in the latest Newsweek magazine. Both acute and chronic pain are discussed. Because of the Iraq war, pain is a hot research topic now and the article reports new findings. There are currently no treatments for chronic pain that are totally safe and effective, but there are many helpful treatments and approaches discussed in the article.

The article is too long to quote here. The link to an online copy is http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18881802/site/newsweek/ .

Feel free to share this in any forum you think appropriate.

From the old Brain days......that is a great article. You know.....as we age, it really is tough. As a child...and even a young adult...I felt invincible. I never had any pains...oh..the occasional shin splints from running 15 miles...or the muscle pull from over exertion...but now.....the mysterious aches and pains that are so overwhelming.....each day is a struggle. The pills...the doctors....the feedback....there is no magic pill...no brass ring. It is what it is.....in the 1800's we all were dead by 60, so these issues never really took over...but the aging baby boomers are experiencing so many aches and pains. Anyway...I always have enjoyed your posts...they have been definitive and right on the money.

Thanks David,
This was very interesting and stirs hope.

I'm passing this one along. It taught me some things about pain too.
Billye

Wow! That was a very enlightening article. Thanks for posting that!

Pity it's taking a war to get anyone try to define pain tho... - j

Having severe FM for 23 yrs and now RSD I truly appreciate the article. FM 23 yrs ago was almost unheard of - even at top teaching hospitals. They may have heard of it but had no ideas how to really treat it. Only certain drs at those hospitals knew and you were luck to get to them.
thanks,
Sydney

circuits click ON they forget how to click OFF? There have been times I've really considered pain-blocks to give me a break, but the nerves are the ones that can be blocked effectively...SIGH! - j

I'm toying with the idea of adding a small amount of anticonvulsant drugs to my daily pile of supplements. Maybe something like 100 mg. of Neurontin twice a day would be about right.

Neurontin alone wouldn't be healing, but in combination with all the supplements I take, diet, exercise, happy thinking, etc., it might tip the balance enough to calm the hyper excited brain receptor areas and end the chronic PN pain I've lived with for 14 years now.

I've got to think this through more before actually asking my doctors.

Part of the problem in defining pain is that we all feel pain differently. A type or level of pain that might drive me crazy may be barely felt by you. In nursing school they couldn't pound it in hard enough: Never ever judge a person's pain. If they say they're in pain, they are. As to how bad that pain is, falls under what I stated above; we all feel pain differently. The rating scale still in use, 1-10 usually, is actually very effective for rating pain. Chronic pain, too, can range from 1-10, varying on different days. What seems to befuddle doctors is when we have a pain that they can't point to a specific injury as a cause. For someone like me where they haven't found an underlying illness I'm sure they wonder how much of it is just in my head. I'd like to, for just one of my worse nights, let them experience the pain and discomfort I deal with. *Then* they would 'get' it. I hate it when the doctor acts like I'm simply imagining the pain. "Oh, you can't be feeling that. There's no physical reason for you to be feeling pain." Yeah, right. Tell it to my feet.

I had three doctors in 1993-5 tell me there was nothing wrong with my feet. The skin color was good and I had a good pulse in both feet. One offered tranquilizers and a referral to a psychiatrist. None did a neurological screening.

I finally got a referral to a neurologist who gave it a name but no treatment and no hope. Naming it meant a lot to me and my wife. The pain was incredible and debilitating back then...from running and backpacking to hobbling in a month with all the fear and unknowns. At its worst, I had no ankle reflex in my right foot and only 25% in my left, really bad balance, and little proprioceptive feedback from my leg muscles. Five years of yoga really helped the reflexes, balance, and muscle sense.

Now we know that chronic pain IS in your head, but not like those arrogant and incompetent docs meant it back then. The issue is, what to do about it. I'm doing much better now with the program at http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...p?t=177&page=2 (items #18, 19, 20) but am still in pain, even though I walk or hike daily without a limp.

I'm lucky and know it. Reading postings like dahlek's breaks my heart.
With generalized autoimmune syndrome, steroids and drugs like methaltrexate (sp?) can only help to a degree before the side effects become life threatening. Good diet, fish oil and other supplements, and exercise through the pain might help and wouldn't hurt. I hope dahlek reads the linked program and gets some ideas that help.

Y'all have a great day with renewed hope and energy. We all care about each other here. If wished were cures, we'd all be feeling fine and be older, wiser, and happier for the PN experience.