Millions of people wake up each day to pain and other symptoms from diseases and conditions that have not yet been diagnosed. Marianne Genetti is trying to do something about that. She founded "In Need Of Diagnosis," a non-profit organization committed to helping undiagnosed patients find appropriate doctors and resources.

Genetti plans to work with other nonprofit groups to create a database of symptoms. It's hard to believe that in this age of supercomputers, someone hasn't already done something like this. But in fact, there's nothing like it anywhere.

With all the billions of dollars spent on medical care and research each year, very little of it goes into diagnosing. And that's despite the fact the about forty percent of all illnesses are misdiagnosed. According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, fatal illnesses are misdiagnosed in 20 out of every 100 cases.

In May of 2008, the National Institutes of Health launched an Undiagnosed Diseases Program to study some of the most difficult undiagnosed cases. As it only accepts 50 to 100 patients per year, it does little to address the crying need for proper diagnosis for millions of people in the United States alone. Marianne Genetti hopes her organization will help fill the gap by collecting information that may advance the medical communities knowledge.

Genetti was motivated to start In Need Of Diagnosis after her own struggle with a serious and undiagnosed lung problem. She recognized the need for a national database of symptoms, as well as the need to encourage undiagnosed patients to be more aggressive in asking their doctors for more tests, information and input. In Need Of Diagnosis is a young organization. It is in need of volunteers and donations. If you are in need of help and support in finding a proper diagnosis for chronic pain or any other health-related issue, I encourage you to visit In Need Of Diagnosis at their web site, http://www.inod.org

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information and motivation to people living with chronic pain.  You can stay in touch with her by typing your email address into the subscribe box in the upper right corner of this page.

This concept isn't always so easy for Westerners to accept. When I was first injured, I would have thought the idea ludicrous. The source of my pain was obvious-I'd been in a serious auto accident. Case closed.

But when traditional medicine failed to help me heal, I began exploring alternative medicine. The more I read, the more I learned about the number of ways that our beliefs and ideas impact our body. I began to understand that the rage I held inside–rage against the man that recklessly caused the accident, rage against the doctors that carelessly misdiagnosed me, rage against the insurance company that closed and left me stranded–all that boiling rage was standing in the way of my recovery.

It wasn't easy to let go of that rage. After all, it was completely justified. All those people had caused me to suffer, yet they had moved on with their lives without so much as a slap on the hand. I wanted justice, and knowing there would be none left me filled with fury.

But book after book, scientific study after scientific study, told me the same story. Our brains react instantly to our thoughts and emotions, releasing millions of combinations of chemicals in instant response to everything that passes through our mind.

I knew I had to find a way to release my rage, and with much work and over time, I did. Since then, I've continued to study brain function, hypnosis and what some call emotional or energy medicine. And a couple of years ago I came across a field of energy medicine called EFT, emotional freedom technique.

EFT is a way of tapping into and resolving painful emotions by tapping on your body. It's one of the first techniques I turn to when I need physical or emotional help. I consider it my first aid kit. But a few weeks ago, even though I needed help badly, I seemed helpless to help myself.

I was getting ready to go to a 4-day seminar on internet marketing when I slipped and twisted my knee. Nothing seemed broken or torn, so I wasn't overly concerned. And I knew, from years of physical therapy, how to care for it.

But after the first day of the seminar, I was a wreck. To walk, I was shifting all my weight to the right, to protect my left knee. Doing that put my spine out of whack, and I now had a nagging backache as well as a throbbing knee. I knew I'd better start using a cane to keep me standing straight while my knee healed. So that night, on the way home from the seminar, I stopped at a drug store and bought a spiffy blue cane with a comfortable handle.

I instantly felt more comfortable walking, but as I left the drug store, something came trailing behind me. It was a swarm of negative emotions and fears that followed me home, settling on me like little black flies, biting and pinching me. I tried to brush them away, but as I fell asleep, they invaded my dreams. I got little rest that night.

The next day, I walked into the seminar with my cane and was again overwhelmed with painful emotions. Everything I'd been though in the past came alive again. I vividly remembered using first a walker, and later a cane. I remembered people making unkind remarks and ridiculous assumptions when I was slow crossing a street or moving through the grocery store. And the more I remembered, the more my knee throbbed and the worse I felt.

I didn't make it through the last day of the seminar. And all the next week I was so worn out from pain I could barely get my work done. Mail and housework piled up, making me feel more stressed, more afraid, more angry at myself for not taking control of the situation and doing—- well, doing what? My knee needed time to heal. Wasn't I using a knee brace, a cane, exercise and infrared heat? 

Wasn't I doing everything I could? I was not. And I knew it. I purposely wasn't using EFT, the Emotional Freedom Technique, to resolve the leftover feelings that damn cane had awakened. Worse, I didn't know why I wasn't using EFT. Some part of me seemed stubbornly resolved to stay in turmoil.

I've seen this in other people, this digging in and accepting pain without doing everything we can to resolve it. I don't know where it comes from or why we do it. I just know it's common.

I knew I had to motivate myself to move forward. But it took me a few days to come up with enough motivation just to motivate myself! To do that, I used a technique I learned in NLP (nuerolinguistic programming). I made a list of things I badly wanted to do, things I would not be able to do if I didn't get out of the unresouceful state of mind I was in.

When the pain of potentially missing out on those events became greater than the pain of making myself take action….I took action. I started using EFT to tap into my emotions and resolve them.

I'd clearly been shown there was a lot of leftover fear and anger from that auto accident that needed to be put to rest. There were lots of new fears, too, fears about the economy, about growing older and declining, as well as lingering grief from the death of my dearest friend last November.

I'm still working my way through some of those issues. My knee is getting better. And I have a better understanding of how deeply our emotions stay buried, not just in our minds but in our bones and muscles and nerves.

There are many ways of resolving emotional pain. I have used EFT effectively, as well as hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming. There are also techniques like Reiki or Rolfing or massage therapy that release emotional pain though physical work. And when the right person is available, therapy with a psychologist or mental health counselor can be a blessing.

The challenge is not to find a method of healing emotions-there are many– but simply to motivate yourself to take a step emotional healing. Don't be afraid to try a technique, or as I did, many techniques. Unlike surgery or drugs, no harm can come from these gentle forms of therapy. When one is right for you, you will feel it. And feel, too, how much physical pain is lifted when emotional pain is released.

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide news, information and motivation to people living with pain.  You can stay in touch with her by adding your email address to the subscribe form located in the upper right corner. For an eye-opening look at EFT, read this very interesting article  at  Emofree about demonstrating EFT to a group of doctors, and how it was used on stage for pain from a broken wrist. or this one–Did Karen’s physical scars disappear as she did EFT on her emotional scars?

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Fast-forward more than 20 years. It's 2007. Blancarte, now 48, is bitten by a brown recluse spider.  Knowing the spider's bite is deadly poisonous, Blancarte's family rushes him to the hospital where he spends 8 months in physical therapy.

During one of the therapy sessions, a nurse notices a muscle spasm in Blancarte's leg. She notifies Blancarte's doctor, who orders tests that show that the once-dead nerves in Blancarte's legs are now reacting to stimulus.

Five days after the tests, Blancarte is walking. Doctors reportedly say they are mystified.

I've worked with paralyzed men in pain support groups. For the first few years of being paralyzed, all of them expect something– some doctor, some operation, some miracle, something– will happen to let them walk again. After 20 years of being paralyzed, no one expects that. Not the person that is paralyzed. Not their families, or doctors or therapists or ministers. No one.

And yet, for unknown reasons, the dead nerves in David Blancartes legs suddenly regenerated.  And he walked.

Every week I hear from people who are struggling with depression because they have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis or lupus or some other painful disease. And they have been told there is no hope for a cure. Every week I hear from people that are still suffering terrible pain even years after a back injury. They no longer hold out hope for a cure. These people often say the same thing. " All I can see is myself getting older and being in even more pain. And I get so depressed."

I want those people, and you, to know about David Blancarte. He is living proof that what we can only call miracles can and do happen. He is proof that no one, no matter how many degrees they have, no matter what they've experienced, no matter what they think they know, can predict the future.

David Blancarte is proof that no one has the right to assume that the end of his or her story has already been written. He is proof that there is always reason to hope, and even to expect that life will bring us the most amazing, unpredictable and unexplainable circumstances, often when we least expect it. David Blancarte is the reason you should push through even the bad days with a smile on your face and bright plans for the future.

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information, motivation and understanding to people living with chronic pain. To stay in touch with her, please use the subscribe form in the upper right corner.

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What?!!

Well, he may not have said exactly that, but my doctor did point out that my lab tests show I'm far healthier now than I was a year ago…and I say my improved health illustrates that a bad economy can be good for pain patients.

I know that's the opposite of what many people are thinking right now. With the world economy in turmoil and no quick fix in sight, it's easy to let your mind run away with "stinking thinking."

