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PainopolisTicked Off, Part 2: A Wildlife Biologist Battles Lyme DiseaseCan’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
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Did you find this episode worth he...2023-04-1841 minPainopolisTicked Off: A Wildlife Biologist Confronts Lyme DiseaseCan’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
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Did you find this episode worth he...2023-03-2136 minPainopolisA Chimney Sweep’s Brush with Disaster—and Virtual RealityCan’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
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Did you find this episode worth he...2023-02-211h 11PainopolisTrigeminal Neuralgia: A Musician Cranks Up the Heat on Facial PainCan’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
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Did you find this episode worth he...2023-01-171h 18PainopolisTrigeminal Neuralgia: A Scientist Cures Himself of Facial PainTormented by severe facial pain, Hugh Spencer invented a nonsurgical way to relieve his trigeminal neuralgia. He found the remedy—capsaicin—inside a canister of pepper spray.
Nineteen years ago, in a distant corner of northeast Australia, a scientist named Hugh Spencer started suffering horrible attacks of pain on the left side of his head. It felt as if someone were striking him with an axe. A neurobiologist by training, Spencer—in his 50s at the time—feared that he was experiencing the first foreboding glimmers of an agonizing ailment called trigeminal neuralgia.
“Spencer’s treatment in...2022-12-1359 minPainopolisGunshot Wounds, Part 2: Aftermath of a ShootingAfter recovering from eight gunshot wounds, Jeff Droke confronts two major dilemmas: chronic pain and a faulty justice system.
Previously on Painopolis, gunshot survivor Jeff Droke described the day in 2003 when a gunman ambushed him at home. Droke was shot eight times in the head, neck and chest. Despite life-threatening injuries, the 44-year-old accountant and professional wrestler tussled with his attacker. Droke ended up throttling the guy so badly that the gunman was forced to flee.
“Just three weeks after the shooting, he was back at the gym working out. But his severe pain didn’t go...2022-11-1553 minPainopolisGunshot Wounds: When Pain Takes AimAn ambush in suburbia. Eight shots. And a survivor who refused to be a victim.
On a bitter January morning in 2003, a 19-year-old man named Billy Glenn Jackson drove a stolen rental car along a quiet residential street near Memphis, Tennessee. It was the sort of suburban neighborhood that normally seemed shielded from the crackle of gunfire plaguing other parts of the Memphis area. But Jackson had brought along a target pistol. And on this day, gun violence would be making a house call.
“For most Americans, gun violence amounts to little more than a qu...2022-10-1146 minPainopolisPainopolis Podcast New Season Coming Soon!Stay tuned for a new season of Painopolis! It’s a podcast for people with chronic pain. And also for everybody else.
That’s because we bring you stories about ordinary people who’ve grappled with extraordinary pain. And now that they’re on the other side of it, they want to pass along their insights and strategies to you.
“We bring you stories about ordinary people who’ve grappled with extraordinary pain. And now that they’re on the other side of it, they want to pass along their insights and strategies to you.”
And boy, d...2022-10-0502 min
PainopolisStay Tuned for Season Two - Get ready for stories that will leave you transformed.Today, we’re breaking from our usual format to let you know that we’ve now wrapped up Season One of Painopolis.
Starting this week, we’ll be taking a break from publishing new episodes so we can work on Season Two. If you liked what you’ve heard thus far, here’s the good news: we’ll be taking it up a notch in Season Two, with stories that will leave you amazed, informed, and transformed.
In the meantime, I invite you to head over to painopolis.com, and sign up for our free newsletter, so we can let you know by e...2017-09-0306 minPainopolisA Ballet Master’s Balancing Act to Fight Parkinson’s - Alexander Tressor uses exercise, diet and stress reduction to keep Parkinson’s at bay.Alexander Tressor was 47 and living in Manhattan when a neurologist gave him what he stoically calls “The Bad News.” A Russian-born ballet master, Tressor says hearing the word “Parkinson’s” was like getting hit by a lightning bolt. Then hearing “No cure” was like getting hit again. But Tressor is a resilient kind of guy. And an optimist. So he set about figuring out how he could sidestep the worst of what Parkinson’s could throw at him. And he wanted to do it without going on the usual cocktail of meds. He learned that exercise and diet were game-changers with this diseas...2017-08-201h 11PainopolisHow Not to Get Gouged at the Pharmacy: GoodRxAre you paying too much for your prescription meds? GoodRx can keep you from being overcharged at your pharmacy counter.
