with michael jackson's mothehehe welcome to beyond the headlines, i'm cheryl jennings, every week we focus on a different topic. today we're going to be talking

about chronic pain. we'll hear from doctors that specialize in treating pain and talk to somebody that suffers from it. we'll learn more about the alternative treatments to csues the issues, millions of people live with chronic pain. one thing is certain, it's an issue that does not discriminate. dr. timothy johnson reports. >> when it f treatment for chronic pain, some patients may receive more pain medication than others. researchers studied nearly 200 cases with chronic pain that sought help. they found that black patients were prescribed fewer pain medications than white patients and men were prescribed stronger medication. before being referred to the center, black patients were on 1.8 compared to white with 2.8. women were overall likely to

hold off and more black patients say they would rather put up with discomfort than deal with side effects. differences can lead to disparents in disability, sleep disturbance and depression. researchers say all patients should receive and seek customized treatment. with this medical minute, i'm dr. timothy johnson. >> and joining us is marshall lewis and he is chief of the department of physical medicine at st. luke's. >> thank you. >> dr. johnson talked a little bit about pain. can you define it more? >> i think chronic pain is defined partly by time. when pain lasts more than three months but also the debilitating nature of kron ig pain is very serious as it may not get better

so severity is another defend of it. >> what are some of the common causes? >> some of the common causes, in our clinic, motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries. involved in athletics or n college and certainly trauma. overtime may have a fall or accident that causes them to get a fracture. sometimes it doesn't heal completely. >> so when they come to you, they are at their wits end? >> literally. some of them are limping into the clinic. besides being understanding, the most important thing for me to figure out is what happened and what is causing the pain. >> and have they tried a variety of things and bunch of doctors and nothing is working? >> often. many times patients will have gone through local walgreens and see what they can take over the

counter and try medications that may not be in their best interests. certainly they will will come te they've tried most expensive options first. >> so for you, what would pain management be like? >> often figuring out what is going on, that involves imaging and tests and x-rays or getting an mri. big et tenet we try to explain, i've got to get them moving again. physical therapy is one of the key therapies we employ early on. we find that joints and people's bodies stiffen over time. and whether there is something topical or an injection. >> and massage, i don't hear doctors talking about that?

>> definitely, diet and massage, there is a hands-on approach that patients want to take and they are expecting their doctors to take on, as well. neck muscle after a car accident could be spas matic ve very tigt and tense. so to give the patient some confidence there is true concern >> this all sounds great but also sounds expensive. how do you deal with the insurance companies? >> that is a great challenge we do face. the biggest challenge is to really try to customize their care. and more importantly try to find other providers that are going to charge a fair price and may be provide a discount if patients are paying in cash. over time, special in san francisco where so many providers are available a do want to help we can work around

the cost issues. >> so what can people do once they come to you and have a plan >> our biggest is transition people in a long term program, like yoga and pilates are ways to get people to take that initiative. sometimes just too ache active of a course to get involved in, i'll try to get them to water. a heated pool. so the heat can work wonders, increase in blood to the muscles and literally get patients moving again. this way at least it may be so painful to walk and move. >> i think there is a lot of traditions and historically back in the 30s and 40s, having

access to medical care was relatively unheard of and certainly pretty much had access to. so i think we developed in our society this concept, i'll just bite my fingernails and bare it out. >> and come back another segment in the show. thank you. we do have to take a break. when we come back we'll hear in a different kind of pain and that is migraines. empty nes ne?

woman: who are we? chic, modern, daring dinner-party hosts. that sounds dangerous, maybe we're more the traditional sunday brunch set? i'll expect slippers and a cocktail to be ready when i get home from work. point taken. how about... peaceful, quiet cottage in the country folk? now that's us. spend over 2500 dollars on a new kitchen and save 40 percent on custom countertops until november 28th at ikea. the life improvement store.

welcome back to beyond the headlines, today we're talking about chronic pain. millions of dollars researching migraine headaches but they are suggesting a very common drug delivered in an uncommon way might relieve the pain for some patients. carolyn son john is here. >> she runs a migraine support group. many of her fellow members suffer from headaches they are forced to turn to powerful medications. >> the majority of them, migraine patients in our group have used opiates and stronger medications because they are not being controlled with standard medications. >> according to the national headache foundation, more than 20% of migraine suffers use

medications containing opiates. >> this heavy duty pain medication knock people out. so basically once you know you need to take that, the rest of your day >> n gone. >> now, a study published by a bay area researcher is suggesting that one of most common medicines may be able to help many migraine sufferers. the drug is aspirin. it's high dosage variety is administered in liquid form through an i.v.. it's not used in the u.s. a as far as i know. >> a director of headache researcher and research covered 150 people and two-thirds showed decrease in pain when given aspirin. the treatment is now routinely used in europe s offers several advantages. >> one, it works.