Stinking thinking is what Alcoholics Anonymous labels the type of negative, fatalistic thinking alcoholics often go through when they reach for recovery. It's thinking that says, "Thing's can't possibly get better. They'll only get worse."

People who are challenged by chronic pain can be just as prone to stinking thinking. Lately I've been hearing from pain patients who are terribly fearful of the declining economy and what it will mean for them. While I'm fully aware of the dangers of a world economy in recession, I'm also fully aware that stinking thinking can amplify those dangers-not just in our thoughts, but also in our reality.

Once you let fear get a grip on you, things start looking worse. Before you know it, fear is leading you to make bad decisions, and soon things don't just seem worse. They ARE worse! So let's put the boot to stinking thinking by making a list of all the things that can and will be better because of a shrinking economy. Because believe it or not, there ARE benefits to having less disposable income.

Benefit Number One: Many pain patients will start asking their doctors to help them cut down on prescription medications. I'm already seeing news headlines that indicate the numbers of prescriptions being filled is falling, a clear sign that people hard pressed for cash are cutting back on medications.

This can easily bring to mind fears of people suffering because they can't get needed meds.  (And if this is you, check here for helpful resources.)

But let it also bring to mind the number of people who will suddenly find they've been improperly or overly medicated. As I've said before, I was overmedicated for two whole years; time that drifted by as I sat bathed in the blue light of the television, drooling in my own lap. When my insurance benefits finally ran out, the doctors who'd been treating me wished me "Good luck!" as they slammed the door in my face.

I was desperate, afraid and depressed…until the morning I woke up and discovered the last of my medications had worked their way out of my system. For the first time in years, I was thinking clearly. With my brain function restored, I was able to seek out new resources and new methods of treatment and take my first real steps toward recovery.

When I worked as an organizer of self-help recovery groups, I frequently helped people make written lists of all the medications they were taking so that a pharmacist or physician could review it with them. It was alarming to discover how many people were taking 12 or more medications-often a warning sign a person is overmedicated or at high risk for negative interactions. In many cases, this happened because Doctor A didn't know what Specialist B had prescribed, and vice versa.

If the cost of prescriptions is becoming a burden for you, take this first step. Make a complete list of all your medications, including over-the-counter and herbal remedies. Review everything you take with your doctor, your pharmacist or a qualified giver of second medical opinions to make sure all of your meds are necessary, that you have the proper dosage and that there are no negative interactions. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you can save-both in terms of money and your health.

Benefit Number Two of living with a weak economy: Many people will start taking better care of their own health. We all know the rules of healthy living: exercise, don't smoke, drink in moderation, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and avoid fattening foods and empty calories. 

But knowing those rules is one thing. Following them is another. For most of us, our weaknesses are attempts to help ourselves. Smoking helps some people feel calmer, and they can't motivate themselves to quite if they don't have an alternative resource.

For others, eating empty calories helps them find a little comfort in an uncomfortable world. They'll find it difficult to quit if they can't find another source of comfort.

But with the cost of everything soaring, many people are finding that the pain in their wallet is overriding the comfort of smoking or overeating.

I've felt this myself. My doctor had warned that my cholesterol was creeping up and I might need medication to control it. I was ashamed. I knew my creeping cholesterol was likely related to my fondness for dining out. But a fine meal seemed like such a small pleasure to give myself. Especially, I rationalized, when I work so hard!

A former food writer, I know my way around a kitchen, especially if that kitchen belongs to any of the best chefs in Florida. I've paid a price, especially around my waistline, for writing about all the best restaurants, but I couldn't get myself to slow down until dinner tabs starting resembling the national debt.

One day, I looked at an eye popping check for a dinner I could easily have made at home for just a few dollars and said "enough is enough." Now I'm back home on the range, cooking from scratch, which is benefiting both my wallet and waistline.

My cholesterol level and blood pressure are now something to brag about. And I've rediscovered the pleasure I used to take in cooking, back before I started letting chefs do it for me.

Cutting back on restaurants was always an option I had, but not one that appealed to me until prices crept past my comfort zone. Cutting back on prescriptions was not something I even considered until my insurance benefits dried up. Yet each of these-once I was pushed towards them– had real and instant benefits for me.

This recession will have consequences for everyone.  Let's remember that many of those consequences will be good ones–especially for pain patients. We'll eat healthier. We'll quit smoking. We'll take fewer medications. We'll explore alternatives to high-priced and inadequate medical care and we'll even make all sorts of new discoveries about what we-and the world-are capable of, all because we're being pushed to it.

