Rob Beaven

How I explain stuff to patients. A thread 🧵 A thread of how I (generally )explain common conditions. I would love some feedback on mine, and how you guys explain these too. Appreciate there are many caveats here. Includes OA, NSLBP, manual therapy, sciatica & Tendinopathy

this is actually insane > be tech guy in australia > adopt cancer riddled rescue dog, months to live > not_going_to_give_you_up.mp4 > pay $3,000 to sequence her tumor DNA > feed it to ChatGPT and AlphaFold > zero background in biology > identify mutated proteins, match them to drug targets > design a custom mRNA cancer vaccine from scratch > genomics professor is “gobsmacked” that some puppy lover did this on his own > need ethics approval to administer it > red tape takes longer than designing the vaccine > 3 months, finally approved > drive 10 hours to get rosie her first injection > tumor halves > coat gets glossy again > dog is alive and happy > professor: “if we can do this for a dog, why aren’t we rolling this out to humans?” one man with a chatbot, and $3,000 just outperformed the entire pharmaceutical discovery pipeline. we are going to cure so many diseases. I dont think people realize how good things are going to get

Doris is a four-year-old Texel ewe on a fell in the Lake District. Doris is, according to several recent opinion pieces, destroying the planet. Let's check in on Doris. 6:30am - Doris began grazing. The fell she is grazing is semi-natural upland grassland. It has existed in this condition for approximately eight hundred years because sheep have been grazing it continuously for approximately eight hundred years. Without Doris, the coarse grasses outcompete the finer ones. The wildflowers disappear. The skylarks that nest at ground level lose the open sward they need and abandon the site. Doris does not know what a skylark is. She has found some good grass near the wall and that is the full extent of her agenda. 7:45am - Doris walked into the bog. This was not the plan. There was no plan. Doris extracted herself, turned around, and regarded the bog with the expression of an animal that has decided the bog started it. 9:00am - Doris found a gap in the wall and went through it. She was now in Brian's field. Brian's field is, by any measurable standard, identical to Doris's field. Doris is aware of this and does not consider it relevant. 10:30am - Doris was returned to her field. The farmer repaired the gap. Doris watched the repair with the focused attention of an animal taking measurements. 11:15am - Doris rolled into a dip in the fell and got cast. This means she ended up on her back and could not right herself because the weight of her fleece shifted her centre of gravity past the point of recovery. She lay there in the dip looking at the sky with the composure of an animal that has decided the sky is quite interesting actually. 11:40am - The farmer found her, righted her. Doris walked away at speed. No acknowledgement. Complete dignity. As though the last twenty-five minutes had happened to a different sheep. 1:00pm - Doris grazed the area around the base of the dry-stone wall. The grazing keeps the vegetation short enough that the wall's base stays dry and frost doesn't work into the joints and expand. The wall is two hundred and sixty years old. It will outlast everything currently being written about livestock farming if the vegetation around it is managed. It is being managed by Doris eating grass. Doris does not know she is doing conservation work. Doris has found something particularly good near the fourth stone from the bottom. 3:00pm - Doris produced manure. The manure will feed the soil microbiome. The soil microbiome will grow the grass. The grass will grow back where Doris has grazed it. The grazed areas will remain open enough for the tormentil and harebells to survive. The tormentil and harebells are why people drive three hours from Manchester to walk on this fell. This system has no external inputs. It has been running since Texel sheep were brought to these fells from the Netherlands in 1970 and discovered the gaps in the walls shortly afterward. 5:00pm - Doris lay down. The fell was quiet. The skylarks were still up. The wildflowers were still in the turf. 5:47pm - Doris found a new gap. She was in Brian's field again. Brian has started keeping a log.

I've looked through thousands of photos from the Milan Cortina Games. There are more iconic shots.. More memorable moments... But this right here is my favorite. Australia's Abbey Willcox (aerials) looks like she's handplanting on the mountain. 📸: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Nothing beats a BBC Sport Olympics montage.

Cut away from the men’s 50km we’ve just spent 1hr 30 watching it live to miss the end!!! @BBCSport #MilanoCortinaOlympics2026

Me: “OMG Barkley is on!!” Normal person: “The what?” Me: “It’s this crazy race in TN that only 20 ppl have finished in 40 years.” Normal person: “Wow, are you gonna watch?” Me: “You don’t watch, you follow some guy’s Twitter!” Normal person…. #barkleyconversations #bm100

@physiojack @BillingMartin The only better feeling is grinding your own!!

@BillingMartin @rob_chiro

Opening a freshly ground coffee pack really is one of life’s simple pleasures

OK M&S just dropped something actually genius: their new 'Only… Ingredients' range 😍 Everyday staples like baked beans, sausages, burgers, ketchup, yoghurts, cereals... made with 3–8 recognisable ingredients MAX. No weird additives, no artificial colours, no preservatives, no ultra-processed nonsense. Just proper food, back to basics. 👏🏻

Moira Rose for Herb Ertlinger's Fruit Wines. Catherine O'Hara's pronunciation of "crabapple" is an all-timer. She was just so great in everything. RIP

Celine Dion has come out in support of farmers by removing all the consonants from her name.

Day 3 of the Sydney Test is always an emotional day. The ground turns pink in an annual cricket tradition dedicated to raising awareness and funds for cancer treatment. We received this moving email from one listener.

"We noticed some people were watching the fireworks without paying so we have spent a vast amount of resources to stop that"

What’s the point of #NewYearHonours if there’s no Sir Kevin Sinfield? #Knighthood #SirKev

No knighthood for Kevin Sinfield. Makes a mockery of the whole thing to be honest.

Fixing the Snicko problem in cricket is very simple

@k8purcellphysio That’s incredible!

This year has been busy with work and renovations, but painting this door frame l gave me a calm, quiet evening to reconnect with acrylic painting! Working in healthcare can be hard. Reconnecting with art & creativity has been therapeutic.

I got sent this on WhatsApp and as it’s Christmas I thought I would share it with you x

TODAY'S KEY MSK INDUSTRY QUESTIONS: 1. Is access to DUS crucial to best practice? 2. WHO should be developing the competency? 3. Does our new doc feature enough Guinea Pigs? Huge thanks to @physiquipe for supporting this. Contact them here: content.physiquipe.com/physiomatters