On the Dr. Oz Show today, Dr. Oz revealed the “truth” about chronic pain. 116 million people suffer from chronic pain and Dr. Oz says that there is ground-breaking research that proves chronic pain is a disease and not something you’re making up or is “in your head.”
A lot of people came on the show today, both in the audience and as guests, and their stories were all similar in several ways. All of them had been to a lot of doctors, and had basically been told that their pain was not real. One lady’s doctor even told her that having more sex would help her back pain!
One of the experts appearing today as a guest was Dr. Donnica Moore. She is a chronic pain sufferer herself, and she said doctors just can’t relate to the lifestyle issues associated with chronic pain. She said it’s a childcare issue, it’s a work issue, it’s a mobility issue. It affects your interpersonal relationships and you become depressed, get insomnia and it all feeds on itself, becoming a vicious cycle.
4 Reasons Why Doctors Can’t Help Your Pain
- If they can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. Dr. Sean Mackey is Chief of Pain Management at Stanford School of Medicine, and he says pain is a disease in its own right. Pain causes fundamental changes in our nervous system that can perpetuate even after an injury has healed. Physicians need to be trained to understand this, and treat it accordingly.
- They don’t have any pain training. Dr. Julie Silver is a Physiatrist, which is a Pain Doctor, and she says that there are only about 10,000 physiatrists in the country, which is only about one percent of the practicing physicians. So most doctors have not had the proper training.
- They think you’re out to score drugs. Unfortunately, this is a problem in society. Dr. Mackey says there are two mindsets: either the doctor is afraid the patient is going to abuse the opiates, or they are handing them out like candy. This needs to be rectified.
- You’re a woman. Dr. Moore clarified this point as being that male doctors treat female patients differently.
Pain Is a Disease
Thanks to a report from the Institute of Medicine, pain is now being recognized as a disease all by itself. Dr. Mackey says that pain is fundamentally whatever a patient says it is. Dr. Oz demonstrated on a mannequin how when you injure yourself, signals get transmitted to the brain that there is an injury in the form of pain, which helps our body take steps to avoid further pain. But when it is a lengthy, ongoing injury, the brain gets rewired to experience pain, so even when the injury is healed, the brain is still feeling pain.
4 Questions to Find the Right Pain Doctor
- How much pain management training do you have? Dr. Mackey says most doctors have only had a couple hours of training in medical school. But it’s also important to educate yourself about pain, so you can partner with your doctor in managing it.
- What is your approach? Pain is managed a wide variety of ways, from medication to psychological aids. Find one that works for you.
- How long before I begin to see results? This depends on how long you’ve been having the pain. The longer you’ve been suffering, the longer it may take to see results.
- How much will this cost? Some pain treatments can be expensive, but there are some resources (according to Dr. Mackey) to help you pay though, so don’t suffer in silence.
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