David Dunlop worked in elite college athletics coaching strength and conditioning at the University of Minnesota football program after playing the game himself at Louisiana Tech and Portland State.
Today, as Director of Performance at Saint Bartholomew, he works with a very different kind of athlete: people in chronic pain.
In this episode, David shares the journey that brought him here, the patterns he keeps seeing in chronic pain patients, and the moment that changed how he thinks about the body entirely.
He breaks down the brain's role in pain, pulls back the curtain on the treatment paths his clients have tried before finding Saint Bartholomew, and draws a sharp line between how elite athletes recover and how the rest of the world suffers — and why that gap might be the root cause of chronic pain itself.
He closes with his top advice on neck pain, knee pain, and shoulder pain and one piece of advice he'd give to anyone currently living in pain.
This is Medicine. Not drugs. Not surgery. Real medicine.
What we cover:
— David's path from college football player to elite S&C coach to chronic pain specialist
— The trends he keeps observing across his clients
— His "big ah-ha moment" working with people in pain
— The brain's role in chronic pain
— How elite athletic recovery differs from civilian healthcare — and why it matters
— Top tips for neck pain, knee pain, and shoulder pain
— His single best piece of advice for anyone in pain right now
Learn more:
Website: https://www.saintbartholomew.com/
Newsletter: https://medicine.saintbartholomew.com/
Podcast: https://medicine.saintbartholomew.com/
What is Medicine?
Medicine is not pills.
It is not injections.
It is not surgery.
Medicine restores the body.
Hosted by Sean Light, founder of Saint Bartholomew Medicine, this podcast explores what actually heals chronic pain and builds durable human performance.
Through clinical insight, lived experience, and systems-based thinking, Medicine challenges the conventional model of symptom management and replaces it with a deeper framework: rebuild the systems, and the body restores itself.
Each episode examines the foundations of real healing:
– Sleep
– Nutrition
– Strength
– Nervous system regulation
Along the way, Sean shares the stories that shaped this philosophy — from childhood headaches to performance training, from the Sistine Chapel to the symbolic meaning of Saint Bartholomew — and explains the Four Systems of Healing that guide his clinical work.
If you are done chasing quick fixes and ready to build a body that works, this is where we begin.
This is Medicine.