If pain is not a mystery, why are you reading this? I know we live in an age of medical wonders. We transplant organs and make artificial joints. Technology allows us see inside the body with MRI, CT and other forms of scanning. We can make drugs that can keep people alive and well for years longer than their disease would have otherwise allowed.

But your back still hurts preventing you from going back to work. Or maybe you have crippling headaches that drugs can barely touch. Perhaps it’s the strange pain in your arm or leg that stops you from doing things. For all the wonders of modern medicine, the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine and the purity of natural/holistic therapies you still have chronic pain that just won’t go away.

This should make it fairly obvious that no one knows enough about pain to be able to control it really well, let alone stop chronic pain altogether. Most of the patients I’ve seen over the years tried all kinds of treatment but still wound up in my office.

A big part of the problem with pain management is that the current level of ignorance allows the careless and the charlatans to thrive. It may lead the well meaning down futile paths. The reality is that there is no cure and despite all of the treatments out there, too many people still struggle with pain daily. If you meet caregivers who claim to know all about pain – well – they don’t.

I would suggest you seek help elsewhere.