Different pharmacies charge different prices for the same drugs. And the money you’re throwing away can be huge! And don’t think I’m comparing the prices at a mom-and-pop pharmacy in one state with a drug store inside a Big Box retailer in another state. I’m talking about the handful of pharmacies within miles of where you live. You may be out big money every month simply because you instructed your doctor’s staff to send yo...2017-08-1320 minPainopolisHow Not to Get Gouged at the Pharmacy: GoodRx - Review: GoodRx reveals which drugstores sell the meds you need at the cheapest price.Review: Different pharmacies charge different prices for the same drugs. And the money you’re throwing away can be HUGE!
How much money could be slipping through your fingers? Well, the average American’s annual prescription drug tab is $1,370. If you have insurance, you may only end up paying about $185 of that. But what if your insurance company moves one of your meds on to a no-pay list? Or what if you don’t have health insurance and you don’t realize you’re overpaying hundreds of dollars a month for the meds you need to keep your chronic health condition...2017-08-1320 minPainopolisHow To Become a Guinea Pig: Using ClinicalTrials.gov - Review: ClinicalTrials.gov can help you find experimental treatments for chronic pain.Review: It’s an all-too-common scenario: You’ve seen a slew of doctors who’ve prescribed countless treatments to erase your pain. Nevertheless, it persists. So what now?
If the available treatments haven’t worked, maybe some unavailable ones might. And by unavailable, I mean treatments so new that they’re still working their way through the gauntlet of scientific testing that determines whether they’re safe and effective. That evaluation process can take a decade or more to complete. In the meantime, the only way you can gain access to one of these experimental treatments is by participating in a clinical tr...2017-08-0734 minPainopolisHow To Become a Guinea Pig: Using ClinicalTrials.govWhen none of the standard treatments relieve your chronic pain, should you try an experimental approach by volunteering for a clinical trial? And if so, how?
It’s an all-too-common scenario: You’ve seen a slew of doctors who’ve prescribed countless treatments to erase your pain. Nevertheless, it persists. So what now?
“There are scientists right this minute trying to get to the bottom of whatever your medical disorder is. And they’re coming up with new experimental treatments. If you sign up for a clinical trial, you’re able to get access to experimental...2017-08-0734 minPainopolisA Ketamine Coma Was Her Last Resort: RSD/CRPS - Tormented by RSD/CRPS, she bet her life on a do-or-die trip to Mexico and a 5-day coma.Shannon Stocker was 30 years old and in her last year of medical school when she first felt the pain. It started in her arm and eventually spread throughout her body. The pain became so intense that this newly minted M.D. was forced to put her medical career on permanent hold.
The cause of her suffering was a disorder called reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or RSD. (It’s also called complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS.)
After exhausting other treatment options, she gambled on a high-risk, experimental procedure called ketamine-coma therapy, which would render her unconscious for FIVE DAYS. To undergo it...2017-07-311h 44PainopolisA Ketamine Coma Was Her Last Resort: RSD/CRPSHer medical career halted by chronic pain, Shannon Stocker chose a high-risk procedure involving a powerful anesthetic, a five-day coma, and a do-or-die medical-tourism journey to Mexico.
Shannon Stocker was 30 years old and in her last year of medical school when she first felt the pain. It started in her right arm and eventually became so debilitating that this newly minted M.D. was forced to put her medical career on permanent hold.
“I had nothing left to lose. Either I was going to wake up better, or I wasn’t going to wake up. And...2017-07-311h 44PainopolisDoes Your Doctor Work for You or Big Pharma? Dollars for DocsHas your doctor accepted payments and perks from drug and medical device makers? Dollars for Docs can give you the answer.
Every time you seek treatment for your chronic pain, you rightly expect to have your doctor’s undivided attention in the examining room. You also expect one other thing: your doctor’s undivided loyalty. After all, you’re the one picking up the tab, so your doctor should have no hidden incentives to do anything other than recommend the best possible care tailored to your particular needs.
“As a patient, I should know if my doctor...2017-07-1719 minPainopolisDoes Your Doctor Work for You or Big Pharma? Dollars for Docs - Review: Dollars for Docs reveals if your MD has taken payments and perks from Big Pharma.Review: In the U.S., many pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers have struck up financial relationships with doctors as a way for those companies to promote their products. Various studies indicate that doctors who take payments or perks from Big Pharma prescribe pricier brand-name drugs in greater proportion than their peers received no remuneration.
