We Are Way Past Motrin and Vioxx for Chronic Pain!

Integrative or Comprehensive Medicine is the best choice!

McGraw-Hill – April 2006 – The good news is that we finally have numerous tools that can be used to eliminate pain. Eminent doctor, researcher and author of the best-selling book From Fatigued to Fantastic!, Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., clearly and simply shows how combining the best of both natural and prescription therapies can dramatically increase your ability to get pain free. In PAIN FREE 1-2-3: A Proven Program for Eliminating Chronic Pain Now, Dr. Teitelbaum shows the reader how to use a mix of dozens of research-proven natural and prescription solutions to give symptomatic relief while also eliminating the underlying cause(s) of their pain!

Pain is not the enemy. In fact, pain can be viewed as the red, flashing, warning light on your body’s dashboard telling you that something urgently needs your attention. To simply mask the pain with medication would be like covering up your “low oil” warning light. On the other hand, it is never acceptable to leave someone in chronic pain! In PAIN FREE 1-2-3 Dr. Teitelbaum not only teaches you how to treat the underlying cause(s) of pain using his “SHIN Protocol” (Sleep, Hormones, Infections/Inflammation/Impingement,& Nutrition), which his recent study showed eliminated widespread pain in the majority of people, but also shows the reader how to tailor a program to eliminate:

• Arthritis, lupus and other pain caused by inflammation • Back pain--you don’t need surgery! IV Colchicine (an old herbal therapy turned into a prescription) eliminates sciatica/disc pain in over 75% of patients (in two studies with over 1000 patients).
• Tension, migraine and other headaches. When Dr. Teitelbaum recently appeared on CNN, the segment before his talked about surgically removing major face muscles to decrease migraine by 50%. The good news is that simply using Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) 400 mg/day for 6 weeks decreases migraines 68%! Most migraines can be easily prevented naturally using a mix of therapies.
• Sexual dysfunction, anxiety and depression, and the average 32 pound weight gain seen in chronic pain using metabolic therapies.
• Muscle, nerve and fibromyalgia pain
• Osteoporosis and cancer pain
• Indigestion, ulcers, acid reflux, gastritis and spastic colon
• Mind-body issues associated with pain, and much more.

Which treatment works best varies from person to person. This is why looking for the single “magic bullet” approach to pain management does not work as well as tailoring treatment to each individual using comprehensive medicine. It’s the difference between having only one tool – say a hammer, which is like standard medicine – or a whole tool kit that includes all of the healing arts.

Motrin family medications (NSAIDs) kill over 16,500 Americans a year and Vioxx has caused an estimated 139,000 heart attacks and strokes. Sadly, this is all that most doctors are taught about pain management. Fortunately, there are many other options, including safe and inexpensive herbal and nutritional therapies that published research has shown to be more effective than medications; highly safe and effective topical prescription gels & patches; structural therapies (e.g.- Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Prolotherapy, and Acupuncture); homeopathy, hypnosis, magnets, Ayurvedic medicine, and working with a naturopath – a practitioner trained in natural medicine.

Pain Free 1-2-3! is an easy-to-understand, yet well referenced book by a world renowned pain researcher and lecturer. Once you look at it, you’ll realize that it is not just another pop self-help health book. This book will not only give hope to the over 50 million Americans who unnecessarily suffer from chronic pain – it will give them their lives back!

Author Bio

Jacob Teitelbaum (Annapolis, MD) is medical director of the Center for Effective Fibromyalgia/CFIDS Therapies. Having suffered with and overcome these illnesses, he spent the next 28 years creating, researching and teaching effective pain-control therapies. He lectures internationally and is the author of the bestselling book From Fatigued to Fantastic!

1975 was a really rough year. I was caught in the middle of a family melt down while in my third year of medical school. I was 22, and my father had died years earlier so I was paying my own way. Finally the stress caught up with me. I had what I called the “drop dead flu.” Three months later, I was still exhausted, unable to sleep, hurt all over and had no brain. Devastated, I had to drop out of medical school. As I was paying my own way and relying on scholarships, student loans, and work (which I was now too sick to do) I found myself homeless and sleeping in parks. This was to be my introduction to Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia.

Fortunately, I met a number of people who taught me what I needed to know to get well, and a year later I was back in medical school getting honors. Being highly motivated from my own experience, I’ve spent the next 30 years researching effective treatments for Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia, and have effectively treated thousands of people with these problems. I know it's difficult for you too. The good news is that, having BEEN there, I can tell you that it is possible to get well and get your life back!

Fast facts about pain from PAIN FREE 1-2-3 by Jacob Teitelbaum

Scope:

• Only an estimated 1 in 4 of those with pain receive effective treatment.
• Over 20 percent of Americans above age 60 have chronic pain due to arthritis or back pain.
• Over 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, and nearly 25 million Americans experience acute pain each year due to injuries or surgery.
• Headache, arthritis, and lower back pain are the most common types of pain in the U.S.

Arthritis:

• 1 in 6 Americans suffers from arthritis, 26 million of those are women.

Back Pain:

• Back pain is the leading cause of disability in Americans under 45 years old. O
• Over 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 64 experience frequent back pain, and two thirds of American adults will have back pain during their lifetime.

