If you are one of the millions of people suffering from chronic pain, it can often seem as if your discomfort is running—and ruining—your life. Maybe you’ve even been told that “it’s all in your head” and you just have to endure the debilitating effects of migraines, arthritis, back and neck pain, and chronic illness. You can feel good again! Defeat Chronic Pain Now! is your survival guide to preventing, reversing, and managing chronic pain. Referencing breakthrough medical research, two of the leading pain specialists in the field, Bradley S. Galer, M.D., and Charles E. Argoff, M.D., present hidden and little known causes of common chronic pain conditions, how to avoid misdiagnosis, and the latest treatments under development including: —Myofascial Dysfunction: The real (undiagnosed!) culprit in 90% of Back and Neck Pain —DMARDS and NSAIDS: Two breakthrough drugs that promise significant relief for Arthritis —Nutraceuticals: The natural wonder treatment for Peripheral Neuropathy —Focal heat trigger-point (FHTP) therapy: The new drug-free approach to Migraine relief The first practical book on integrative pain management, Defeat Chronic Pain Now! gives you the latest information on surgical options, new medications, complementary therapies, and psychological interventions that can be used to rewire your body for pain relief. For each condition and procedure, you’ll learn what to expect in the hospital and the doctor's office, and what self-therapy solutions you can do on your own. Detailed illustrations and easy-to-understand descriptions help you select the best treatment options to improve your unique type of pain and take back your life.

Defeat Neuropathy Now...In Spite of your Doctor is a groundbreaking survival guide for preventing, repairing and reversing neuropathy. It is an eye opening look into why medications and traditional therapies leave most neuropathy sufferers stuck in misery and without hope. This book will undoubtedly shake the foundation of the traditional medical community and pharmaceutical industry, while giving neuropathy pain sufferers every thing they need to know when it comes to making the safest and most effective choices for their chronic pain. 'Defeat Neuropathy Now' is extremely informative, yet still maintains a witty and entertaining tone. You don't have to be a scientist to understand the book. It is an easy read for everyone.

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

“A story of triumph and courage . . . Nicole Hemmenway demonstrates hope, guts and faith for any chronic pain sufferer or caregiver” (Betsy Turner Nunley, author of Preemie to Woman in Sixty Short Years). At seventeen, Nicole Hemmenway believed her life was just beginning. She was a senior in high school looking forward to college and living on her own. However, all her dreams vanished the moment she became injured. Diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), she soon learned that mainstream medicine viewed her pain and symptoms as being untreatable and incurable. She was living a nightmare. With no use of her right hand and minimal use of her arm, she depended on massive amounts of narcotics to survive each day. Yet even that could not control her agony. The crippling pain was so paralyzing that she faced periods where she was bedridden or wheelchair bound. All she had to hold on to was hope. Hope that her miracle would someday arrive . . . No, It Is Not in My Head is a courageous memoir that presents answers and allows others to believe in the unimaginable. “A must-read for anyone suffering from chronic pain or anyone who knows someone battling it . . . No, It Is Not in My Head is not a cure for pain, but more a cure for hopelessness. . . . Beautifully written, incredibly inspirational and highly recommended!” —Robin Cain, author of The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept “A riveting and uplifting tale, not to be missed.” —Midwest Book Review

NPR Best Book of 2019 A bioethicist’s eloquent and riveting memoir of opioid dependence and withdrawal—a harrowing personal reckoning and clarion call for change not only for government but medicine itself, revealing the lack of crucial resources and structures to handle this insidious nationwide epidemic. Travis Rieder’s terrifying journey down the rabbit hole of opioid dependence began with a motorcycle accident in 2015. Enduring half a dozen surgeries, the drugs he received were both miraculous and essential to his recovery. But his most profound suffering came several months later when he went into acute opioid withdrawal while following his physician’s orders. Over the course of four excruciating weeks, Rieder learned what it means to be “dope sick”—the physical and mental agony caused by opioid dependence. Clueless how to manage his opioid taper, Travis’s doctors suggested he go back on the drugs and try again later. Yet returning to pills out of fear of withdrawal is one route to full-blown addiction. Instead, Rieder continued the painful process of weaning himself. Rieder’s experience exposes a dark secret of American pain management: a healthcare system so conflicted about opioids, and so inept at managing them, that the crisis currently facing us is both unsurprising and inevitable. As he recounts his story, Rieder provides a fascinating look at the history of these drugs first invented in the 1800s, changing attitudes about pain management over the following decades, and the implementation of the pain scale at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He explores both the science of addiction and the systemic and cultural barriers we must overcome if we are to address the problem effectively in the contemporary American healthcare system. In Pain is not only a gripping personal account of dependence, but a groundbreaking exploration of the intractable causes of America’s opioid problem and their implications for resolving the crisis. Rieder makes clear that the opioid crisis exists against a backdrop of real, debilitating pain—and that anyone can fall victim to this epidemic.

Twenty-seven-year-old Laurie Edwards is one of 125 million Americans who have a chronic illness, in her case a rare genetic respiratory disease. Because of medical advances in the treatment of serious childhood diseases, 600,000 chronically ill teens enter adulthood every year who decades ago would not have survived-they and people diagnosed in adulthood face the same challenges of college, career, and starting a family as others in their twenties and thirties, but with the added circumstance of having chronic illness. Life Disrupted is a personal and unflinching guide to living well with a chronic illness: managing your own health care without letting it take over your life, dealing with difficult doctors and frequent hospitalizations, having a productive and satisfying career that accommodates your health needs, and nurturing friendships and a loving, committed relationship regardless of recurring health problems. Laurie Edwards also addresses the particular needs of people who have more than one chronic illness or who are among the twenty-five million Americans with a rare disorder. She shares her own story and the experiences of others with chronic illness, as well as advice from life coaches, employment specialists, and health professionals. Reading Life Disrupted is like having a best friend and mentor who truly does know what you're going through.

Dr. Brownstein shows readers how they can rev up the human body's least-understood system: the healing system.