There’s nothing wrong or sinful about feeling good

I believe we should have access to any and all treatments for pain, including cannabis. But I don’t want pain patients to think that if they switch to cannabis, it will be the only drug or treatment they’ll need to manage their pain. (Any drug is just one part of an overall pain management program.)

I’ve been very lucky to have access to a quality strain of cannabis in the last couple of months — one of those strains that are very hard to find. I’ve wondered if daily use of a good strain would be enough to manage my high pain levels (averaging about a 7 out of 10), but I think that’s about false hope. Cannabis is great, but it’s not a wonder drug. Of course, everyone’s experience will be different, but I think I’ve had enough experience throughout the past 3+ years to reach some conclusions.

If I had a choice (which I do not), I would probably choose a combination of cannabis and a painkiller to treat my pain. The addition of a painkiller would allow me to smoke less cannabis, and the cannabis would allow me to keep my painkiller usage to a minimum. I might even add a muscle relaxer at night, because the muscles in my face deserve more rest than I’m able to provide.

If I was able to add a painkiller to my pain management program, I might be able to take a walk every other day, instead of once or twice a week. I might be able to lose some weight. With a little extra pain relief, I might not think about death so much. I might think that I have some kind of survivable future. There’s even a possibility that I’d be able to regularly clean my toilet. (Okay, maybe not.)

When I was taking a bucket full of prescription medications, I relied on them to manage my pain. Maybe I relied on them too much, but that’s only because, out of all the treatments I’ve tried, prescription medications worked the best. I think that’s true for most people. I think it’s true that a lot of acute and chronic pain is best controlled with painkillers. (Patients aren’t given high doses of antidepressants before surgery.) Maybe the opioid war advocates would agree with me on that, but would disagree about how long we should be allowed to use opioids to manage pain. After all, according to the other side, anyone who swallows a pain pill has a high risk of becoming a drug addict. (And what’s worse than being a drug addict? Maybe a murderer?)

I read an article recently about how cannabis affects the part of the brain that deals with your sense of time. I’ve been thinking about that…

I know that being in constant pain makes time go by very slowly. Twenty-four hours feels like a week, not one day. And then I thought about the occasions that I’ve felt “high” from a drug. You know, the shameful high that almost all pain patients deny they experience with painkillers. The high that drug addicts chase on a daily basis. The high that makes you feel good artificially because it’s from a drug. The feel-good high that is really what the drug war is all about.

Within that high — a possible side effect of some drugs — is a distortion of time. That relief allows time to float, almost fly by, as if you lost 10 pounds and your feet had wings. As if a heavy burden had been lifted just a little, allowing a tiny taste of freedom inside your prison of pain. (Everyone’s prison of pain is different, caused by mental and/or physical pain.)

Does it feel good to get high? You betchya. However, it’s not like that good feeling lasts very long. But it can last long enough to, say, take a walk (or scrub your toilet). Or the high can work as an incentive — a reward for doing the painful thing that you really don’t want to do.

I suppose it’s all about what you do with the high. Those who suffer from addiction will always be chasing the high, and because of the drug war, will always be shamed and criminalized. Looked down on for suffering from a medical condition that most people think is a choice.

Those who suffer from constant pain will always be chasing after relief, and because of the drug war, we are now treated like those who suffer from addiction.

I’d just like to point out that the high I’ve been talking about gives relief to both pain patients and drug addicts. Look down on that high if you will, but it serves a purpose. The pleasure centers in our brains are there for a reason. They’re activated not only by drugs (including caffeine and chocolate), but also by things like friendship, caring, sex, love, risk, and winning.

Good feelings are part of being human. Unfortunately, so is pain. But just like humans are not meant to feel constant pleasure, we’re also not meant to be in constant pain. We’re not meant to feel depressed every single day, and if we do, that means our brains are out of balance. We’re not meant to feel constant fear and anxiety, and if we do, that means our brains need help.

Being human means we have to suffer, but when pain reaches a level where death is preferable to life, then our brains need help. Not help for a couple of weeks or months, but constant help. The pain is constant. The help has to be constant, too.

Sometimes the help we need will include the high from drugs. Let’s stop looking down on the high. There’s nothing wrong or sinful about feeling good.

What does ringing in the ears sound like?

http://www.ata.org/understanding-facts

Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no actual external noise is present. While it is commonly referred to as “ringing in the ears,” tinnitus can manifest many different perceptions of sound, including buzzing, hissing, whistling, swooshing, and clicking. In some rare cases, tinnitus patients report hearing music. Tinnitus can be both an acute (temporary) condition or a chronic (ongoing) health malady.

Millions of Americans experience tinnitus, often to a debilitating degree, making it one of the most common health conditions in the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly 15% of the general public — over 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. Roughly 20 million people struggle with burdensome chronic tinnitus, while 2 million have extreme and debilitating cases…

I’m sure that everyone who suffers from tinnitus hears a different sound in their ears. And it’s not like the sound always stays the same. But I was watching this video where the quarterback suffers a concussion, and the sound in the video (at 0:48) sounds just like the constant ringing in my ears.

It’s not like tinnitus is painful — more like uncomfortable. But it can also be quite maddening. Which is why I can’t fall asleep unless there’s music playing. And why I’m so thankful for music therapy.

Bridges

It’s important to build bridges.

I’ve tried to build bridges between pain patients and those who suffer from addiction, with little, if any, success.

I’ve tried to build bridges between pain patients and the cannabis industry, spreading the truth about using pot to treat pain.