Cancer:

• An estimated 70% of those with cancer experience significant pain during their illness, yet fewer than half receive adequate treatment for their pain.

Headache:

• Over 25 million Americans suffer from migraines.
• 9 out of 10 Americans have non-migraine headaches each year.

Impact:

• Pain costs an estimated $100 billion each year.
• Lost workdays due to pain add up to over 50 million a year.

Other Types of Pain:

• 20 million Americans experience jaw and lower facial pain (TMD/TMJ) each year.
• Over 6 million Americans -- mostly women -- suffer from fibromyalgia, a complex condition involving widespread pain and other symptoms.
• Fully half of all hospitalized patients have moderate to severe pain in their last days of life.

Q&A with Dr. Teitelbaum

What's in this book?

Pain Free 1-2-3! will show the reader how to figure out what is causing their pain and how to make it go away--using the safest and most effective combination of natural AND prescription therapies.

Why can't my doctor help me?

I can summarize what most doctors are taught about chronic pain in medical school in 2 sentences. Use Tylenol and/or Motrin/Vioxx–like medications (which unnecessarily kill tens of thousands of people a year!). If the patient has cancer, you can use narcotics if you have to. Were I a surgeon, surgical options might be added. I was given the impression that chiropractors, acupuncturists, and everyone else who offered something that wasn’t taught in medical school, were quacks trying to steal people’s money and that physicians needed to protect gullible patients from them. It is no surprise then that doctors are clueless about treating pain. Fortunately, most chronic pain can now be effectively treated!

What happens when physicians combine natural and allopathic medicine?

The use of both natural and allopathic (prescription) medicine dramatically increases our ability to help you get well. Although both allopathic and natural medicines have their weaknesses, when you combine them, almost all pain can be effectively treated. It’s the difference between having only one tool—say a hammer, which is like allopathic medicine—or a whole tool kit that includes the dozens of other healing arts available in natural medicine. A hammer can be a very useful tool, but unfortunately when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail! It’s much easier to get the job done safely and effectively when you are using all the tools available to you.

Doctors are usually better at treating acute, short-lasting pain (e.g. injuries, surgery, etc.) because they are better able to find the source and are more comfortable using available treatments on a short-term basis. Treating chronic pain problems—such as fibromyalgia and myofascial/muscle pain, cancer pain, arthritis, headaches, back pain, and nerve pain—is more of a challenge for physicians.

Is pain the enemy?

No! Pain is often simply an important indicator of underlying problems that need to be taken care of. In fact, pain can be viewed as the red, flashing, warning light on your dashboard telling you that something urgently needs your attention. To simply mask the pain with medication would be like covering up your “low oil” warning light because it was annoying you. Therefore, in addition to teaching you how to turn off the pain signal, we will also help you to understand what the pain is trying to tell you that your body needs. When these are addressed, the pain usually goes away! While the underlying problems that need attention are being addressed, it is then also very important to turn off/mask pain so that you can be comfortable.

So how do I treat the underlying problems causing the pain?

There are usually four key areas that need to be treated to eliminate muscle/myofascial and nerve pain. It helps to remember the acronym “S. H. I. N.” This stands for Sleep, Hormonal support, treating Infections/Inflammation/Impingement, and Nutritional support. Using fibromyalgia as a model for widespread myofascial pain, our research team did a placebo-controlled study treating sleep, hormonal deficiencies, infections and nutritional deficiencies. The average improvement in quality of life was 90 percent. The majority of patients no longer even qualified for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia after treatment! In addition, an editorial in the Journal of the American Academy of Pain Management noted that our treatment protocol is an "excellent and highly effective part of the standard of practice for the treatment of fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome". You'll be amazed how even pain that has lasted decades can go away quickly when these underlying problems are taken care of.

Is all pain treated the same way?

Only if you don't want it to go away. Although treating "SHIN" as discussed above gives a good foundation for eliminating most kinds of pain, and is sometimes enough, it is best to then tailor treatment to the specific type of pain. The book individually discusses how to eliminate each of the following types of pain (and many more): arthritis, migraine and tension headaches, back pain (without needing surgery), nerve pain, fibromyalgia and muscle pain, indigestion and spastic colon, cancer pain, and pelvic pains. It reviews a wide array of both natural and prescription therapies, and guides you step-by-step in tailoring your individual program. It also teaches you how to eliminate the average 32 pound weight gain (it's your metabolism!), loss of libido, anxiety and depression (NOT a Prozac deficiency) seen with chronic pain.

What is the cost to society of inadequately treating pain?

In addition to the ways in which it devastates people’s lives, chronic pain is one of the most expensive medical conditions in the United States. The price tag, including loss of productivity, loss of income, and medical costs, exceeds $100 billion annually. Over $61 billion is lost in productive work time because of pain, even if the person is able to work. Our track record for treating cancer-related pain is also devastating. The American Cancer Society estimates that an enormous number of advanced cancer patients suffer from inadequately treated chronic pain.

The financial costs pale compared to the suffering and loss of personal relationships, functional ability, and even length of life, as well as the depression and anxiety caused by the chronic pain.