MY WORLD:WELCOME TO IT: "Chronic pain" should be a disease

Saturday, September 4, 2010

"Chronic pain" should be a disease

At the present time the 13th World Congress on Pain is being held in Montreal,Quebec,Canada. One of the key persons in organizing this congress is Dr. Michael Cousins (pictured above), an Australian anesthesiologist (see the following website for a definition: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:anesthesiologist&sa=X&ei=kx6DTIh40_-dB6z-tKUB&ved=0CBQQkAE). In an article entitled, "Chronic Pain a disease,conference told", (found in the September 4th edition of the Edmonton Journal newspaper) Dr. Cousins is quoted as saying:"Pain has been regarded as a simple problem.It must be recognized as a disease in its own right." Cousins is also quoted in this article as having made the following statement: "One in five people suffers pain that lingers beyond three months, and a third of them are disabled "as badly as people with heart failure."

According to this article, Dr. Cousins is one of the "wonderful" doctors who is involved in drafting the "Montreal Declaration on Pain, which is "aimed at bringing attention to inadequate pain policies worldwide." As someone who has been in 5 car accidents caused by other people, it surely is a breath of fresh air to hear a Doctor, (Doctor Cousins) finally talking about how serious and debilitating "chronic pain." is.

You can read this entire article by clicking on the following link:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Chronic+pain+disease+conference+told/3480886/story.html

Source of image of Dr. Cousins:

http://www.pmri.med.usyd.edu.au/about/profile.php?ID=10

"The International Association for the Study of Pain" has details about the 13th World Congress on Pain, which you can read by going to the following website:

http://www.iasp-pain.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=World_Congress_on_Pain&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=9930
I recall being at a meeting of the Edmonton Pain association some years ago, and being told by a guest speaker who was employed in the medical field that at that time physicians hardly receive any training in "pain and pain management" at all as part of their medical education. I hope this has changed since then!

As this diagram shows Chronic Pain can end up being an endless cycle for some unfortunate human beings,through no fault of their own:

Source of Diagram:http://www.pain-medication-rx.com/

Medical studies, such as the one reported at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080205171755.htm, now even go as far as saying:

"in people with chronic pain, a front region of the cortex (within our brain) mostly associated with emotion "never shuts up," said Dante Chialvo, lead author and associate research professor of physiology at the Feinberg School. "The areas that are affected fail to deactivate when they should." They are stuck on full throttle, wearing out neurons and altering their connections to each other.
This is the first demonstration of brain disturbances in chronic pain patients not directly related to the sensation of pain.This constant firing of neurons in these regions of the brain could cause permanent damage."

Certainly if chronic pain can cause permanent damage in the brain it needs to be
regarding as a "disease" by the medical profession!!

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Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every woman and man present their views without penalty, there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.- Albert Einstein Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. - Leo Buscaglia

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Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. -

Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Ego's trick is to make us lose sight of our interdependence. That kind of ego-thought gives us a perfect justification to look out only for ourselves. But that is far from the truth. In reality we all depend on each other and we have to help each other. The husband has to help his wife, the wife has to help the husband, the mother has to help her children, and the children are supposed to help the parents too, whether they want to or not.-Gehlek Rinpoche Source: "The Best Buddhist Writing 2005 pg. 165

The hostile attitude of conquering nature ignores the basic interdependence of all things and events---that the world beyond the skin is actually an extension of our own bodies---and will end in destroying the very environment from which we emerge and upon which our whole life depends.

Alan Watts (1915 - 1973)

Source: The Book:On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (Vintage) Page: 9..10

One human being, one village, one city, or even one country can no longer live entirely on its own. Competitiveness - the desire to be the first, the best, the foremost, and only one - has simply become outdated as a "value." This desire may have been useful in the past. The concept of evolution describes a process from dependence toward independence, ultimately resulting in interdependence.

Frank Petter Source:The Spirit of Reiki (Shangri-La Series),Page 7

Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others. Nor is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic actions bring about happiness but they also lessen our experience of suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are motivated by the wish to bring others' happiness necessarily meets with less misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our internal peace -- anxiety, doubt, disappointment -- these things are definitely less. In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves an experience of our own suffering is less intense.What does this tell us? Firstly, because our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness, ethics are necessary as a means to ensure that we do not harm others. Secondly, it tells us that genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness and so on. For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others' happiness. Dalai Lama.

Source: Ethics for the New Millennium:His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Page: 62

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Robert F. Kennedy

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Saturday, September 4, 2010

"Chronic pain" should be a disease

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