Prayer Makes A Difference

I haven't stressed the importance of spirituality in this blog enough...mostly because I don't want to "push" religion on anyone who doesn't think it's useful. But today, I AM going to talk about religion and how it can have a positive impact on one's life.

The Journal of the American Medical Association- Psychiatry recently published a study of the association between religious service attendance and suicide risk for women in the US. This study examined 89,708 US women aged 30 to 55 years during the late 1990s through 2010. The study concluded that the women under study were 5 times less likely to commit suicide if they attended church services at least once per week. The correlation was strongest amongst those of the Catholic faith.

This is an important finding for those who suffer from chronic pain because anxiety and depression are often comorbid conditions in chronic pain patients. In modern society many people have fallen away from practicing any kind of religion and as such have lost access to the mental health benefits that religious practices have to offer. I don't know about you but for me this is serious food for thought!

You can read the study abstract in entirety by clicking here.

Sources: JAMA Psychiatry; Wikimedia

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Living with Chronic pain hits the big screen!

Been to the movies lately? Jennifer Aniston is on the big screen in a recent release titled "Cake." Her character, Claire is a victim of chronic pain...she belongs to a support group, where all of the members are coming to terms with the suicide of one of their members. Of course, she also takes pain medication and addiction is another of her problems...and of course there's more! I guess I am writing this post just to bring readers' attention to the fact that Hollywood has become aware of the crisis that is chronic pain. This movie is a testament to that. People that don't have to live with this kind of pain don't fully understand the whole story. Maybe this movie will shed some light on the issues. Here is the official trailer for the movie: Sources: prweb;NorthJersey.com;YouTube

The Multimodal Approach to Pain Management

OK..so if you've been following this blog you will notice that there are a good number of ideas to help manage chronic pain. You might ask yourself, "Which one of these ideas is best for me ?" I would suggest that you might try any number of these things, depending on your level of ability/disability, health care team recommendations, and your personal interests. There are a number of reasons for doing this: 1) The patient is in control..with few exceptions, it is your decision what to try/not try and how many different things you want to experiment with at any time. 2) Non drug pain management ideas do not have any of the drug interactions or side effects that medications have. You may have to set limits or modify activity according to personal circumstances, but usually it does not hurt to try any of them. 3)You usually do not need a prescription for most of the ideas I have described. There are a few exceptions, such as physical therapy. There ...

Beware Of The Tick!

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Everyday pain management ideas

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