I get many letters each week from readers, typically sent through my website. I don't post them, because I consider them confidential. However, the author of this one -- she isn't on FB -- asked me to post it, so others might be helped. If you'd like to let others in on your experience and your thoughts, let me know...
Read MoreDid it happen when you were engaged in a standard daily activity, like brushing your teeth, emptying the dishwasher or carrying a couple of bags of groceries? If the answer to that question is yes, it is safe to presume that you have not been seriously harmed, and — no matter how appealing it seems — you should not retreat to your couch or bed and wait to feel better. The spine is not a fragile body part, no matter what many stakeholders in the back pain industry would have us believe. For more on this topic, you’ll want to read what Harvard psychologist Ronald Siegel has to say in Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery’s chapter 9, “Head Case.”
Read MoreI’ve been an investigative reporter for four decades, but nine years ago, when I began to search for a solution to my own persistent back pain, I was as naive as any other patient. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this area of healthcare was especially rife with problems. The more I dug, the more I found, much of it absolutely startling. That’s why I decided to write Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery, which is being published this week.
Read MoreFirst, a little background and a shameless plug. I’ve spent most of the last seven years writing Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery. The book is a hybrid, combining deep investigative reporting with a personal narrative, charting my journey as I find my way from disability to function. In the process, I learned a great deal about how treating chronic back pain, which afflicts about 70 million Americans annually, came to cost $100 billion each year. That makes it a legitimate public health crisis.
Read MoreWell, it was a long time in coming — six years, conservatively — but I’m happy to announce that the book formerly known as The Fragile Column, and now (more accurately) titled Crooked, will be published by HarperCollins in April 2017.
Read MoreUnder pressure, physicians began to insist that their patients taper opioids. But alternatives were few and far between. The single most effective class of non-opioid painkiller, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory known as a “COX-2 inhibitor,” had its reputation blackened in the mid-2000s, just as opioid manufacturers fought to obtain the lion’s share of the market.
Read MoreThis book is a description of my personal journey—from decades of musculoskeletal pain and discomfort to complete freedom from chronic pain. That may seem like a sweeping, even hyperbolic claim, but this experience has changed my entire understanding of health and fitness and has utterly transformed my outlook on life.
Read MoreHeavy backpacks are, of course, one culprit. Every autumn as kids head back to school, the American Academy of Pediatrics reminds parents of these backpack safety tips: Backpacks should weigh no more than 10-20 percent of the child’s body weight...
Read MoreThe states of Washington and Colorado have legalized marijuana. Twenty-three states (in addition to the District of Columbia) have allowed the drug’s use for medical purposes. But the Food and Drug Administration still classifies marijuana as a “Schedule 1” drug...
Read MoreMemory foam, dual-air technology, cushion firm, ultra-pillow top. Picking a new mattress requires wading through a stream of jargon. But do any of these features make a difference in your back pain?
Read MoreA dense fog shrouds the church spires across the street, and I’m bundled up in a blanket and warm socks as I write. In San Francisco, where I live, you wouldn’t know it was summer...
Read MoreHigh-heeled shoes are praised and painted in the most heightened and fantastical of language, almost as ornate as the shoes themselves: Jimmy Choos are “glamorous and sexy.” Vivier is “the Fabergé of footwear.” Ferragamos are “red-carpet ready.”
Read MoreCathryn wrote a great piece for the NewYorker.com last December about the controversial new painkiller Zohydro, which was approved by the FDA despite the agency’s own advisory panel’s recommendation against it.
Read MoreIn this age of prolific technological development – where no matter what you need, “There’s an app for that!” – I’d been wondering how effective and accessible these apps really are when it comes to things that specifically defy digitization: namely, things that involve exercise, yoga and physical therapy.
Read MorePerhaps during a cross-country flight, boredom gets the best of you, and you reach in the seat back pocket for the SkyMall catalog. Flipping through pages jammed with products you didn’t know you needed, you are presented with options for back pain relief—from standard lumbar cushions and back supports to extravagant massage chairs to the downright wacky—a Swedish nail bed, anyone?
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