Pain
Foot Pain Ruining Your Golf Swing?
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The barrier to a perfect golf swing could lie in your big toe. Or your heel. Or on the ball of your foot. Experts with the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) say these are the three areas of your feet most likely to cause pain that can ruin your golf swing.
Behind these pain-prone spots can lie stiff joints, stretched-out tissues and even nerve damage. But pain relief is possible and frequently does not require surgery.
The three most common painful foot conditions that can ruin your golf swing are heel pain, arthritis and pinched nerves.
“Smokable” pain drugs promise faster action
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All self-respecting painkillers these days offer “fast-acting relief,” a promise we accept to mean anywhere from 15 minutes to more than an hour.
For Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing drugs for migraine, pain, panic and agitation, “fast” has to mean “within seconds.”
Drugs nearing approval for mysterious pain condition
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Although not all doctors are convinced that the pain and fatigue condition diagnosed as fibromyalgia is a distinct condition, drug companies are racing to win U.S. regulatory approval to serve this potentially lucrative market.
The debilitating disorder is thought to affect an estimated 2 percent to 4 percent of Americans, mainly women. Diagnosing fibromyalgia is not easy because its cause is unknown and its symptoms, which include depression, can overlap with other conditions.
Pain from fibromyalgia is real, experts say
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Many people with fibromyalgia—a debilitating pain syndrome that affects 2 to 4 percent of the population—have faced the question of whether the condition is real.
Based on a review of published studies, there is now “overwhelming” evidence that fibromyalgia is real, report two researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School in the journal Current Pain and Headache Reports.
Genetic Mechanism Helps Explain Chronic Pain Disorders
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Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that commonly occurring variations of a gene trigger a domino effect in chronic pain disorders. The finding might lead to more effective treatments for temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) and other chronic pain conditions.
Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme that metabolizes neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine and that has been implicated in the modulation of persistent pain, as well as cognition and mood, is regulated by a gene, also called COMT. Previous UNC-led research showed that common genetic variants of this gene are associated with increased pain sensitivity and the likelihood of developing TMJD.
Intermittent icing best for relief of sprain pain
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Holding an ice pack on a sprained ankle for no more than 10 minutes at a time is more effective for easing pain than icing for a longer stretch of time, researchers report.
However, the either approach was effective for reducing swelling and improving joint function, the team found.
Ice is one of the standard treatments for reducing pain and swelling after an ankle injury, but there is little scientific evidence for the best approach to using this treatment—or even whether it works—Dr. C. M. Bleakley of the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, Northern Ireland, and colleagues report in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Smokers who experience significant pain smoke more
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Smokers who experience significant pain smoke more cigarettes per day than those who are not regularly in pain, according to a study published by researchers at the University of Kentucky.
However, more than half of smokers with pain are at least considering quitting smoking.
“While people with pain smoke more, they are just as interested in quitting as those without pain,” said study author Ellen Hahn, professor, UK College of Nursing.
UK recommendations on the availability of common painkillers are being contravened
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UK recommendations concerning the availability of the common painkiller paracetamol are apparently being contravened, suggests a study in Postgraduate Medical Journal.
In September 1998, UK legislation on pack sizes came into effect in a bid to curb the 200 odd deaths attributable to paracetamol poisoning every year in England and Wales. The drug is highly toxic to the liver if taken in excess amounts.
The legislation restricted the size of paracetamol packs available to a maximum of 32 tablets of 500 mg each in pharmacies and to a maximum of 16 tablets in other outlets, such as petrol stations, supermarkets, and corner shops.
Most drug OD deaths due to potent painkillers
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The most common drugs involved in fatal overdoses listed on death certificates are prescription opioid painkillers, often obtained illicitly, investigators report.
The worsening abuse of potent opioid drugs, such as oxycodone or fentanyl, coincides with an increase in the prescribing of these drugs by doctors, who have been encouraged to treat chronic pain more effectively, Dr. Leonard J. Paulozzi and associates explain in their article in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.
However, they say the two trends are not necessarily connected, and they recommend that prevention of opioid abuse should not diminish the quality of care for patients with a legitimate need for pain relief.
Shingles pain eased with two-pronged therapy
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A new approach could bring much-needed relief to people suffering from severe nerve pain following a bout of shingles.
Shingles is caused by reactivation of chickenpox virus, which lies dormant in nerve fibers until stress or illness triggers a resurgence. The resulting rash can damage nerves, causing sometimes-excruciating pain, called postherpetic neuralgia.
Now researchers report in the Archives of Neurology that a course of intravenous treatment with the antiviral drug acyclovir, followed by oral treatment with a similar drug, valacyclovir, helps at least some patients with shingles pain.
Forearm support may spare desk workers some pain
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Equipping office desks with a simple forearm support may help prevent the pain that can come with long days at a computer, new research suggests.
In a year-long study of 182 workers at a call center, researchers found that those who received forearm supports for their desks were less likely to suffer pain in the neck, shoulders, arm, wrist or hand.
They were also less likely to be diagnosed with a musculoskeletal injury in the neck or shoulders, according to findings published in the British Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Expert says fetuses cannot feel pain and fetal pain relief is not required during abortions
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There is good evidence that fetuses cannot feel pain, says an expert in the BMJ.
Proposals to tell women seeking abortions that their unborn child will feel pain, or to provide pain relief during abortions, are therefore scientifically unsound and may put women at unnecessary risk, argues Stuart Derbyshire, a senior psychologist at the University of Birmingham.
He examined the neurological and psychological evidence to support a concept of fetal pain.
Lack of research forcing elderly to cope with chronic pain
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Annually, over 4,000 studies related to pain are published while only one percent of those look at pain and aging.
There is a clear need for more investigators from many fields to further the efforts of current researchers, according to a recent paper published in the journal Pain Medicine.
Today, chronic pain in the elderly population is viewed by many as normal. It is often communicated with patients that pain is a normal part of aging and frequently not treated. Those practitioners that do try to treat the pain are often unsuccessful because they do not have the right tools. Out of this, the need for more research for pain and aging has risen.
Cause of ongoing pain elucidated
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Scientists in the UK, searching for the cause behind ongoing spontaneous pain, have found evidence that it’s the undamaged nerve fibers that cause the pain, not those that are damaged by injury or disease.
Ongoing pain is characterized by a burning or sharp stabbing or shooting pain that can occur spontaneously after nerve injury. Unlike “evoked” pain caused, for example, by hitting your thumb with a hammer, ongoing pain frequently reduces quality of life and is difficult to treat with currently available painkillers.
Nerve damage may underlie mystery pain syndrome
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The findings from a new study lend support to the hypothesis that the so-called “complex regional pain syndrome” is a bona fide neurologic disorder caused by persistent nerve injury affecting small fibers that can feel pain.
Complex regional pain syndrome involves post-traumatic limb pain and other disturbances that continue even though the inciting injury seems to have healed. The cause of the symptoms is unknown and because there are few objective findings, diagnosis and treatment is difficult. Some have even questioned whether complex regional pain syndrome has a real biologic basis or is a psychosomatic illness.
