What to do about your pain

I recently gave some advice to a friend with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I found the advice useful and share it with you today;

No one is a prophet or seesayer. Most doctors really have a very limited amount of medical knowledge, and will just tell you things like 'alcohol is bad' or 'eat fruits' and shit, because that's the folk wisdom they know. 

Doctors are human beings, same as you and me. They are just doing their j-o-b to get to the end of it most of the time.


The fallacy is to imagine them (doctors) as magic men. They are probably not much smarter than you or I. Truly brilliant people are rare, and don't stick around here for very long. Its hard to be a good doctor as the profession its self is regulated into the dirt, and only those who can stomach beuracracy can survive. That also tends to weed out the brilliant and innovative.

That being said. Gluten-free and stuff like that. Mostly bull shit. Any kind of answer that seems too good to be true; probably is.

From my understanding of the field of 'pain studies', attitude is probably the biggest factor. Pain is super-subjective, and if you are focusing on it, hating it, and feeling sorry for yourself, that's only going to make it worse. I think maybe the best thing you could do is come to terms with your pain. Stop fighting it; it may not be a 'fix'able thing. Think of yourself more like 'Dr. House', with unmanageable pain which turns you into an ironic wise cracking bad-ass.

Mean time, find out whatever insurance will get you 'in' with mayo clinic, and go get with them asap. If brilliant doctors exist, they exist there.

I know what it is to deal with doctors for my own illness as well. And I can tell you; top to bottom, the 
whole institution is rotten.


I feel for you brother, I really do. I hope you get the help you need, and hope you start feeling better.

You really can NOT over-estimate the value of good diet and excercise. Being the size you want to be physically is the hardest thing there is; but also the most simple. 


Find an aerobic exercise that you can constantly measure the calorie output, and start tracking everything you eat to get your net-calories a day (calories in via food minus calories out via exercise). 
Start just tracking it, and then slowly start lowering what that net calorie value is by 100 per day, until you become the size you want. 


I cannot stress enough the importance of doing such a thing for your own health and well being. No medicine on earth can replicate its benefits in terms of health both physically AND psychologically. 

Feel Better.