New Study Shows That Pain Costs Billions of Dollars a Year in U.S.

By Salynn Boyles WebMD Health News – June 29, 2011, Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

– – – – following are just clips from WebMD – – – – – – –

An IOM committee commissioned by Congress concluded that pain is not optimally managed in the U.S. and that effective treatment of chronic pain will require a coordinated national effort to transform how the public, policy makers, and health care providers view the condition.

"We see that for many patients chronic pain becomes a disease in its own right," committee chair Phillip Pizzo, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine, said at a Wednesday news briefing. "We need to address this in a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary way and include prevention as a very important goal."

Committee member Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, noted that about a third of the population is affected by chronic pain -- more people than are affected by heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined -- yet very little is spent on research to find better ways to manage pain.

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CLICK HERE for IoM site on chronic pain

• List of committee members

• Unable to find the 1000+ comments that were supposed to be there

Some items in the report

Vitamin D Life notices that the majority of the types of pain are reduced by adding vitamin D

would be nice to add links to the areas on the wiki - but do not have time

Common sources of acute pain - pg 42

• infectious diseases (e.g., food poisoning with related gastrointestinal manifestations),

• wound infections,

• untreated dental conditions,

• burns,

• trauma (broken bones, lacerations and other wounds),

• appendicitis,

• surgery,

• medical procedures, and

• childbirth.

Common sources of chronic pain - pg 42

• migraine and other serious headaches,

• arthritis and other joint pain,

• fibromyalgia,

• irritable bowel syndrome, x chronic interstitial cystitis,

• trauma or postsurgical pain,

• low back pain,

• other musculoskeletal disorders,

• temporomandibular joint disorder,

• shingles,

• sickle cell disease,

• heart disease (angina),

• cancer,

• stroke, and

• diabetes.

The 300+ page report which is attached to the bottom of this page does not once contain the word VITAMIN

See also Vitamin D Life

• Many kinds of pain relieved by vitamin D Vitamin D Life Blog Feb 2012

• All items in Chronic Pain and Vitamin D items

• All items in category Back pain and Vitamin D items

• Vitamin D relieves pain – 2008 2010 good article

• Overview: Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue and vitamin D

• Vitamin D and chronic widespread pain

• Tenuous link between vitamin D and chronic pain - April 2009

• Back pain reduced for 95 percent of those who took vitamin D - 2003 file, not web page

  • "only" 95% of the people with back pain were helped with vitamin D 5,000 IU or 10,000 IU daily

• More likely to have Chronic Widespread Pain when have less than 15 ng – May 2010

• Leg pain 7X more prevalent when vitamin D lower than 20 ng – Oct 2010

• Patients like me survey found vitamin D to be number one supplement - across ALL problems

• Low vitamin D associated with chronic widespread pain for women

• More Arab leg pain when less than 20 ng of vitamin D – Aug 2010

• Vitamin D reduces pain – such as from Menstral Cramps – Feb 2012

• Blacks had lower vitamin D and more quantifiable pain than whites with knee osteoarthritis – Nov 2012

• Global Burden of Disease - Dec 2012