Granted, there’s nothing illegal about these financial relationships. But for many patients, there's an undeniable ick factor to the notion that their doctor might be recommending medications or medical devices made by companies from which the doctor has benefitted financially.
For that reason alone, you deserve to...2017-07-1719 minPainopolisUncle Sam Is His Dealer: Medical MarijuanaMeet the chronic-pain patient who talked the feds into supplying him with free, legal medical marijuana for the last 34 years.
You’ve probably heard about our guest today, maybe not by name but certainly by way of urban legend. The story goes like this: In Mississippi, the U.S. government has been growing marijuana for decades and giving the crop for free to a small, select group of Americans suffering from chronic pain and other serious medical conditions. And it’s all perfectly legal. According to this urban legend, these recipients could walk up to the door of t...2017-07-101h 40PainopolisUncle Sam Is His Dealer: Medical Marijuana - This chronic-pain patient talked the feds into giving him free marijuana for decades.Meet the chronic-pain patient who talked the U.S. government into giving him free, legal medical marijuana for the last 34 years.
You’ve probably heard about our guest today, maybe not by name but certainly by way of urban legend. The story goes like this: In Mississippi, the U.S. government has been growing marijuana for decades and giving the crop for free to a small, select group of Americans suffering from chronic pain and other medical conditions.
Well, the story’s not just an urban legend. And today, we talk to one of those recipients, Irvin Rosenfeld. He’s a 63-y...2017-07-101h 40PainopolisCan a Plant-Based Diet Beat Ulcerative Colitis?By switching from the pharmacy to the produce section, 32-year-old Gabrielle Fennimore hoped to tame her worsening ulcerative colitis. But did it work?
By now, we’ve all heard that eating a plant-based diet protects against cardiovascular disease. But can you eat your way to better health if your medical problem is chronic pain? And if so, which diet could accomplish that, and how quickly? And could it do so even more effectively than prescription drugs?
“The pain was coming all the time. The bathroom was becoming more frequent—20 or 30 times a day. So I decided...2017-07-031h 36PainopolisCan a Plant-Based Diet Beat Ulcerative Colitis? - By eating low on the food chain, she hoped to tame her ulcerative colitis. But did it work?By now, we’ve all heard that eating a plant-based diet protects against cardiovascular disease. But can you eat your way to better health if your medical problem is chronic pain? And if so, which diet could accomplish that, and how quickly? And could it do so even more effectively than prescription drugs?
In June 2016, 32-year-old dental hygienist Gabrielle Fennimore decided to find out. She’d suffered for years with ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the colon and triggers severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Despite taking powerful anti-inflammatory medications, her symptoms were getting worse rather than better.
So l...2017-07-031h 36PainopolisThis Health Coach Won’t Take No For an Answer: MyFitnessPalFallen short of your diet and exercise goals and feel lousy because of it? Meet MyFitnessPal, an online personal trainer that’ll keep you on track.
Is your doctor urging you to lose weight, limit your sodium, get more active, and make other lifestyle changes that push your willpower to the breaking point?
“What I like about MyFitnessPal is, everybody says you need someone to be your Accountability Buddy, but it’s great when you can be your own Accountability Buddy.”
Today, we tell you about an online tool named MyFitnessPal that takes the drudge...2017-06-2620 minPainopolisThis Health Coach Won’t Take No For an Answer: MyFitnessPal - Review: Struggling to reach your diet and exercise goals? MyFitnessPal can help.Is your doctor urging you to lose weight, limit your sodium, get more active, and make other lifestyle changes that push your willpower to the breaking point?
Today, we tell you about an online tool named MyFitnessPal that takes the drudgery out of adopting new health habits. Like a dietitian, MyFitnessPal adds up the calories and nutritional content of everything you eat. Like a coach, it tallies the energy you burn from exercising. The calories-expended-per-activity database includes everything from ice fishing in a sitting position (136 calories per hour for a 150-pound woman) to Tai Chi (272 calories) to chopping wood (422 calories...2017-06-2620 minPainopolisPelvic Pain Demands a Rewrite - At an innovative pelvic-pain clinic, a journalist learns how to ratchet down his pain.Previously on Painopolis, editor and health journalist David Sharp described his descent into chronic pelvic pain syndrome and recounted his early reliance on a urologist who repeatedly misdiagnosed the cause of Sharp’s pain as mere prostatitis.
