The Forbidden Subject

     One of my favorite media addictions landed in the mailbox yesterday, "Scientific American Mind."  It's a quarterly that sprang from "Scientific American;"  it picks up where "Psychology Today" should have gone and then does it so much better.  In fact, neuroscience is its raison d'etre.  If I had it to do over and could do it right now, I'd be right in the middle of the neuropsych research world.

     The featured articles in this issue are on chronic pain.   If you've reached your forties, you've already been introduced to The Forbidden Subject, the one your elders are trying so hard not to mention:  aches and pains that keep showing up.   Was there ever a less attractive phrase than "chronic pain"?  I honestly prefer the terms I heard when I was growing up:  neuritis, neuralgia, and rheumatism.  These words at least sound like something a doctor might want to help you with, like something someone might feel kindly toward.  Try bringing up your chronic pain in mixed-age company and see what it gets you.  Try bringing it up in your doctor's office, for that matter. When science doesn't yet understand something (and thus, doctors don't either although they probably won't admit it), then it's your fault.  And shame on you for using any of the pharmaceutical treatments available for more than a couple of days.

     I don't know anyone in their sixties who hasn't experienced some form of pain that lasts longer than the injury, strain, or new surgical wound that started the ball rolling.  Well, actually, I do know some guys who'd rather show you their Viagra prescription than admit their hip's been killing them for two years. (Somehow, knee pain is okay with these guys.  Maybe because they hope you'll think it's an old football injury or they pushed themselves too hard in the last marathon.)  Yet, the subject is taboo, except when we're amongst peers.

      By the time most of us are in our seventies, we've learned that nothing will knock you off your daughter's next dinner party list faster than sharing the details of your frozen shoulder treatment at her last one.  We start learning to shut up about it.  Amongst ourselves, we talk about it a lot: we're hoping that someone else has found something that actually helps.  We're sharing information that's as vital to us as a discussion of cell phone plans is to our children.  And we often assume the pain itself just comes with the territory of age.  Maybe it does, but it's a territory we will all traverse sooner or later, if we're lucky.

     There's something about lingering, recalcitrant, near-unremitting pain that just wrecks your sangfroid. A sense of feeling oppressed and punished typically shows up.  There's a good scientific reason for that, learned, once again, by brain imaging studies.  It has to do with the areas of the brain where chronic pain signals are processed and their built-in connection to sites that also process negative emotions.  I'm trying to say that it ain't you, friend.  It may be happening to you, but it isn't about you.  It is, however, yours to manage and yours to make decisions about.  This experience will send you on a search for health and well-being that might find you blogging someday on veganism, for heaven's sake.

      I was delighted to learn of the new research being done at U. of Arizona and elsewhere.   Read all three articles at http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammind/.  Just click on the titles, no need to register.  And spread the news.  This work is bound to lead to better (read: both effective and non-addicting) treatments.  How can I contribute to this research?  Where can I send a check?

     One of my catalysts for switching from avid carnivorism to tentative veganism is the hint of a promise in the literature that cutting down  consumption of meat and poultry, with the hormones and additives that necessarily come with them, will improve joint and muscle pain.  It's a big claim, and the hard scientific data hasn't made it to my laptop, yet, so this seductive promise alone wasn't enough to tickle my tipping point...but, as part of a big bundle of benefits, it didn't hurt.  And I love anything these days that doesn't hurt. Full disclosure:  after seventeen whole days in a row on a vegan diet, I haven't noticed a big change in the ache/pain pattern after a workout. Yet.  Fingers crossed.

 I can't think of a single recipe I can segue to from here, but you can count on it: there'll be more.  Tonight, I'm trying out a new vegan taco filling.  I'm basically opposed to vegan products that try to taste like meat, especially if they have ingredients I don't understand.  At the same time, I'm intrigued right now about how they do it, what it tastes like, etc.  Review to follow.  Taco recipe is your basic tex-mex schtick, otherwise.  Betcha can't say that five times really fast.