I find it difficult to build bridges between atheists and religious people. I don’t understand the worship of some supernatural being, and I don’t understand why religious people follow my atheist blog.

Because I visit everyone who visits me, I found myself reading about the sin of masturbation today. Did you know that if you masturbate, it proves you have no self control? Please.

Humans are able to pleasure themselves in a myriad of ways, including with food, sex, and drugs. Just like with the drug war, religious people have a problem with the notion of pleasure. Ironically, researchers have shown that prayer can elicit the very same pleasure responses in the brain as sex and drugs.

Some people on the internet think we should build bridges between Democrats and Republicans. That’s a given. But, build bridges with white-pride Nazis? No, I don’t think so.

Build bridges with people like this?

I watched this video, and I’m like, isn’t anyone going to stand up to this bully?

Here’s a warning to bullies: Don’t pull this shit when I’m standing there. I can also cuss like a sailor and I’m not afraid of you.

Can long-term pot use cause Alzheimer’s?

I don’t know much about Alzheimer’s, but I did have a grandmother who passed away from that disease. Am I worried about my pot use causing Alzheimer’s? No.

This research was published today in some Alzheimer’s magazine. It centers around a very expensive brain scan (not covered by insurance) which the author has been selling at his California clinic for almost a decade.

At first, I thought there might be something to this research. After all, we’re talking about a brain scan here. But I wondered how they can tell if a brain is acting abnormally when they don’t know what the brain looked like before the so-called long-term pot use.

How much did each person use every day? What kind? Was it homegrown or doused with chemicals from a dispensary? What were the ages and genders of the patients? Did any of them suffer from addiction, depression, PTSD, or chronic pain? Because you can’t blame pot when other medical conditions affect the brain.

In other words, I think this research is full of shit. Yes, we all know that pot can mess with your memory. But so can a bunch of other stuff, including pollution and old age.

So, here’s the information I found. You decide.

http://www.content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad160833

Conclusion: Multiple brain regions show low perfusion on SPECT in marijuana users. The most predictive region distinguishing marijuana users from healthy controls, the hippocampus, is a key target of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. This study raises the possibility of deleterious brain effects of marijuana use.

Authors: Amen, Daniel G.; Darmal, Borhana; Raji, Cyrus A.; Bao, Weining; Jorandby, Lantiea; Meysami, Somayeha; Raghavendra, Cauligi S.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/dec/01/psychiatrists-couch-dr-daniel-amen-md/

The Washington Post wrote that by almost any measure Dr. Daniel Amen is the most popular psychiatrist in America. He is a double board certified psychiatrist, who has written 10 New York Times bestselling books, including the mega-bestseller “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.”

I’ve never heard of this doctor, but then I don’t buy self-help books.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/shame-on-pbs/

I used to have a high opinion of PBS. They ran excellent programs like Nova and Masterpiece Theatre and I felt I could count on finding good programming when I tuned into my local PBS channel. No more.

It was bad enough when they started featuring Deepak Chopra, self-help programs, and “create your own reality” New Age philosophy, but at least it was obvious what those programs were about. What is really frightening is that now they are running programs for fringe medical claims and they are allowing viewers to believe that they are hearing cutting edge science.

Neurologist Robert Burton has written excellent articles for salon.com pointing out the questionable science presented by doctors Daniel Amen and Mark Hyman in their PBS programs…

http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2008/05/caution_that_program_may_not_b.html

“It’s 10 on a Saturday night and on my local PBS station a diminutive middle-aged doctor with a toothy smile and televangelical delivery is facing a rapt studio audience. ‘I will show you how to make your brain great, including how to prevent Alzheimer’s disease,’ he declares. ‘And I’m not kidding.’

“Before the neurologist in me can voice an objection, the doctor, Daniel Amen, is being interviewed by on-air station (KQED) host Greg Sherwood. Sherwood is wildly enthusiastic. After reading Amen’s book, ‘Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,’ Sherwood says, ‘The first thing I wanted to do was to get a brain scan.’ He turns to Amen. ‘You could start taking care 10 years in advance of ever having a symptom and prevent Alzheimer’s disease,’ he says. ‘Yes, prevent Alzheimer’s disease,’ Amen chimes in.

“Wait a minute. Prevent Alzheimer’s disease? Is he kidding? But Sherwood is already holding up Amen’s package of DVDs on learning your risk factors for A.D., as well as his book with a section titled ‘Preventing Alzheimer’s.’ Then, as though offering a landmark insight into a tragic disease — and encouraging viewers to pledge money to the station — Sherwood beams and says, ‘This is the kind of program that you’ve come to expect from PBS.’

http://www.yelp.com/biz/amen-clinics-costa-mesa-4

Amen Clinics
Counseling & Mental Health; Psychiatrists

5/2/2015
Worst experience ever. Especially when you’re in a extremely depressed state of mind. I did all the tests and it came down to just an internist “reading” my results and pushing their vitamin supplements onto me. Ugh. Don’t go here. They’re no help.

3/3/2016
Beware – Amen Clinics preys on mentally ill people and the families who love them. The clinic will bleed you dry with “off label” treatments, nutrition classes, supplements, charges to fill out insurance paperwork, and routine services that cost 2x what regular providers charge. Amen Clinic’s pushes their expensive services even when they aren’t working…

11/20/2016
The cost associated with said process/treatment is staggering…

http://www.nextavenue.org/can-marijuana-save-aging-brain/

Cannabinoids, the active chemical components of marijuana, can regulate inflammation in the brain and promote neurogenesis — the growth of new neural pathways — even in cells damaged by age or trauma. As more research has indicated that brain inflammation appears to be a cause of several degenerative diseases, marijuana has been getting a closer look as a potential preventive medication.

