Overcoming Pain

Why people experience chronic pain, and the power they have to de-intensify it.

by Mark Borigini

Melting the Myths of Visual Snow

“Visual snow” is a visual phenomenon whereby individuals see what appears to be snow or static, as one would experience with poor television reception. Its severity is variable, but it has been known to have an extremely negative impact on daily life, rendering focusing and reading difficult. Read More

Dr. Maggie Phillips and the Quest for “Freedom From Pain”

Dr. Maggie Phillips, author of “Freedom from Pain: Discover Your Body’s Power to Overcome Physical Pain," discusses the various types of “trauma” that can lead to chronic pain. Read More

Arthritis and Obesity

Extra weight puts extra stress on the joints, increasing the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Read More

Baptism by Radon: Cure for Erectile Dysfunction and Chronic Pain?

Radioactive radon gas is considered a health hazard by environmental agencies throughout the world. So, why do people expose themselves to radon for therapeutic purposes, in facilities ranging from abandoned mines in Montana, to upscale spas and clinics in the forests of Europe? Read More

Pain as a Women’s Health Issue

Untangling the relationship between gender and chronic pain is no small feat. It is easy enough for the statisticians to tell us that women are at a significantly increased risk for chronic musculoskeletal pain, widespread pain (including fibromyalgia), osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, headache (including migraine) and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. Read More

Chronic Pain for the Puzzled and the Tongue-Tied

Not a month goes by that some patient is not referred to me with a diagnosis of “polyfibromyalgia”. Or “fibromyalgia rheumatica”. Or “polymyalgia”.

Say what?

But it is easy to be confused. And when a person suffers pain on a chronic basis, from the patient perspective, maybe a rose really is a rose and a rose. Read More

CDISC: Setting Standards for the Study of Pain

The Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) is a global, open, multidisciplinary, non-profit organization that has established standards to support the acquisition, exchange, submission and archive of clinical research data and metadata. Read More

The Crucifixion of Chronic Pain Relief

“Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. Read More

The Sixth Vital Sign

Now that most of us have recovered from the time change of earlier in the month, it is a good time to reconsider that a large percentage of Americans are slowly dying from a lack of sleep. Read More

Gluten Sensitivity: Nonsense or New Disease?

The internet has been ablaze with testimonials and dire warnings regarding what many see as a psychological and physical assault on the well being of mind and body by what could be for some as seemingly inconsequential a thing as a crust of bread. This "new" condition has been termed "nonceliac gluten sensitivity." Read More

Do We Need an FDA for Placebos?

The Federal Trade Commission regulates everything from seat belts to vibrators. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates everything from aspirin to ice cream. But no bureaucrat has written regulations to govern the composition of placebos. So, who cares? Read More

Give Me a Sign

Sometimes it slips out when I am alone in a room with a patient. I ask whether a patient has had any signs or symptoms. I am usually met with a puzzled look. Patients tend not to know what I mean by a sign or a symptom. Unfortunately, there is an element of the health care profession that share the same knowledge deficiency. Read More

The Homeostasis of Niceness

A couple of years ago an article appeared in the journal "Psychological Science" that described an answer to the question, "Do Green Products Make Us Better People"? Guess what? The answer was, No. Read More

The Wild Card in the Pain-Pleasure Dichotomy

The pain of pudendal neuropathy. Read More

Chronic Pain and the Molding of the Brain

During the past 15 years, research has shown altered structure, function, and chemistry in the brains of patients with chronic pain conditions. Emerging data is helping in the determination as to whether these effects are due to chronic pain—or are factors that drive pain symptoms. Read More

Chronic Pain and Resveratrol: The Pleasure of Relief

Life is looking up if you enjoy grapes, peanuts and dark chocolate.

