Hypermobility MD

Hypermobility MD Expert diagnosis & treatment Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes. Bendy Bodies podcast host. đŸš« medical advice. and others at increased risk of hypermobility disorders.
(6)

Dr. Linda Bluestein has been practicing medicine for over 20 years and has helped countless people restore function and improve their quality of life. As a former ballet dancer and instructor, she has a special interest in treating flexibility athletes (dancers, gymnasts, acrobatic artists, etc.) As an integrative medicine physician with certification in Performing Arts Medicine, Dr. Bluestein tak

es a unique approach to the evaluation and treatment of this highly specialized population. Working with Dr. Bluestein enables you to have less pain and be more accurately diagnosed. Dr. Bluestein is an international speaker on the forefront of research on pain, hypermobility and dance medicine. Professional services include individual telemedicine visits as well as workshops and lectures for groups. Dr. Bluestein received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine followed by the completion of an anesthesiology residency at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. She is board-certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology.

What if you don’t have 12 separate diseases, but one underlying process connecting many of them?On this episode of Bendy...
09/02/2026

What if you don’t have 12 separate diseases, but one underlying process connecting many of them?

On this episode of Bendy Bodies, I spoke with Ina Stephens, MD, of UVA Health, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Dr. Megan Fitzgerald of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative about some of the biggest unanswered questions surrounding hypermobile EDS, HSD, POTS, MCAS, ME/CFS, and Long COVID.

For many patients, the story doesn’t stop with one diagnosis.

It may start with joint hypermobility or pain, then expand to dysautonomia, mast cell symptoms, profound fatigue, post-exertional worsening, cognitive changes, or other complex symptoms.

Why?

We discussed possible shared biology involving neuroinflammation, mast cell activation, autonomic dysfunction, connective tissue, and immune signaling.

Dr. Fitzgerald also shared an intriguing pattern from their dataset of more than 4,000 adult participants: neurodivergent people, particularly those with ADHD and autism, had higher rates of EDS.

That does not mean we yet understand the relationship or that one condition causes another.

But it does raise important questions.

Are these completely separate disorders that happen to overlap?

Or are there shared biological pathways that help explain why certain diagnoses so often travel together?

Large datasets like this may eventually help us move beyond saying, “Yes, we see this overlap,” to understanding why it happens in the first place.

For people living with multiple diagnoses, that distinction matters. Understanding the connections could ultimately change how we think about research, diagnosis, and treatment.

Do you have more than one of these diagnoses? Which one came first for you?



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your healthcare team about your individual symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment.

ID: Podcast screenshots featuring Dr. Linda Bluestein in conversation with Ina Stephens, MD, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Dr. Megan Fitzgerald about possible connections among hypermobile EDS, HSD, POTS, MCAS, ME/CFS, Long COVID, neuroinflammation, autonomic dysfunction, and neurodivergence.

What if fascia helps explain why hypermobile bodies can feel both unstable and incredibly tight?When we talk about Ehler...
09/01/2026

What if fascia helps explain why hypermobile bodies can feel both unstable and incredibly tight?

When we talk about Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and hypermobility, the conversation usually centers on joints. But movement is never just about joints.

Every step, reach, and change in position depends on coordinated load transfer through muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, and the nervous system.

That interconnected system may help explain some of the most frustrating experiences people with hypermobility describe:

Why does pain seem to move around?

Why can ordinary movement require so much effort?

Why can imaging look relatively normal when symptoms are significant?

And perhaps most confusingly: if you’re hypermobile, why do you feel so tight?

Feeling tight does not necessarily mean your tissues are physically short. It may reflect protective muscle guarding, altered sensory input, compensation for instability, or inefficient tension distribution throughout the body.

Which is why more stretching is not always the solution.

In one of my most popular Bendy Bulletin newsletters, I explore what fascia actually is, what we know about its role in pain and movement, and why it may be an important piece of the hypermobility puzzle.

If you’ve ever felt like your symptoms don’t quite match what your imaging or testing shows, this one may help connect some dots.

Read “Fascia: The Missing Link in Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes, Hypermobility, and Chronic Pain” in The Bendy Bulletin.



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider regarding your individual situation.

ID: Text promotes Dr. Linda Bluestein’s Bendy Bulletin newsletter about fascia and its potential role in pain, instability, fatigue, proprioception, muscle guarding, and movement in people with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and hypermobility spectrum disorders.

08/31/2026

Children may be at greater risk from Long COVID than many people realize—and we still have far too few tools to prevent it.

On this episode of Bendy Bodies I spoke with Ina Stephens, MD, of UVA Health, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Megan Fitzgerald, PhD, of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative about an urgent question:

What are we doing to protect children from the long-term effects of COVID?

Children with Long COVID can experience persistent fatigue, reduced activity tolerance, headaches, cognitive difficulties, neurological symptoms, and other problems that may last for months or longer.

Researchers are also finding evidence of immune dysregulation in some children with Long COVID, raising important questions about why certain children recover quickly while others develop persistent symptoms.

For me, the question is not only how we help children once they are struggling. It is also whether we can identify who is most vulnerable—and what strategies might reduce the risk of chronic illness after infection.

