Without even getting into the exorbitant cost burden of unneccessary tests, here's a few reasons why getting an MRI could make you worse.

*This advice mainly applies to active individuals dealing with joint/muscle pain from a known injury or provocation of an old injury, and it is not meant to be taken as concrete fact in every case. If you are not sure of the cause of your pain, please make an appointment with a healthcare professional.*

1. Tissue damage IS NOT why it hurts

Pain is multifactorial and complex. But tissue damage occurs in everyone as we age and get injured, and it's often very poorly linked with the cause of pain. 52% of people over age 50 without any pain have a positive finding of a herniated disc when given an MRI. Another study shows 70% percent of hockey players without any pain have abnormal MRI results of thier hips. In yet another study of patients without symptoms that had labral tears on imaging, almost half of the people responded that they thought they should have surgery to "fix" the tear! Our culture has created a prevailing and scary notion that if something is torn, we have to slice into it to repair it. Nevermind that the body can handle these tissue abnormalities and function fully with them -- but are we missing the fact that surgery creates even more tissue damage?! If we are trying to "fix" the tissue damage, howcome we are making more?