Hypermobility MD

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

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 takes 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 your hand is weak, your wrist hurts, your arm goes numb, or you have nerve symptoms, but the X-ray, MRI, or nerv...
09/17/2026

What if your hand is weak, your wrist hurts, your arm goes numb, or you have nerve symptoms, but the X-ray, MRI, or nerve testing looks “normal”?

On this episode of Bendy Bodies, I’m joined by William Erickson, MD, an orthopedic hand surgeon who has been treating patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome for decades.

We talk specifically about hand, wrist, arm, and nerve problems in hypermobile patients, including what he looks for when standard testing does not fully explain someone’s symptoms.

But one of the most important parts of our conversation is about something even more basic: what should happen when a clinician simply does not know the answer?

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you. I believe you, but I don’t know.”

As Dr. Erickson explains, that is a perfectly acceptable answer.

Dismissing a patient because the available testing has not provided an explanation is not.

Have you ever had significant hand, wrist, arm, or nerve symptoms that did not show up on standard testing?



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

ID: Teal pull quote carousel featuring key moments from Dr. Linda Bluestein’s Bendy Bodies conversation with orthopedic hand surgeon William Erickson, MD. Slides discuss upper extremity pain, weakness and nerve symptoms in EDS and hypermobility, why symptoms may not appear on standard testing, conservative treatment and surgery considerations, cortisone injections, and the importance of providers listening to and believing patients.

09/16/2026

What happens when AI helps you better understand your health, but your clinician is uncomfortable with how you’re using it?

I think the more useful conversation is not whether patients should be using AI. It is how we use it responsibly.

Many of my patients were using AI to help understand their health long before I started talking about it publicly. My patients often have complex medical histories, and AI can help them organize information, understand terminology, and prepare better questions.

AI can be wrong, and it cannot replace clinical judgment or the patient-clinician relationship.

But patients are already using it.

So rather than framing this as “AI versus doctors,” I think we should be asking: How can patients and clinicians use these tools thoughtfully and responsibly together?

In this episode of Bendy Bodies, Michael Turken, MD, shared an important point: how patients frame the conversation matters.

Instead of saying, “AI says I have this,” you might say:

“I’m trying to better understand my health.”

“I want to make the most of our limited time together.”

“I’m using it to organize my questions.”

Used appropriately, AI does not have to compete with a clinician’s expertise. It can help patients become more informed and prepared participants in their care.

How has your healthcare professional responded when you’ve brought information or questions from AI into an appointment?



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: Video featuring Dr. Linda Bluestein in conversation with Michael Turken, MD, about responsible use of AI in healthcare, including how medically complex patients may use AI to organize information and prepare questions.

AI can access your medical records and still misunderstand your medical history.That’s why simply connecting your record...
09/16/2026

AI can access your medical records and still misunderstand your medical history.

That’s why simply connecting your records to an AI platform isn’t enough.

On this episode of Bendy Bodies, I spoke with Michael Turken, MD, about how patients can use AI more thoughtfully when navigating their health.

One of his most important recommendations is surprisingly simple:

Ask the AI what it thinks it knows about you.

What diagnoses does it think you have?
What medications does it think you’re taking?
What major medical events does it think are part of your history?
And is that information actually accurate and current?

This matters even more for medically complex patients who may have years of records, multiple specialists, and thousands of test results.

Medical records can contain errors. Old diagnoses may linger. Medication lists can be outdated. And AI models have limits in how much information they can process and interpret at once.

Before relying on AI to reason about your health, first make sure you understand what information it is reasoning from.

Have you ever asked an AI tool to tell you what it knows about your health?



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 Michael Turken, MD, about using AI with medical records, verifying what AI knows about your health, and keeping health information accurate and up to date.

09/15/2026

Why are so many patients turning to AI for health questions in the first place?

In this episode of Bendy Bodies, Michael Turken, MD, makes an important point: the rapid adoption of AI may be telling us as much about the gaps in healthcare as it does about the technology itself.

People want to ask health questions when they arise.

They want answers without waiting hours, days, or months.

They want help making sense of complex information in the moment, ideally from a tool that can incorporate some context about their health.

That does not mean AI is risk-free, and it does not mean concerns about AI should be dismissed.

There are legitimate questions about accuracy, bias, privacy, overreliance, environmental impact, and what happens when people trust an AI-generated answer too much. AI can also be confidently wrong. It should not replace a healthcare professional who knows the patient, can perform an examination, order appropriate testing, and take responsibility for medical decisions.

