My Pain — Back and Neck and My Treatment — Back and Neck
The Back and Neck Pain areas of the NPF website has been significantly updated to help you better understand your condition and educate yourself about your options if you have back and neck pain. These sections include

• information on finding the pain generator;
• drawings of the spine to help you better understand where your pain is located and what is causing it;
• causes of back pain, including sprain and strain, discogenic pain, sciatica, facet joint syndrome, and spinal stenosis; and
• treatment options from complementary techniques to injections and surgery.

Surgical Treatment of Transformed Migraine Gives Some People Hope for the Future
More than 29 million people in the United States suffer from migraine, a type of headache that can be chronic and incapacitating, interfering with school, work, relationships, and life. For some people, no matter how hard you try, how many triggers you avoid, how many doctors you visit, how many medications you take, how many alternative treatments you try, migraine takes a hold of your life and won't let go. For Shari, a 31-year-old mother in Texas, life became "pure hell" because of transformed migraine — until she found some relief with a neurostimulator. Read Shari's story and learn about how she got her life back.

Pain and Race/Ethnicity
By Elisa Martinez
Race and ethnic disparities in health care have become an important issue in the past few decades. Minorities have traditionally been under-treated and under-diagnosed in all fields of medical care. The question that remains is how to reduce these differences? One of the first steps to reducing the problem is understanding the issue and scope of the problem. Click here to read more about this enormous public health problem.

Pain in the News
The latest news this month includes information about vertebroplasty, complex regional pain syndrome, children and chronic headache, and more. Click here to read some of the latest research findings about pain.

The Healing Response: The 2nd Principle – One Healing Direction
By Michael Loes, MD, MD(H)
In the second principle, Dr. Loes discusses how your body naturally tries to heal itself and what you can do to support it. Read more about pointing your body in the right direction to help it heal itself.

100 Organizations Endorse Consensus Statement in Support of the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2005 (HR 1020)
The National Pain Foundation, along with 99 other organizations, has endorsed the consensus statement drafted by the American Pain Foundation in support of HR 1020: The National Pain Care Policy Act of 2005. This important legislation will help you, your loved ones, your friends, and your family members — anyone you know who lives with chronic pain everyday. Click here to learn more about what you can do to show your support and make a change.

The Latest from Dennis — Stages of Pain: Belief and Reinvention
The pain cycle has a negative downside and it also has a positive upside. When you have chronic pain, you naturally enter this cycle. It's like grief. There's no way you can avoid it. The pain cycle is something you have to go through, but you don't have to go as deep into it as I did. You can learn not to do that. You don't have to lose everything before you find your way out. Click here to read more about reinventing yourself.