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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
- Yannick Sarton
- Mar 16
- 4 min read
Joint pain, whether it occurs in the acute phase or becomes chronic over time, is often poorly managed by patients themselves. Several factors contribute to this situation. Many people rely on an intuitive understanding of the body, interpreting pain through personal beliefs rather than through knowledge of anatomy or physiology. Others attempt to manage their symptoms independently without clear guidance.
In some cases, the difficulty also lies in a lack of adherence or trust in the medical system. When communication with healthcare professionals is limited, patients may rely on incomplete explanations, popular beliefs about the body, or fragmented information found online. As a result, joint pain is frequently misunderstood and poorly managed in its early stages, which can sometimes allow a temporary problem to evolve into a more persistent condition.
Intuitive Medicine
What I call intuitive medicine refers to the way many people perceive and approach health problems. Throughout history, individuals have relied on their own experience or on advice shared within their social circle to treat symptoms. People exchange tips, remedies, and strategies that appear to work, often based on personal anecdotes rather than medical knowledge.
This type of informal medicine still exists today. In everyday conversations, patients frequently share ideas about how to reduce pain, what exercises to try, or which movements to avoid. These exchanges are often well intentioned, but they tend to occur in a space where explanations are incomplete and where symptoms are interpreted through intuition rather than through clinical reasoning.
The major difference today is that joint pain has been extensively studied for several decades. Research in medicine, and particularly in physiotherapy, has provided a far deeper understanding of musculoskeletal pain and its management.
One of the recurrent frustrations I encounter in clinical practice comes from this gap. Patients naturally rely on their own interpretations, while clinicians rely on training and scientific knowledge. In reality, both sides have their own areas of expertise. Patients understand their experience of pain, while clinicians are trained to understand the mechanisms behind it and to guide treatment. Trust between the patient and the clinician is therefore essential for effective management.
Intuitive Medicine vs Scientific Research
In physiotherapy, it is important to understand that many treatment techniques were originally developed in Europe after the First World War. At that time, these methods were often based on clinical observation and practical experience rather than on scientific evidence.
Over the past decades, research in physiotherapy has progressively aimed to clarify what truly works and what does not. Through clinical trials, systematic reviews, and academic research, many traditional ideas have been tested, refined, or sometimes abandoned.
Behind every technique or clinical rationale used by a physiotherapist today, there are often hundreds or even thousands of researchers, clinicians, and academics working in universities and research centers around the world. Their work helps build a more reliable understanding of joint pain and its treatment.
For patients, this reality is sometimes difficult to grasp. What may appear to be a simple exercise or a manual technique in a clinic is often the result of years of scientific investigation and collective work within the medical and physiotherapy communities.
Alternative Medicine
As a physiotherapist, one situation that often surprises me is the misunderstanding of where physiotherapists stand within the medical landscape. If you look at national healthcare treatment algorithms for musculoskeletal conditions affecting the joints, there is consistently one profession identified as central to their management: physiotherapy.
Yet in 2026, many patients still turn first toward alternative forms of medicine when facing joint pain. This occurs despite the significant work being carried out within the medical and scientific communities to better understand musculoskeletal disorders and to improve their treatment.
The goal of physiotherapy research is precisely to refine clinical practice, identify effective treatments, and improve patient outcomes through evidence-based approaches.
The Myth of Big Pharma
It is true that financial interests and conflicts can exist in the world of pharmaceutical research. However, this reality should not be generalized to all areas of healthcare.
When people arrive at an emergency department with a life-threatening condition, they rarely question the physician by saying, “This is Big Pharma, I refuse the medication.” In those moments, they trust the medical team to manage the situation and provide the treatment necessary to save their life.
In physiotherapy research, the situation is quite different. Most scientific studies do not promote a product or a brand. Instead, researchers compare one technique with another, one rehabilitation strategy with another, or one exercise protocol with another.
It is therefore difficult to see how financial interests could dominate a field where the primary objective is to compare clinical approaches in order to better understand what improves patient outcomes.
The people working on these questions are often researchers and clinicians who are intellectually invested in solving a simple problem: how to better manage acute and chronic joint pain.
Conclusion
The world of physiotherapy research is continuously working to improve the understanding and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, whether in acute injuries or chronic pain conditions.
The principle of scientific progress is straightforward. Researchers build on the knowledge developed by those who came before them in order to generate new knowledge.
Over time, this accumulation of evidence gradually refines the profession and improves our ability to understand and treat joint pain.
This is the goal of my own clinical approach: to translate and apply this body of knowledge to help patients manage their musculoskeletal conditions.
As the well-known expression says, modern practice exists because we stand on the shoulders of giants.
I provide structured and evidence based online physiotherapy for patients worldwide, offering clinical assessment, diagnosis, and personalised rehabilitation.
I also receive patients in person at my physiotherapy clinic in Phnom Penh.
You can begin your online physiotherapy session through the dedicated platform:
More information on clinical standards and supporting evidence is available here:
Yannick Sarton, MSc Physiotherapist
International Online Physiotherapy and In Clinic Care, Phnom Penh
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