If you're finding some aspect of your life is improving or you plan to make positive changes because of the recession, I'll welcome your sharing in the comment boxes.  Let's remind each other that even in a bad economy, we can choose to find good news. I'm Bonnie Boots, and that's what I think!

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information and motivation to people living with chronic pain.  You can stay in touch with her by typing your email address into the subscribe box in the upper right corner of this page.

It offered me a set of ebooks containing information on serious health issues ranging from cancer to heart disease. Each ebook came with a sales page that could be published on the internet to sell the book. Each ebook also came with a related email course that could be given away free to get people to sign up for a mailing list.

Because so many people turn to the internet for health and medical information, sets like this are considered "hot." And because the price was barely $30, I guarantee they'll sell out quickly… but I won't be one of the buyers.

You see, I don't know much about cancer or heart disease. I know what I read in magazines and what my doctor tells me. You probably know more about these issues than I do. There's no way I could read though those ebooks and know whether they contain current, reliable information or not.

Chance are, the people that buy this set of ebooks and sales pages won't know any more about cancer and heart disease than I do. Chances are, they won't care if the books are reliable or not. They're just looking for things to sell on the internet.

Why should you care about this? Because YOU are the target audience the sellers of these ebooks are looking for.

There are thousands of internet marketers all around the world just trolling cyberspace looking for people with health problems so they can sell them crap.

I publish Pain Health News because pain has been a huge part of my life. Because I know what it's like to be crippled with pain, I'm very particular about what I share and recommend. Because I know how vulnerable pain patients are, I have a tremendous feeling of responsibility for you, my readers.

I know, from sad experience, what it's like to be seeking pain relief and be exploited by people who look at you with dollar signs in their eyes. That's why I got so angry when I received this offer for ebooks on cancer and heart disease.

If you buy a book on gardening that contains unreliable information on marigolds, it's not going to have a huge impact on your life. But if you buy a book that has unreliable information on cancer, heart disease…or pain…it could have all sorts of negative consequences.

So here's my warning to you. When you see sales pitches for health-related items, whether that item is a book or a drug or a nutrient or an appliance, do your homework before you buy. Check out the person or company selling the item or service or drug you're interested in. Look for references. Look for reviews. Look for verification of the claims that are being made.

I know how seductive advertising can be when it offers pain relief. I say, with some embarrassment, I've bought it all. But I learned. I am now a world-class expert in using Google to track down and verify every claim made for an item I'm interested in. I don't buy so much as a bottle of aspirin without Googleing to see where it's manufactured. Here are a few tricks I've learned for tracking down reliable information.

Before you buy any product, especially online or on TV, go to Google, type in the name of that product, the plus sign and the word "review." For example, you would type in the Google search bar "kinoki + review" (without using the punctuation marks.) Then search again, typing "kinoki + study" (again, without the quote marks.) Then type in "kinoki + complaints" (again, without quotes.) Of course, you can go far deeper with your searches–and you should — when an item involves your health, but just these 3 simple searches will bring you thousands of returns filled with information you can use to decide whether or not an item is worth buying.

How do you find products to help with pain? Do you rely on TV ads? Do you look though catalogs? And how do you decide what's worthwhile? Feel free to share in the comment box below. Your participation in the conversation is most welcome!

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information, motivation and conversation to people in pain. Subscribe using the box on the top right side to receive updates.

(The poster I defaced for my post illustration was orginally titled "Cry Of The Werewolf" starring Nina Foch, a 1944 Columbia Movies release)

Because it's adjacent to a large lake, Chicago's winters are always cold and damp, but this winter has been especially brutal. The weather is wreaking havoc with my friend's arthritis, so when Christmas came around, I naturally wanted to send her a gift that would ease her discomfort.

She's been spending a good deal of time on the couch, resting and watching TV, and when I asked what she would like for Christmas, my friend said "Have you seen those ads for the blanket with sleeves? It looks so cozy.  I'd love to have one of those."

If you live in the U.S., you can hardly have missed the television ads for this product. One particular company offers to deliver two of the blankets with sleeves, along with two reading lights,  for under twenty dollars plus the cost of shipping.

At that price, I really didn't expect a quality product. Still, when the package arrived, I had a moment of hoping I would be pleasantly surprised. I was not. When I opened the bag, out slid two thin "blankets" made of the very cheapest kind of fleece. They had a distinctively chemical smell.

