Pain of Olympic Proportions

Explored in this episode

• One woman’s journey from Olympic snowboarding to Traditional Chinese Medicine School
• The connection between mind and body, and how that relates to experiences of pain
• What it takes to “push” through pain to reach the podium
• The difference between physical and mental pain
• How acupuncture works to support the body
• The Chinese medicine approach to applying cold and heat to injury

Voices in the conversation

Dominique Vallée

Former Olympic Snowboarder, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Born in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Dominique Vallée grew up playing in the snow. At age 15 she discovered her passion for snowboarding and by 18 she moved to Whistler, Canada to pursue her dream of becoming a professional snowboarder. She competed for over a decade as part of the Canada Snowboard Team in both halfpipe and snowboard-cross. She represented Canada at the 2006 Torino Olympics in both disciplines.

Through injuries, she started utilizing the power of Traditional Chinese Medicine to help her body and mind recover faster. After her mother’s battle with pancreatic cancer in 2009, she discovered a new passion for medicine that she knew she had to follow. She went back to school for seven years and completed her doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Dr. Dominique Vallée now practices in both Vancouver and Whistler, with a strong focus on women’s health and sports medicine.

She uses acupuncture, cupping, scraping, personalized herbal medicine, food as medicine and Prolozone injections as part of her treatment tools.

Dr. Kenneth Craig

UBC Pain Research Lab, Psychology Department

Kenneth Craig, O.C., Ph.D., LL.D. (Hon.) is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Following studies at Sir George Williams College, UBC, Purdue University and the Oregon Health Sciences University, he has had a long academic career at UBC.

In this episode, he shares some ideas on how high-performance athletes are able to withstand the pain of their training to make it to the podium, and the difference between pain threshold and pain tolerance.

His research focuses upon psychosocial factors in understanding and controlling pain, described in the social communication model of pain, and pain assessment using nonverbal methods, focusing upon infants, young children, people with intellectual disabilities and cognitive impairments.

He served as Editor-in-Chief of Pain Research & Management and the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. He has served as President of the Canadian Psychological Association and the Canadian Pain Society and on the Council of the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Awards include the Canada Council I.W. Killam Research Fellowship, appointment as a CIHR Senior Investigator, the Canadian Psychological Association Donald O. Hebb Award, the American Pain Society Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children’s Pain Relief, an LL.D. (Hon.) from Dalhousie University and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada.