Airdate: September 27, 2011
Is Your Chronic Pain a Disease?
- Chronic Pain
- Why your doctor thinks you're crazy
- Four questions to ask your doctor
- Flu season tips
- Booty busting salmon burgers
- Daphne Oz has her own show: The Chew on ABC
Over 160 million Americans suffer from chronic pain and most doctors don't have any answers. When doctor's don't have answers they often put blame back on the patients, telling them it's all in their head. According to Dr. Oz, many doctors really do think their patients are crazy. How do you get around this bias and get the help you need?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Join the Conversation!
Connect with Watching Dr Oz:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Oz: Is Your Chronic Pain a Disease?
Dismissed, disheartened, and frustrated are words used by audience members on today's Dr. Oz Show to describe their feelings surrounding the treatment received by doctor's when they try to get care for their chronic pain.
When a patient comes to their doctor voicing chronic pain issues, most often, the doctor thinks the patient is crazy. From there patients are juggled from doctor to specialist to other doctors. The chronic pain continues and effecting mood and inter-personal relationships. Years of suffering can turn bring on depression. Pain can cause sleep deprivation which makes the problems worse. And on, and on, and on.
Dr. Oz: Why Your Doctor Thinks You're Crazy
- Doctors can't see your pain – chronic pain should be thought of like cardiac disease and like asthma - as long lasting health issues that interfere with all aspects of life.
- Doctors don't have any pain management training. Pain management training in medical school surrounds the management of post-operative care not chronic pain as a disease.
- Doctor's are thinking in the back of their minds that the patients are just trying to get narcotic medications. Doctor's think the patients will either misuse the prescription or sell it on the black market. Often doctors are mis-prescribing and are not aware of how to manage the use of the prescriptions they are telling their patients to take.
- Male doctor's treat female patients differently – male doctor's often have a prejudice against womens healthy concerns.
Pain is a disease. A shift in perspective within the health care community need to happen so that pain is looked at as what the patients say it is - it is real and a solution must be found.
What is chronic pain? It's the brain's job to protect the body and keep you from doing things that will cause injury. With chronic pain the brain is sensitized to the pain and learns to react continuously to pain from injury even when the injury has healed.
Dr. Oz wants people who suffer from chronic pain to know that help is available. It takes time to find a health care provider that is experienced in chronic pain management. Keeping asking questions until you find someone who will listen and work to find answers.
Dr. Oz: 4 Questions You Need to Ask to Find a Doctor to Treat Chronic Pain
Getting the right care for chronic pain, as with any healthy issues, is dependent on working with the right doctor. Care providers with experience in a specific concern will be a better partner than one who has no experience and no knowledge of the concern. Ask these questions of your doctor to find out if they are the right person to help you get well.
- How much pain management training have you received? In medical school, doctor's receive a few hours of training. Those who are trained have focused their education and career on the issue – not many.
- What is your approach?
- How long until I can expect to see results? Depending on how long the chronic pain issues has existed, it may take just as long to begin to see results.
- How much will this cost? Chronic pain therapy takes time and is expensive. Knowing the costs of each therapy will allow patients to begin a dialogue with their insurance company and prepare and plan for the costs.
Keep going if you meet resistance from health care providers. Utilizing these questions can help in finding a provider who can help manage the pain and help patients get their lives back.
Dr. Oz recommends that people suffering from chronic pain take both Vitamin D at 1000iu and Acetyl L-Carnitine at 1000mg.
Source Naturals Vitamin D-3 1000IU 100 Tabs - $4.49
from: Best Price Nutrition
Life Extension L-Carnitine 500mg 30 Caps - $11.25
from: Best Price Nutrition
One of the important roles of vitamin D in the body is inflammation modulation. People with chronic pain issues can also have inflammation issues too. Chronic inflammation is connected with other diseases such as immune function and heart health.
Acetyl L-Carnitine is different from L-Carnitine though some information online show that the body can convert each into the other. Acetyl L-Carnitine is an amino-acid and is able to cross the blood-brain barrier which is why it is recommended for brain related issues and neurological concerns including pain associated with the nervous system.
Dr. Oz: What You Need to Know About the Catching the Flu
How do you sneeze? Most people sneeze or cough into their hand. All the germs in the saliva then go onto the hand. What do most people do with their hands? They touch everything! Touching a door knob, a handle on the subway or bus, use a stapler or pick up the coffee pot at work. The germs on their hands are transferred to everything they touch potentially transmitting those germs to others who may then come down with whatever crud was in that sneeze. Gross!
Sneeze, or cough, into your elbow. Take those germ-spreading-hands out of the equation. Turn your head away from people as best you can to reduce the trajectory of those germs!
How far can a sneeze travel? A sneeze can travel over 12 feet at over 100 mph. Those flying germs can effect and potentially spread to everyone that comes into contact with the airborne buggers.
Dr. Oz: Flu Fact or fiction?
Dr. Oz Flu Fact or Fiction: Is echinacea the best product to use doing the cold or flu season?
Fiction! Dr. Oz says that there no data that supports echinacea being the best product to use during the cold and flu season. Instead, he recommends to try Umckaloabo. Try pronouncing that!
[It is actually sold under the name Umcka® here in the U.S. by Nature's Way. Umcka® contains Pelargonium sidoides that support the immune system and in particular the respiratory system – from the sinuses down through the lungs. It's a homeopathic product so I can say that there is no know side effects and no known interactions and that studies have shown that it can reduce the symptoms of a cold by as much as 2 days. Umcka® has been used in Europe for years with great feedback]
Dr. Oz Flu Fact or Fiction: Can catch the flu from getting a flu shot?
Fiction.The flu vaccination inactivated virus. Dr. Oz says there is no problem with getting a flu shot.
Dr. Oz recommends that everyone gets a flu shot. A pharmacist from Walgreen's was on the set to give Dr. Oz flu shot – third year running. The pharmacist urged that everyone over the age of 6 months get a shot every year.
[I'm opposed to the flu vaccinations for a number of reasons. I'm opposed to vaccines in general but, I'll focus on just the flu vaccine for the moment. The flu vaccine contains the inactive virus from the previous year and can only support the immune system from that form of the flu. The virus mutates continuously creating new strains all the time.
I believe that taking Vitamin D is a better way to support the immune system in the face of the cold and flu season. Why? Vitamin D supports the innate immune system that plays a role in the body taking action when exposed to germs previously unseen. Instead of getting a shot for last year's virus, you could give your body the tools it needs to respond to any germ.
eHow has a nice run down of the concerns associated with receiving the flu shot from fears of Alzheimer’s to neurological issues to concerns of loss of IQ. If you're going to take a shot or a pill or take on a treatment then find out what it is all about. Learn about the benefits and the risks and alternatives and make your decisions based on information along with open conversations and not simply because someone told you so.
Have a relationship with your pharmacist especially if you have a chronic or on-going health issue. Pharmacist's can also recommend immunizations within the framework of therapies and prescriptions. The most under-used member of the health care industry is a pharmacist. The best part of talking to a pharmacist is that it's free!]
Dr. Oz: A Visit with a Super Fan!
A Dr. Oz's super fan, Marsha, got a visit from his daughter, Daphne Oz, to see if Marsha really does everything Dr. Oz recommends like she says. With the help of Gordon Elliot, Daphne went through Marsha's kitchen to see if they could create a healthy meal with ingredients on hand.
Marsha has lost 25 lbs to date by following Dr. Oz's instructions. She feels that her stomach and behind are still concern areas that she would like to see shrink too!
Marauding through the cupboards, they found some bad stuff and a lot of good stuff. Marsha was hoping they didn't see the bad stuff. Marsha's son let out the secret – the candy is in her bedside table. Gasp!
What did they find? On the good list: great spices to give flavor to any meal, and healthy canned salmon. On the needs improvement list: sweetened juices and salad dressing. Sticking to 100% pure juices will reduce the sugar. Making your own salad dressing allows for full fresh flavor impact and customization without the preservatives in pre-bottled products.
Dr. Oz challenged Gordon, Daphne and Marsha to make a booty busting salmon burger with the ingredients found in Marsha's kitchen. Check out the yummy looking recipe – that includes things they didn't mention were in her kitchen but are common items.
Daphne has a her own show called The Chew, produced by Gordon Elliot, giving useful and affordable information on cooking. She's the Dr. Oz of the kitchen. Daphne will take issues discussed on The Dr. Oz Show and translate the health benefits into foods that everyone can create in their own kitchen. Sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out. Moderated by one of my favorite people, Clinton Kelly from TLC's What Not to Wear – my favorite show!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Place your vote for
this week's quiz
and return on Saturday
for the answer.
Thank you for making
Watching Dr Oz a success!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment