I play tennis, but I’m no Rafa Nadal! I cook spaghetti, but I’m no Gordon Ramsay! And while I write about pain, I’m no Andrew Levy, author of A Brain Wider than the Sky, a memoir of his 20+ years of experiences with migraines. It is a spellbinding, creative work. His power as a writer lets even those of us without […]

It’s a significant challenge to deal with a lasting illness. You might not feel well, some or even most of the time. There’s uncertainty about treatments and the prognosis. You might not be able to participate in the activities you once enjoyed. Yet sometimes the hardest part of chronic illness is its effect on your […]

To celebrate the release of her new book, Yoga for Pain Relief: Simple Practices to Calm Your Mind and Heal Your Chronic Pain, the author, Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is sharing a guest article today about gratitude for your body – even if your body’s in pain! Body Gratitude When was the last time you felt […]

Dr. David Biro is a physician, has a PhD in English literature from Oxford, and has experienced severe pain and illness himself. Drawing on this unique collection of experiences, he has written an interesting book, The Language of Pain. When we’re in pain, “there’s nothing but the pain.” Our world can shrink and we focus internally […]

How many more tests, procedures and medications should I try? Should I try to work despite my chronic pain? How can I make progress towards accepting my situation? For those of us with pain, these type of questions can be puzzling and cause distress. A new book, The Wisdom to Know the Difference, looks at […]

What can you do if you have pain in a part of your body that is no longer there – in other words, phantom pain? Unfortunately, phantom sensations are fairly common after amputation or trauma, but previously, treatment was not very effective. Ramachandran, a neuroscientist at UCSD, made a breakthrough by suggesting that patients “trick” their brains into […]

A colleague Al Lee recently sent me a copy of his new book Perfect Breathing. What a great book! When I heard that Perfect Breathing was coming out, I wondered what about breathing could possibly fill a whole book. I was afraid it was going to be about 20 pages, in, let’s say, 100 point […]

A reader Barbara asks why new treatments such as graded motor imagery and mirror therapy aren’t more widely used. She writes: Are you, I mean all these docs, saying that chronic pain can be cured by these treatments? By cured , I mean stopping the constant pain and returning function. If this is true and you’re talking about […]

I just finished reading Lost Souls, by Niles Elliot Goldstein (author of God at the Edge). In Lost Souls, Goldstein looks at what happens when people are faced with big challenges. I believe having chronic pain is one such BIG challenge! Goldstein introduces several phases we might go through (though not necessarily in this specific […]

A great summary article was published recently about CRPS, a pain condition with symptoms of: burning pain sensitivity to touch pain in response to non-painful stimuli weakness, tremor and muscle spasms changes in temperature and increased sweating If pain is felt in your body, why is it thought to be a problem in your brain? […]