In a 2006 study published in Molecular Pharmaceutics, a team of University of Connecticut researchers reported that THC, the chemical compound responsible for marijuana’s high, “could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease than any currently approved prescription.”

To be clear, most scientists investigating the link between cannabinoids and brain health are not advocating widespread casual marijuana smoking to ward off Alzheimer’s disease. Marijuana possession remains illegal and research has shown that long-term, frequent marijuana use can impair memory, focus and decision-making…

In 2007, Ohio State University researchers published a paper stating that medications which can stimulate cannabinoid receptors in the brain “may provide clinical benefits in age-related diseases that are associated with brain inflammation, such as Alzheimer’s disease.” In 2009, Italian and Israeli researchers found that cannabidiol (CBD), marijuana’s primary non-psychoactive cannabinoid, may also block the formation of the plaques in the brain believed to bring on Alzheimer’s.

Wenk believes that, in humans, “the equivalent of one puff a day” could help ward off dementia. “I have said to older people, ‘Try it,’” Wenk says. “They email me back to say it’s helping. It’s worked in every rat we’ve given it to. We have some happy, intelligent old rats.”

Opioids are a plague?

http://www.statnews.com/2016/11/18/opioids-addiction-chronic-pain/

The opioid epidemic has rapidly emerged from the shadows and is now recognized as a plague that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans regardless of age, race, or socioeconomic status. In its destructive potential, it can be compared to the AIDS and polio epidemics…

A plague is contagious — addiction is not. And please, addiction is as destructive as AIDS? That’s what you would call a lie.

As for who this “epidemic” affects, it’s been shown that it mainly affects white, middle-class people. Those who enjoy a certain socioeconomic status are the ones with access to prescription medications like opioids.

But unlike AIDS and polio, the opioid epidemic continues to rage in large part because we, as a nation, have not yet resolved to attack it head on…

Really? Why don’t you tally up all the money that’s been spent in the war on drugs and the fight against addiction. Just like with every war, the more money you put into it, the more it takes on a life of its own, causing destruction to just about everyone.

As a pain expert, I had hoped the surgeon general’s report would have placed a greater emphasis on the need to develop alternatives to opioids that can be used for pain management, which would eliminate a key pathway to abuse…

Opioids are not a “key pathway to abuse,” just like marijuana is not a pathway to heroin abuse. And it’s extremely disturbing that a pain “expert” believes this to be true. Tens of millions of patients have taken opioids without any problems whatsoever.

And while a lot of people talk about alternatives to opioids, they don’t exist. Nothing works as well as opioids for pain. Nothing. How do I know? Because just like millions of other pain patients, I’ve tried everything. So, while this “expert” can hope for alternatives to opioids, that’s not the reality. And it won’t be for decades to come.

Here’s a more in depth analysis of the Surgeon General’s report:

http://www.reason.com/blog/2016/11/18/surgeon-generals-report-mistakenly-treat

The article from STAT reminded me of an article I saw months ago:

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/14/prolonged-drug-use-may-impact-moral-judgment/21432378/

Researchers from the University of New Mexico and the Mind Research Network have found yet another ill effect linked to prolonged drug use. According to the scientists, over time, both cocaine and methamphetamine can diminish activity in the brain’s moral and emotional centers, creating difficulty in determining right from wrong. The study’s subjects were inmates from prisons in New Mexico and Wisconsin. Roughly 130 of them had a history of methamphetamine and cocaine use, while the remaining 80 did not.

Whose morals are we talking about here? And with a sample size that was so small, using prison inmates, this “study” determines nothing. Also, you can’t determine what happens to a brain on drugs unless you have tests that show how that same brain worked before the drug use started. Recently, scientists have figured out how to “fingerprint” the brain. Turns out, everyone’s brain is unique:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brain-connections-map_us_582b628be4b01d8a014adc56

As some scientists are discovering, each brain is wired in a completely unique way. In the same way that each of us has a specific fingerprint, we also have a distinct map of brain connections…”

This research by UNM is the only kind that’s been funded by anti-drug agencies, like the NIDA. Do you want to know why we spend so much money on the failed drug war? It’s partially because of wasteful research like this.

What I would like to see is a test that shows the activity in Trump’s “moral and emotional centers.” You know, the ones that determine “right from wrong.” Would it look similar to the prisoners’ test results?

Dear Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vivek-murthy-report-on-drugs-and-alcohol_us_582dce19e4b099512f812e9c

“Addiction is a chronic disease of the brain and it’s one that we have to treat the way we would any other chronic illness: with skill, with compassion and with urgency,” he added.

If addiction is a chronic disease of the brain, how does the surgeon general describe chronic and intractable pain? Is intractable pain also a chronic disease of the brain? I’m curious, does the surgeon general believe that addiction and chronic pain are the same medical condition?

“Many people didn’t want to talk to the surgeon general if the press was around, because they were afraid of losing their jobs and friends if anyone found out about their substance use disorder, Murthy explained. They also worried that doctors might treat them differently. The numbers bear out that fear of stigma.”

Those who suffer from chronic pain are now learning what it feels like to be treated like a drug addict — afraid of losing jobs and friends, facing abandonment and stigma by the medical industry, being told their pain doesn’t matter, and being denied insurance coverage for many prescription medications. Since the surgeon general is partially responsible for the stigma faced by pain patients every day, what is he going to do about it?

Why does the surgeon general think that treating addiction is more important than treating chronic pain, especially since millions more people suffer from chronic pain than from addiction?

