[lit-ideas] Re: Kyphoplasty?
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 19:05:30 +0000
Monday, February 14, 2005, 4:46:10 PM, Andy Amago wrote:
A>> A.A. Physical therapy can provide relief regardless of the
AA>> origin of the pain by stretching out the knotted muscles and
AA>> strengthening them.
JE> But physio alone may not be appropriate.
AA> A.A. Perhaps. Still, physical therapy is nearly always
AA> prescribed, even if surgery is the modality used.
I wasn' arguing for surgery; there are many ways of relieving pain
short of surgery.
JE> I saw him on the NHS; NHS surgeons don't make money by carrying out
JE> operations.
AA> A.A. Then how do they make money?
Hospital doctors who work wholly or partly in/for the NHS are paid a
salary whose amount depends on the amount of time they give the NHS
(as opposed to doing private work).
JE> and was a denial that there was any physical problem (my GP was
JE> furious -- he'd examined my back when it was in spasm and knew the
JE> case history -- all he could do was provide stronger painkillers; and
JE> I continued to pay osteopaths.
AA> A.A. What was causing the spasms?
when I was 22 I fell -- badly -- and slipped 2 disks. About 6 years
later, I again slipped a disk. X-rays now show "compressed disks",
the chiropractor I used to see (I now see an NHS physio) told me.
But obviously a stressful situation or (a real example) very cold
weather and icy pavements can make my back worse.
AA>> "Stress" is now known to originate within, not
AA>> without.
JE> I'd like a reference to this really rather remarkable theory (I admit
JE> I continue to find certain "stressful" events "stress" me).
AA> A.A. Rather remarkable? If you say so, but it's ancient
AA> news.
I think you may be failing to distinguish between stress and its
causes.
AA> If it were otherwise, the same situation would evoke the
AA> same response in everyone.
Agreed.
AA> Instead, some people are stressed
AA> driving; others not. Likewise public speaking, or things that
AA> don't go as expected. Some people freak out. Others are
AA> unphased. Conclusion: the remarkable theory that it is not
AA> events but one's reaction to events that cause the physiological
AA> cascade of events called stress, one of which is muscle
AA> tightening. Ancient, as in really really old, news.
Clearly not old news to the people who draw up lists of known
stressful events (which however do not stress everyone to the same
extent) such as bereavement (which did I'd say cause me stress but did
not affect my back), moving house (to my mind not always a cause of
stress, and it has never affected my back seriously except when I've
had to ), divorce (I've never been divorced but I've known a lot of
divorced people, as one does...) etc..
AA> Ah. A Sarno disciple. Stripped of its Freudianism, Sarno's approach
AA> is helpful (if not new). Unfortunately people too often ignore Sarno's
caveats
AA> i.e. that his methods should only be used when someone has been
AA> diagnosed as having the precise condition his methods relate to, and
AA> (therefore) when someone has no physical injury.
AA> A.A. Never heard of him. It stands to reason that one first
AA> rule out something physiological, and in the absence of empirical
AA> evidence go the mind-body route. Or conclude one is possessed.
AA> Either works.
I agree one first rules out a physical cause.
=AA>>> y in fact was not performed. Relaxation techniques are proven to reduce
ch=
AA>>> ronic pain. The University of Massachusetts Hospital has a whole
departmen=
AA>>> t on this. Newsweek ran a cover story on it not too long ago. Old news,
a=
AA>>> s I say, at least since the 80's.
AA>> How do you define chronic pain? As "non-acute"? as "long-term"? or
AA>> as pain whose known physical cause had been removed?
AA>> A.A. How many ways are there to define chronic?
AA> (chronic *pain*) Within the medical profession, at least three.
AA> A.A. What are they?
AA>> Ongoing
AA>> intractable pain. I don't know what you mean by "pain whose
AA>> physical cause has been removed". By definition, once a cause is
AA>> removed, the pain should abate.
AA> *should*. "Chronic pain" is defined by some experts as pain that
AA> persists after an injury has healed (they give time limits).
AA> Research that may be a by-product of research into phantom
AA> limb pain shows (and is still showing) conditions (such as a kind of
AA> neurological mis-wiring) that produce pain whose original physical
AA> cause has been eradicated. "Knotted muscles"/"inner stress" are not
AA> thought to be anything to do with this.
AA> It will take me a little while to find references on this
AA> A.A. Healing an injury isn't necessarily getting to the
AA> cause of pain. Sometimes a body part heals completely, sometimes
AA> not. I don't know what neurological mis-wiring means. Sounds
AA> like the brain sending signals to the body to give it some sort of
AA> information, such as, man you piss me off but I can't admit it to
AA> myself, so the signals go into the body, out of sight of the
AA> censoring brain.
AA> Andy Amago
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