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Luke Timmerman wrote:

Mersana Therapeutics has snagged its first big partnership. The Cambridge, MA-based company that makes drugs last longer in the bloodstream has formed an alliance with Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries that could be worth as much as $334 million over time for developing a new polymer-based drug for cancer and other diseases.

Mersana isn’t saying how much money it is getting up front from Teva, although the smaller company could receive as much as $334 million over time if its compound, XMT-1107, reaches every development, regulatory, and sales goal in the deal. Teva has also agreed to pay all the development expenses, except in Japan, where Mersana retains full commercial rights to the drug. If the compound wins regulatory approval elsewhere in the world, Mersana stands to get royalties that are worth a percentage of total sales.

“It’s a validation of our work to have this partnership,” says Julie Olson, Mersana’s CEO. “Despite what people may say, Teva is a smart company.”

Teva is best known as the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, not for work in discovering or developing groundbreaking new therapies. The big company doesn’t even have an internal discovery operation, so for it to become a developer of novel therapies, it truly has to look outside its own walls. Teva’s vision is to morph into something more diversified than it is today, a company with $30 billion in annual revenue by 2015, and about one-third of that cash coming from brand-name pharmaceuticals, Olson says.

As Olson mentioned, not everyone in the pharma and biotech world is a big fan or believer in this vision of a new Teva. Bothell, WA-based OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OGXI) found that out in December, when it trumpeted a new deal with Teva, which left investors so unimpressed, they drove down OncoGenex shares by more than 20 percent the next day. Olson, a former dealmaker at Pfizer, said she noticed that, and that she was satisfied that Teva had done solid homework on Mersana, and vice versa, before the deal was done. “We looked at them very carefully and came away impressed,” Olson says.

Julie Olson

What is Teva getting its hands on? The drug, XMT-1107, is designed to modify a fumagillin molecule that’s supposed to fight tumors by cutting off their blood supply. This is similar in concept to drugs like Roche’s bevacizumab (Avastin) or Pfizer sunitinib (Sutent), although the fumagillin drug isn’t made to hit the same target as the others, known as VEGF.

Other companies, notably Takeda Pharmaceutical and Abbott Laboratories, have tried to develop fumagillin molecules for cancer. Those programs showed some anti-tumor activity, but they sputtered because they didn’t last long enough in the bloodstream, and crossed over the blood-brain barrier and caused nervous system side effects like insomnia, agitation, and severe loss of balance, Olson says. So Mersana sought to apply its platform technology to the problem. The idea was to take a fumagillin molecule similar to the others that have been tested, and then attach it to a proprietary biodegradable polymer which Mersana calls a “Fleximer.” This polymer, attached to the fumagillin with a strong covalent chemical bond, is supposed to keep the drug stable in the bloodstream much longer than the drug by itself, and keep it from crossing the blood-brain barrier where it can cause nervous-system side effects, Olson says.

Data to prove this concept is still quite preliminary. The Teva folks bought in after they reviewed tests from mice and rats, which showed the Mersana drug was better at suppressing tumor growth than the other anti-VEGF compounds. The Mersana drug is thought to last long enough in the bloodstream that it can be given via IV every three weeks, Olson says. The compound is ready for its first clinical trial to begin before the end of June, which will assess safety at a variety of escalating doses. Results should be ready in 18 to 24 months, Olson says.

The deal provides enough financial support that Mersana will be in position to grow a bit, from 20 employees now to about 25 or 26, Olson says. The company will look to add some development expertise as it enters clinical trials, but also some research talent to help accelerate its plan to apply the Fleximer technology to the tricky problem of RNA interference drug delivery. Plus, the company still has 100 percent ownership rights to its lead compound, a polymer-enhanced version of camptothecin chemotherapy, which it calls XMT-1001.

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The pocket cam’s claim to fame is being “good enough.” The Flip SlideHD strives to be a little more, adding a sliding touchscreen for watching videos on the camera itself. That’s biting off more than it can, or should, chew. More »

Reader James writes,

I’m looking at getting a gaming notebook and am ready to drop some good cash on one, but don’t know which one to buy. High-end gaming notebooks seems to be something of a niche product now as they are only available from a few companies.

I think I’ve narrowed it down to either the Alienware M17x, Asus G72JH, or the Origin EON18. You guys play with any of these? I think I just need someone to tell me which one I should buy.

