Better Health. At Your Fingertips.

NICK GOLINVAUX, MD March 9, 2024 Hi Reader, How is your week going? So far, I've had a productive one: I learned that Taylor Swift and poet Emily Dickinson are related. I accepted a generous invitation to be on an upcoming episode of an orthopedic surgery podcast (more details soon!). Due to popular demand, I wrote about upper extremity safety in the gym. If you workout regularly, you've surely had a hand or upper extremity twinge from time to time. It can be difficult to know...was that just...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. What if you could shine a light on an injury and make it heal faster? That's the question NASA set out to answer, and the promise behind red light therapy and therapeutic lasers. Clinics advertise them for everything from arthritis and tendinitis to wound healing and pain relief. Some of those claims have merit. Others are far less convincing. This article walks through the current evidence so you can decide whether these...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. Standing in the brace aisle at a pharmacy can feel a little like shopping for cough medicine. There are dozens of options, they all make bold claims, and most people have no idea which one actually fits their problem. Yet the right brace can dramatically improve pain and healing, while the wrong one can be frustratingly useless. This article teaches a simple decision-making framework that will help make your bracing far...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. Few things send people down an internet rabbit hole faster than discovering a new lump on their hand or wrist. The good news is that one of the most common causes is also one of the least dangerous: a ganglion cyst. The frustrating part is that these strange little fluid-filled bumps seem to follow their own rules. They can appear overnight, disappear without warning, and occasionally cause far more anxiety than actual...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. One of the interesting things about hand surgery is how often the stories repeat themselves. A ladder. A power tool. A dog leash. A moment of distraction. The details change, but the pattern rarely does. After treating thousands of injuries, certain risk factors become impossible to ignore. This article shares some of the biggest ones—and how a little foresight can save you a lot of trouble. Read It Here ↗ **This...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. Most people have heard of carpal tunnel syndrome. Far fewer have heard of cubital tunnel syndrome—even though it's the second most common nerve compression in the arm. If you've noticed numbness in your pinky finger, weakness in your grip, or symptoms that seem worse when your elbow stays bent (like with typing or driving), your elbow may be the real culprit. This article explains the simple home treatment I recommend...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. Most finger injuries are pretty obvious. You jam it, it swells, it hurts, and eventually it gets better. But occasionally someone notices something strange after a seemingly minor injury: the fingertip simply won't straighten anymore. No matter how hard they try, it droops. This article explains why that happens, why timing matters, and how many of these injuries can be treated without surgery. Read It Here ↗ **This...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. Few hand conditions are as strange as trigger finger. One day, your finger starts catching. Then it starts clicking. Before long, it may lock completely bent and require your other hand to straighten it. The good news is that trigger finger is usually very treatable. The surprising part is how effective a simple injection can be—when used in the right patient at the right time. Read It Here ↗ **This newsletter has...

SUBSCRIBE | SHOP | ARCHIVE Written by Dr. Nick Golinvaux Good morning. A broken wrist sounds like a simple diagnosis. In reality, it's more like saying someone has a broken car. The details matter. Which bone broke? Did it shift? Did it involve the joint? Is it stable? The answers to those questions determine everything from whether you need surgery to how long recovery will take. This article helps make sense of one of the most misunderstood injuries in orthopedics. Read It Here ↗ **This...