Treatment Update

Finding a Solution to Pain

If you have been watching the news lately, you will know that Merck, a major pharmaceutical company, has recently been forced to withdraw its anti-inflammatory drug, Vioxx® (see Painkillers 101). Other recently-introduced anti-inflammatories are likely to follow suit since studies are linking all Cox-2 inhibitors with dangerous side effects. These include stroke and heart disease.

These new findings are disappointing all round, but particularly for the millions of Canadians who are suffering from the relentless pain associated with arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

If you have relied on Cox-2 inhibitors to help control chronic pain and inflammation, and you do not want to risk taking older NSAIDs, you may be wondering what your next move should be.

EDUCATE YOURSELF
Becoming informed is the most important factor to good health. There are many aspects to disease development, just as there are to the management of that disease and associated pain/inflammation. When you know the likely cause of your disease, and how it may be affected by medications or other therapies, you can take advantage of the most suitable treatments currently available.

You can become more informed by reading books about your condition, by visiting educational websites, by attending seminars, by joining a supportive network or online forum, and by investigating complementary therapies and medications (see page 2.) In most cases, successful pain management is the result of trial and error. Unfortunately, the medical establishment does not have the time or resources to do this work for you!

YOUR HEALTHCARE TEAM
Relying on one source as a means of helping you control a painful condition is very much like expecting a framer to finish an entire house for you. The framer will build your house successfully, but will not do as good a job decorating it as an interior design consultant.

Complementary medicine is fast becoming an acceptable component of pain management and, in many cases, can allow a person to successfully control pain without resorting to potent, often dangerous, drugs.

A vast number of complementary therapies help manage or control pain. They include herbal medicine, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine), use of anti-inflammatory food supplements, and biostructural medicine - a means of altering how the individual cell responds to inflammatory triggers.

Naturopathic physicians, chiropractors, physiotherapists, acupuncturists and massage therapists and have undergone years of study and can form valuable members of your health care team.

A PERSONAL PLAN
The first step in conquering pain and inflammation is becoming informed. Only then can you intelligently evaluate/discuss your condition with your primary healthcare provider.

Once you have investigated all the choices available to you, you and your doctor or other healthcare professional can decide on the best possible treatment/s for you. It is important to remember that you are a unique being whose body responds in a similarly unique manner to the medications/treatments to which it is subjected.