Pain is our body's way of telling us that something is wrong. Once we have appropriately responded to our body, however - gone to the doctor, taken our medicine, modified our lifestyle, lost weight or whatever - then the pain serves no purpose and should go away, right? One would think so.

However, some kinds of pain persist after the condition that started the pain has been treated. These pains are sometimes called chronic pain. You get in the habit of hurting and forever after you hurt for no good reason. You are not imagining it, the pain is really there.

For a while a fair number of Western Medicine MD doctors specialized very effectively in the treatment of pain, but not so much now as before. The AARP recently reported that the reason for this decline in availability of pain treatment is twofold: fear that the patient will become addicted to the medicine and fear that the government will second-guess the doctor and cite him/her for a prescribing violation.

Oriental Medicine pain treatment involves acupuncture and/or herbs. The herbs are available in pill form and are easy to take for most people. Neither of these therapies are subject to any kind of addiction or abuse. Acupuncturists and Doctors of Oriental Medicine continue to effectively treat pain of all kinds without fear of addiction or abuse issues.