I did a Google search for ‘meditation and pain management’ and got about 500,000 results. In itself this doesn’t really prove that meditation works but it shows a huge interest. A search for ‘magnet therapy for pain’ yielded over 130,000 … Continue reading →
Using drugs is like using doctors. When done correctly, you can benefit, sometimes greatly. Done poorly, you’ll just add to your problems. Be rational. Act wisely. At the beginning of this series, I listed 3 questions I ask myself about … Continue reading →
If you want to be a carpenter, you’d better learn how to use a hammer and saw. If you’re going to be a doctor, pharmacist, nurse, naturopath or other health care provider, you’d better learn how to prescribe, dispense or … Continue reading →
Please forgive me for paraphrasing the title of an article about drug use published in the humor magazine the National Lampoon more than 30 years ago. I couldn’t resist the temptation. Opioids are a class of drugs that are either … Continue reading →
What if there was a drug that could completely relieve your pain but carried a 1 in a hundred thousand chance of killing you? Would you try it? What if the chances of death were 1 in a million or … Continue reading →
There are really only two main ways to determine if a drug does what it is supposed to do. One way is to give the drug to people and observe what happens. This method has been used for as long … Continue reading →
I’ve already defined as a drug, anything you swallow, inject, inhale or absorb through body tissue to modify some mental or physical function. (See Drug Therapy). Drugs work at the molecular level. Regardless of whether a drug has been synthesized … Continue reading →
The very word drug, immediately conjures a multitude of connotations that reflect our many views of the pharmaceutical and herbal substances we ingest. We characterize drugs as hard, soft, performance enhancing, mind expanding, toxic, synthetic, natural, addictive, dangerous and miraculous. … Continue reading →
The ideal chronic pain physician is the one who satisfies all your needs and wants with respect to your chronic pain. However, doctors are trained to manage problems, not satisfy needs and wants. Therefore you need to see that there … Continue reading →
You have been referred to a doctor for your chronic pain. Chances are that this is not the first time you’ve been referred for the same problem. What you can bring to the appointment that can help you get the … Continue reading →
If you understand how doctors think about illness and pain you will be better equipped to use them to your benefit. In general, doctors are trained to gather information from which to draw a conclusion that guides an action. The … Continue reading →
There is a saying in medicine that those who specialize learn more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing. As medical knowledge has increased so too has specialization. It is impossible for any one human … Continue reading →
Although a necessary requirement for using doctors is to start mastering yourself, it is just as important to understand who and what you may have to deal with when seeking help for your pain. The first and perhaps most surprising … Continue reading →
So far in this series, the focus has been on what people with pain should be doing for themselves to help them take charge of themselves. In this post, the emphasis is on how rather than what. There are many … Continue reading →
In order to use doctors and by extension the entire health care system including private insurers, you need to be able control yourself. If you have little or no control over yourself how can you possibly expect to influence others? … Continue reading →
It is not fair that you have chronic pain. Our health care system isn’t equipped to provide you with optimal care. Your insurer, compensation board, employer, friends or family may not understand what it is like for you. Even the … Continue reading →
Everyone with health related problems can use a doctor as an ally. This is especially true for people with chronic pain. At their best, doctors can provide good management, appropriate referral, emotional support and advocacy. But chronic pain patients are … Continue reading →
Let me summarize this series: the neurological and physiological changes caused by pain and fear bond them together. Fear and pain magnify each other. The fear of pain leads to avoidance of activity that is self-reinforcing. So-called pain behavior and … Continue reading →
In our pain group sessions there are sometimes people who can barely participate or who say they cannot sit or stand with biomechanically correct posture because of pain. Although the postures we teach are those that put the least amount … Continue reading →
Drugs, injections and even surgery can be used to directly attack the pain side of the pain-fear equation and should therefore not be ignored despite their potential for short or long term side effects. In fact any treatment that can … Continue reading →