tagged 
web site reviews, pain sites in WEB SITE REVIEWS
web site reviews, pain sites in WEB SITE REVIEWS Friday
21Nov
Some Pain Site Reviews
Fri, November 21, 2008 at 10:00AM This week we are starting-or I should say re-starting-our practice of posting weekly site reviews in our journal. We have received quite a number of positive comments about this feature, and it is one which we certainly enjoy doing..especially since our usual practice is to look for out of the way locations on the Internet that offer information, commentary or some kind of interesting content not simply on pain, but on growth, change, alternative healing, spirituality, and so on.
This week, however, we thought it would be a good idea to begin this service anew with something different-something more main-stream, if you will. So over the next few weeks we will be posting mini-reviews of some of the many web sites now on the Internet that are dubbed some variation of "The American Pain bla bla bla."
We realize that some of the people who read our journal also search the Internet for specific information about disease processes, medication, types of therapies and other content specific to chronic pain, which we consciously do not provide on our site. We also realize that the number of sites which promise the answers to these kinds of questions is quite large, and that many of them fall short of providing the answers most consumers of health care information seek. Some are too technical and geared towards professionals; some require very costly membership to obtain any information; some are geared more towards promoting a specific institution or care option than providing information and some are just not very well put together. And then there are those that are very, very good.
Obviously, few people wish to personally sort through all of these sites to find the right kind information for their particular needs. Quite honestly, neither do we. But just to be nice, we have decided to do it for you anyway. Because of the number of sites involved these reviews will be brief and contain far less detail that we normally provide. Nevertheless, we hope we will do a satisfactory job of sending you in the right direction for the information you need. Contact us, please, if we do not.
Now, without further ado, we will begin. The sites are presented in no particular order. We have included URL's and mission statements where available, and rated the sites based on our own totally subjective rating system of 1-5, with "5 being the very best.
American Academy of Pain Management:
url: http://aapainmanage.org/
Mission Statement: The American Academy of Pain Management is an inclusive, interdisciplinary organization serving clinicians who treat people with pain through education, setting standards of care, and advocacy.
Overview: This organization quickly identifies itself as one that is meant for the health care professional who practices-or has an interest in practicing- in the area of pain management. The Academy's membership is extremely limited; for example, in the states of California and New York respectively only one health care facility or practitioner is listed. This, however, could be more an issue of "politics" -which are as ubiquitous in the medical community as they are in any large corporation or industry, than a commentary on the site's value. Nevertheless, it did create a bit of reticence on our part to swiftly embrace their ideas or ideals. Membership is open to health care practitioners only and at $195.00 per person ( $50 for a full time student )is a bit too pricey for our taste.
One high note: The site publishes what appears (from a cursory review) to be a well written and not too technical quarterly magazine called "The Pain Practitioner" which is very inexpensive for a medical journal of any kind at $35.00/year. Even better, you may download copies of archived "cover to cover" content free of charge. If you have a big hard drive or a USB drive that's sitting around waiting for something to do, it is probably worth downloading one or two if you are oriented towards content that targets the medical community. Although I have not had time to read it as yet I just downloaded an issue from early 2008 entitled "Fibromyalgia" which we will review in a subsequent post. Also available is a free monthly newsletter with archives dating back to December 2006.
Impression: Not for anyone looking for a "down and dirty" answer to anything, but the site's publications seem interesting, and at a cost of $0.00 for downloadable content, may well be worth your while if you do not mind wading through a bit of medical jargon to find the information you really want.
Our rating ***
American Pain Foundation
url: http://www.painfoundation.org
Wow! This is a truly awesome website! Focused entirely on improving the lives and outcomes of therapy for people in pain, it contains an enormous amount of information, support resources and communication tools wrapped up in a simple to follow navigation structure and an attractively presented site. It is by far far the best resource for people living with chronic pain that I have encountered on the web-bar none.
The site contains a Pain Information Library with links to information on pain conditions, coping skills, travel tips and support resources-among others. They host an online community named "Pain-aid" which features both chat rooms and message boards, and an interesting adjunct to their main site entitled simply "Manage Your Pain". Created in conjunction with the "American Academy of Pain Management" and the "American Society for Pain Management Nursing", it features the "Let's Talk Pain Coalition", whose mission is "to unite the perspectives of patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.... and encourage people to talk more about pain, listen actively and act in ways that improve care for the millions of people who live with pain." This interactive website provides visitors with comprehensive information and tools to enhance the dialogue between those affected by pain and healthcare professionals. Included in these interactive tools are a number of video clips featuring highly respected pain physicians, including Scott Fishman, Chair and President of the American Pain Foundation, and Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of California at Davis, giving advice and suggestions to physicians about talking to patients about pain, pain treatment and pain management. Another section of "Manage Your Pain" is called "Care Central" which offers caregivers and patients the opportunity to create their own website, blog, journal, or on line resource for family and friends free of charge. There is also a link to a downloadable generic "Pain Journal" that encourages people living with pain to keep an ongoing diary of their pain experience, pain intensity and pain triggers, as well as other behavioral indicators such as sleep, appetite, mood, and activity.