At the same time, the fact that so many people are using these tools tells us something worth paying attention to.

Patients have long wanted more access, more explanation, more continuity, and more help between appointments. AI is beginning to fill some of that unmet need, imperfectly and with important limitations.

The more interesting question may not be, “Should patients use AI?”

It may be:

“What is their use of AI telling us about what healthcare has failed to provide?”

And how can we use that information to build something better?

What do you think patients are looking for from AI that they are not consistently getting from the healthcare system?



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: Dr. Linda Bluestein speaks with Michael Turken, MD, about why patients are increasingly using AI for health questions and how that trend may reflect unmet needs in healthcare. They discuss the potential value of AI alongside important limitations and concerns, including accuracy, overreliance, privacy, and the need for appropriate clinician involvement.

09/15/2026

AI can sound confident even when the science itself isn’t settled.

On this episode of Bendy Bodies, I spoke with Michael Turkin, MD, about where misinformation becomes especially important to watch for when using AI for health information.

Established medical knowledge is one thing. But supplements, emerging research, contested areas of medicine, and topics where the evidence is still evolving can be much harder for AI to navigate accurately.

Dr. Turkin recommends checking the sources an AI model gives you. Click the links. Look at the studies. And remember that an AI tool may not have had access to the full research paper, which means important context or limitations could be missing.

That doesn’t mean clinicians always get it right, either. Perfect information is difficult to come by in medicine, and research continues to evolve.

The goal isn’t to expect perfection from AI. It’s to know when a confident answer deserves a closer look.

When you use AI for health information, do you check the sources it gives 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.

What happens when the medical system doesn’t understand your condition well enough to care for you safely?For many peopl...
09/14/2026

What happens when the medical system doesn’t understand your condition well enough to care for you safely?

For many people with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation disorders like MCAS, and related conditions, distrust of healthcare does not come out of nowhere.

It can build after years of being misunderstood, misdiagnosed, dismissed, or treated in ways that do not reflect the complexity of their condition.

And the consequences can go far beyond frustration.

Knowledge gaps can contribute to the wrong diagnosis, inappropriate treatment, harmful referrals, and medical trauma. Over time, those experiences can make it much harder for patients to trust the very clinicians they need to turn to for help.

In Episode 213 of Bendy Bodies, I speak with Ina Stephens, MD, Associate Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorder Center, about medical PTSD, distrust, and what needs to change within healthcare.

One important part of the solution is education.

Dr. Stephens shares how UVA Health is working to teach the next generation of clinicians about EDS and other connective tissue disorders, beginning with undergraduate and medical students and continuing through residency and faculty education.

Because rebuilding trust requires more than asking patients to trust the system.

It also requires giving clinicians the knowledge they need to recognize complexity, avoid preventable harm, and provide better care.

Listen to the full episode of Bendy Bodies wherever you get your podcasts.

What do you wish more healthcare providers understood about EDS, HSD, POTS, MCAS, or related conditions?



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

ID: Ina Stephens, MD, Associate Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorder Center, discusses medical PTSD and distrust among people with EDS, HSD, POTS, MCAS, and related conditions. She explains how gaps in medical education can contribute to misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, harmful healthcare experiences, and loss of trust, and describes efforts at UVA Health to improve connective tissue disorder education among students, residents, and faculty.

09/14/2026

What happens when symptoms aren’t treated well and no one is connecting the dots?

Younger patients with joint hypermobility and connective tissue disorders can have symptoms and comorbidities that extend far beyond their joints. When those concerns aren’t recognized early, they may spend years moving between specialists, accumulating diagnoses without anyone stepping back to look at the bigger picture.

In Episode 213 of Bendy Bodies, Ina Stephens, MD, Associate Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorder Center, describes what she sees too often: patients reaching their 20s or 30s after years of fragmented subspecialty care and wondering, “Why do I have so many diagnoses? What’s going on with me?”

When symptoms are under-recognized, undertreated, or viewed only in isolation, patients may also encounter disbelief, dismissal, and medical gaslighting instead of clinicians asking an important question:

Could some of these pieces be connected?

Early recognition does not mean assuming every symptom is caused by EDS or hypermobility. It means keeping the possibility on the radar so evaluation and treatment can be more informed, coordinated, and connected.

Have you ever felt like your medical care was missing the bigger picture?



