Millions of Americans in Chronic Pain

[Zeno Swijtink]

Millions of Americans in Chronic Pain
KATHLEEN KINGSBURY - TIME

Nursing a migraine today? New research shows you're not alone. More than a quarter of Americans suffer daily pain, a condition that costs the U.S. about $60 billion a year in lost productivity. And how often you're in pain depends largely on the size of your paycheck.

Americans in households making less than $30,000 a year spend nearly 20% of their lives in moderate to severe pain, compared with less than 8% of people in households earning above $100,000, according to a landmark study on how Americans experience in pain. The findings, published Thursday in the British journal the Lancet, also found that participants who hadn't finished high school reported feeling twice the amount of pain as college graduates. "To a significant extent, pain does separate the classes," says Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who authored the study along with Dr. Arthur Stone, a psychiatry professor at Stony Brook University.

Krueger notes that the type of pain people reported typically fell on either side of the rich-poor divide. "Those with higher incomes welcome pain almost by choice, usually through exercise," he says. "At lower incomes, pain comes as the result of work." Indeed, Krueger and Stone found that blue-collar workers felt more pain, from physical labor or repetitive motion, while on the job than off, which at least offers hope that the problem can be mitigated. This finding "emphasizes the need for pain preventing measures [in the workplace] such as better ergonomics," wrote Juha H.O. Turunen, a professor of social pharmacy at Finland's University of Kuopio, in an accompanying commentary to the report.

People with chronic pain also worked less, the new study found, costing U.S. businesses as much as $60 billion annually. These conclusions are in line with previous studies on productivity lost to common pain conditions, including a 2003 report finding that nearly 15% of the U.S. workforce's output was diminished by ailments such as headaches and arthritis. What's new in Kruger and Stone's study, however, is the level of detail with which the researchers were able to chronicle the lives of Americans in pain. With the help of the polling firm Gallup, they asked nearly 4,000 survey participants to diarize their daily activities over a 24-hour period. From these personal accounts, the researchers saw the impact pain had on people's emotional states. Though participants said interacting with a spouse or friend lowered their pain, those suffering chronic pain tended to socialize much less. They also spent a lot more time watching televisionï¿∏about 25% of their day compared with 16% for the average person.

Pain also appeared to be a major driver of healthcare costs. Krueger and Stone found that Americans spent about $2.6 billion in over-the-counter pain medications and another nearly $14 billion on outpatient analgesics in 2004, the most recent data available. But in these numbers, too, there may be a distinction between the haves and the have-nots. A 2005 study in Michigan showed that minorities and the poor have less access to such drugs than wealthier Americans because local pharmacies don't stock enough pain medications such as oxycodone or morphine. "Those [pharmacies] in white ZIP codes were more than 13 times more likely to have sufficient supplies," says lead researcher Dr. Carmen Green, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Michigan. "I have patients who have to drive 30 miles or more just to get their pain medications."

One characteristic that pain doesn't seem to distinguish is gender: according to Krueger and Stone's study, men and women were nearly equally likely to find themselves in pain. Another is age. People reported more aches and pains as they got older, though surprisingly that pain tended to plateau from ages 45 to 75. "Maybe people reach a point in their career where they move up the ladder into a desk job," Krueger says. "Or maybe they've just learned how to cope with the pain."

[nurturetruth]

I feel very grateful to have found that some forms of chronic pain can be managed and not just maintained.

From my understanding and experience regarding the human body... pain and even headaches occur as a reaction/ indication that something is off balance .
Not only have I experienced awful migrains, but I also experienced terrible injury in my 20's when I slipped on black ice and hit the base of my spine real hard. I did not have insurance or a way to pay for medical bills, so I just lived with the results. I gave up my passion for running cross country, even found I couldn't hardly walk a block without chronic pain. I discovered I would get terrible sciatica pain when walking even the shortest distance!
I held the belief that I was limited with what I could do and got used to accepting that belief..even found a place of comfort with feeling limited.

Now, in my 30's I have learned how important it is to really love myself by educating myself in diet and health programs. To really tune into my body and its needs.
I have discovered that in order for me to be headache free and experience pain free moments when gardening, walking or yoga, I had to really shift gears.

I cut out all dairy from my diet, (except lactose free Ghee..but i even have to be careful with this as my nose gets runny if i use too much!) and really observed as well as limited my intake of mucous and plaque forming foods.
Just recently, I went through a mega 10 day body cleanse/detox/ Liver Flush intensive. I was able to witness just how much plaque, and mucous my body had actually been dealing with!
* After this 10 day cleanse, I found myself walking up about 3- 6 mile every other day completely (with rest stops in between!) PAIN FREE! *
It was a truly amazing experience for me!

All the other things, like massage, neuromuscular work, chiropractic, epsom salt or arnica salt baths, hot/cold compresses, pain management lotion...or cortisone shots...coq10/calcium, they all are also real good for maintaining. But all of these therapies proved to be short lived with only providing temporary relief in my experience.
The only thing that has provided long term relief has been diet shifting and detoxing/cleaning my body.

I am inspired in having freedom from pain and it is my hope/vision that more people will choose to learn how to maintain and manage their chronic pain in any way possible!