We still have much to learn. But with children continuing to develop post-infectious symptoms, prevention deserves far more attention.

What do you think researchers should be asking about pediatric Long COVID?



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your healthcare team about your individual situation.

ID: Podcast reel featuring Dr. Linda Bluestein discussing pediatric Long COVID with Ina Stephens, MD, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Megan Fitzgerald, PhD, including concerns about children’s risk of persistent symptoms and the need for more research into prevention and post-infectious illness.

08/29/2026

What if brain inflammation is one of the missing links connecting hypermobile EDS, HSD, POTS, MCAS, ME/CFS, Long COVID, and even neurodivergence?

And if these conditions do share underlying biology, are the tools we currently use actually capturing the people most affected by it?

On this episode of Bendy Bodies I spoke with Ina Stephens, MD, of UVA Health, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Megan Fitzgerald, PhD, of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative about the patterns emerging across these complex, overlapping conditions.

One of the tools we discussed was the Beighton score.

The Beighton score measures joint hypermobility, but it does not measure any symptoms or necessarily correlate with function, fatigue, or how a person is actually feeling. It can also decrease over time as flexibility changes.

That becomes especially interesting when we zoom out and consider what researchers are seeing across EDS, neuroinflammation, mast cell activation, autonomic dysfunction, connective tissue differences, and neurodivergence.

If the impact of these conditions involves much more than joint flexibility, how much can a flexibility score really tell us about the person sitting in front of us?

The Brain Inflammation Collaborative’s dataset of more than 4,000 adults gives researchers an opportunity to compare Beighton scores with validated measures of function and fatigue and track those relationships over time.

We don’t have all of these answers yet. But this is exactly why looking at the bigger picture matters.

Has your Beighton score ever felt disconnected from your actual symptoms or level of functioning?



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your healthcare team about your individual symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment.

VD: Podcast reel featuring Dr. Linda Bluestein in conversation with Ina Stephens, MD, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Megan Fitzgerald, PhD, discussing the limitations of the Beighton score within a broader conversation about brain inflammation, hypermobile EDS, overlapping conditions, function, fatigue, and shared biology.

08/28/2026

What if, one day, not using AI in medicine becomes the bigger concern?

During my recent livestream with Dr. Michael Turken, we talked about the complicated relationship between clinicians, patients, and AI.

Dr. Turken made an interesting point: as these tools become more powerful and useful, we may eventually reach a place where incorporating AI into healthcare is simply part of good clinical practice.

He’s also heard from patients who say they wouldn’t want to see a doctor who had a problem with them using AI to better understand their own health.

I think that conversation is only going to become more important. Technology that helps patients ask better questions, organize complex information, and become more informed participants in their care has tremendous potential, as long as we understand its limitations and use it thoughtfully.

Would you feel comfortable telling your doctor that you use AI for your health?

Try My Doctor Friend at mydoctorfriend.ai and use code BENDY for 2 months of Premium FREE.

VD: Dr. Linda Bluestein and Dr. Michael Turken speak during a virtual livestream about the growing role of AI in healthcare and how clinicians may respond to patients using AI tools.

08/27/2026

If you feel exhausted by things that seem easy for everyone else, these numbers about living with EDS may feel painfully familiar.

On this episode of Bendy Bodies, I spoke with Ina Stephens, MD, of UVA Health, Christy Jagdfeld, CPA, and Dr. Megan Fitzgerald of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative about what their growing dataset is showing about the lived experience of people with EDS and related conditions.

Across measures of physical functioning, energy, pain, and general health, people with EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes) scored at less than half of U.S. population norms.

But the number that stopped me was energy and fatigue.

The average score for people with EDS was about 11 out of 100, compared with a population norm of around 61.

For anyone who has ever wondered, “Why does everything take so much out of me?”—this matters.

It helps put numbers to something patients have been describing for years: living with EDS can affect far more than joints and connective tissue. The fatigue can be profound, and it can shape work, relationships, exercise, socializing, parenting, and simply getting through the day.

The researchers also discussed how these findings may reflect the overlap with conditions such as ME/CFS and dysautonomia. When someone is living with several complex conditions at once, quality of life isn’t determined by one diagnosis or one symptom.

It’s the cumulative burden.

And when so many of these conditions remain poorly understood, underrecognized, or difficult to measure, data like this can help make an often invisible experience more visible.

If fatigue has significantly changed what you’re able to do, you are certainly not alone.

How has fatigue affected your quality of life?



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your healthcare team about your individual symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment.

VD: Podcast reel featuring a discussion of research data showing substantially lower physical functioning, energy, pain, and general health scores among people with EDS compared with U.S. population norms, including the cumulative impact of EDS, ME/CFS, dysautonomia, and other overlapping conditions.

What if the best kind of exercise is the one you actually want to keep doing?That’s one of the things I loved about my c...
08/26/2026

What if the best kind of exercise is the one you actually want to keep doing?

That’s one of the things I loved about my conversation with Dr. Emily Scherb, PT, DPT (The Circus Doc)

When we hear “circus,” many of us picture elite performers doing extraordinary things on stage. But circus can also be recreational—something people do after work or on weekends for movement, challenge, creativity, and community.

