Category: Chronic Pain

Mind Over Matter

Mind Over Matter

While plenty of drugs are available to mask chronic pain, they often come with side effects. But science is beginning to understand the mind–body connection and what patients can do to control pain. Check...

Headache Relief

Headache Relief

There’s nothing like getting slammed with a headache to bring your day to a standstill. But whether the pain is from sinuses, medication, tension, migraines, or cluster headaches, there are steps you can take...

Neck Pain

Neck Pain

As many as one in five people suffer from neck pain in a given year, and it’s generally higher among women. So what can you do about it? A new study in the journal...

Heading off Headaches

Heading off Headaches

90% of the population complains of a cranial twinge at least once a year. And while most headaches likely stem from lack of sleep, stress, dehydration, or certain foods, they may derive from less–than–benign...

Unexpected Migraine Relief

Unexpected Migraine Relief

Tell me about this surgery. How did you find that plastic surgery could help people with migraines? How did that all come about? Dr. Guyuron: This is merely coincidence. It was based on facts...

Shocking Pain Relief

Shocking Pain Relief

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy is a complex name for an easy-to-understand problem: severe pain that will not go away. Treatments for the disorder range from acupuncture to medicine to surgery. We’ll tell you about another...

Improving Pain Management

Improving Pain Management

There’s a problem coming to the forefront of the healthcare community. Some 50 million Americans suffer with pain, yet only about 60 percent say they get adequate relief. While that may be due, in...

Are Weekend Migraines a Myth?

Are Weekend Migraines a Myth?

Some people experience weekend migraines; experts theorize this phenomenon may be due in part to changes in sleep and diet patterns, stress levels, and caffeine. But some studies suggest it’s a myth — and...

Pain-relief primer

Pain-relief primer

YOU’VE GOT a headache. Or you twisted your ankle. Perhaps you’re feverish. Different pains and ailments require different treatments. However, choosing the right painkiller off the shelf can be a headache-inspiring experience of its...

A Pain in the Neck

A Pain in the Neck

Your neck has a big job to do, supporting the weight of your head through a wide range of motion during everyday activity — and inactivity. Almost everyone experiences neck pain at some point....

Shoulder Therapy

Shoulder Therapy

A Norweigan approach to healing an injured shoulder has become the preferred treatment at a hospital in the American southwest. Alphonse had shoulder pain: “I couldn’t hardly move the left arm at all. I...

Chronic Pain Drugs

Chronic Pain Drugs

Six to 10 million Americans — most of them women — spend every waking moment in pain. Their condition known as fibromyalgia has been difficult to treat because its exact cause is unknown. Two...

Is It Life or Fibromyalgia?

Is It Life or Fibromyalgia?

Almost everyone experiences occasional aches, pains, and fatigue. But if such symptoms increase in frequency or severity, or are accompanied by other indicators, they could point to a chronic illness such as fibromyalgia. One...

Types of Headaches

Types of Headaches

What is a migraine? A true migraine headache is one-sided, pounding, aching and can cause nausea and vomiting. Patients with migraine usually avoid bright lights, which we call photophobia, and avoid sound, which we...

Time to Treat Global Chronic Disease

Time to Treat Global Chronic Disease

Experts are calling for global health-system reforms. They say the rising global burden of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, needs a coordinated effort from policy makers, advocates and health professionals....

Migraine Relief

Migraine Relief

Some 23 million Americans suffer from migraines. They can be disabling and not easily cured. A approved drug may provide relief. A mother of four, Sharon suffered from migraine headaches for 18 years. “I...

Fibromyalgia Pain Relief

Fibromyalgia Pain Relief

Fibromyalgia affects about 6 million Americans, most of them women. For many, the pain can be unbearable. Treatments vary from person to person, and some find no relief with treatments currently available. Now a...

Your Pain Tolerance

Your Pain Tolerance

Childbirth. Menstrual cramps. Migraines. If you were born with XX chromosomes, you’re probably well acquainted with all kinds of discomfort. Women are more likely to suffer chronic pain than men are, thanks in part...

Taming Bladder Pain Q&A

Taming Bladder Pain Q&A

You said you had about 350 patients who suffer from interstitial cystitis. So this isn’t really a rare disorder, but is it difficult to diagnose? Dr. Hurm: It really is difficult to diagnose for...

Essential moves to relieve lower back pain

Essential moves to relieve lower back pain

Most of us will have low back pain at some point. Yet low back pain is one of the least understood conditions. It’s so misunderstood that surgeons, chiropractors, pain doctors and osteopaths often disagree...

Relief for Chronic Back Pain

Relief for Chronic Back Pain

Chronic back pain brings more people to the doctor’s office than anything else except the common cold. Several kinds of treatments are available: traction, massage and even acupuncture. Now there’s a new procedure that...

Headache Management

Headache Management

This is a class of chronic headache sufferers. They are learning how to prevent migraines. Sherry Gaunt, migraine sufferer: “They are so bad that you hurt and you say ‘Make it stop.’” Sherry hopes...

Long-term Relief for Back Pain

Long-term Relief for Back Pain

Researchers say heat may provide long-term relief for one of the nation’s biggest complaints, lower back pain. The application of heat to a sore back has been known to provide temporary relief, but now...

Chronic Pain And The Mind/Body Connection

Chronic Pain And The Mind/Body Connection

Pain, depression, anxiety, and insomnia are intimately connected. Patients have found that making behavioral changes to support a healthier lifestyle can dramatically reduce their pain and improve their mood. Changes in diet that result...

Treatment of Chronic Pain

Treatment of Chronic Pain

PAIN RELIEF WITH ANESTHESIA NERVE BLOCKS can relieve pain by stopping the impulses that travel along nerves in the body. The physician injects a local anesthetic along the course of the nerve or nerves...

Drug Treatment For Chronic Pain

Drug Treatment For Chronic Pain

Medication is the most common choice of treatment for chronic pain in the United States. Drugs treat the symptoms rather than the cause of pain, and therefore offer a short-term solution. Side effects, drug...

Easing Back Pain

Easing Back Pain

Botox, a drug based on the bacteria that causes food poisoning, may be useful in easing low back pain, say researchers. Researchers from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., studied 31...