header-pic

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Few gains on chronic pain treatment: There's an estimated 116 million sufferers of chronic pain in the United States. (Wow).


There's an interesting article I found on Angie's List website about chronic pain:
I am still in complete disbelief over the conventional course of treatment for the majority of people in pain--costly and potentially very toxic drugs.  Sadly, the "multidisciplinary approach" that helps about "90 percent" of people, according to the article, cannot be covered by insurance.  However, I have seen people take better care of their cars and houses than their own temple, their own bodies.  
As long as health care in America is for-profit, it saddens me that it seems like people are shuffled through as fast as possible through the pharmaceutical mill approach.


Numerous studies, Carr says, show pain sufferers feel better when somebody listens. "There is an enormous social component to pain," he says. "Patients will be more satisfied if they feel they have been cared for. That has more to do with their satisfaction with pain control than the actual intensity of their pain.


Other doctors are quick to prescribe pain medicine, rather than taking time to understand why a patient is suffering, says Dr. Loren Fishman, a highly rated rehabilitative medicine specialist with Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York. "In many cases doctors don't know anatomy well enough to find the causes," he says. "I prefer to find the cause and eliminate pain." About 90 percent of the time, he's able to wean his patients off medicine, he says, by using a multidisciplinary approach that could include surgery, yoga therapy and Pilates.



These approaches, along with the field of massage therapy and bodywork (and a little posture therapy thrown in!) should be given the attention and respect they deserve.  As a practitioner on the front lines of chronic pain, I can see and feel for myself many reasons why people could be hurting.  For one thing, massage therapy visits can be up to an hour and a half in length, resulting in more thorough disclosure of factors relating to a client's pain.  I don't ever remember being in a doctor's office for a regular visit lasting more than 10, 15 minutes if that. How can anyone get an accurate assessment of pain in just a few minutes?  

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

No, you're not too old to benefit from massage therapy!

Want to know how I know this?  Last week, I made a mobile masssage visit to a client's home on the Northwest side.  A very dear family member had pre-paid for her sisters-in-law and their mother to relax with some massages.  The mom will turn 101 next month.  Yes, this client's birthday came before the Titanic sinking, World War I, the first stock market crash, or Roald Amundsen beating Robert F. Scott to the South Pole....So don't think it's too late to begin enjoying the benefits a massage therapy session can bring!