Return to Competition in a Chronic Low Back Pain Runner: Beyond a Therapeutic Exercise Approach, a Case Report

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a disabling condition affecting both quality of life and performance in athletes. Several approaches have been proposed in the field of physiotherapy, manual therapy, physical exercise and counseling. None apparently is outdoing the other with the exception of trunk stability exercises in specific conditions. The present paper describes a clinical success in managing a CLBP runner affected by MRI documented disk herniation via dietary change. Dietary changes allowed our patient that had failed with previous standard therapeutic approaches, to regain an optimal pain-free condition. We advance the hypothesis that a visceral-autonomic concomitant or primary disturbance possibly generating mild gastrointestinal discomfort in CLBP patients should be ruled out as a possible cause of pain and disability at the somato-motor level

Return to competition in a chronic low back pain runner: beyond a therapeutic exercise approach, a case report

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a disabling condition affecting both quality of life and performance in athletes. Several approaches have been proposed in the field of physiotherapy, manual therapy, physical exercise and counseling. None apparently is outdoing the other with the exception of trunk stability exercises in specific conditions. The present paper describes a clinical success in managing a CLBP runner affected by MRI documented disk herniation via dietary change. Dietary changes allowed our patient that had failed with previous standard therapeutic approaches, to regain an optimal pain-free condition. We advance the hypothesis that a visceral-autonomic concomitant or primary disturbance possibly generating mild gastrointestinal discomfort in CLBP patients should be ruled out as a possible cause of pain and disability at the somato-motor level

Presenza e validit\ue0\ua0 ecologica

Il presente lavoro si propone sia come una rassegna del dibattito sul concetto di presenza, sia come una riflessione sull\u2019utilit\ue0 degli ambienti virtuali nella ricerca sperimentale in psicologia cognitiva. Il punto di partenza sono le critiche rivolte dalla psicologia ecologica (Gibson, 1979) alla frammentariet\ue0 delle procedure sperimentali di laboratorio. La rassegna propone una fusione fra i vantaggi delle tecniche sperimentali (misurazione e controllo delle variabili) e i vantaggi offerti dalle nuove tecnologie. L\u2019obiettivo \ue8 favorire l\u2019osservazione dei comportamenti umani, sia nella loro complessit\ue0 che nel loro dispiegarsi nel tempo, e cercare di descrivere i processi cognitivi nella loro naturale e continua interazione reciproca col mondo esterno. We examined different theoretical points of view on the concept of presence in virtual environments. The aim of the present review was to join the advantages of both experimental procedures (variables\u2019 measuring and control) and new technologies. Particularly, taking into account the objections raised by Gibson\u2019s ecological psychology (Gibson, 1979) against classical experimental settings, we remarked the usefulness of virtual reality in the investigation of cognitive functions. In fact, cognitive psychology is addressed to investigate human behaviours and to explain cognitive processes especially in their natural, continuous and reciprocal interaction with the external world