Bothered By Chronic Pain?
Its Source May Surprise You
Pain that lingers or worsens is usually a signal to see a doctor. Medical professionals, however, don’t always diagnose the problem correctly in the initial visit.
Chronic pain sufferers, in particular, may want to get a second opinion. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have reported that 40 to 80 percent of chronic-pain patients are misdiagnosed. Being misdiagnosed can lead to ineffective treatments and perhaps surgery the patient did not need.
One way to save time, money and worry – and most importantly, to receive the right treatment - is to find the source of the pain, says Dr. Victor Romano (www.romanomd.com), an orthopedic surgeon and author of Finding The Source: Maximizing Your Results – With and Without Orthopaedic Surgery.
“You treat the source, not the symptoms,” Dr. Romano says. (www.romanomd.com). “Finding the source of pain can help cure a problem using non-surgical means, and it can change someone’s life.
“It comes down to peeling back the layers to figure out what is contributing to the pain. Finding and treating the source of an injury helps determine whether surgery is warranted at that time.”
Dr. Romano uses a patient evaluation tool called Autonomic Motor Nerve Reflex Testing (AMNRT) to identify the source of symptoms. Sometimes patients are surprised to learn the origin of their pain.
“The body compensates for injuries,” Dr. Romano says. “For instance, a patient may have shoulder pain because they are adapting their stance to accommodate a back injury. Pain in one area of the body is often associated with an injury on the other side.”
Dr Romano also points out, "Obstructed breathing - for instance, if you have a cold, allergies, or a deviated septum - will contribute to weakness and pain in your back, shoulders, and hips. Believe it or not, improving your breathing - with nasal sprays or rinses and allergy medication, or fixing your crooked nose - will help improve your strength and relieve your pain."
Dr. Romano lists five common physical ailments that produce chronic pain, some possible sources for the pain, and non-surgical remedies to relieve it:
Tennis elbow. “Why are you using more force on that elbow for gripping or lifting?” Dr. Romano asks. “Testing could reveal the hand is weak from carpal tunnel syndrome. Fix your carpal tunnel problem and your elbow pain will begin to heal on its own.” For therapy, he suggests self-manipulation of your wrists, grabbing the back of the hand while resting a forearm on your stomach, then pulling on the wrist and bending it downward.
Slumping shoulder. “Shoulder weakness can be associated with neck or back problems and obstructive breathing disorder,” Dr. Romano says. “Lower back stretches and a pelvic stabilizing program can help.”
Runner’s knee. The medical term is patellofemoral pain syndrome, felt as vague pain around the kneecap from prolonged sitting or more strenuous activities like stair climbing. “The injury is thought to come from overuse, excess weight, or arthritis,” Dr. Romano says, “but the true source for, say, right knee pain is often a weakness in the right hip flexor. Physical therapy, stretching the outside structures and strengthening the inside muscles are often better solutions than surgery.”
Sciatica. This affects about 40 percent of the population at some point. It’s characterized by pain in the lower back going down the leg. There can be several non-obvious sources, such as obstructed breathing and its associated back problems or a tilted pelvis. Dr. Romano suggests a variety of stretches in yoga, along with rotational and hip flexion stretches.
Achilles tendinitis. “ Sometimes the source can be foot maladies in the same or opposite foot such as peroneal neuropathy and Morton’s neuroma,” he says. “The Peroneal nerve ends on the top of the foot; Morton’s is the nerve branch between the third and fourth toe. Stretching and strengthening exercises for the calf muscles can help heal it.”
“You’re going to keep on getting hurt and have pain,” Dr. Romano says, “unless you find and fix the source of the problem.”
About Dr. Victor Romano
Dr. Victor Romano (www.romanomd.com) is an orthopedic surgeon in Oak Park, Ill.,
and the author of Finding The Source: Maximizing Your Results – With and Without
Orthopaedic Surgery. He is board-certified in orthopedics and sports medicine with
over 25 years of experience in the field. He graduated cum laude from the University of
Notre Dame and completed medical school at the University of Loyola-Chicago.
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Why It’s Important To Take Control
Of Your Data In Today’s Marketing
By Scott East
Co-Author
Cuttlefish Marketer: The Five Essential Traits of the Modern Marketer (www.cuttlefishmarketer.com)
Every time you or I buy so much as a hamburger we probably create data in a computer somewhere that reveals what kind of burger we prefer, if we add pickles and onions, and whether we purchase fries with it.
