Physiotherapist Dianne Hermans has a beautiful smile.

Can you believe that smiling can be a predictor of wellbeing and longevity?

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Leanne Ingram is a highly skilled musculoskeletal therapist, completing a bachelor of science in musculoskeletal therapy in 2009.  Leanne provides remedial massage services in the Bayside here at Manly West.

Recently one of Leanne’s patients was not able to keep her appointment due to being stranded in Chile from the fallout of volcanic ash. Does that mean that our business has now been affected by a volcano in another continent?

According to a new report into chronic pain in Australia:

• 29% of Australians say they experience chronic pain. With women (31%) more likely to experience chronic pain than men (26%).
• Among those who experience chronic pain, 47% say it is the result of a diagnosed condition such as arthritis, an inflammatory condition, multiple sclerosis or cancer.
• 5% of Australians with chronic pain have attempted to commit suicide because of their pain and a further 20% have thought about suicide.
• Chronic pain is reported across all age groups ranging from 19% of people aged 18-29, to 29% of those aged 66 and over.
• Forty per cent (40%) of people in pain say chronic pain has followed from a life event such as an operation or accident-related illness.
• 13% of people in pain report there is no identified medical reason for their pain.

Principal Physiotherapist, Dianne Hermans performing real time diagnostic ultrasound.

Not only that, but our health system often fails these patients, take the case of the Gold Coast patient who had to wait 4 years for an appointment or the recent report tabled in the WA parliament which expressed concern at over 22,000 West Australian’s addicted to opioids such as morphine, while having to wait 12 months to see a pain specialists.

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This lecture goes for 55min and if you suffer from or treat chronic or persistent pain, then it’s a must. Presented by Pain Physician, Dr Saifee Rashiq in Canada the lecture covers the biopsychosocial aspects of chronic pain and in particular describes the frustrations of sufferers with having a debilitating disease often without the concern and support from sufferers of conditions with clearly identifiable causes such as cancer.

One aspect that we found frustrating were the goals that Dr Rashiq has for his patients, which without the type of ground breaking therapies we use here at the Lifestyle Pain Clinic are highly commendable; they are to…

1. Keep the chronic pain sufferer off the operating table.
2. Keep them out of ER.
3. Never order new tests.
4. Keep them out of the psychiatric hospital.

It must be understood that by the time a patient gets to a pain physician there is almost nothing the patient hasn’t tried so they manage them as best they can. At the Lifestyle Pain Clinic we often get chronic pain sufferers AFTER they have been to the pain physician.

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It goes without saying that chronic and persistent pain is very complex with many factors involved. While the vast majority of chronic and persistent pain sufferers coming through the Lifestyle Pain Clinic make significant improvements in their quality of life, it’s always frustrating when some patients fail to respond to treatment. You can see just some of our chronic pain case studies here.

One of the things we see anecdotally is that smokers are often over represented in the patients who do not respond to treatment compared with the approximate 15% of the middle aged population who do smoke.

The following is an excellent article that covers some of the research into the links between cigarette smoking and chronic pain.

I have posted before on the best way to give up smoking here and have recently had two friends who have been long term 30+ year smokers who used exactly this technique to QUIT.