There was no way I was going to give this as a gift, but it was what my friend had specifically requested, and with barely a week until Christmas, what was I to do? I turned, as always, to the internet and after some searching, I found my answer–the Nuddle Blanket.

The Nuddle  (NuddleBlanket = Nap + Cuddle)  is exactly what I wanted to give my friend–the blanket equivalent of a warm hug. The Nuddle is made from a luxuriously soft and thick ultra-plush microfiber, so deep and soft you can't resist sinking into it's embrace. It has slits for your arms, as well as a wide outer pocket for your hands. That way, your hands stay warm while you can still easily reach out to hold a book or the TV remote. The Nuddle is long enough to cover your body from your neck to your feet, and it has a pocket at the bottom to keep your feet tucked in. It's altogether warm, cozy and top quality-something that will hold up well for several years of use.

This cuddle blanket was exactly what I wanted for my friend-something to give her an extra measure of comfort and pleasure.

.With Christmas just a week away, I had no time to lose. I sent my friend a big, fancy card telling her Santa would deliver my gift a little late-but it would be worth the wait. When the Nudddle arrived at my house, I packed it up with two paperbacks and some specialty cocoa and took it to United Parcel Service, who delivered it in Chicago two days later. My friend called me immediately to tell me how delighted she was with her gift. And she called again yesterday to tell me how much pleasure she's getting from her cuddle blanket.

"I don't like to lay around in my bathrobe, like I'm sick," she told me. "Now I can be up and dressed, but when I need to rest, I curl up on the couch with my Nuddle. It's so soft and cozy. Just wrapping up in it helps me relax."

It's exactly what I wanted to give her-comfort and joy. And I have the satisfaction of knowing she'll use it for several years.

What happened to the cheap " blankets with sleeves," the ones that looked worn out right out of the bag? I would have spent a total of $16 in postage if I'd returned them ($8 to mail them to me, another $8 to send them back) so rather than throw good money after bad, I donated them to a charity thrift store. That way, at least someone will get some good from them.

If cold and damp add to your pain, check out the Nuddle blanket. I think you'll enjoy it every bit as much as my friend is . Click here to see the NuddleBlanket: Cuddle Up In Comfort It comes with my highest recommendation. After all, it single-handedly saved Christmas!

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information and motivation to people living with chronic pain.  You can stay in touch with her by typing your email address into the subscribe box in the upper right corner of this page.

Welcome to the new blog for Pain Health News. Although I still have a lot of work to do setting it up, I'm rushing ahead to kick it off this last day of 2008 so that you and I can welcome in the New Year, 2009, together.

It's lovely to think that we have a brand new year in front of us, like a glistening field of fresh snow just waiting for us to wade in and make our mark. But like so many lovely thoughts, this one is a fantasy.

The reality is that 2009 comes to us trailing the debris of 2008, a year filled with fears and frustrations, a year that sent the entire world into a tailspin. It will take more than the blowing of horns and the popping of firecrackers to chase away the troubles of the year now passing.

We will not wake up on New Years Day to a completely new world, nor a completely new life. Each of us will find pretty much the same struggles and challenges waiting on our doorstep as we step out into our new year. And yet, there is cause for celebration, and for joy, because at the very heart of our New Year a celebration is the most profound and powerful of all human emotions.

There is hope.

To look at the world as it is, to look at ourselves as we are, and to patiently trust and expect that things will be better is the source of true magic, for once you choose hope, anything is possible.

Hope is the source of all courage, of all creativity. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept going when they had nothing left but hope. Hope is, as Emily Dickens wrote, "the thing with feathers-That perches in the soul-And sings the tune without the words-And never stops-at all."

When trust has been broken, when confidence has been wounded, when dreams have been shattered, hope is indeed the thing that sits in the soul and sings the tune without words, the tune that assures us life not only can be better but will be better.

There was a time in my life when I was in despair, when pain seemed never ending and people seemed not to care. But hope sat in my soul and the song it sang gave me the courage and the ambition to push on, to prod, to nag and demand and search.

It was hope that told me there was healing. And hope did not lie.

Tonight, after the horns stop blowing and the firecrackers stop popping, I will go out into the still night, into the quiet and listen for the bird-like voice warbling in my own soul the joyful tune. I invite you to listen to the song inside your own soul, then join me here to share your hopes for the New Year.

### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information and motivation to people living with chronic pain.  You can stay in touch with her by typing your email address into the subscribe box in the upper right corner of this page.