“The overarching theme of the new report is that substance use disorders are medical problems, and the logical next step is integrating substance use disorder care into mainstream health care.”

Isn’t it just as important to integrate the adequate treatment of pain into mainstream health care? You know, pain — the main reason people go to the doctor? Why are expensive specialists needed to treat addiction and chronic pain, especially since the government has pretty much mandated specific standards for the treatment of both medical conditions?

“What’s really at stake here are our family and friends,” he said. “Addiction is not a disease that discriminates and it has now risen to a level that it is impacting nearly everyone.”

Everything the surgeon general has said about addiction holds true for chronic pain, too. But there’s more than one difference between the two conditions.

For the treatment of addiction, it is necessary to find and treat any underlying trauma or mental conditions that may have triggered the addiction. The mental conditions may be chronic, but the addiction doesn’t have to be. But without treating the main condition — like depression, PTSD, or bipolar — trying to treat the addiction is just a waste of time. Why doesn’t the surgeon general mention this very important part of treatment?

Intractable pain is always a chronic condition. The underlying condition has already been treated (again and again) and is sometimes caused by the very medical treatment that was supposed to help. Does the surgeon general believe there is some benefit to untreated pain and constant suffering?

“A few specific recommendations include adding addiction screenings in primary health care settings and hospitals…”

If you’re a doctor, go ahead, ask me if I’m addicted to drugs. I dare you. Just another reason to avoid the doctor, so all your personal medical information doesn’t end up in some government database. And do I have the right to ask the doctor the same question? Isn’t the addiction rate higher in the medical profession than in the general public?

The surgeon general is trying to help those who suffer from addiction, but how is he going to help pain patients? Just with the letter asking doctors to disregard and belittle their patients’ reports of pain?

Do babies deserve pain relief?

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/tips-on-soothing-teething-pain-without-pain-relievers-111516.html

Recently, the FDA warned against the use of homeopathic teething tablets and gels. These products, the agency said, can pose a health risk to children. Consumers were told to seek medical care if their child experienced seizures, difficulty breathing, or other adverse effects after using homeopathic teething tablets or gels.

Since then, the FDA has announced that doctors should offer safe alternatives to homeopathic teething tablets and gels. “Teething can be managed without prescription or over-the-counter remedies,” Janet Woodcock, MD, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement…

My comment:

Johnna Stahl · Albuquerque, New Mexico
Like the CDC, the FDA believes in suffering. How much pain are we talking about here? Bone growing and pushing through the gum line. Dental pain, some of the worst pain that can be felt. Torturers use it.

Do babies deserve pain relief? Doctors used to believe that babies don’t remember pain, so why treat it? (Who remembers the pain of teething?) Turns out, that’s not really true. When you’re a baby, your brain is growing and creating new synapses, including those involved with pain. You might not remember the pain you experienced as a baby, but I can guarantee that your brain remembers.

Not every baby will experience a high level of pain with teething, but if that happens, it should be adequately treated with a mixture of baby aspirin and the other non-drug treatments mentioned in this article. There is no purpose to suffering from untreated pain.

Fat Cats

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2136547/Power-really-does-corrupt-scientists-claim-addictive-cocaine.html

More than a hundred years after noted historian Baron John Acton coined the phrase ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ scientists claim the saying is biologically true. The feeling of power has been found to have a similar effect on the brain to cocaine by increasing the levels of testosterone and its by-product 3-androstanediol in both men and women. This in turn leads to raised levels of dopamine, the brain’s reward system called the nucleus accumbens, which can be very addictive…

Power has almost identical effects to cocaine and too much of it can produce too much dopamine leading to more negative effects such as arrogance and impatience. The claims by Dr Ian Robertson may go some way to explain the outlandish and impulsive behaviour of city fatcats, tycoons and celebrities. Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, he said: ‘Baboons low down in the dominance hierarchy have lower levels of dopamine in key brain areas, but if they get ‘promoted’ to a higher position, then dopamine rises accordingly. This makes them more aggressive and sexually active, and in humans similar changes happen when people are given power’.

http://www.dopamineproject.org/2013/01/why-power-money-and-esteem-addicts-are-more-dangerous-than-junkies/

Understanding why power, money, and esteem addicts are so dangerous starts with a crash course on how dopamine manipulates behavior. Everything we do, we do to maintain dopamine flow…

To protect dopamine flow:

Drug and food addicts score and stash.
Safety addicts blame.
Power addicts collude.
Acceptance addicts fawn.
Esteem addicts feign.
Religion addicts pray.
Money addicts connive.

To trigger dopamine:

Drug and food addicts ingest, imbibe, inhale, and inject.
Safety addicts flock.
Power addicts dominate.
Acceptance addicts flatter.
Esteem addicts flaunt.
Religion addicts judge.
Money addicts work, work, work.

For example, esteem addicts are a lot like junkies — only less honest and more pathetic. Both scramble to score the same neurotransmitter, but while junkies tend to limit their destruction to themselves and a small circle of family, friends, and strangers, esteem addicts destroy environments, economies, and untold lives…

Esteem addiction combos are the most interesting and destructive because esteem addicts are extremely self-deceptive. Bolstered by unbridled self-deception, esteem addicts excel at sidestepping facts that threaten dopamine flow and fabricating dopamine-triggering rationalizations that justify despicable behavior…

Power/money/esteem addicts are, by far, the most destructive of all addicts because they will do anything to maintain dopamine flow. They abhor truth and ruthlessly lie, cheat, steal, bribe, corrupt, demean, persecute, attack, destroy, and/or crush. To make matters worse, their addictions provide them with the resources that make it possible to ignore, obfuscate, or eliminate any and all threats to their dopamine flow. It doesn’t help that insatiable dopamine cravings keep power/money/esteem addicts scrambling for the degrees, positions, and power that allow them to define legalities, moralities, and addictions…

This is Kiki. His owner says he’s really not fat, he just has a lot of hair. 🙂

Getting Lost

I’m one of those people who always gets lost. I have no sense of direction. Can’t even read a map. And don’t ask me which way is north, south, east or west. I dunno. Is this because I’m a woman? Let’s ask Google, shall we?

