What to Treat First When Everything Is Flaring with Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep 186)
About this episode
Dr. Linda Bluestein and Dr. Dacre Knight discuss treatment strategies for complex chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and POTS.
There is no magic treatment for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, or mast cell activation disorders, but there is strategy. In this episode of Bendy Bodies, Dr. Linda Bluestein is joined by Dacre Knight, MD, founding Medical Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorders Center, for a practical and deeply thoughtful conversation about how complex chronic conditions should actually be treated. Rather than chasing quick fixes, Dr. Bluestein and Dr. Knight explore sequencing. What to address first when everything is flaring, how to balance short-term symptom relief with long-term sustainability, and why overtreatment can sometimes cause more harm than good. They discuss the pitfalls of siloed care, the insurance barriers that complicate physical therapy, and the importance of starting low, going slow, and minimizing treatment burden. The episode also tackles difficult but essential questions: What does “getting better” really mean in lifelong connective tissue disorders? How do clinicians avoid reactionary prescribing? And how can patients recognize the difference between a thoughtful care plan and a rushed one? Takeaways: There is rarely a single “magic” treatment for EDS…
More episodes of Bendy Bodies with Dr. Linda Bluestein
- Why Your MRI Looks “Normal” but You Still Have a CSF Leak with Dr. Andrew Callen (Ep 193)
- Tight Muscles, Loose Joints, Pelvic Pain: The Hypermobility Paradox with Dr. Brooke Winder (Ep 192)
- Mast Cells to Microplastics with Dr. Anne Maitland and cohost Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep 191)
- Validation and Empowerment: What EDS Patients Need to Know | Office Hours (Ep 190)
- Eye Problems in EDS with Dr. Eric Singman and cohost Dr. Dacre Knight (Ep 189)
- Arachnoiditis: The Severe Pain Condition Doctors Miss with Dr. Forest Tennant (Ep 188)
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