the second is you can give it intravenously and have almost no side effects. it's not addictive. >> critics point out that whether it's administered in the early stages of migraine could stop the pain from progressing but he believes that many migraine sufferers are looking for ways to control their pain. >> as a migraine sufferer, the thing you want to be able to live our lives. >> intravenous aspirin calls about $7 a dose. alternative pain medications cost three times that much. joining us neurologist and expert dr. jerome gold stein. i know the work is cutting edge? >> it's cutting edge for 25 years now. >> so you also use botox?

>> not only is aspirin being used but other things. one of most recent releases is botox. >> for folks that don't know that never suffered for mie grains, i had them for years but i managed to get rid of them? >> it one of most common headaches but a lot of people don't realize they have them. a lot of folks don't know they have them. migraine is very characteristic. it's a pain on one side of the head or the other. maybe preceded by an aura, flashing lights. that is followed usually by a severe throbbing pain and must be accompanied by nausea and/or vomiting and light or sound sensitivity. a lost people don't realize they have them.

>> they are so ill. >> it used to be called grandma's sick headache. >> what caused it? >> we found a lot about it since the advent of the triptans, probably the greatest advance in migraine treatment in hundred years. it's quite a dramatic change in the treatment of headaches. the headache actually takes place in the brain stem. that area of the brain actually inflamed during the migraine headache. what these drugs do is they reduce the inflammation. >> is there things that trigger it? >> wine and cheese and additives can trigger migraine headaches. emotions have a role in it also. >> and are there other things

that we can do or exercise or anything at all? >> there are lots of medications being used in the treatment of headache. it really is matter of patient preference, how they respond to the medications and what kind of side effects they can have for them. but for most people we can get a good result for the treatment of migraine headaches. >> does it effect more women than men? >> 75% of sufferers are women and onset when the menses start or the time of the periods or birth control pills. you'll be happy to know the second tri trimesters are headache free. they usually go away at the time of menopause. >> finally, how do we cope with the chronic headaches? >> there are many treatments for chronic headaches. latest is botox. it's been approved for chronic

headache. it's more than 15 to 20 days a month. botox makes you beautiful but it's not cheap. aspirin costing 7 dollars but the administration is where the price comes in the treatment of headache. as far as botox is concerned, it will work, it works in chronic headaches but not individual headaches. >> thank you so much for the work you are doing. >> we do have to take another quick break. we're going to talk to someone who suffers from chronic pain and learn what it's like to live with it every single day. please stay with us. we'll be right back.

are you trapped and don't know how to escape your addiction to cigarettes? one out of two regular smokers will die prematurely from smoking. you don't have to be one of them. escape the trap. say "enough." for free help to quit smoking, call the california smokers' helpline at 1-800-no butts.

welcome back. i'm cheryl jennings, millions of people live with chronic pain every single day. let's continue to talk about what it's like is a professional roller derby skater and firefighter. you have a very physical life that put you in harm's way? >> a lot of physical things over the years. >> tell me a little bit about the roller derby? >> both of them, one thing in common. we had to go through rigorous training so you learn things to

protect yourself. as a firefighter, there are a lot of things where you have to lift people and you can't use the proper procedures to maintain your body in the right position. >> you have to hurry or move. >> or their legs are wedged in. >> and doing some of those rescues and the nature the work can do serious damage? >> yeah, herniated disk. >> you got pretty good help? >> i wish i found dr. lewis early on. i saw other doctors but basically was a lot of pain meds. i wanted to do alternative methods and the won he turned me on to have changed me immensely. >> tell me about those so the people can learn.

