From Library Journal
Khalsa (Brain Longevity, LJ 5/1/97), an integrative medicine specialist, is credited with developing "the first holistic pain management program in the southwestern United States," combining medication, nutrition, physical therapies, and mental and spiritual approaches. This book begins with an overview of the mechanism of pain and how it can initiate chronic pain or chronic pain syndrome, a difference the author explains. Next, Khalsa devotes a chapter to each aspect of his program. Additional chapters focus on specific painful conditions (arthritis, fibromyalgia, headache). The appendixes use line drawings to illustrate exercises involving meditation, yoga, breathing, and weight training. A short list of resources and recommended readings is included. Khalsa uses statistics and scientific studies liberally, but no references validate his statements. Individuals desperate to rid themselves of pain will find good information on combining traditional medical and alternative approaches, but references to "cures" and "spectacular results" may leave some skeptical. Recommended for public or consumer health libraries where there is a demand for alternative health titles.ALisa McCormick, Jewish Hosp. Lib., Cincinnati Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
First, the authors of the enthusiastic Brain Longevity (1997) want you to learn how to experience pain without suffering. Writing in the first-person voice of physician Khalsa, they discuss methods for gaining control of rather than giving in to pain. Khalsa's four levels of handling chronic pain involve nutritional therapy, physical therapy, medications, and mental and spiritual control. Since acute pain is a symptom and chronic pain a disease, the patient with acute pain should promptly consult a doctor so that therapy begins before the problem becomes ingrained. Khalsa underlines the importance of serotonin, L-tryptophan, acupuncture, exercise, homeopathic remedies, cognitive therapy, and stress reduction. He inveighs against doctors who are afraid to give a patient a sufficient amount of a painkiller because they fear professional investigation, making the patient addicted, or unwittingly causing death. Regarding his patients as thinking and feeling individuals, Khalsa seeks to help them humanely and, perhaps more important, to show them how to improve their conditions by themselves. William Beatty

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The science of pain management has made enormous strides over the past decade or so, but according to Dharma Singh Khalsa, founder of the Acupuncture Stress Medicine and Chronic Pain Program at the University of Arizona Teaching Hospital in Phoenix, too many doctors are still treating chronic pain with useless therapies like tranquilizers. Khalsa has developed a comprehensive program for ending chronic pain that draws on both cutting-edge medical science and holistic therapies. He details the program in his new book, The Pain Cure , offering practical advice and instruction as well as stories from the lives of the many chronic-pain sufferers he has helped.

In the first part of the book, Khalsa explains the four main parts of his program: Nutritional therapy based on a healthy diet that avoids common pain triggers and draws on vegetables, whole grains, soy products, and fish supplemented with foods with anti-inflammatory properties, nutrients that enhance serotonin levels, and supplements that support brain and nerve function Physical therapies and bodywork including acupuncture, massage, aerobic exercise, and mind/body exercises Medication that includes some prescription drugs and over-the-counter remedies like aspirin and ibuprofen but also draws on herbal and homeopathic therapies Mental and spiritual pain control that addresses the underlying emotional conditions that can make the perception of pain more severe and explores directed mental and spiritual work that can alleviate it, including cognitive therapy, meditation, visualization,andbehavioral therapy.

In the second part, he applies the program to specific conditions like arthritis, headache pain, back pain, fibromyalgia, cancer, carpal tunnel syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, TMJ, and PMS. At no point does Khalsa offer a miracle cure — each part of his program requires commitment, hard work, and sometimes substantial changes in lifestyle. But The Pain Cure offers true hope for anyone suffering from intolerable chronic pain.

ANNOTATION

"...a four-level strategy incorporating nutrients, physical therapies, medication, and mental and physical pain control...based on traditional and complementary therapies."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From the authors of Brain Longevity comes a groundbreaking book to help the80 million desperate Americans who suffer from chronic pain.

SYNOPSIS

DARE TO BE PAIN-FREE! Are you one of the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain? Whether your problem is arthritis or back pain, TMJ or PMS, migraine or fibromyalgia, there's a solution that has worked for thousands. This powerful, comprehensive, four-pronged approach embraces proven techniques from sources ancient and modern, East and West. The lifework of a nationally renowned pioneer in integrative medicine, The Pain Cure attacks pain with:￯﾿ﾽ NUTRITION. Other therapies tell you what nutrients cause pain. The Pain Cure tells which ones stop pain. ￯﾿ﾽ PHYSICAL THERAPIES. From exercise to acupuncture, massage to magnetherapy, The Pain Cure helps you rebuild your body to stop pain. ￯﾿ﾽ MEDICATION. From herbs to aspirin, homeopathy to hormones, The Pain Cure describes the best combinations for eliminating pain. ￯﾿ﾽ MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL PAIN CONTROL. By focusing your own inner resources, The Pain Cure gives you stunning control over your pain--and a new awareness of your true self.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Khalsa (Brain Longevity, LJ 5/1/97), an integrative medicine specialist, is credited with developing "the first holistic pain management program in the southwestern United States," combining medication, nutrition, physical therapies, and mental and spiritual approaches. This book begins with an overview of the mechanism of pain and how it can initiate chronic pain or chronic pain syndrome, a difference the author explains. Next, Khalsa devotes a chapter to each aspect of his program. Additional chapters focus on specific painful conditions (arthritis, fibromyalgia, headache). The appendixes use line drawings to illustrate exercises involving meditation, yoga, breathing, and weight training. A short list of resources and recommended readings is included. Khalsa uses statistics and scientific studies liberally, but no references validate his statements. Individuals desperate to rid themselves of pain will find good information on combining traditional medical and alternative approaches, but references to "cures" and "spectacular results" may leave some skeptical. Recommended for public or consumer health libraries where there is a demand for alternative health titles.--Lisa McCormick, Jewish Hosp. Lib., Cincinnati Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Larry Dossey, M.D.

A valuable look at how pain specialists combine complementary and mainstream approaches....Highly recommended. — Author of Healing Words, Prayer Is Good Medicine, and Be Careful What You Pray For