Featured in HuffPost  ·  Beverly Hills, California
As Seen in HuffPost

The Signs of Joint Hypermobility — and the Hypermobility Specialist in Los Angeles Who Finds the Pain Imaging Misses

When HuffPost needed to explain why hypermobile people hurt, they called Dr. Jacques Courseault. Here’s what he told them — and how our Beverly Hills clinic puts it to work for patients across Los Angeles.

hypermobility specialist los angeles

When HuffPost set out to answer a question that quietly affects millions of people — “what does it actually mean to be double-jointed, and why does it hurt?” — they turned to Dr. Jacques Courseault, founder and medical director of The Fascia Institute and Treatment Center. Recognized as one of the few physicians in the world who has built an entire practice around hypermobility, he gave the piece its clearest explanation for a problem patients hear far too often: your scans are normal, but you still hurt.

You can read the write-up of that feature on our flagship site here: Dr. Courseault in HuffPost on the signs of hypermobility. In this article we’ll unpack the signs HuffPost highlighted, explain why standard imaging keeps missing the pain, and show you what a real evaluation with a hypermobility specialist in Los Angeles looks like — right here in Beverly Hills.

488
Points mapped with Fascial Mapping® ultrasound
2
Clinics — New Orleans & Beverly Hills
1st
Published paper on fascial hydrodissection
What HuffPost Got Right

The pain isn’t in the joint. It’s in what’s holding the joint together.

Two lines from the HuffPost feature capture the whole problem. First, on why hypermobile people are so often exhausted:

“The connective tissue isn’t holding the joint tightly, so the muscles around it have to work overtime to compensate, and that wears people out.”

And second, on why so many patients are told nothing is wrong:

“A lot of the pain is coming from the supporting structures outside the joint — the muscles and the fascia doing all the stabilizing — and standard imaging just doesn’t show that.”

This is the heart of it. In a hypermobile body, ligaments are looser than average, so muscles and fascia — the body-wide connective tissue web — take over the stabilizing work. That constant, low-grade overtime is why hypermobile patients feel achy, tired, and “tight everywhere,” and why they often lose confidence in their own joints (research shows measurably reduced joint position sense in hypermobility1). An X-ray or standard MRI looks at bones and major structures at rest; it isn’t built to show an overworked, strained, or adhered fascial layer. That gap is exactly where a fascia-focused evaluation earns its keep.

The Signs

Common signs of joint hypermobility

No single sign is a diagnosis, and being flexible is not a disease. But when several of these travel together, it’s worth an evaluation with a clinician who understands hypermobile bodies.

Joints that bend too far
Elbows or knees that hyperextend, thumbs that fold back to the forearm, fingers that arch back — the features clinicians score on the Beighton scale.
Aching after activity
Pain that shows up hours or a day after ordinary exertion — the muscles that have been quietly stabilizing all day finally protest.
Deep, hard-to-place fatigue
The “worn out” HuffPost described — the cumulative cost of muscles working overtime to do a ligament’s job.
Clicks, pops & giving way
Frequent partial dislocations (subluxations), easy sprains, ankles or shoulders that feel unstable.
Soft or stretchy skin
Velvety skin, easy bruising, stretch marks with no obvious cause, or scars that heal poorly — connective tissue signals worth noting.
Dizziness on standing
Lightheadedness, racing heart, or brain fog when you stand — the dysautonomia/POTS that often accompanies hypermobility.
Gut & digestive issues
Bloating, reflux, or IBS-type symptoms that cluster with the rest — connective tissue lines the gut too.
Headaches & neck pain
Migraine and cervicogenic headache are markedly more common in hypermobile people, often driven by an unstable, overworked neck.2
Pain everywhere, normal scans
The classic story — widespread pain, multiple specialists, unremarkable imaging, and no clear answer. This is the pattern HuffPost’s piece was written to explain.
Why a Specialist Matters

What a hypermobility specialist in Los Angeles actually does

Most people with hypermobility have already seen a string of specialists — each looking at one joint, one system, one scan. What’s usually missing is someone who evaluates the connective tissue itself and connects the dots across the whole body. That’s the work our Beverly Hills clinic is built for.

