Check It Out

A Nation in Pain: Healing Our Nation's Biggest Health Problem
by Judy Foreman
Oxford University Press, 2014
New Book Shelf: Call Number: RB 127 .F672 2014

Judy Foreman, health columnist, award-winning journalist, and author of A Nation in Pain: Healing Our Nation’s Biggest Health Problem, claims that chronic pain is the biggest health problem in American today.

After dealing with her personal experience with chronic neck pain, and after years of research and interviews with medical professionals and patients, Foreman discovered that although pain frequently is not curable, the inadequate management offered for pain relief is a serious issue. As Foreman states in her book, “when chronic pain is inadequately treated, it undermines the body and mind… far more than a symptom, chronic pain can be a disease in its own right.”

Published in partnership with the International Association for the Study of Pain, Foreman’s book offers a plan of action to include improved pain education in medical schools and changes in federal policies. A Nation in Pain provides a guide to understanding what the underlying causes of an individual’s pain may be such as: genetic susceptibility, gender differences and hormone factors, undertreated pain in children, and the role of the immune system. She addresses alternative treatments to include marijuana, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic care and exercise.

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Review by Tanya Carr, SWC Librarian