And, from a marketing standpoint, that’s extraordinarily advantageous.
After all, marketers have always relied on data to help make decisions. But never in history have they had the kind of data they do today, providing enormous amounts of information about both existing customers and potential ones.
But a big question many marketers must ask these days is this: Who really controls that data and, in effect, influences any decisions that are made as a result of what the data is – or isn’t – telling you.
Too often, the answer isn’t the marketing director, the marketing department or anyone else inside the business. Many companies instead rely on an outside agency – sometimes multiple agencies – to gather data, compile it and report on it. And while that’s not bad in and of itself, there are reasons to be careful when you’re in such a relationship. Numbers can be massaged to reflect a particular bias, whether on purpose or by accident. That third-party agency, for example, could provide you your data in a narrative form that leads you in a particular direction – a direction that’s opposite of where you need to go.
Even a slight bias could color what the net takeaway is for you. You would have all this extraordinary data, yet you could end up interpreting it in absolutely the wrong way, which could be worse than not having it at all.
So, while some of these outside agencies can be useful to you, ultimately you want to be the one who directs the big-picture perspective, and you want to decide what the takeaway from the data is when all is said and done.
That’s why the best solution is usually to take your data in-house. That way it’s your company’s data, gathered by your company and put to use by your company in the way you see fit. Certainly, when using data you want to be able to define specifically what your goal is.
If, for some reason, you can’t or don’t want to do that, you should at least reshape your relationship with whatever agency is handling that service for you so that you have more direct control over the data.
In today’s world, relying on data can’t be regarded as an add-on to the marketing process any more than technology can be. Data is what empowers you and your department, giving you the information you should have to be flexible and fast.
Of course, not all data is created equal – or is equally effective, which is another reason that the more control you have, the better the results will be. Yes, we have more data at our disposal than ever before, but that can confuse as much as it illuminates. Actually deriving meaningful insights from data and then converting that into action is easier said than done.
But when you define specifically what your goal is and what type of data you will need to help you accomplish that goal, then it becomes a whole lot easier for you – or your IT teammates – to zero in on the data you need in that humongous haystack of data.
It’s also important to remember that data should never be an afterthought in whatever it is your working on. People often think of data as the end part, but data covers the beginning, middle and end. It’s not just what’s in a spreadsheet. It affects core aspects of your business, impacting how you organize and how you lead.
If you’re a marketing director, to steer your department through today’s heady opportunities and daunting challenges, you must own your data so you can lead and direct everything that the data influences.
About Scott East
Scott East, co-author of Cuttlefish Marketer: The Five Essential Traits of the Modern Marketer (www.cuttlefishmarketer.com) is CEO and Co-Founder of MSIGHTS, which provides cloud-based marketing data integration services to some of the world’s most sophisticated global advertisers. MSIGHTS services make marketers more efficient and successful by providing a single view of overall marketing performance with actionable insights on what works and what doesn’t. The MSIGHTS cloud-based platform automatically collects and reconciles disparate data, making it immediately available to fuel a wide variety of analytical and visualization tools.
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UPCOMING LIVE WEBINAR
The Exercise Rx for ADHD: How Movement Improves Attention, Working Memory, and Executive Functions
with John J. Ratey, M.D.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 @ 2pm ET
Can't attend the webinar? Don't worry.
As long as you register, we'll email you the replay link
. . . . .
Powerful evidence shows that exercise helps children and adults manage their ADHD. Movement turns on the brain’s attention networks and eases other symptoms, such as hyperactivity. Physical activity also has a positive effect on behavior and motivation, resulting in better school performance and better self-esteem.
In this webinar, you will learn:
The expert Q&A webinar The Exercise Rx for ADHD: How Movement Improves Attention, Working Memory, and Executive Functions will take place Wednesday, February 6, 2019, from 2pm-3pm ET (1pm-2pm CT; 12pm-1pm MT; 11am-12pm PT).
MEET THE EXPERT SPEAKER:
John J. Ratey, M.D.
John J. Ratey, M.D., an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and 11 books, including the groundbreaking Driven to Distraction series with Ned Hallowell, M.D. With the publication of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, Dr. Ratey established himself as one of the world's foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection.
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