Costochondritis and Tietze’s Syndrome: The published medical research on how to fix them.

This video covers the existing published medical research (as at August 2019) on what costochondritis (and Tietze’s Syndrome) is, and how to actually fix it. It is NOT what most doctors and the popular medical sites will tell you - that it’s a “mysterious inflammation” of no known cause that will settle down soon. That’s why treating it like that usually does not work - it is NOT supported by the existing published peer-reviewed medical research, and is in fact contradicted by it. Yes - this is nuts, and responsible for literally millions of people still in pain after caring treatments that miss the point. For the detailed text to accompany this video, including links to the research papers, see the ‘Costochondritis’ page of the Backpod’s website – link is A pdf for ‘Costochondritis and Tietze’s Syndrome: the published medical research’ is near the bottom of that page, to download or view. WHAT MOST COSTOCHONDRITIS ACTUALLY IS: Nearly all costochondritis is essentially mechanical strain at the joints where your ribs hinge onto your sternum (breastbone). This happens because the joints at the other ends of the same ribs where they hinge onto your spine are tight or immobile. When those joints at the back of the rib cage cannot move, then the joints at the other ends of those same ribs where they hinge onto your sternum MUST move excessively just to let you breathe and move around. This is unequivocal - it’s not just a theory or opinion. So these more delicate rib joints on your sternum strain, ‘give’ with clicking, popping and often sharp stabbing pain, get irritated and then locally inflamed - and welcome to costochondritis. Tietze’s Syndrome is simply costochondritis with enough local swelling to be noticeable - it is not a whole different entity. THE ACTUAL PUBLISHED MEDICAL RESEARCH: I’ve been asked by the British Medical Journal (Australian office) to submit a paper reassessing costochondritis. Lord knows it’s needed. We’ve now surveyed the published medical literature on it, and two things stand out: (1) The published medical research conclusively shows that costochondritis is NOT a systemic or auto-immune inflammation - no matter what you’ve been told by your doctors, specialists or the popular medical sites. A 1994 research paper in the American Medical Association Archives of Internal Medicine by Disla et al found no significant difference in inflammation levels in the blood (ESR test) of a group of costochondritis patients compared to a group without costochondritis. That’s why just treating it like an inflammation does not work and does not fix it. (2) The single best published piece of research evidence on how to fix costochondritis is from Zaruba and Wilson (2017) who fixed eight chronic costochondritis patients by freeing up their tight thoracic spine and rib joints. This is only a case series of eight patients, but it is better than anything else published in English. It is further supported by several case studies which demonstrate the same thing. All of these entirely conform with and support my New Zealand manual physiotherapy understanding of costochondritis - that it is essentially strain at the rib joints on the sternum, because the rib joints round the back can’t move, and that you fix it by freeing these posterior rib joints up again. DISCLOSURE: I have a personal feeling for costochondritis victims, having had the problem for seven years myself after a climbing fall in my 20s. I fixed it by freeing up the immobile patch of rib and spinal joints after qualifying as a New Zealand physiotherapist, and have had no pain whatsoever from it for the last 30 years. Having costo yourself does concentrate your mind on how to fix it! It has remained a special interest - as well as treating patients, I’ve lectured on it to various medical conferences. I am also the clinical member of the team that developed the Backpod - a New Zealand spinal stretching fulcrum built primarily to counter the iHunch ( ). The Backpod also has the apparently unique capability of giving an effective, strong, specific stretch to the shortened collagen surrounding tight and immobile posterior rib joints. Hence its valid and practical relevance - freeing up these joints is the irreducible core of fixing almost all costochondritis. Having built something useful out of 30 years of expertise in this area does NOT automatically invalidate that expertise. The Backpod gets a valid mention in discussing practical details of how to actually fix costochondritis, just as oranges would in a discussion of scurvy. FURTHER INFO: See the Backpod’s Costochondritis page: Also a YouTube video on fixing costochondritis from a manual physiotherapy viewpoint: Steve August (B.A.,.)