In this episode, Sharp makes a physically agonizing trip out of state to attend an innovative pelvic-pain clinic. It’s a big gamble, because if the clinic’s approach fails to give him some relief, he’s got no plan B.
Sharp wraps up his chronic-pain story with specifics about how he’s doing today. He also reveals the strategies he now uses to rein in...2017-06-191h 18PainopolisPelvic Pain Demands a RewritePreviously on Painopolis, editor and health journalist David Sharp described his descent into chronic pelvic pain syndrome and recounted his early reliance on a urologist who misdiagnosed the cause of Sharp’s pain for years. The urologist treated him with a drug that failed to quell his pain and would later be taken off the market for causing an increased risk of strokes. Then, on an internet forum, Sharp heard about a clinic in California that had an intriguing though unorthodox new approach for treating pelvic pain, but hadn’t yet published any results on its methods.
Toda...2017-06-191h 18PainopolisOur Anus Horribilis: Pelvic PainToday, Painopolis editor David Sharp outs himself as a chronic-pain sufferer, talks about the 20 years he spent in the Land of the Misdiagnosed, and recalls the unforgettable day his ass spontaneously imploded.
“When you’re in terrible pain, doing nothing is not an option. It’s like, ‘I can’t just lay here and hope the pain goes away by itself.’”
Plagued for years by intermittent pelvic pain that his doctors wrongly diagnosed as mere prostatitis, Sharp learns the hard way that he’s actually got chronic pelvic pain syndrome. It’s a muscle-tension disorder that he likens to...2017-06-1251 minPainopolisOur Anus Horribilis: Pelvic Pain - Slammed by horrific rectal and genital pain, journalist David Sharp scrambles for answers and relief.Painopolis editor David Sharp recounts the ferocious, nonstop pelvic pain that hit him seemingly out of the blue and had him writhing on the floor. When his doctors misdiagnosed the pain as mere prostatitis, he searched for answers on his own. Ultimately, he turned to an unconventional approach that he learned about from other men who suffered from the same problem.
In today’s episode (he tackles his journey from being nearly bedridden to resuming a normal life in next week’s episode), Sharp talks in-depth about:
• The unforgettable day his ass spontaneously imploded
• How he got stuck in a “see the do...2017-06-1251 min
PainopolisIt’s Like Google on Steroids: PubMed - Review: Still using the big kahuna of search engines to answer crucial medical questions? That’s because you haven’t tried PubMed.gov. - Painopolis: Prevailing against chronic pain, one defiant story at a timeImagine how empowering it would be to tap into the minds of top scientists. And not just any top scientists, but rather, the very people who’ve devoted their lives to coming up with better treatments for your specific medical problem. Their views could have a profound impact on the choices you make about your health care—from which physicians you select to which treatments you try.
The fact is, getting cutting-edge insights from the world’s leading medical researchers is surprisingly easy (and free)—if you know how. In this episode, we tell you about an internet-based research tool named PubMe...2017-06-0521 minPainopolisJFK: A Profile in Chronic Back Pain - The biggest secret of John F. Kennedy’s presidency wasn’t his sex life. It was his crippling chronic pain and his covert ways of treating it. - Painopolis: Prevailing against chronic pain, one defiant story at aIn 1947, an American congressman suddenly collapsed while traveling in Europe. He was taken to a doctor, who concluded that the 30-year-old man was in such terrible shape that he’d be dead within a year. After returning to the U.S., the congressman publicly explained away his health scare as nothing more than a transitory flare-up of malaria that he’d first contracted in the south Pacific while serving in the Navy during World War II.
That congressman was John F. Kennedy, and he managed not only to outlive that doctor’s dire assessment but also to cover it up. What’s...2017-05-291h 14PainopolisPainopolis Podcast Coming Soon! - We’ll bring you stories about people who confronted chronic pain, surmounted it, and are now ready to tell the rest of us how they did it. Prepare to be riveted. - Painopolis: Prevailing against chronic pain, one defWelcome to Painopolis! It’s a new podcast for people with chronic pain. And also for everybody else.
That’s because we’ll be bringing you stories about people who confronted the worst hell imaginable, surmounted it, and are now ready to tell the rest of us how they did it. You’ve never come across stories like these. Stories straight from the trenches. For example:
• You’ll hear from a med-school graduate in so much pain that she intentionally put herself into a coma and came out of it pain-free.
• We’ll tell you about a guy who needed $90,000 for cancer treatment—...2017-05-1202 min