These links describe the area of the brain that’s involved:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2879485/So-s-no-sense-direction-Scans-reveal-brain-signals-determine-good-navigating.html

http://www.medicaldaily.com/sense-direction-where-am-i-get-lost-378977

Many studies have found that, on average, men outpace women at spatial processing — organizing and reshaping visual information in the mind to solve problems. That ability appears to lead to slightly better navigation skills.

As a general rule, though, supposedly innate differences between men and women, especially those attributed to our brains, tend to turn out to be the result of faulty logic. A 2012 review of the subject found that scientists too often rely on the convenient narrative of natural selection to explain away the spatial gap…

Rather than our biology, one of the biggest reasons for our flailing navigational skills may be the maps we use. As external GPS units have become ubiquitous in our cars, smartphones, and even glasses, they’ve subsequently eased our reliance on the internal maps we carry around inside our heads. A 2010 study by McGill University researchers found that older adults who reported regularly using GPS to navigate had less activity and less grey matter in their hippocampus compared to those who didn’t; they also performed slightly worse on a cognition test. As a corollary, a 2008 study found the hippocampuses of London taxi drivers were on average larger than those of the general population…

Now, for the funny side of always getting lost:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/things-only-people-who-have-no-sense-of-direction-will-un?utm_term=.rbZxGOOYM#.ssa3WeeEo

9. You get confused when people go through mazes for fun because you’re like… this isn’t fun, this is my life.

14. You have 100%, most definitely driven the wrong way down a one-way street.

15. You are constantly in awe of people who know their way around, because it feels like a superpower to you.

I hate getting lost. I’ve never gotten used to it. It makes me all anxious and hyper. Like I’m a traffic accident waiting to happen. I try to laugh about it, but it’s really not funny to me. Did you know that if you laugh for 15 minutes a day, you can burn up to 40 calories? Call that an incentive to laugh at yourself. 🙂

#DearCDC: Is chronic/intractable pain a disease?

I had a recent conversation in a comment section about the definition of disease. The dude said that addiction and depression aren’t diseases. And I’m like, would it make you feel better if I called them medical conditions? No? So, when the brain is sick, that’s not a disease or medical condition?

How about when the nervous system is sick, like with chronic pain? Is chronic/intractable pain a disease? Let’s look at some definitions of disease:

(1) a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

(2) an illness that affects a person, animal, or plant; a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally.

(3) a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.

I’d say that intractable pain fits these definitions. Let’s read further:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1299105/

(2004) What is a disease?

At first sight, the answer to “What is a disease?” is straightforward. Most of us feel we have an intuitive grasp of the idea, reaching mentally to images or memories of colds, cancer or tuberculosis. But a look through any medical dictionary soon shows that articulating a satisfactory definition of disease is surprisingly difficult. And it is not much help defining disease as the opposite of health, given that definitions of health are equally tricky. The World Health Organization’s claim that health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1946) has been praised for embracing a holistic viewpoint, and equally strongly condemned for being wildly utopian: the historian Robert Hughes remarked that it was “more realistic for a bovine than a human state of existence” …

What counts as a disease also changes over historical time, partly as a result of increasing expectations of health, partly due to changes in diagnostic ability, but mostly for a mixture of social and economic reasons. One example is osteoporosis, which after being officially recognized as a disease by the WHO in 1994 switched from being an unavoidable part of normal ageing to a pathology (WHO, 1994). This has consequences for sufferers’ sense of whether they are ‘normally old’ or ‘ill’, but more concretely for their ability to have treatment reimbursed by health service providers.

Another well-known example is homosexuality, which has travelled in the opposite direction to osteoporosis, through medical territory, and out the other side. After being redefined during the nineteenth century as a state rather than an act, in the first half of the twentieth century homosexuality was viewed as an endocrine disturbance requiring hormone treatment. Later its pathological identity changed as it was re-categorized as an organic mental disorder treatable by electroshock and sometimes neurosurgery; and finally in 1974 it was officially de-pathologized, when the American Psychiatric Association removed it from the listed disease states in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV…

Intractable pain should be classified as a disease. It fits the definitions. It could also fit the definition for cancer:

“the disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body”

Chronic pain is caused by abnormal and uncontrolled activity in the body’s nervous system. Do pain patients have to die for this medical condition to be taken seriously? Cancer is no longer always terminal, and intractable pain is not immediately terminal. But this is about quality of life and how the disease of constant pain can remove all quality of life. What’s quantity without quality? It’s misery.

I posted this comment on CDC’s Facebook page entitled:  “Today is One Health Day! Diseases are shared between people, animals, and our environment.”

#DearCDC: Is chronic/intractable pain a disease? How about addiction and depression?

When an expert is not an expert

I used to read articles at Vice until they published an article about cannabis that was ignorant and wrong. Let’s see what Vice is getting wrong today, shall we?