And this is just one part of one section of the site!
We highly recommend that anyone who is living with chronic pain or knows someone who is visit this web site more than once and peruse their offerings. You will not be disappointed.
Impression: Need we say it again? This site is a real treat. The only negative worth mentioning is the rather sparse collection of literature in their "Pain Information Library" which I suspect they have simply not had the time or human resources to fill, given the enormity of the undertaking they have already completed. Hopefully they will continue to be able to meet their own standard of excellence.
Our rating: *****
And that is all for now, folks. Join us next Friday for a few more-just as informal-site reviews.
And thanks, once again, for visitng Your Healer Within. If you like what you have seen so far, join our site- It's free and it entitles you to some really great discounts for as long as you remain a member
Thursday
20Nov
The Need for Purpose-Goal Setting Part I
Thu, November 20, 2008 at 10:00AM
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious
triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with
those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,
because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory
nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, Twenty-sixth President of the USA
We have all heard at one time or another that setting goals and working systematically towards achieving them is the only certain way to have the success in life that we desire. Yet few of us actually do it.
For one thing, most of us never received any formal education or training on how to set goals. Certainly it is not taught in our middle or high schools, at least it was not when I was a student. Nor do I think that the students of today fare any better than did those of my generation in learning this essential life skill. Perhaps some hi-school seniors are fortunate enough to have a counselor who provides them with a smattering of information right before they set out to join the workforce or earn a college degree, but that is about it.
Of course, many people think that they have goals, and name things like "Get a law degree", "Open a day care center" or "See the world." when enumerating them. But when asked to state the specifics of their goal planning process, or their action plan...the distinct, time-sensitive and measurable steps they plan to implement in order to achieve their (usually rather nebulous) goals, most of these individuals falter. They have a vague idea of what needs to happen; to get a degree in jurisprudence, for example, one must first graduate from high school, gain admittance to a "good" college" and a "good" law school; study hard and then graduate. Yet each of these intermediate steps can be broken down into hundreds of distinct action items, each of which must be prioritized and completed before it is possible to reach the desired long term goal. Ignoring those steps is the number one reason why so many people fail to get what they want out of life.
But everyone knows that, right? Not one of us actually believes that it is possible to achieve major life goals by completing a few well-timed maneuvers. On some deeply rational level we know that life just does not work that way.
So, why is it, then, that most of us behave as if it did? Why do so many of us go through life with the absurd belief that we can have the things we want without taking the requisite steps to achieve or acquire them? Even more to the point, why do we behave as if we believe that those steps do not even exist? So many of us look at someone like Donald Trump, and assume that his real estate empire just "happened." We see the unparalleled popularity of President Elect Barak Obama and assume that he managed a political miracle by virtue of his extraordinary charisma and oratorical style, thinking not at all about his years of planning and hard work, or the fact that each step of his seemingly meteoric rise to the presidency was planned and executed with the tactical skill of a four-star general.
Why we think and behave this way is a complex issue. One one hand, we do not plan out our goals because we never learned how to do so. On the other, many of us never learned that it was important to do so. Life in the "Information Age" has ingrained in many of us a desire for and a staunch belief in the plausibility of immediate gratification. Thoughtful contemplation has been all but erased from our repertoire of responses, replaced by a "run with it" mentality that demands instant answers and immediate decisions. There is no room in this mentality for planning; it is extraneous to the process. All a person needs to succeed is the right information, the right connections, and the right resources- all of which are accessible to anyone with a laptop, a Blackberry and limitless bravado.
Unfortunately, what we are seeing today in the financial services sector and in the many off-shoots of that collapsing industry in the United States and abroad is in large part an example of how things turn out when planning and goal setting are abandoned for the promise of immediate results.. What you can and will see in your own life when you do not take the time to plan and strategize....to map out goals that are based on your values and put together a reasonable series of prioritized action steps which have as their explicit focus the attainment of those goals....is a mini-implosion that mirrors the collapse of the American economy today.
Meaningful goals are based on values, the framework upon which we create our future. Goals, in turn, give substance to our values; they clarify and delimit our purpose in life and clearly define the path we must take to become the person we were meant to be. Setting goals is not just an exercise that one does to please a mentor, a parent or a teacher. It is an integral part of a well-lived life.
To laugh often and much,
to win the respect of intelligent people, and the affection of children....
to leave the world a bit better...
to know that even one life had breathed easier
because you had lived,
that is to have succeeded.
