Originally published June 5 2005
Chronic pain afflicting more Americans; remedies in development
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to a recent USA TODAY/ABC News/Stanford University Medical Center poll, almost one in five Americans suffer from chronic pain. Some pain experts feel the problem is as big, if not bigger, than any other chronic disease, including cancer. The Journal of the American Medical Association calculates the cost of chronic pain to worker productivity in the US to be roughly $100 billion when all factors are included. Another problem comes in the form of lack of pain. Pain is the body's way of warning us of damage to ourselves, so patients who develop conditions that turn off this response, such as congenital insensitivity to pain, rarely live past middle age. The family of one patient, Gabby Gingras, 4, have created "The Gift of Pain," a foundation to help families of congenital insensitivity to pain victims. Although pain medicine is not a recognized specialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties -- causing some to say the perpetuation of chronic pain is from a lack of understanding and education among the majority of medical professionals -- Congress named this decade the Decade of Pain Control and Research, and many new treatments have surfaced. Among them are spine stimulators, implanted pumps and alternative therapies, including acupuncture. Also, new drugs have been developed such as Lidocaine patches, Cymbalta and Prialt, the latter drug only working on 50 percent of the patients who take it. Scott Fishman, chief of pain medicine at the University of California-Davis, says doctors should get back to their roots: Cure what you can, relieve suffering always.
Mary Vargas spent her last pain-free moments driving down a country road to visit a Connecticut flower farm.
The injury transformed her into one of millions of Americans tormented by chronic pain.
A new USA TODAY/ABC News/Stanford University Medical Center poll indicates that 19% of American adults --- almost 1 in 5 --- say they suffer from chronic pain; 44% have acute, or short-term, pain.
Half of the 1,204 respondents cite the source of their discomfort as a medical injury or condition such as joint pain, heart disease or cancer.
"Many people in severe pain from terminal illness fear their pain more than they fear death," says Scott Fishman, chief of pain medicine at the University of California-Davis.
The American Board of Pain Medicine has taken the lead in educating and credentialing pain medicine specialists.
That's about one pain specialist for every 23,500 people who need care.
With specialists so rare, many pain patients are cared for by doctors who lack training and experience in the appropriate use of a range of pain therapies, among them drugs, spine stimulators and implanted pumps, and alternative therapies, including acupuncture.
He recommended that she allow surgeons to implant a spinal cord stimulator, an electrical device that sends a signal to electrodes at a point above the damaged nerve and interferes with transmission of the pain signal.
"I was on a number of medications, but after we got the stimulator working, I was able to drop all but one," says Vargas, who still takes a narcotic called fentanyl.
If you prick your finger on a rosebush, nerves carry signals to the brain, the brain pinpoints the location of the injury and sounds an alarm to pull back to prevent further damage.
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