This article is full of incorrect statistics and biased conclusions that are endemic in the media. And guess who Vice chose as their addiction “expert”?

http://www.news.vice.com/story/opioids-chronic-pain

The CDC insists it isn’t trying to create barriers to legitimate treatment. The new guidelines, the agency says, are the result of extensive input from “experts” and a thorough review of the available “evidence.” They don’t explicitly rule out opioids for chronic pain, but they do send a clear message that opioids should not be considered a first-line treatment…

I’m sure everyone’s experience is different, but my experience has been that doctors don’t consider opioids as a first-line treatment for anything except acute pain, if then. This makes it sound like chronic pain patients just want an easy fix, the pills. That’s very wrong (as my bank account can attest). In other words, the CDC didn’t need to create regulations because of this issue. I’d say that about 95% of doctors already practiced that way. But wait, we need to punish that 5% of doctors who aren’t following the rules, just like we’re punishing pain patients for those who suffer from addiction. Because drug war.

Alternatives do exist. For instance, the CDC says exercise therapy has been shown to improve physical function in some patients. Non-opioid medications, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, can be useful for conditions like arthritis and lower back pain, and some antidepressants and anticonvulsants are also effective.

Tell me, how are people in pain supposed to exercise without any pain relief? Sure, exercise will improve my physical function, but why would I want to increase my pain levels without anything to relieve the increased pain? That would make me stupid. Or a masochist. And speaking of masochists…

Hey Kolodny, are you going to treat the conditions that arise from taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen on a long-term basis? Even the CDC advises against that. How about when an antidepressant causes suicidal ideation? Do your addiction centers treat that, too?

In 1996, the American Pain Society launched its influential “fifth vital sign” campaign, giving pain equal billing with blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and rate of breathing… Just as the “fifth vital sign” campaign encouraged physicians to prescribe opioids indiscriminately…

The media and the medical industry love to place blame on the fifth vital sign. Tell me, what does monitoring pain levels (along with blood pressure, etc.) have to do with drug addiction? No, no, no, the fifth vital sign campaign did not encourage doctors to prescribe opioids indiscriminately. That’s doctors talking, blaming overdoses and addiction on pain patients.

That same year, Purdue Pharma released OxyContin, a powerful painkiller sold as a slow-release pill, which the company aggressively marketed as a godsend for pain patients, often to doctors with little knowledge of abuse-disorder warning signs. OxyContin was a blockbuster, reaching sales of over $1 billion by the end of the decade. But it turned out the drug was also pretty easy to crush, snort, and inject for a high — and Purdue downplayed the risk of patients becoming addicted. In 2007, the company and its executives agreed to pay fines of $635 million for misleading the public.

Sure, blame Purdue. Don’t blame doctors, who use ignorance of treating pain and addiction as the reason for Oxy’s popularity. Bullshit. Doctors have always known that Oxy is addictive. All painkillers can be addicting in a small percentage of patients and doctors know that.

One study the CDC looked at showed that dependence among patients on opioid therapy was as high as 26 percent…

Actually, there are studies that show the addiction rate for pain patients at about 3% to 10%, but the CDC wasn’t interested in any information that was contrary to what their “experts” wanted. Why would the CDC base the treatment of pain on this one study? And why is the CDC making regulations according to 26% of the population? What about the other 74%? I can’t be sure, but I believe that constitutes a majority.

But if the evidence doesn’t support opioid treatment for long-term pain, why are so many chronic pain patients convinced they need the drugs to function? Andrew Kolodny, an influential substance-abuse expert and one of the country’s most vocal critics of opioid overprescribing, thinks he has a pretty good answer. Those patients, he says, are probably dependent on the drugs and may be addicted.

Actually, the lack of “evidence” to support opioid treatment for chronic pain has more to do with who funds the research. No one wants to fund research for chronic pain, even if they could find volunteers who would agree to treat their pain with a placebo. Those funding research on pain are connected to addiction, like the NIDA. And when others perform research on pain, if it doesn’t comport with the government’s program on addiction, the research is buried or not even published.

Kolodny doesn’t waver when I mention the desperation I’ve heard from sufferers. “You’ve found a group of very vocal patients who are convinced that everyone is trying to take their opiates away from them,” he said. “They believe that the CDC guidelines — that advocacy groups like mine — that what we’re really after is stopping drug abusers, and that they’re being made to pay the price. That’s totally not what’s going on. What’s motivating us is an understanding that opioids are lousy drugs for chronic pain.”

Pain patients are having their medications taken away from them — not just opioids and not just pain patients. Doctors don’t want to treat any kind of pain because they’re scared. No, doctors would rather blame pain patients, stop treating them, and move on. How many pain doctors have switched to treating addiction (see the first link following my rant)?

Kolodny reminds me of people who think that addiction doesn’t exist. I think he believes that chronic pain doesn’t really exist. For Kolodny, only addiction exists.

Anyone who says that opioids are lousy drugs for chronic pain has never suffered from chronic pain — and is an ignorant asshole. This is who the CDC used as an “expert.”

For consensus, Kolodny says to look to the country’s leading pain clinics. The Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, and the Washington University School of Medicine are a few of the institutions whose experts now say long-term opioid treatments are ineffective and risky. But there are still pain specialists who disagree…

Why doesn’t the media talk to patients who’ve been treated by these allegedly illustrious clinics? I want to hear from them. Actually, I do hear from patients who’ve been treated at these clinics, in comment sections all over the internet. And it’s nothing good.

“The language that they’ll use to describe how they think opioids are helping them is the exact same language my heroin-using patients use,” Kolodny told me. “I’ve been treating opioid addiction for about 15 years. They use the same exact language: ‘Doc, imagine what it feels like every morning — feeling like you’ve been hit in the chest with a baseball bat until you take your first dose.’”