See the pain, live
Our Fascial Mapping® exam uses high-resolution ultrasound across 488 points to find strained and adhered fascia in real time — the layer standard imaging can’t show.
Release what’s stuck
Where fascia is bound down, Hydrofascia Release™ restores glide with a targeted, ultrasound-guided technique Dr. Courseault pioneered and first published.3
Tighten loose tissue
For unstable joints and ligaments, dextrose prolotherapy and ProloBoost Dual PRP stimulate the body to reinforce its own connective tissue.
Look under the hood
Our FIT GPS genomic screen can flag metabolic contributors — including the folate pathway Dr. Courseault described as folate-dependent hypermobility syndrome.4
Build lasting stability
Because targeted strengthening and neuromuscular training are the mainstay for hypermobile bodies,5 the Fascia Performance Program keeps the gains.

It all runs through the Hypermobility & EDS specialty pathway — a single, coordinated plan instead of a scavenger hunt across specialists. Explore the broader philosophy on our Fascia Medicine hub.

Read the Feature

See what Dr. Courseault told HuffPost

Our flagship site has the full write-up of the HuffPost feature on the signs of hypermobility — and why the pain so often hides from standard imaging.

Dr. Courseault in HuffPost →

Questions We Hear

Frequently asked questions

Is being hypermobile a problem I need to treat?

Not always. Many flexible people never have symptoms. Care is worth pursuing when hypermobility comes with pain, instability, fatigue, or the other signs above — that’s when a specialist evaluation helps you get ahead of it.

My MRI and X-rays were normal. Why do I still hurt?

As Dr. Courseault explained in HuffPost, much of the pain in hypermobility comes from muscles and fascia doing the stabilizing work — tissue that standard imaging isn’t designed to show. Our Fascial Mapping® ultrasound exam is built to see it.

Do I need an EDS diagnosis to come in?

No. We evaluate and treat the full spectrum — generalized hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD), and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. You don’t need a label to start; a proper evaluation is often how the picture becomes clear.

Where are you located, and do you see out-of-town patients?

We’re in Beverly Hills at 415 North Crescent Drive, Suite 130, serving Los Angeles, and we have a flagship clinic in New Orleans. Patients fly in from around the world. California residents can also start with a telehealth consult; hands-on steps like Fascial Mapping® are done in-clinic.

Find answers with a hypermobility specialist in Los Angeles

If the signs above sound familiar — and your scans keep coming back normal — there is a clearer path. Book an evaluation at our Beverly Hills clinic.

Book an Evaluation
Call (424) 378-3488

The Fascia Institute and Treatment Center® of LA · 415 North Crescent Drive, Suite 130, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 · See pricing

Across the Fascia Institute Network

One team, coast to coast, all focused on hypermobility and fascia.

New Orleans (flagship): The Fascia Institute · Hypermobility Clinic New Orleans · Dr. Jacques Courseault: research & media
Dedicated EDS clinic: Hypermobility & Ehlers-Danlos Clinic · EDS 101 · EDS Blog

References

  1. Smith TO, et al. Do people with benign joint hypermobility syndrome have reduced joint proprioception? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Rheumatol Int. 2013;33(11):2709-16. PMID: 23728275.
  2. Malhotra A, et al. Headaches in hypermobility syndromes: A pain in the neck? Am J Med Genet A. 2020;182(12):2902-2908. PMID: 32940405.
  3. Courseault J, et al. Fascial hydrodissection for chronic hamstring injury. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2019;18(11):416-420. PMID: 31702723.
  4. Courseault J, et al. Folate-dependent hypermobility syndrome: A proposed mechanism and diagnosis. Heliyon. 2023;9(4):e15387. PMID: 37095957.
  5. Engelbert RHH, et al. The evidence-based rationale for physical therapy treatment of children, adolescents, and adults diagnosed with joint hypermobility syndrome/hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Am J Med Genet C. 2017;175(1):158-167. PMID: 28306230.

This article is for general education and is not medical advice. It does not establish a doctor-patient relationship, and it is not a promise of any particular result. Hypermobility and its related conditions vary widely from person to person — please consult a qualified clinician about your individual situation. If you have chest pain, fainting, or other urgent symptoms, seek emergency care.