Funny you should ask, James. We’re arranging a round-up of all three of those, plus a few others right now. Stay tuned, but our commentors will no doubt lead you in the right path, too.

Have a question you would like answered by the masses? Send it to us at [email protected].

What is not a service these days? We start to wonder when we hear the latest incantation: “virtualization as a service.” But after closer look, perhaps it makes sense, especially considering now that VMware and Salesforce.com are working on a partnership and joint product dubbed VMForce.

So, we ask you: “What does virtualization as a service really mean?

Sponsor

Last week, we asked: “How does the iPad affect cloud computing?”

Once again, seeing from our responses, it’s virtualization that plays a key role in the way cloud computing evolves. Plus, people agree that the tablet is the next step to the embedded computer on any object.

For Salesforce.com, a partnership with VMware could mean it gets a foot inside the data center with the capability to provide its technology in a private cloud environment, leveraging its installed base.

For VMware, the potential is to take a big step into the cloud, packaging its virtual infrastructure with Zimbra and the technology suite provided by Salesforce.com.

So, what do you think?

Discuss

These adorable modcat pendants from aster+sage are the perfect way to show your moderncat pride! Each one is hand painted on ultra light plastic and strung on silk cord with sterling silver findings. Choose from red, green, black, or blue cats and light blue, red, or black cord.

Aster+sage is a company after my own heart. They make everything by hand and use recycled materials whenever possible. Linda Yesline is the designer behind aster+sage. She studied industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design and now creates the wonderful hand bags and accessories sold at aster+sage.

ENTER TO WIN!

One lucky winner will get to choose a cat pendant in their favorite color combo. To enter, please leave a comment on this post. The winner will be selected in a random drawing on April 19. One entry per person. This giveaway is open to addresses in the US and Canada.

Two men died early Monday after gunfire broke out in a Pomona neighborhood.



Officers responded about 12:45 a.m. to reports of a possible shooting in the 1100 block of Murchison Avenue, the Pomona Police Department said.



One man was pronounced dead at the scene, and the second died en route to a hospital, according to police. Their names and ages were not released.



Since January 2007, at least 68 homicides have been recorded in Pomona, according to a database by the Times’ Homicide Report. The vast majority of the victims were slain by gunfire.

Anyone with information regarding Monday’s attack is asked to call detectives at (909) 620-2095.

— Robert J. Lopez

Map shows homicides reported in Pomona since January 2007. Credit: Times’ Homicide Report.

Here are a couple of interesting pet carriers from Iris. The first one is a side-loading carrier, probably good for smaller cats since it measures just 18.3 x 9.4 x 12.8 inches. Available in this nice green and also in a soft pink. Normally $29.99 US, but now only $26.00 on Amazon.

The second one is a picnic basket type carrier with a top-loading door and two handles. This one has a storage compartment on the top, plus a smaller access door. Also for smaller cats, but slightly larger than the first one, measuring 19.2 x 13 x 12.2 inches. Reviews on Amazon are quite good, just one comment about the handles being somewhat awkward. Regularly $34.99 US, now $28.99 on Amazon. Available in green or a nice neutral tan.

Both seem to have good ventilation and look like they’d be easy to clean. Has anyone tried one of these carriers?

After 24 years of championing a ban on commercial whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will soon weigh a proposal seeking to resume commercial whaling. The plan would let Japan, Norway and Iceland hunt the ocean giants openly despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. In return, whaling nations would agree to reduce their catch “significantly” over 10 years [AFP]. These pro-whaling nations have kept up their hunts either by officially objecting to the moratorium or by insisting that they’re killing whales for scientific research.

The proposal is due to be submitted before the body’s annual meeting in June in Morocco, leading some conservationists to complain that the IWC should “save whales, and not whaling.” The details of the proposal will made public on Earth day–April 22. Calling the withdrawal of the ban “the best chance to fight overfishing of these animals,” U.S Commissioner to the IWC Monica Medina said: “It’s a global problem, and needs global solutions” [Washington Post].

Making its case to pull back the ban, the IWC said that during the last few decades whale populations have substantially rebounded–with bowhead whale populations off Alaska increasing to between 8,200 and 13,500, eastern Pacific gray whale numbers rising to between 21,900 and 32,400 in 1999, and blue whale populations also rising. Conservationists, however, are seething, pointing out that 1,800 to 2,200 whales continue to be killed each year. “It’s great to be showing success, but should we be planting the flag and saying, ‘We’re there’?” asked Howard Rosenbaum, who directs the ocean giants program at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “We’re not out of the woods yet” [Washington Post].