First of all, Kolodny is neither an addiction expert or an expert on the treatment of pain. He’s a dickhead with a lot of power and money behind him, hoping to move up to bigger and better things, probably in politics.

How much has Kolodny’s income increased since he joined the opioid war? How many patients have died while being treated at one of Kolodny’s addiction clinics? Why isn’t he being held responsible for these deaths, like pain doctors are being prosecuted for their patients’ deaths? Why doesn’t the media include the crimes being committed at these clinics when using Kolodny as an “expert”?

Kolodny says he’s been treating addiction for 15 years. Has he ever suffered from addiction or chronic pain? I’ve suffered from intractable pain for 30 years and I think I know more about addiction than he does.

In Kolodny’s view, these patients are feeling better from opioids not because the medication is treating an underlying pain problem but because it’s treating their withdrawal pain. And his view holds a lot of sway….

Really? Seriously? Well, Mr. Kolodny, I haven’t taken opioids to treat my intractable pain for about 6 years now. Why am I still in a suicidal amount of pain? Because the “pain problem” is not an underlying condition — it is the main condition. And it deserves treatment, just like any other medical condition.

Even Kolodny concedes that some patients have been on opioids so long that they may never be able to function without them. Long-term use can cause physical changes in the brain that are potentially irreversible. “What we don’t want is for primary care doctors to just start firing these patients,” he said. “That would be really bad. It’s a problem that we need good solutions for.

Chronic and intractable pain can also cause physical changes in the brain that are not “potentially” irreversible, but always irreversible.

Thanks to the CDC and the media, Kolodny is the #1 enemy of pain patients. And I think he enjoys being seen this way, as it makes him look like a hero to all of his followers. If he can diagnose me as a drug addict because I suffer from intractable pain, then I’m diagnosing him as a masochist who enjoys seeing people suffer. That’s probably why he got into treating addiction in the first place.

Hey, Kolodny, pain patients are being abandoned left and right, and have been for years. Where the fuck have you been? I know, your only interest is addiction. You care nothing for pain patients, yet you claim to be an expert and the CDC and the media treat you like one. But I know what you are. I know you’re partially responsible for an immeasurable amount of suffering and many deaths. How the fuck do you sleep at night?

http://www.nationalpainreport.com/15-years-with-my-pain-dr-and-my-last-appointment-became-my-final-appointment-8831814.html

http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/10/25/unwilling-to-suffer-in-silence-over-cdc-opioid-guidelines

Jo
I have had reflex sympathetic dystrophy since I was 13 I am now 39. My left leg was amputated due to complications from the RSD. Unfortunately it spread to my right leg about ten yrs ago and again I’m have major complications. I was in fentanyl pops along w Oxy contin and both were helping me make it through the day . The insurance company or drug company changed the label on the fentanyl to cancer patients only and took out chronic pain sufferers. So now my insurance co will no longer cover it bc I do not have cancer. I was on this drug for years , I didn’t abuse I didn’t sell it I used it bc I’m in extreme pain and it helped, but now that was taken away. My legs keep getting worse I have terrible phantom pain in addition to the RSD pain in both legs and my right arm spread to…

Tina
I had my right hip replaced in 2014. DDD, osteoarthritis, and avascular necrosis on top of rheumatoid arthritis disease. During the surgery the muscle tore off the bone creating an avulsion fracture. Discharged home with a prescription. I went 2 weeks not being able to do my physical therapy or anything for that matter all because non of the pharmacies in our area that accepted my insurance would fill the prescription. Talk about torture.

http://www.petition2congress.com/5202/first-do-no-harm-dea-targets-physicians-who-treat-their-patients/comments/page/350

Doris W. from Lyman, SC writes:
My son is a dialysis patient with a severely deteriorated body. He has severe and very painful bone disease, osteomylatia, with bone forming throughout his body. He currently has open wounds on his legs and scrotum that won’t heal. His health is being undermined because he is in so much pain that he can not complete his hemo dialysis treatments, yet we can find anyone who will provide him pain management. All his doctors say they no longer write opiods. They are AFRAID to do so or it’s against their corporate owner’s policy. He is only 37 years old and doesn’t want to give up treatment. This is terrible malpractice and a real shame in a first world country.

Sharon S. from Wilmington, DE writes:
I am a cancer patient; stage 2 lymphoma and the chemo drugs have left me with peripheral neuropathy. Not finished with this devastation yet. The pain from this condition is with me every day now. After several requests to my doctors for pain meds, I was prescribed Gabapentin. Doesn’t work. After reading through the comments here on this site regarding the failures of the American Medical system and the many people who are suffering as a result, I have to say, I am not at all surprised but I am scared.

Malinda S. from Memphis, TN writes:
Yeah I asked my doctor about the First Do No Harm. He told it wasn’t my license on the line. That was when I truly no longer wanted to live. I felt nothing. With no insurance and trying to get my disability, I am no longer per my neurologist allowed the take pain meds over the counter or prescription. So I have to live in pain 24/7. I have to smile when I want to cry but one of my diseases keeps me from psychically crying. I am in constant pain in my bones, joints, muscles, & chronic migraines. I may be in pain everyday and night, the constant is that I keep loosing friends and family. They just don’t want to deal with me anymore.

Mark N. from Brookfield, IL writes:
For the pain I’ve been put through and the way that I’ve been treated since the beginning of this year, I will, as long as I live never trust or respect Doctors again.