>> and if you look at them, you will see those on youtube. it's not painful at all. this was something i was going to be stuck with the rest of my life. it's a back brace that sits under your ribs and relieves the pain on the ribs. these treatments i'm going through now, one of my hips were out of place. so i had to realign my hips. so this thing is gone. >> that takes the ress off your back. what are some of the treatments you got from dr. lewis? >> the one was myofascial relief. it's real deep tissue. it's more intense, they'll come with the elbow and kind of wait until the tight area melt away.

through that, you'll start to get the range of motion back in an area that has been frozen can be rehydrated and you get better motion. >> how long does it take you to get better. previous doctors have told me i lost range of motion because of my disks in my neck. i can't move my neck to the let. this took about a couple of months but i was able to get a full range of motion. >> what didn't work before? >> before you have days where if you went to turn, something would go into your neck and you couldn't move to the left. you would go through this for a week or two until it died down. you begin to avoid doing things. >> i bet it was depressed, too? >> yes. i'm living in a dream right now. the other treatment was polar therapy injections and basically

a glucose or dextrose substance. it's harmless to the body. trigger points that are very tight and painful even right up on dry needling and you can regain your mobility. >> that is stuff for people to know. so for people like you, you could be useless the rest of your life there are alternatives out there? >> don't give u, kee, keep lookg for alternative things to do. read up on it. i told my doctors, you can't do these motions any more, your disks are shot. i have been able to regain space in my disks. look for things you enjoy doing and keep you going. >> what a terrific story.

congratulations to you. >> don't go away, we're going to take a break right now and in a moment, when we come back we'll talk about some alternative ways to deal with pain. did you know go-gurt is specially made to freeze and thaw by lunch time? so kids can have their favorite yogurt in their lunch box go-gurt. freeze it. thaw it. eat it up.

¿qué si usamos tacos más grandes? [ male announcer ] old el paso super stuffers. 33% larger shells. feed your fiesta. [ john ] i love these new cell phones. [ wife ] he just got a new phone and he can't stop using it. boom! profile pic. [ cell phone rings ] do you guys needs a moment? since john is always on his phone, we thought he'd like using wells fargo mobile banking. just paid the electric bill. wow. he's able to pay his bills, check his balance. wow. [ banker ] even transfer money between accounts. i can tell you what's playing, if you like. i can tell you, too. see? oh. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when life is mobile. ♪

welcome back. our topic today is chronic pain. right now we're going to talk about alternative medicine and procedures that are used dr. lewis of st. luke's and dry needle and glucose injections. what is that? >> a lot of people have questions about that. it's like acupuncture, putting in very fine needles into muscles that have lost the amount of oxygen to function

correctly. they work very well and sometimes people will put them in there, cortisone but overtime cortisone is destructive to tissues, so substances like sugar or dextrose has been used for quite some time and increasing in favor. >> let me talk about mind body therapy. >> sure, a lot of us know that our mind controls how we respond to pain. positive thinking is the first step, but even bio feedback is a way to help a lot of stress. and could communicate the fact that there is a role they can play that is positive in moving forward and being able to deal with it. so mind body therapy helps channel that type of thinking. we have so much stress in our lives and responsibilities and

that can increase ones pain. >> how about yoga? >> we love yoga because we think it helps people to stretch and move, a lot of areas that have been restricted previously. there are various forms holding poses for a ridiculously long period of time. so we tend to start people off with filed forms. >> and acupuncture and ta-e chi? >> acupuncture is over 35,000 years old. it does wonders for things of forms of arthritis. ta-e chi are excellent for people working on balance and there are so many free ta-e chi classes around we encourage them.

>> so conventional medication, what are your thoughts? >> biggest encouragement. seek a provider that supports that. we definitely encourage patients to learn more about the therapies and there are doctors that will definitely help support them and get them to places for treatment. >> reminder to people, you don't have to suffer alone? >> there are caring doctors this isn't an easy road and not a quick fix. we'll be there to help them. >> we are out of time. very special thank you to our guests today. that is it this for this edition. information about the show is on our website at www.abc7.com. all you have to do is click on the community page. if you are looking for community resources in your area dial 211.

have a great week and we'll see you next time.

it's great. i eat anything that i want. key lime pie, pineapple upside down cake, raspberry cheesecake... ...yeah, every night its something different. oh yeah yeah...she always keeps them in the house. no no no, i've actually lost weight... i just hava high metabolism or something... ...lucky. [ wife ] babe... ♪ umm, i gotta go. [ female announcer ] over 30 delicious flavors at around 100 calories each. yoplait, it is so good. indulge in yoplait light's two new flavors. triple berry torte and black forest cake.