We are a society gripped by constant pain of one sort or another—and life appears to be getting more painful by the year. In the UK alone, according to government statistics, at least a third of all households—representing some eight million of us—have one or more members suffering from moderate-to-severe persistent pain of some variety. This is two to three times more than the number of such sufferers in the 1970s.

Matters are even worse in the US. According to the American Pain Foundation, more than 26 million Americans ages 20 to 64 experience frequent back pain alone. Almost a third of all adults aged 65 or over report some variety of knee pain, and more than one-sixth report having hip pain or stiffness. Staggeringly, some 25 million cases of pain have to do with migraine, or lower facial pain or jaw pain such as a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder.

We are a society gripped by constant pain of one sort or another—and life appears to be getting more painful by the year. In the UK alone, according to government statistics, at least a third of all households—representing some eight million of us—have one or more members suffering from moderate-to-severe persistent pain of some variety. This is two to three times more than the number of such sufferers in the 1970s.

Matters are even worse in the US. According to the American Pain Foundation, more than 26 million Americans ages 20 to 64 experience frequent back pain alone. Almost a third of all adults aged 65 or over report some variety of knee pain, and more than one-sixth report having hip pain or stiffness. Staggeringly, some 25 million cases of pain have to do with migraine, or lower facial pain or jaw pain such as a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder.

Despite the fact that pain is the biggest ‘illness’ of our times—vastly overtaking cancer, diabetes or any of the other degenerative diseases in incidence—medicine’s only answer is to use chemicals to block or suppress pain signals or inflammation in the nerves, brain or muscles. Millions of patients survive on years of taking over-the-counter medications like paracetamol, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, despite warnings against their long-term use.

It’s now becoming obvious, though, that the pills just don’t work. Most nursing-home patients remain in moderate or severe pain despite the universal use of a plethora of painkilling medications. And most of the rest of us report that, most of the time, our pain is beyond the reach of most drugs.

This is not surprising, given what we’re now learning about how the body works. The rationale for pharmaceutical medicines rests on the premise that chemical processes in the body progress in a linear and orderly fashion, so that a drug can precisely target tab A to pop it nicely into slot B.

However, we’re now beginning to realize that chemical reactions in the body are distinctly not linear, but chaotic. As frontier biologist Bruce Lipton observed in his seminal book The Biology of Belief, interactions between a small group of cellular proteins in fruit-fly cells involved in the synthesis and metabolism of RNA molecules make up an impossibly complicated web of interconnectedness that can never be reduced to the simple linear progression of cause and effect.

Recently, scientists have theorized that the more than 6,000 proteins in the human body have a network of more than 70,000 physical interactions. Proteins with certain physiological functions, such as gender determination, also influence proteins that have an entirely different job, such as RNA synthesis.

Trying to tease apart any protein’s sole job in any genuine sense becomes virtually impossible.

Furthermore, we are now beginning to recognize that Nature is economical with her building blocks: the same proteins or signals may be used in entirely different organs or tissues of the body for completely different functions.

Pain, we are learning, is not merely symptomatic of mechanical parts breaking down, but relates to a complex interaction between mind and body. New theories show that pain results not only from mechanical effects on nerves, but also from what is referred to as ‘biochemical irritation’, which can come from any physical, mental or emotional cause. New evidence, for instance, shows that pain is often the side-effect of a simple lack of vitamin D—which may be why the British, living as they do in a sunshine-poor country, have a disproportionately high incidence of pain.

One of the major causes of persistent pain is emotional stress. A number of maverick practitioners like the now retired Dr John Sarno, a clinical rehabilitative expert formerly at the New York University School of Medicine, reckons that virtually all back problems are caused by unresolved emotional stress, and some 85 per cent of his patients resolve their back pain by achieving closure of their emotional issues.

This means that many alternative forms of new medicine can treat pain by targeting mental and emotional issues. Practitioners of these new modalities recognize that pain can be a symptom of too little or too much of something our body needs, but also of something unresolved in our emotional past. In fact, addressing emotional issues through one of the new energy-medicine techniques such as tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) has been shown to accomplish the seemingly impossible: years of intractable pain can vanish in a matter of minutes.

Clearly, it’s time that we stop trying to just temporarily turn off pain and, instead, listen harder to what it’s trying to tell us.

Lynne recommends. . . The Untrue Story of You by Bryan Hubbard

John Gray, author of Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus said that Bryan’s book The Untold Story of You had all the hallmarks of a spiritual classic, and readers are now beginning to agree with him.

At Esalen last weekend, when Bryan explained his theory, many among the audience referred to it as ‘genius’. Here’s some of the latest comments coming back from Amazon readers about this life-changing book

“I refer to the book as psychic surgery. Most profound self-help book I have ever read, and I have read many.” – Beverli Eagan

“As personal help books go, this one is right up there close to the top.” - Paul W.

“An original contribution to the restoration of sanity in anyone mired in the insanity of the past. Its greatest virtue is the simplicity in which it is written.”– Al Braidwood.

“One of the few credible guides to support us to heal into our truth and BE ourselves.” - Karen Oehme Vital Chapters Book Clubs

“I absolutely love his theory and the way he writes and explains things. . . .I am already thinking of a lot of my friends that would enjoy it as well.” – K. King

“I see this as a life-changing book for many (if not all) people and have already recommended it to family and many friends.”- Warrior

“This book has answered all of the puzzling circumstances that have and still are influencing
my life.. . . An amazing insight into what we know but 'do not see' – Janette M. Perrett

“Everyone should read this book. . . . You can really find true healing.” – Judy McLain

Isn’t it time you checked out the book that is changing people’s lives?

In the US: http://www.amazon.com/The-Untrue-Story-You-Creates/dp/1781804664/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

In the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Untrue-Story-You-Creates/dp/1781804664/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8