Last month it was announced that researchers at the University of Arizona School of Medicine demonstrated that resveratrol, a compound found in these foods, may be beneficial as a treatment for acute and chronic pain conditions. Read More

Chronic Pain and Aromatherapy

Last week: the psychology of vaginal odor. This week: the biology of the psychology of vaginal odor. Smell is often our earliest response to stimuli. It warns us of fires before we see flames. It keeps us from putting a spoonful of rotten food into our mouths. However, there are many exotic delicacies that smell terrible, yet taste wonderful. Read More

Olfactory Reference Syndrome

You know who you are. You exhibit a subtle double-take when someone turns away from you when you walk by; then you put your hand to your mouth when you think no one is looking to see if your breath smells. But do you know if you have Olfactory Reference Syndrome? Read More

The “Best” Treatment for Neck Pain: Manipulation or Medicine?

Neck pain is a common condition, with almost 75% of the population experiencing such pain at some time in their lives. The prevalence is higher in women and urban areas; and the onset and course of neck pain is influenced by exposure to tobacco and poor psychological health. It contributes to health care costs, and negatively affects work productivity and quality of life. Read More

Chronic Pain’s Parallel Universe: Congenital Analgesia

Being unable to feel pain sounds enticing, but people with congenital analgesia frequently bite their tongues, break bones or burn themselves without being aware of it, sometimes leading to severe damage-or early death. According to some reports, people who have this condition rarely live past the age of 30 because of the physical toll a life without pain actually takes on the body. Read More

When Heroin Was Available to Housewives and Aspirin Was Bad for the Heart

It was quite a year for organic chemistry, 1898, as the acetylation of salicylic acid and morphine produced the respective drugs, aspirin and heroin. These went on to have a huge impact on the next hundred years, with aspirin becoming the most popular legal drug in history, and heroin the most popular illegal drug in history. Read More

Memorable Take-Downs, 2011: Auld Lang Syne for Fakers

With the killing of Osama bin Laden, a great blow was made against terrorism. But let us not forget the terrorism that has reigned at times in the more uncivilized areas of the health care field, and may we enjoy the fruits of the counter-terrorists this holiday season. Read More

Jesus Christ: Cynic or cynic?

Cynicism was conceived as a mode of living that purposefully refused to adhere to social conventions or political correctness; instead, one was to live one's life "according to nature." Founded by Diogenes of Sinope over 300 years before Christ, the philosophy concluded that nature is the opposite of all we consider conventional in society. Read More

Vulvodynia: The Vaginal Equivalent of Fibromyalgia?

Lately, I have read blogs by fellow Psychology Today bloggers delineating the amazing qualities of vaginas. Read More

Sorting through the Sexual Madness of “A Dangerous Method”

We all know the damaging ramifications of a sexual relationship between patient and doctor. But imagine the potential for destruction of careers and lives when the principals are two of the giants of psychoanalysis and a disturbed woman. Read More

Comparative Effectiveness Research: When It's Okay to Compare Apples and Oranges

For many years the randomized placebo controlled trial has been accepted as the most accurate method to utilize when conducting a clinical trial, the exception being those instances when ethical considerations demand comparison with existing treatments rather than placebo. Read More

One Drug Makes You Fearless: The Morning-Before Pill

What if our society comes to the point where we have nothing to fear but...an expired prescription? What if science could wipe our painful memories away, without surgery? What if there were a pill that could eliminate fear, making the individual resistant to his or her own doubts, and thus so much more productive? Read More

Why Chinese Women Have Better Hips than White Women

The other night, while dining in my favorite Chinese restaurant, I mentioned to my dinner partner how superior are the hips of Chinese women. Upon that utterance, an angry shadow fell across her face, of such magnitude that it threatened to engulf the heaping serving of General Tso's chicken before me. Read More

The Pain-Depression Link: Psychological Depths and Degenerating Joints

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis in North America, and ranks among the top-ten causes of disability in the world. The majority of those afflicted include the elderly and women, resulting in pain, stiffness and activity limitations. It is a disease whose incidence is on the rise in this country as the population ages, and becomes more obese and less active. Read More

HPV and Throat Cancer

The human papillomavirus (HPV), best known as a sexually transmitted disease and a major cause of cervical cancer, is now, thanks to oral sex, implicated as causing more cases of throat cancer in men than smoking. Read More

Mark Borigini, M.D., is a board-certified rheumatologist who has devoted his career to treating, and training others to treat, a wide variety of illnesses that cause chronic pain and disability.

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