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

VD: Ina Stephens, MD, Associate Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorder Center, discusses how younger patients with hypermobility can experience symptoms and comorbidities beyond the joints, and how fragmented specialty care can leave patients with multiple diagnoses without anyone connecting the dots.

09/11/2026

Botox can be an effective tool for migraine. But what if someone also has craniocervical instability (CCI)?

Like many conditions, CCI exists on a spectrum. Having mild CCI is not the same clinical situation as having severe, debilitating instability.

In Episode 213 of the Bendy Bodies podcast, Dr. Ina Stephens, Associate Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorder Center, explains why that distinction matters when considering Botox. If CCI is a significant concern, she says she would generally avoid Botox. If CCI is only part of the differential and does not appear to be causing significant neurologic or musculoskeletal problems, it may warrant a more individualized discussion.

There’s another side to the conversation, too: Botox can be very helpful for some people whose migraines are associated with significant jaw tension, TMJ dysfunction, and muscle contraction extending through the face, neck, and head.

The takeaway isn’t that Botox is “good” or “bad” for hypermobile patients. It’s that the clinical context matters.



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

VD: Dr. Linda Bluestein and Dr. Ina Stephens discuss the use of Botox for migraine in people with craniocervical instability (CCI), including why the severity of CCI matters when considering treatment and how Botox may be helpful for migraines associated with TMJ dysfunction and muscle tension.

What happens when a patient has years of symptoms, multiple diagnoses, and specialists who aren’t connecting the dots?Fo...
09/10/2026

What happens when a patient has years of symptoms, multiple diagnoses, and specialists who aren’t connecting the dots?

For people with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD), fragmented care can mean that each problem is treated in isolation rather than as part of a larger clinical picture.

And those patterns can begin much earlier than many people realize.

On Episode 213 of Bendy Bodies, I’m joined by Ina Stevens, MD, Associate Director of the UVA Health EDS and Hypermobility Disorder Center, for a wide-ranging conversation about what it can look like when hypermobility is recognized earlier and care becomes more connected.

We discuss why EDS does not suddenly begin in adolescence, how pain, fatigue, orthopedic concerns, and other comorbidities can affect younger patients, and why coaches and teachers need to understand that just because a hypermobile body can stretch farther does not mean it should.

We also talk about something that can be harder to quantify: hope.

There is currently no cure for EDS, but that does not mean there is nothing we can do. The goal is to give patients tools that can help them work with their bodies, address symptoms and improve quality of life.

Swipe for some of the moments from our conversation that stayed with me, then listen to Episode 213 of Bendy Bodies wherever you get your podcasts.

Which of these quotes resonates with you most?



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

ID: Blue Instagram quote carousel featuring key moments from Dr. Linda Bluestein’s Bendy Bodies conversation with Ina Stevens, MD. Slides discuss early recognition of EDS and hypermobility in younger patients, fragmented specialty care, associated symptoms and comorbidities, supporting hypermobile children in sports and activities, treatment and quality of life, and the importance of hope when living with a complex chronic condition.

What if one of the most important skills in chronic illness is knowing when to change the goal?In last week’s Office Hou...
09/09/2026

What if one of the most important skills in chronic illness is knowing when to change the goal?

In last week’s Office Hours episode of Bendy Bodies, I shared a question from The Book of Questions: Living with Chronic Illness by my friend Brianna Greenspan and Gregory Stock, PhD:

“Despite how I’m feeling in this exact moment, what can I do to best support myself starting now?”

Brianna calls this a “micro massive action” question.

The action may be small, but the impact can be significant.

If you’re at the grocery store and suddenly feel like you might faint, the goal is no longer to finish shopping. The goal is to sit down and keep yourself safe.

Supporting yourself might mean drinking fluids, eating something, getting out of the heat, changing positions, putting on compression, canceling a commitment, stopping an exercise that is not going well, or asking for help.

The specific action will be different for everyone. What matters is recognizing that sometimes the most productive thing you can do is adjust the goal based on what your body is telling you.

Families, clinicians, and other members of your support system can be incredibly important.

But you are also part of your care team.

Learning to notice what you need—and respond before things escalate—can be its own form of self-management.

What’s one “micro massive action” that helps you when your body tells you the plan needs to change?



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

ID: Dr. Linda Bluestein discusses a question from The Book of Questions: Living with Chronic Illness by Brianna Greenspan and Gregory Stock, PhD. She explains Greenspan’s concept of a “micro massive action,” a small action that can have a meaningful impact, and emphasizes the importance of adjusting goals in response to what the body is communicating.

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