Archives of Posts

I am part of a documentary titled “Who is Luigi Mangione?” It will air this coming Monday evening, February 17th, at 8 pm ET on HBO Max. Many of you have heard about the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO ... Read More

Holding your hand over a hot burner triggers an immediate threat response (anxiety) and prompts action to address that threat. This sequence is part of the protective pain response known as the nociceptive pain system. Numerous danger cues activate this ... Read More

 Humanity Won’t Survive Without Engaging its Thinking Brain No Action in a Reaction The Human Survival Paradox Consider a time long ago when survival required outrunning predators or gathering enough food to last through the day. For our early ancestors, ... Read More

A friend of mine asked me for an opinion a couple of years ago about his back. I was giving him advice as a friend, not as a surgeon. He was having some pain and numbness down the side of ... Read More

This article was written by my close friend, DR Clawson. He is a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation, with whom I have collaborated for over 30 years. He is an exceptionally thorough and thoughtful colleague and has been ... Read More

Hope is healing An important aspect of healing is regaining hope and optimism. When you are trapped without any hint of a solution, the darkness you feel is impossible to put it into words. It is inevitable that you will ... Read More

Dr. Doug Garland writes this post with some contributions by me. He is an orthopedic surgeon who was one of my mentors during my second year of orthopedic residency. Although I trained in Honolulu, HI, one of my rotations was ... Read More

There was a front-page story in the NY Times about the shooting of the CEO of United Healthcare. The suspect came from privilege and had a bright future. Unfortunately, he suffered from chronic LBP and did not improve with a ... Read More

Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with Advice from a Surgeon considers all factors affecting your perception of pain and organizes them into a treatment grid that allows you to make a good decision regarding having spine surgery ... Read More

My mission falls into two broad categories. Connect mainstream medicine with existing science – most symptoms, illness and disease  are created by the body’s physiology (how it functions), and not structures. Establish the necessity of a trusting dynamic relationship with ... Read More

Objectives Processing anger is more doable if it is broken down into its components. Anger is a powerful, necessary, and hard wired survival reflex. You cannot tame it with the conscious brain. It is an acquired skill that requires ongoing ... Read More

A new, data-based dynamic approach is needed for medicine to successfully deal with our epidemic of chronic disease. It must acknowledge the interaction between circumstances and your body’s capacity to process them, which determines the makeup of your body’s neurochemistry ... Read More

The COVID-19 virus is a member of the Corona virus family that usually just causes the common cold. The problem is that we now have a strain that is potentially fatal. However, there are some strong hints of how to ... Read More

The burden of chronic disease is crushing us while we have the answers right in front of us. A recent summary reported that the total cost of chronic disease in the US is 3.7 trillion dollars a year, which is ... Read More

The DOC (Direct your Own Care) Journey is a collection of resources that reflect the ones many people have used to escape from the grip of chronic mental and physical pain, It includes: A guided course of seven legs and ... Read More

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) is highly regarded international society committed to research and education about pain. It was founded by one of the most prominent pioneers in pain, Dr. John Bonica. Conceptualizing pain What is ... Read More

This is a river rock that I painted with the ocean scene to express “The healing journey is not linear!” There are highs and lows like the waves and the tides, progress and struggle but it’s all part of the ... Read More

Poem by Susan Angelis Photo by Susan Angelis October 29, 2023 The Walk Home The walk home from Sunday church. Walking the same path. Slightly different views each Sunday. Observing, appreciating the wondrous creations of nature. Looking beyond the iron ... Read More

This is a piece sent to me through the expressive arts gallery. My arms reach upward as the mind and hair are disintegrating, reaching through burning into the light. Grounded in the earth, I dance. My heart lifts up, surrendering ... Read More

Julie Graber, 2017: July 2016, a Mal de Debarquement. Rocking, Bobbing, Swaying … 24×7 … circling in a counter-clockwise direction. Painted in the middle of one night when something under my rib cage felt like it was trying to flip ... Read More

Julie Graber, 2016: a chronic neurological disorder after 8-day river cruise Prague to Budapest, Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS), for which “there is no cure”; rocking, bobbing, swaying like on a paddle board in the middle of Lake Michigan on ... Read More

A deep and overwhelming feeling of helplessness became anger (which usually comes out to somehow rescue me..)..So that’s what I tried to express in this painting. My commentary This is an interesting piece in that anger does rescue us from ... Read More

Painted in 1971 by Gabrielle Schang and Babs Yohai. Dancing through the ring of fire. Dancing through the ring of fire. Related posts: “The Cup Song” Spastic Bladder Resolved – Being with Anger Six Feet Apart Navigating the Entire Circle ... Read More

A great life isn’t just about waiting for the storm to pass, It’s about learning to dance in the rain. Related posts: When I Dance – Omega 2019 Anger and Anxiety–Highway to Hell Staying in the Storm Physical versus Emotional ... Read More

Many people suffering from chronic pain are socially isolated. When you are trapped in pain you have a difficult time reaching out. Others do not necessarily want to interact with angry people. The problem becomes greatly magnified in that it ... Read More

Gail is a woman who has been working with the DOC Journey concepts for almost a year. She had been suffering from multiple symptoms for over five years and they increased over the year prior to starting the process. She ... Read More

Patient’s Letter Hi Dr Hanscom, I have been meaning to check in with you for a while now and let you know that the DOC program seems to have worked for me. My lower back & leg pain has disappeared ... Read More

I met Dana a few years ago after she had undergone two low back surgeries and was still experiencing a lot of pain. She engaged in the healing journey, and it was not an easy road. However, she was persistent, ... Read More

Ringing in your ears, regardless of its intensity, is annoying. Actually, it is more than annoying; it is relentless and wears you down. It is a relatively common problem(1), numerous resources have been directed towards trying to definitively solve it, ... Read More

This is a letter I recently received from a young woman with interstitial cystitis or spastic bladder. It is a common condition that creates a lot of misery. I don’t have much experience treating patients with this problem, but it’s ... Read More

About three years ago, my staff noticed that our surgical patients who participated in The DOC Journey principles were doing much better. The outcomes were more consistent, and we were seeing fewer failures. The postoperative pain was more easily controlled ... Read More

Essentially every person that has experienced deep healing has learned to process anger and nurture joy. It is much more than an intellectual exercise and deeper than “acceptance.” You don’t have to like the person or situation that harmed you ... Read More