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 approximately 19.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. (1) … 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 pain? We toss the word around a lot without really … Read More
Every living creature on this planet survives by processing sensory input from all of the body’s different sensors and automatically causes you to behave in a manner that keeps you safe. Secondarily, they are motivated to seek reward to allow the body to regenerate and propagate the species. Humans at … Read More
One reason that chronic pain, mental or physical is consistently solvable is the brain’s property of neuroplasticity. Your brain physically constantly changes based on the nature of the sensory input. Every second, neurons, glial cells, and intracellular connections are formed and destroyed. These changes occur based on blood flow, metabolism … Read More
Humans survive on this planet by the brain receiving ongoing sensory input from the environment and interpreting it as safe, neutral or unsafe. You will act accordingly to live another day. For pain, the brain “switch” has to be on in order to feel it. Acute pain is protective and … Read More
Modern medicine has the capacity to halt this pandemic now. COVID-19 is a complex problem affecting the immune, metabolic, endocrine, nervous system, and the inflammatory response. The end result is death when there is severe tissue destruction. To solve the problem, every aspect of it must be systematically and simultaneously … Read More
I developed the DOC (Direct your Own Care) program after discovering that by providing a systematic approach to dealing with all aspects of a pain problem, I could almost always help patients become more functional. But more surprising to me was that not only would they improve, many would experience … Read More
Every living creature on this planet survives by avoiding threats and gravitating towards rewards. The driving force is staying alive and survival of the species. This is accomplished by the nervous system taking in data from the environment through each body sensor and analyzing it every millisecond. All of the … Read More
Depression is anxiety. It is the constellation of symptoms caused by relentless anxiety. This is critical to understand because anxiety is simply the sensation you feel when your body is full of stress chemicals, such as cortisol, adrenaline and histamines. It is the essence of your body’s neurochemical unconscious survival … Read More
Research has demonstrated what all of us already know. Repetition of unpleasant sensations worsens over time and becomes intolerable. This is particularly true with pain and the classic example is that of water torture. Although the drop of water is inherently painless, it eventually is perceived by the poor prisoner … Read More