Everyday pain management ideas

Hyperbaric oxygen chambers have been used therapeutically for many years. Best known to most of us as decompression therapy for scuba divers, hyperbaric oxygen is also used for a number of other conditions including carbon monoxide poisoning, wound healing, and radiation burns.  Now, it appears that this treatment may also prove useful for patients with fibromyalgia. And that is exciting news indeed! A small scale study of about 48 women with fibromyalgia preliminarily revealed just that. After two months of this form of treatment, seventy percent of subjects showed significant symptomatic improvement, along with improved brain function.  They were almost indistinguishable from their non fibromyalgia counterparts following treatment, according to one expert. The study findings were reported in the June 2015 edition of PLOS One.  You can read further about this promising research by clicking here . One thing to point out before you get too excited about finding this sort o

The Zika virus has been all over the news lately; nearly a million persons in Brazil have been infected. In addition, may people in Central and South American have become ill due to this mosquito borne virus. Approximately one in five persons who contracts Zika virus will become ill. Symptoms include joint pain, fever, conjunctivitis, and rash.  These symptoms seem to last for about a week, and then go away. Some symptoms of Zika virus closely resemble Dengue fever and Chikungunya. As a matter of fact, all three of these viruses have been known to be carried by the same  variety of mosquitoes! This virus was first identified in Americans sometime around 2007; those who were infected initially contracted the illness due to travel.  However, at this point in time, infected mosquitoes are commonplace in the US. Cases of Zika virus are on the rise here in the states.   While NSAIDs including aspirin and ibuprofen are effective in relief of virus associated joint pain a

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently announced an updated policy with regard to pain management in newborn babies.  Interestingly, they are saying that  painkilling drugs should be a choice of last resort, and that advance planning is key to pain management in a given situation. Instead of medications, the AAP is strongly advising that sensory stimulation should be used to help infants deal with pain.  This would include the use of breastfeeding, skin-to-skin contact, and /or visual, or auditory stimulation.  Gustatory stimulation-- i.e.,the use of aromas-- can also be employed. The AAP goes on to say that administration of glucose/sucrose can be used during individual procedures, but does not recommend it as a continuous method of pain control. These sugars, when used as such, are considered medications, and appropriate monitoring parameters should be in place. Data suggests that opioids, such as morphine, have limited favorable effect. Physicians should be s

Anyone with chronic pain has good days and bad days. They all know that sometimes a bad day can be triggered by changes in weather, diet, activity, and the like.  That's why a pain diary can be a very important tool in the management of a chronic pain condition.  It doesn't cost much money to use this tool, and anyone who is able to read and write can make use of it.  Alternatively, caregivers can keep pain diaries for those in their care. By keeping track of day to day life, chronic pain patients can identify the relationship between painful flare-ups and potential causes of those flare-ups.  By identifying these patterns, a person can learn how to predict problems in advance, and and how to best manage the situation . Additionally, this information can also be shared with health care providers during medical visits. What should be recorded in a pain diary?  The following elements are key: Time and date Recent activities, weather patterns, foods, and possible

A lesser known condition related to rheumatoid arthritis is scleroderma.  It is also an autoimmune disorder that afflicts some 300,000 Americans.  The name "scleroderma" comes from the Greek language and it can be literally translated as "hard skin." Persons who are afflicted with this disorder experience local or systemic hardening of the connective tissues.  It is a chronic disorder and over time can become life threatening. A human finger affected by scleroderma In similar fashion to rheumatoid arthritis, the joints may be affected, as well as internal organs. This can be painful, and that aspect of scleroderma is the topic for today's post.   Persons with scleroderma experience joint stiffness , especially in the morning, and it is common in the hands.  The hands may feel "puffy" as part of the reason for the stiffness is accumulation of fluid that seems to improve over the waking part of the day.  Unfortunately, medica

If you look around this blog, you will clearly see that I believe opioid medications should NOT be a first line treatment for chronic pain conditions.  Today I would like to raise a few points as to why I think this is the case.  I know there are many people who use this form of therapy for chronic pain and who would refute my arguments. Perhaps for them this post is too little, too late. But for those of you who are contemplating various treatment modalities, here is what I'd have to say... During the 1990's physicians believed that patients using opioid medications for pain would not have problems of addiction if they took medications as prescribed.  In the years that have passed since then, we have learned that this is not really the case.   Addiction can develop very rapidly. According to the Cleveland Clinic, there are 15,000 to 18,000 deaths per year in the U.S. due to overdoses. There are also a number of side effects associated with opioid usage, including

Most of us know someone who has rheumatoid arthritis (RA). And while we are all familiar with the disfiguration and disability it can cause, we don't think about it being a fatal disease.  The recent death of the Eagle's Glenn Frey brings this issue front and center.  His death was apparently due to rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia.  That brought me to thinking that this is an appropriate time to raise this issue. First off, while many of my posts are about complementary and alternative medicine...my main reason for sharing these is to help people to understand that opioid therapy should be a last resort rather then a first line therapy.  Rheumatoid arthritis is really a systemic disease, and while many of the posts I share can be of help, they should not be used as stand alone treatments for this particular condition.  Early medical intervention is key to getting RA under control before too much damage is done. I shared a post earlier on in my blog