They say that despite the rise in numbers, several species still struggle to survive. Just 130 or so western Pacific gray whales swim off the coast of Russia now — compared with at least thousands, if not tens of thousands, in the past — and they are still vulnerable to being caught in Japanese fishing nets and offshore energy projects. Even one of the populations that made major gains over the past few decades, the Southern right whale, is experiencing a sudden die-off. Since 2005, researchers have identified 308 dead whales in the waters around Argentina’s Peninsula Valdes, an important calving ground, and 88 percent of the dead were calves less than three months old [Washington Post].

Critics argue that the resumption of commercial whaling would not just endanger future whale populations but would also legitimize behavior by countries like Japan, which many accuse of overfishing the waters of the Southern Ocean sanctuary and which recently won a victory in Doha, Qatar where a proposed ban on the trade of the bluefin tuna was shot down. Norway and Iceland have already disregarded the IWC’s moratorium and have hunted whales commercially.

Australia, meanwhile, has been extremely vocal in its opposition to the proposal, with a spokesman for the Environment Ministry, Greg Hunt, saying it would set too dangerous a precedent. “It is not about protecting whales, it is about a shoddy deal which gives the green light to whaling and is a white flag on plans to end whaling,” he said [Australia Network News]. The United States, while opposed to commercial whaling, said it was waiting to see the final proposal. The proposal needs a three-quarters majority vote to go ahead. A number of IWC nations have yet to declare their position.

Related Content:
80beats:Bluefin Tuna Is Still on the Menu: Trade Ban Fails at International Summit
80beats: Videos Show Collision Between Japanese Whaling Ship & Protesters
80beats: Is the Whaling Ban Really the Best Way to Save the Whales?
80beats: Controversial Deal Could Allow Japan To Hunt More Whales

Image: Flickr / ahisgett

There is no race track steeped in as much history as the Nürburgring Nordschliefe in Germany. With over a hundred corners (by some counts) along its 20.8 km length, the course is considered by many to be the most technically demanding in the entire world. Yet, although it is uniquely challenging, one of its largest attractions is that it is almost always open to the public for a modest price, giving enthusiasts the world over a chance to test their race mettle.

As a common practice, many manufacturers also use the Nürburgring as a grueling test course for their most highly tuned race cars. But tiny, limted-edition electric cars? Not so much so. Apparently BMW didn’t get that note, however, having just run a *slightly* altered MINI E electric car around the track in a truly respectable 9m 51.45s. I’m impressed.

(more…)

Each person attending tonight’s Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey dinner left with a goodie bag. 

It’s Monday night and you need a place to gossip about that weird thing you saw earlier? Or maybe you just want to have some off-topic conversations with fellow Gizmodo readers? Head to #whitenoise and let’s talk. More »

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A northeastern Pennsylvania woman convicted of animal cruelty for marketing "gothic kittens" with ear and neck piercings has been sentenced to six months of house arrest.

Luzerne County Judge Tina Polachek Gartley also ordered 35-year-old Holly Crawford of Ross Township to close her dog-grooming business for more than two years.

Gartley allowed Crawford to keep her pets, which include a dog, three cats and three snakes.

A jury convicted Crawford in February of animal cruelty. Prosecutors alleged that Crawford pierced three black kittens because "she thought it was neat" to sell Gothic kittens on the Internet. Defense attorneys argued that parents allow children to get pierced ears at young ages, and it would be wrong to hold cat owners to a higher standard.

— Associated Press

Stay up-to-date on animal news: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Screen grab showing a kitten whose tail had been banded in an effort to stop blood flow from a video by the Associated Press

The organizers of a massive free clinic scheduled to return to Los Angeles later this month announced Monday that they will distribute color-coded wristbands in advance of their opening at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, a change they hope will reduce patient lines.

“This way, people can come on their designated day and not worry about long lines just to get in. The wristband is the ticket into the clinic,” said Don Manelli, an organizer with Knoxville, Tenn.-based Remote Area Medical, the nonprofit sponsoring the clinic.

The clinic will be held April 27 to May 3 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is expected to draw thousands of uninsured and under-insured patients. Organizers plan to distribute wristbands starting at 9 a.m. April 25 outside the arena at 3939 South Figueroa St.

