Depression hurts. Anxiety hurts. Both mood disorders are known to cause physical symptoms of tension, aches, pains, stiffness, cramps, and more. Mental health disorders like depressive and anxiety disorders are not isolated to the brain. It is widely understood today that mental health disorders affect the mind, the body, and the spirit. Taking an integrative...Read More

Pain, and the treatment of it, are one of the biggest concerns that Americans have today. Millions of Americans battle with persistent pain every day, and the only effective methods of treatment that are currently available have the potential for abuse, addiction and loss of life. We are all too familiar with the never ending...Read More

Opioid painkillers, such as oxycodone, are often described as being a double edge sword. Prescription opioids are effective measures against both acute and chronic pain, but when they are taken for extended periods of time dependency will ensue—often times resulting in addiction. As time passes, patients will find that the dose of opioids that once...Read More

Treating chronic pain If you have had to live with chronic pain or have a loved one who is living with chronic pain, then you are familiar with the daily cycle of trying to find some kind of relief. Those who treat chronic pain patients often find that addiction to prescription pain medication is not...Read More

Nurse Jackie (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Do you work with a Nurse Jackie? If you don’t happen to subscribe to Showtime, The Movie Network or Movie Central, you may have no point of reference to Nurse Jackie. The series premiered on June 8, 2009, so soon it will be five years old and the sixth season...Read More

The Academy Awards….and war veterans This Sunday a lot of us will take a few hours to watch the 86th Academy Awards ceremony. We all have our favorite nominated movies and certainly our favorite actors and actresses who we would like to see receive an Oscar, but today it occurred to us that this year...Read More

Turning the lens on Medicare patients and opioid use In September 2011 we wrote about the increase in the number of elderly who become addicted to opioids and, in turn, require substance abuse treatment. Now a new observational study has reviewed Medicare records to try and determine how, not why, the elderly are coming to...Read More

Labels really are a part of our daily routine… How many times during the course of a day do you read a label? Maybe you stop to read a food label to determine how many calories are in the product or the number of sodium milligrams or whether or not the product is stale dated or even...Read More

“My stomach aches!” It really doesn’t matter if you are a parent, a grandparent, sibling, co-worker, or a friend…there is a pretty good chance that sometime in your life you’ve heard someone utter the phrase, “My stomach aches!” Depending on the circumstances the stricken person may indeed have a stomach problem – like food poisoning, appendicitis,...Read More

English: Logo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services. White on blue background with white rays but no white “burst”. No detailed wording. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Vital Signs published the first Tuesday of each month If you are a regular reader of...Read More