Adapted from an original verse by Bessie Anderson Stanley
NEXT: MORE ON GOAL SETTING
tagged GOALS, VALUES in GOAL SETTING
GOALS, VALUES in GOAL SETTING Monday
17Nov
The Roles We Play
Mon, November 17, 2008 at 10:00AM 
When a person is diagnosed with chronic pain, some of the most devastating effects are not physical, but emotional. In most cases the person with chronic pain has been suffering physically for quite some time before seeking help from a physician. However, in many cases he or she has been doing her best to deny or cover-up the physical deficits caused by the pain. Many continue to work and/or perform duties in the home as if nothing were wrong-pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion and in some cases actually worsening their condition. Some may even increase their level of physical activity for a while, seeking solace in the old adage "No pain, no gain" or vainly hoping that exercising despite the pain may bring unexpected beneficial results. Still others simply want to maintain the social ties associated with their place of employment and recreational activities. Whatever the reasons, by the time they actually receive a diagnosis of "chronic pain" or a pain related condition, most people are familiar with their level of physical suffering . They are not, however, prepared for the psychological damage and emotional turmoil that being confronted with the reality of a life-altering chronic illness can bring about.
One of the most demoralizing realizations that many who are disabled by chronic pain confront is a perceived loss of identity.. As we all know, many of us, especially here in the United States, derive a large part of our self-concept .and sense of self-worth by successfully fulfilling the many "roles" that we play in life. Whether these roles are professional or personal, they help give meaning to who we are and what we do and provide a "road-map" for appropriate and acceptable behavior. On the job, for example, we may fulfill the role of "manager;" this role provides us with a clear set of behavioral guidelines that allow us to react comfortably to almost any situation. In most cases we even have a "job description" that defines our role with even greater clarity, outlining exactly how to respond to virtually any challenge with the professional demeanor expected by our employer.
Similarly, in our personal lives we play any number of roles-from those that are very broadly defined by genetics such as mother, father, sister, and brother, to much more specific roles that are defined by the structure of our particular household...things like who does the dishes (dad) to who gets the kids ready for bed (mom) to who reads them their bed-time stories (alternates between mom and dad.) Like all roles these give structure to our lives and allow us to function with a sense of security that comes from understanding what is expected of us and what we can expect of others.
What happens when roles shift depends in part on the context in which the change occurs. When we make a conscious decision to change our professional role, for instance, by taking a new position it can be a stressful and somewhat daunting challenge, but it is also usually an exciting and welcome opportunity. However, when change is foisted on us without our consent- as happens when we are given a diagnosis as devastating as chronic pain- we may find ourselves feeling lost, confused, and more than a little afraid. Who are we when we are not clothed in the mantle of the roles we play? How are we to behave, think or react when the only guidelines we have to follow are those contained within our own "inner compass"-a tool we may not even know exists? These are huge questions for which most of us haven't an easy answer. More to the point, they are questions to which most of us do not want to be in the position of needing an answer. We were comfortable, or at least we thought we were comfortable, in the secure little niche we occupied before chronic pain came along and quite literally blew it up.
But as so many of us discovered since chronic pain became a more or less permanent fixture in our lives, the roles we played in life-those roles that we thought provided us with comfort and stability, were truly no more than smoke and mirrors-a facade designed to protect our vulnerable hearts from the rejection, abandonment and loss that we experienced early in life and have been defending against with diminishing effectiveness ever since. These roles that we took on along the way were not choices-they were expedient escapes from what we feared- picked up out of habit, or simply because they were available when we desperately needed them. Sadly in most cases they long ago outlived their usefulness and their ability to make us happy. In fact, as difficult as it is to accept, with very rare exception we are far better off without them.
As part of our Mentoring Programs, we work with our clients to help them design a new life, one that is based on their values and their beliefs..one that they can live with proudly and with ease. We understand that you may not wish to enroll in our programs at this time, but we do hope that you will give some thought to what we shared with you today, and perhaps even begin a journal where you can record your thoughts, insights and reactions to what was discussed. We will be sharing more of this type of content in the future, and hope that this may be the beginning for you of a long journaling practice and an even longer relationship with the truth about developing a healthy and fulfilling life despite your chronic pain .
Next: On Goals and Values
in GROWTH
GROWTH Tuesday
28Oct
Tired and in Pain? It's Your Hormones-Really!