Those seeking treatment on a particular day can get in line to receive a wristband color-coded for that day. Each family member seeking medical, dental and vision care must get in line to receive a wristband, although parents and caregivers may claim wristbands for their children and charges. Wristbands are not interchangeable or removable.

Volunteers at the first clinic, held in August at the Forum in
Inglewood, treated more than  6,300. Scores more were turned away because of
a shortage
of medical volunteers.

For more information, visit www.ramfreeclinic.org.

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

The Aussie market has opened down. But for the first time since September of 2008, the Dow Jones Industrials have closed over 11,000. All hail the coming of the new bull!

You could surmise that the catalyst for higher share prices – since it isn’t earnings or the economy or insider buying – has to be the Greek deal/bailout announced on Sunday. That plans sounds a lot like the plan to exit an airplane, “in the event of a water landing.” Until Sully Sullenberger landed his plane in the Hudson last year, we’d always assumed “a water landing” meant a smash into the ocean and instant death.

But the Greeks have avoided a flat spin into debt default for now. Europe’s wise old men and women agreed to a US$61 billion rescue plan that makes $43 billion in loans available to Greece at 5% interest if private capital markets do not participate in Greek bond auctions. Call in the Trichet put.

This does not end the sovereign debt crisis. It only takes us to the next stage. And we have quite a bit to say on that stage. But for now, we’re still finishing a bit of research on it so we won’t dive into it in today’s episode.

How about a brief epilogue to yesterday’s discussion of housing? More buyers are needed to send over the wire and into the auctions. But where will they come from? Despite the high clearance rates nationwide, Peter Martin reports in today’s Age that buyers are actually deserting the property market. Maybe they got what they came for. Or maybe it’s too expensive. Or maybe they can’t get credit.

According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of home loans made in New South Wales is down 27% from September of 2009. The decline was 29% in South Australia, 25% in Queensland and Tasmania, 16% in Western Australia, and just 12% in booming Victoria. “This will lead to a slowing of price growth, no question about it,” says David Airey, president of the Real Estate Institute.

Hmm. Do you reckon the Real Estate Institute is trying to bluff the RBA into not raising interest rates any longer? This might allow the banks to keep lending. But the banks are actually lowering their loan-to-value ratios. Requiring a larger deposit shores up the balance sheet. But when UK banks tried to address their overexposure to residential real estate by lowering LVRs, the market “got slammed.”

This is exactly what we were thinking last night over a cheese-drenched veal parma (without the ham), reading Dr. Marc Faber’s latest Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report. “I think it’s fair to say that every asset bubble makes people feel temporarily rich, because on the back of rising asset price the owners of assets can increase their borrowings or trade out of their inflated assets and consume more than is possible of no asset bubble had taken place.”

To wit, this article from last week’s Sydney Morning Herald suggests that Australians are refinancing their homes (at lower rates and higher prices) and withdrawing equity (when they have it) to finance the purchase of big ticket items. Not only is your home your castle, it’s also an ATM.

This is just what Dr. Faber is talking about. “In an asset bubble, people can consume today out of borrowings and capital gains what, in a non-inflationary environment they would have consumed through accumulated savings. Simply put, asset bubbles ‘frontload’ consumption at the expense of consumption when the bubble bursts.”

If they could understand it, this would not be welcome news to government ministers. It means that by “bringing forward” housing demand to prop up prices (via the First Buyer’s Grant, the relaxation of foreign investment in property, and the buying of securitised loans by the AOFM) they have ignited a super spike in Aussie house prices. And not only are house more unaffordable than ever, the paper gains have encouraged people to refinance and borrow against their home to support new consumption.

When you have unsound money and unsound money management, you get a debt-laden disaster. You can’t really blame politicians for suckering Australians into new debt at precisely the point where interest rates were/are making historic lows. Politics is all about “time preferences” too. They’re called elections. And if you haven’t made people feel richer by the time they come around, your time may be up.

This is why H.L. Mencken called elections “an advance auction of stolen goods.”

But the moral hazard of shifting time preferences for savers and investors – which is what you do when you manipulate the price of money and distort markets by throwing money at them – is that you cause otherwise prudent people to make really bad economic decisions. Low interest rates and government handouts shift time preferences forward. Or, in laymen’s terms, they cause people (and a nation) to be short-term focused (or financially short sighted).