And that idea goes far beyond circus.

Movement doesn’t have to mean going to the gym. It can be dance, climbing, gardening, hiking, circus—or anything that makes you want to come back and do it again.

For people with hypermobility especially, I think there’s an important lesson here: the goal isn’t simply to “exercise.” It’s to find forms of movement that are appropriate for your body and that bring enough joy, purpose, or connection that you actually want to participate.

That’s why I loved hearing Dr. Scherb describe the enormous recreational circus community. Professional performers are only one part of it.

Circus isn’t just something people watch. For many, it’s their movement practice, creative outlet, challenge, and community all rolled into one.

What kind of movement makes you forget that you’re exercising?👇



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider or physical therapist regarding your individual situation.

ID: Dr. Emily Scherb, PT, DPT, discusses how circus extends far beyond professional performance and includes recreational participation for people seeking movement, physical challenge, creativity, and community. She explains the wide range of circus arts and why circus can be a meaningful and enjoyable form of physical activity.

08/26/2026

Did you know that AI models are designed to make you feel smart and be agreeable?

Sycophancy is the tendency to agree with, flatter, or validate someone beyond what the evidence supports, often to gain approval or avoid conflict. This can be dangerous when using AI for health problems, but there are steps you can take to help reduce the risks.

During my recent livestream with Dr. Michael Turken, he shared a simple way to catch one of AI’s biggest potential problems: its tendency to agree with us or sound more confident than it should.

Ask it to argue the opposite point of view. Ask why its original answer might be incorrect. You may be surprised by how quickly the response becomes more nuanced.

Dr. Turken also recommends getting a “second opinion” from another AI model. If you typically use one tool, try asking the same question of another and compare the responses.

The goal isn’t to treat AI as an infallible source of truth. As Dr. Turken put it, it may be more useful to think of these models like really smart people who can still sometimes be wrong.

Do you ever challenge the answers AI gives you, or do you usually take the first response and run with it?

Try My Doctor Friend at mydoctorfriend.ai and use code BENDY for 2 months of Premium FREE.

VD: Dr. Linda Bluestein and Dr. Michael Turken speak during a virtual livestream about ways to question AI-generated health information, including asking AI why it might be wrong and seeking a second opinion from another model.

“When I eat this, I feel sick.”Some people interpret this as fear, anxiety, or resistance. But what if there is also a p...
08/25/2026

“When I eat this, I feel sick.”

Some people interpret this as fear, anxiety, or resistance. But what if there is also a physiological reason eating has become frightening?

For people with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), gastrointestinal symptoms can complicate an already difficult relationship with food. Pain, nausea, cramping, flushing, diarrhea, and changes in motility can teach the brain a powerful lesson: eating might make me feel worse.

That becomes especially complicated when an eating disorder or avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is also present.

Two things can be true at the same time: a patient may need support challenging food fears *and* some foods may be triggering genuine physical symptoms.

The answer is not automatically eliminating more foods. It is also not automatically dismissing symptoms as psychological.

We need curiosity, careful evaluation, and collaboration between eating disorder specialists, gastroenterologists, allergists/immunologists, dietitians, and mental health professionals. The goal should always be to nourish the patient and safely expand what they can eat whenever possible.

In this week’s Bendy Bulletin, I’m exploring what happens when eating disorder treatment collides with MCAS, hEDS, and POTS, and why a “just eat” approach can sometimes make recovery harder.

đŸ“© Read the full article at hypermobilitymd.substack.com

Has a physical reaction to food ever been dismissed as “just anxiety”? I’d love to hear your experience.

This content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for individualized medical care.



ID: Carousel titled “When ‘Just Eat’ Can Make Things Worse” explaining how hEDS, POTS, MCAS, ARFID, and eating disorders can overlap, why physical reactions to food may complicate treatment, and how multidisciplinary care can help patients safely expand nutrition.

08/24/2026

“You lift your child. You lift your laundry. You lift your groceries. You lift your own butt off the toilet.”

So, should people with hypermobility avoid lifting weights?

Dr. Emily Scherb, PT, DPT (The Circus Doc) and I are firmly on the same page here: no.

As Dr. Scherb points out, we’re already lifting weight throughout everyday life. Getting out of a chair, carrying groceries, picking up a child, moving a laundry basket. These are all forms of resistance.

And for people with hypermobility, strength can be especially important because of the additional muscular work that may be required to stabilize and control the body throughout the day.

The question isn’t simply, “Should I lift weights?”

It’s how to build strength appropriately for your body, your current capacity, and your goals.

What’s one everyday task that became easier for you as you got stronger?



This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider or physical therapist regarding your individual situation.

VD: Dr. Linda Bluestein and Dr. Emily Scherb, PT, DPT, discuss weightlifting and hypermobility. Dr. Scherb explains that lifting is already part of everyday life, from carrying groceries and laundry to picking up a child, and discusses why building strength can be especially valuable for hypermobile people.

Address

Littleton, CO

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 4pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 12pm

Telephone

+17205882214

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Hypermobility MD posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Hypermobility MD:

Shortcuts

Share

Category