Everyday pain management ideas

When children have fibromyalgia, it hurts.  It really hurts.  And from what research on this topic suggests, the pain continues for years, sometimes lasting into adulthood. Traditional thinking would suggest that there must be some kind of medication to help these kids get their life back.  But in reality, that's not the case! Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (known affectionately as CHOP) have come to realize a different approach to this problem.  Their treatment protocol consists of a combination of physical and occupational therapy.  They also discontinue all pain and sleeping medications that the patient may have been prescribed prior to coming to CHOP. The researchers followed 64 children in this program.  All of the subjects suffered from fibromyalgia for about 2 years prior to beginning treatment at CHOP. At the start of the study, the average pain rating for the group was 7.1 on the 1 to 10 scale.  A few weeks into the program, the average pai

Much attention has been given to fibromyalgia in recent years. Much has been learned, but there is still much to learn!  For one thing, ninety percent  of fibromyalgia patients are women.  We know more about this group of patients simply because there are a lot more of them to study.  But men can be diagnosed with fibromyalgia as well--and even though there are many similar disease characteristics, there are also some striking differences. First of all, men are affected by fibromyalgia differently because of the hormonal differences between men and women.  In women, disease flare can be associated with the menstrual cycle. For males, this is not a  problem.  On the other hand, the primary male hormone testosterone benefits males because it is thought to play a beneficial role in general when it comes to pain. The hormone cortisol also appears to be involved; here again, it appears that women are more greatly affected than their male counterparts. The neurotransmitter serotonin

As I sit down to write this post, the US population stands at almost 322 million persons. There is one birth approximately every 8 seconds, and one death approximately every 13 seconds. One new international migrant enters this country every 32 seconds. That means the US population increases by 1 person every 12 seconds.   I started to wonder...how many persons in our country actually suffer from some form of chronic pain?  There is not a clear cut answer; the biggest reason for that what is actually considered to be chronic pain. I know there are a lot of people out there, and I've rattled of a lot of statistics from various sources when writing for this blog... but what are the real numbers??? Back in 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a report entitled " Relieving Pain in America ." This landmark study suggested that there were over 100 million persons in this country who suffer from persistent or severe chronic pain.  This would mean that

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a severe and disabling autoimmune disease.  Most treatment strategies in current use attempt to get the disease under control as early as possible to slow progression and minimize disease flare-ups.  There is no real way to prevent this condition, and those afflicted usually have problems over many years... Then again, maybe some hope for these folks is on the horizon...a five year study of Mexican RA patients and their families has attempted to find a way to predict the disease.  Over the course of the study, the patients and the relatives who agreed to be test subjects were studied periodically for the development of specific auto-antibodies that predict future development of RA.  The goal is to find those who are at high risk for disease development and begin treatment as early as possible. In this way, it is hoped that the damaging effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis can be slowed/minimized from the get-go. Dr. Sanjay Gupta presented this informa

These days, it seems everyone knows a family who has a child with autism or an autism spectrum disorder.  The cause of the autism family of disorders is perplexing; researchers have been looking at the problem from many angles in an effort to determine what really causes the problem.  Many of us have heard that vaccines can be a cause...I think the jury is still out on that one.  That being said, other potential causes have been explored as well. A Canadian study that I recently read about followed 719 children whose mothers had Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and compared them to  8,493 mothers in a control group.  They found that the risk of autism spectrum disorder compared to the control group was 2:1. The SLE birth mothers also gave birth to more children with other neurodevelopmental disorders,  and had a tendency to give birth to more preterm babies than non-lupus counterparts.  The children of SLE mothers were  also diagnosed with autism disorders at an earlier a

Type II diabetes is commonly referred to as "non-insulin dependent diabetes." There are a host of oral and injectable medications that are usually the first line of treatment for someone with this condition.  Usually the very first medication that is used is metformin; after some period of time, the patient is re-evaluated and other medications may be added to the first medication if needed. One of the newer classes of medications for type II diabetes is the DPP-4 inhibitors. This class includes the following products: Image source: FDA.gov The FDA has come out with a warning in the last month or so regarding this class of drugs. It is relevant to this blog because they warning states that these drugs may cause severe joint pain in patients who are taking them. The onset of pain in those who reported it began anywhere from 1 day to 1 year after therapy was initiated. If you are a patient who is taking one of these products, it is recommended that you con

As I was having a conversation with someone who recently fell on some hard times, something very important occurred to me.  This person recently lost their job; during our conversation I learned that they were very upset. Basically they felt that they had done a lot for the employer and got a hosing in return. My husband and I had a conversation about this afterward. During the time of employment, this individual was subject to periodic layoffs due to lack of work. The employer offered an education program for the employees to attend whether they were laid of or not.  They employer paid for health care premiums for those laid off as long as they attended the educational program.  With respect to my friend, this pattern continued over a couple of years... Why did my friend not see the positives here?  It was difficult for me  comprehend that he could not see that his employer was actually pretty generous in many ways.  My friend did not seem grateful for the opportunity for  a