It’s fun while it lasts but it won’t last forever. And at heart, you have to acknowledge that the origin of rising Australian prices is not immigration, tight supply, or some bogus shortage. It’s a credit bubble. As Dr. Faber writes, “Every asset bubble was caused and accompanied by easy money and a rapid expansion of credit. Rising asset prices reinforce credit growth as investors leverage up.”

Nearly everywhere else in the world, investors and households have deleveraged. But as Dr. Steve Keen recently pointed out, Australians – encouraged by their government and the real estate industry – have taken the seemingly benign GFC as a reason to releverage. Private debt to GDP levels have risen.

Or, in his own words, “Australia has avoided the GFC by recreating the conditions that led to it. Needless to say, this is not entirely a good thing. We are potentially avoiding pain now by setting ourselves up for greater pain in the near future.”

But how soon is that future? Is it now? Or now? Or now?

One key is whether the faux resolution of the Greek crisis will lead to rising sovereign bond yields. This might seem counterintuitive. If Greece is less risky and volatile, shouldn’t bond yields fall? Maybe not. If investors think the sovereign debt crisis is over, they may shift out of supposedly risk-averse assets like bonds and into equities. This would argue – in the very short term – for higher highs on the indices.

But rising government bond yields cause a world of hurt, too. First off, it makes it more expensive for governments to borrow. Perhaps this is why Pimco bond chief Bill Gross is selling U.S. Treasuries. He’s not worried about deflation at all. He’s worried about rising rates and inflation.

You should read his full note if you have the time. But the short version is that, “high fiscal deficits and higher outstanding debt lead to higher real interest rates and ultimately higher inflation, both trends which are bond market unfriendly.”

One more note of caution. U.S. and U.K. banks increased their holdings of government bonds during the GFC as a way of improving the asset side of the balance sheet with more, ahem, credit worthy assets. That could be a problem if bond yields spike (and prices fall). In other words, for the Atlantic economies, the next phase of the crisis might come from falling bond prices affecting the solvency of banks.

And Australian banks? They remain uniquely exposed to residential home prices. And they remain uniquely dependent on funding expanded lending through wholesale borrowing overseas. To the extent that rising sovereign bond yields mean higher borrowing costs globally, Aussie banks will face higher funding costs. You’d imagine that would lead to higher home loan rates here, which, needless to say, would not be good for the housing market.

Not that the banks are going to just come out and tell you there’s a problem. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, “Major banks have masked their risk levels in the past five quarters by temporarily lowering their debt just before reporting it to the public, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.” Hmmn.

A group of 18 banks – which includes Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. – understated the debt levels used to fund securities trades by lowering them an average of 42% at the end of each of the past five quarterly periods, the data show. The banks, which publicly release debt data each quarter, then boosted the debt levels in the middle of successive quarters.”

We won’t go into the details of the trick here. But the takeaway is that everyone thought the banks had deleveraged in the last two years. But perhaps that is not the case. And perhaps banks are still using short term lending to boost collateral, which allows for more borrowing and more speculating…on things like higher stock prices, commodity prices, or the collapse of Greek debt. Now wouldn’t that be interesting?

Dan Denning
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

Similar Posts:

• Choking on Debt in the Unfolding Anglo-Saxon Bond Crisis
• Central Bankers Encourage Debt Booms That Become Debt Bombs
• The Trouble With a Sovereign Debt Crisis
• U.S. Bonds Better than Greek or Other Sovereign Bonds
• Reality Sovereign Debt Finance Theatre

Filed under: Sex, Love & Relationships, Advice, How to Be Happy

One of the most common issues that arises in a long-term committed relationship is a decreased frequency of sex – maybe you couldn’t keep your hands off each other for the first several months or even years and now you both just want to go to sleep. … Read more

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Venom-filled anonymous internet comments are often a favorite target for politicians, writers and plenty of other folks who use them to represent everything that’s wrong with the internet. Many sites have a love-hate relationship with comments, including news sites, which often want to encourage “participation” but don’t get much out of the comments, including ad revenue, since many advertisers don’t want their ads alongside them. Now, many of these news sites are rethinking their commenting systems, with a view towards cutting down in the bile that’s often spewed by commenters on their site. Typically, these efforts amount to little more than switching comments off or forcing people to use their real names, with many publishers (and pundits) believing that the real problem is anonymity. But anonymity isn’t the issue; the quality and tone of comments is. So if that’s the real problem, why not seek to change it, instead of taking aim at a completely separate issue? As we’ve noted before, Techdirt gets a lot of comments, including the occasional unfriendly one from a jerk. Sometimes this jerk is anonymous — but if they’re a jerk, it doesn’t much matter if they’re anonymous or using their real name. With that in mind, it’s nice to see that some of the sites in the NYT article above are actually looking at ways to tackle the real issue, and not just anonymity — though there are plenty that still seem to think everybody will be nice if they use their real name.

