If you are reading this, you are probably tired. Not just tired in your body, but tired in your mind. Tired of pain. Tired of not getting clear answers. Tired of hearing different opinions from different doctors. Many […]
The Doctor Who Followed the Body, Not the Rules In 2003, a woman in New York made a phone call that would quietly change the direction of my entire career. She told me she was working with Michael Bolton’s tour and asked if I would be willing to come help the team. At the time, […]
A story from Moscow January 22, 2026 brings back a memory that still makes me smile. Do you remember the first time we went to Russia with Ernie Frantz and the APF? It was the first powerlifting meet against the Russians. At the time, the Cold War mindset was still very real. Everyone believed the […]
When the Hands Betray the Music: The First Signs of a Career in Danger In September of 2018, during what should have been just another flawless performance, something subtle but terrifying happened. A professional pianist—someone whose entire identity, livelihood, and sense of purpose were built around precision—missed a passage he had played perfectly thousands of […]
