I like to see what posts bring the most traffic here – what people are interested in reading. Sometimes, I think I’ve got a post that will be incredibly interesting and everyone will want to “Stumble” (use stumbleupon.com to spread the news) and then very few people read it. Other times, I think it’s an obscure little post, and the views go through the roof.
Since the point of the blog is to address pain in general, I try to cover as much as I can. Unfortunately though, chronic pain is a very large part of illness and disability, and …read more

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According to an article on CTV.ca, people in Canada with arthritis are not taking their medications: Arthritis patients don’t take medicine, survey says.
In fact, almost 90% of patients aren’t taking the medications as prescribed. It doesn’t make sense. I know people are fearful of medications. They don’t like the side effects, they’re fearful that the drug may prove to be harmful, they’re afraid they’ll get addicted.
The thing is though, if you need the medications for the pain, they usually will help you live a more productive life, which helps you feel better about yourself and life in general. Instead, by …read more

NSAIDs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are often used for arthritis pain and other chronic pain. But, they can cause stomach problems in some people.
According to the article, Topical NSAID As Effective As Tablets For Knee Pain, NSAID creams are “as effective as tablets for the treatment of chronic knee pain in older people.”
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As the EULAR (European League Against Rheumatism) conference continues in Paris, France, more research news is being presented. According to their latest press release regarding a new program in the United Kingdom, called Challenging Pain, there have been significant improvements for people with arthritis who are living with chronic pain: “A new two week programme significantly reduces healthcare visits, pain scores and health distress in arthritis patients with chronic pain. Results were comparable to existing six week self-management programmes and the benefits of the programme were sustained for six months with improvements continuing up to a year later, according to …read more

Grandma was right when she tried to give your parents – and maybe you – some cod liver oil. It is good for you. And, now researchers have found that 2 teaspoons of cod liver oil could cut down on the amount of pain killers you may be taking to treat your pain from rheumatoid arthritis.
This type of news is exciting because if we can cut down on NSAID use, we can cut down on some health issues that long-term use of NSAIDs could cause.
To read more about the study, go to this article at the Daily Mail: …read more