Tue, October 28, 2008 at 06:14PM 
"Dancing Woman by Herman Fink
For many years researchers have searched for an explanation for chronic pain, especially the chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia that generally are not preceded by an injury, trauma or disease. Along the way, they have learned much about what goes on in the brains and nervous systems of chronic pain sufferers; they have identified key substances in the body-such as the neurotransmitter "Substance P" that play a large part in the transmission and/or regulation of pain signals and have even proven-using scientific experiments comparing "normal" individuals responses to measured pain stimuli to those who suffer with chronic pain- that some key differences exist in how the two groups respond to pain. None of these studies, however, have given us more than a hint of an explanation as to why some people develop these seemingly random diseases and some do not, or why women are so disproportionately represented in the patient mix. Although some physicians have postulated that menopause, "empty nest syndrome" and/or a decreased ability to deal with stress brought on by both of these "conditions" may be a factor, these suppositions have never been proved.
Thanks to some recent research by doctors at the University of Iowa,however, the answers to some of these questions are becoming quite a bit clearer. The study, led by a neuroscientist Kathleen Sluka. and published in the September issue of "American Journal of Physiology" looked at the protein ASIC3, which is involved in both fatigue and muscle pain.
From an evolutionary standpoint, pain and fatigue are positive adaptations to extreme exertion; they signal the brain that it is time to slow down and rest before permanent tissue damage can occur. ASIC3, however, allows the body to keep going even in the presence of excess amounts of acid caused by exertion. As it turns out, men-who-again, from an evolutionary standpoint-were the "hunters and gatherers" who often were forced to travel long distances without rest in search of food for the tribe, have more ASIC3 than women.
In this study, researchers tweaked a few male mice, depriving them of the ASIC3 protein, and sent them on a long run, (most likely on a little mouse treadmill.) They tired more easily than expected., at about the same rate as normal female mice. Then they gave testosterone to some female mice who had a normal amount of the ASIC3 protein; when placed on the treadmill they demonstrated the same resistance to fatigue as normal male mice. Finally, they gave testosterone to female mice who were robbed of the ASIC3 protein and-any guesses? They, like the male mice who were deprived of the ASIC3 protein, performed on the treadmill at the level of a normal female mouse.
What does this mean? For one thing, it explains why otherwise normal, healthy women represent 85-90% of all people with chronic pain; it is not menopause or "empty nest syndrome" or our inability to deal with the stress of both, it is the simple fact that women have no testosterone. More importantly, the research demonstrates a direct correlation between fatigue and pain and explains why almost all patients with chronic fatigue syndrome experience pain, and almost all with chronic pain experience fatigue. Finally, it begs the question, "could women with severe chronic pain and fatigue benefit from treatment with testosterone? Or-given the decidedly unfeminine side effects of testosterone, is there some other mechanism by which ASIC3-with its ability to decrease pain and fatigue could be increased without the addition of testosterone?
Dr. Sluka's research is currently taking the latter approach, examining ways in which ASIC3 behaves in human subjects.
For now, though, we must take small solace in the fact that the next time we encounter a male physician who espouses the "psychosomatic" theory of chronic pain in women, we can assure him that he has no idea what he's talking about.....It's our hormones! Then laugh like Hell as he walks away, scratching his head in befuddlement.
Saturday
18Oct
Program Update-Again
Sat, October 18, 2008 at 08:15PM ;)
Sometimes delays, while frustrating, have good outcomes. I think this latest delay in working out the last minute kinks in the Mentoring Programs may be one of those times.
Since I have not been working lately ( see my last post for an explanation), I have not been preoccupied recently with details of this or that ongoing project, which gave me an opportunity to ruminate a bit about how the online version of the Mentoring Programs would evolve. I became particularly concerned with the interactive aspect of the programs and the fact that I am working essentially by myself until the volume of clients requires that I recruit more help. I pondered any number of frieghtening scenarios ( in keeping with my current state of mind, I guess ) including the very realistic concern of how I was going to be able to accommodate the needs of people taking the program who work "alternative schedules" or do shift work Certainly I am not going to be available to "chat" on Google or Skype twenty-four hours a day. And while email is a good alternative, I could see how some individuals might feel that they were getting less than they deserved if they were "forced" to accept this alternative due to my lack of availability.
After trying out a few less than perfect solutions, I finally decided that Your Healer Within will offer a both an abbreviated version of the interactive Programs and a "Syllabus only" version. The cost of each will be considerably less than the fully interactive model because our investment of after production time and energy will also be considerably less. This may also allow some people who want to take the programs but cannot afford any cash outlay the opportunity to participate. A win-win proposition that allows me to stay true to my promise of working one on one with anyone who wishes to do so.
Unfortunately for all concerned, however, this revision will require some additional work "up front" because several topics that we planned to include only during our discussions with our clients-leaving it to you to decide whether or not to take notes- now must be written so that they can be included in the Syllabus Only and e-mail versions. This should not take a tremendous amount of time; under normal circumstances it would already be done. But these days do not constitute "normal circumstances" for me, so I hope you will be patient as we try to complete this latest revision in as short a time as possible.
Thank you, again, for your support.
in UPDATES
UPDATES