As many times as I try to release my anger, it comes back. Reading about the suffering of other pain patients brings back painful memories for me, but I can’t stop. Maybe I’m the masochist.

What do I see? Take a walk with me…

Let’s start with some balls.

I don’t understand what’s going on with gas prices. I’ve seen a difference of up to 20 cents between different gas stations. What’s up with that? Why does the price fluctuate so much?

Speaking of cars, I had to buy a new tire this month. Not because I had driven 30 or 40 thousand miles on it, but all due to the heat. Major bummer.

In Houston, Texas, where I used to live, we didn’t have any credit unions. But here in New Mexico, they’re everywhere. Seems to me that there’s not much difference between a credit union and a bank — they’ve both got more money than me.

Be kind to trees. We need them.

This is a cottonwood tree. Their leaves shine in the sun, which my cheap camera doesn’t like to capture.

This is what a cloud looks like when it’s singing.

Here I am, trying to get a shot of the balloons last weekend, at the end of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Can’t see the balloons? Can you see them now?

As fast as someone cleans up the graffiti, it reappears.

Only lazy assholes litter.

I recently read that mice, given a mixture of an energy drink and alcohol, acted the same as if their brains were on cocaine. I’m beginning to think that mice aren’t really like humans at all. I suppose they have to use them for medical research, but the results shouldn’t always be applied to humans.

I’ve also read that the Iraqi Parliament just passed a bill banning alcohol, and it appears the Christians are upset about it. (I think they’re the only ones allowed to sell alcohol.) “The bill, passed late Saturday, imposes a fine of up to 25 million Iraqi dinars, or $21,000, for anyone violating the ban.” Maybe Iraqis haven’t read about the failure of prohibition in our country.

Before.

After.

Does it ever feel like you’re stuck in a web?

I took this photo at dusk, while sitting at a red light.

Do you ever feel like a tiny ant, trudging up an impossibly high mountain? Or maybe just a tiny green bug, so much smaller than all the other bugs?

Flower power.

A Halloween edition of “What Do I See?” will be coming shortly. Please stay tuned. 🙂

In my search terms (Narcan)

“Why did I have extreme pain when the paramedic gave me narcan after I overdosed?”

Your pain is probably due to the pain of withdrawal, which will affect you both physically and mentally. (Narcan’s effects are both immediate and amplified.) Some people even equate withdrawal with torture (including me). There’s also the possibility that the drugs you were taking masked certain physical pain in your body, which then became stronger after being given Narcan.

The brain makes its own pain-relieving chemicals, but Narcan violently disrupts those pathways, so your brain is left with no way to manage or fight pain. How long does this effect last? How long is your brain handicapped? Hours, days, or maybe years? I’m guessing it’s different for everyone.

Can Narcan cause or increase chronic pain? It appears that no one knows the answer to that question. But does it even matter? When someone is given Narcan, they’re not in a position to be advised about the possible long-term effects of that drug. And Narcan saves lives, so who cares about the side effects, right?

I’m gonna bring you back to life with this miracle drug, but there’s a possibility that it will cause you to be in constant physical and/or mental pain for the rest of your life. Okey dokey?

The Stink of Hypocrisy

There is no scientific basis for the drug war. Deciding if a drug is illegal (or restricting its use) has nothing to do with the number of people who die after using that drug.

You can compare alcohol to just about any other drug, and the drug will always do less damage than alcohol. And yet, alcohol will always be legal. It seems that the legal standing of a drug is only part of the reason that people will use and abuse it.

http://www.ncadd.org/blogs/in-the-news/alcohol-related-deaths-highest-in-35-years

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC,) there were 30,000 American deaths from alcohol-induced causes in 2014. The CDC report notes that the deaths included alcohol poisoning and cirrhosis, liver damage primarily caused by drinking.

In an article published by Medical Daily, that information translates to 9.6 deaths from alcohol-induced causes per 100,000 people, a figure that has risen 37 percent since 2002. These alarming numbers don’t even include deaths from drunk driving, and other accidents or homicides committed under the influence of alcohol…

http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-and-statistics

Nearly 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States. In 2014, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 9,967 deaths (31 percent of overall driving fatalities).

I don’t think that deaths due to opioids will ever be more than just a fraction of those from alcohol. But do you hear any of the media talking about the epidemic of alcoholism in this country? No, we only hear about the opioid and heroin “epidemic.” Why is that?

No matter the reason, it all stinks of hypocrisy. Wanna talk about sugar?

I’ll tell you what, when you restrict the use of painkillers, the use of alcohol (and sugar) will only increase further. But that’s okay with the CDC, FDA, and DEA.

Locusts and Racists

From Wikipedia:  “Locusts are certain species of short-horned grasshoppers… which possess both a solitary phase and a swarming phase. In the solitary phase, these grasshoppers are innocuous, their numbers are low and they do not pose a major economic threat to agriculture. However, under suitable conditions of drought followed by rapid vegetation growth, serotonin in their brains triggers a dramatic set of changes: they start to breed abundantly, becoming gregarious and nomadic…”

Racists are a certain species of human being… which possess both a solitary phase and a swarming phase. In the solitary phase, these racists are innocuous, their numbers are low and they do not pose a major threat to the public. However, under poor economic conditions, followed by a presidential popularity contest, the serotonin in their brains triggers a dramatic set of changes: they start to come out of the closet, spewing their hatred and ignorance for all to see (and cringe over)…

“They are also edible insects; they have been eaten throughout history and are considered a delicacy in many countries.”

While learning about locusts, I found these Trump caterpillars (on Google images):

Hang on, the presidential race is almost over. 🙂