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How often do you hear yourself saying things like: “I have hip pain,” “My lower back hurts,” “Pain is shooting down my leg,” “There’s numbness and/or tingling on the top of my foot,” “I have sciatica,” and so on…

Well, you’re not alone. In fact, these are frequently recited phrases in doctors’ offices, physical therapy clinics and healing centers the world over. When patients present their symptoms to me they offer many of those descriptions and curative measures they’ve been instructed to carry out. Their physician has told them to take anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprophen, or to use ice. Sometime the doctor recommends physical therapy, wherein the therapist designs a series of strengthening exercises to solve the problem.

By the time the problem reaches my office, the patient has already swallowed the over-the-counter pills and gone through a lengthy course of physical therapy or chiropractic care… all with little lasting effects. Sometimes the problem has become worse.

When I hear phrases like those mentioned above, I already know what the person has “tried” prior to seeing me. I also know that they will tell me the problem is not “fixed.” If it was they would not be here. The first thing I do is perform a series of orthopedic tests on their piriformis, a muscle largely overlooked by the mainstream medical community.

The piriformis muscle originates at the front of the sacrum (the part of the spinal column that is directly connected with or forms a part of the pelvis). It passes out of the pelvis through the greater sciatic foramen. It inserts into the upper border of the greater trunchanter (ball) of the femoral shaft (thigh bone). It is used to rotate the thigh laterally when such a motion is called for.

What this means is that this one muscle, if dysfunctional, has the ability to negatively affect a number of places on the hip, low back, legs and feet. Since the piriformis attaches the femur to the sacrum, if it is hypertonic (tight, contracted, in spasm) it can cause the foot to splay. That is, the foot of one or both legs will tend to point outward when walking. And this causes pain in the hip.

If the piriformis is contracted it can compress the sciatic nerve, thus causing what is described as “shooting leg pain.” Often, those who are diagnosed with sciatica actually have piriformis syndrome. Sure their X-rays may show some disc herniation, and the doctors will tell the patient that is the cause and recommend surgery. But this is not necessarily the case.

People live the entire lives with disc herniations and have no pain from them. So the presence of herniation uncovered by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when sciatica is present is a correlation and not necessary a cause and effect situation.

When the piriformis tightens it can also cause the hips to rotate either to one side or diagonally, thus causing the pelvis to be askew, which can be a cause of both lower back pain and hip pain.

On the other hand, if the piriformis is too loose or flexible (hypotonic), it will cause slack in the connection of bones and allow play to occur. This can irritate nerves and muscles and cause severe pain.

So how does the piriformis become too tight or too loose? Well, the most common cause is sitting for prolonged periods of time. The human body was designed to stand and walk, not sit with 90-degree flexion at the hips and knees. When sitting, the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the front of the pelvis become hypertonic (shortened), and those on the rear become hypotonic (elongated). Elongated muscles tend to contract naturally as a defense against poor posture and this results in spasms.

Sitting for prolonged periods at a desk or while driving a car also reduces the amount of blood and body fluids moving through the contracted areas of the waist. In Chinese medicine we call this “stasis” or blockage of blood, fluids and energy. And where there is no free flow there is pain. Conversely, where there is free flow there is no pain. If you want to get rid of the pain you need to release the tension and allow flow.

I see hypotonic (hyperextended) piriformis in some yoga practitioners who are either too eager in the stretching exercises or are under the misguidance of an unqualified teacher. Muscles should be stretched only within their normal range of motion. When stretched too far they can become torn or slack and this causes pain and injury.

And while strengthening exercises such as those used in physical therapy are good, strengthening a muscle that is hypertonic is asking too much of it while in its dysfunctional state. It is better to go through a regimen of stretching, Thai yoga massage, muscle energy technique or tui-na Chinese bodywork to first work out the hyper tonicity before strengthening the muscle.

The next time your low back, hip, buttocks, leg, shin or foot is bothering you, ask your physician/healer/therapist about the possibility of the piriformis being the culprit. It just might be, and getting a jump on it early on will shorten the healing process and prevent the problem from becoming chronic.

— Dr. Mark Wiley