Pain Archive

Peripheral artery disease is serious but preventable.

As people get older, they sometimes shrug off painful cramping in their calves when they walk as a sign of age or overexertion. But it can be a symptom of a more serious condition known as peripheral artery disease, or PAD.

PAD is a condition in which fatty deposits collect in arteries outside the heart — most commonly in the legs — and reduce blood flow in that part of the body. Doctors used to think PAD mostly affected men, but when researchers began to include more women in their studies, they learned that the condition is just as common in women, affecting one in every 10 women over age 50 and one in every five over age 60, says Dr. Aruna Pradhan, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Q. I have a pain in my right buttock, which my doctor says is ischial bursitis. Is there anything I can do for the pain or to make the condition go away?

A. Ischial bursitis, sometimes called ischiogluteal bursitis, is an inflammation of the fluid-filled sac, or bursa that lies between the ischial tuberosity (the lower part of the V-shaped bone that helps form the pelvis) and the tendon that attaches the hamstring muscle to the bone.  It helps to understand the location of the ischial bursa is by recognizing that it’s the part of your body that bears most of the pressure when sitting in a saddle.   Injury or overuse can cause the bursa to become inflamed, swollen, and painful — a condition called bursitis. Ischial bursitis can result from sitting for long periods on a hard surface, from direct trauma to the area, or from injury to the hamstring muscle or tendon through activities such as running or bicycling.

Sales of cannabidiol-infused products are expected to top $2 billion by 2021. But is CBD right for you?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is touted as a natural wonder that can help treat symptoms of everything from anxiety to arthritis pain. The plant extract comes from two varieties of cannabis — hemp and marijuana — and is available in creams, tinctures, oils, patches, gummy bears, capsules, and more. You can even add CBD to a latte if you walk into a coffee shop in some cities.

But is CBD safe for older adults? There haven't been a lot of large studies of CBD's safety, but more traditional medicines for pain and anxiety are not free of adverse effects, either. "I think CBD is likely safer than many other treatments people use for pain, insomnia, or anxiety," says Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. Other physicians don't think we know enough about the safety profile of CBD to be sure.

The "nocebo effect" may explain why some people believe they can't tolerate statins.

For more than 20 years, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have been a mainstay for preventing and treating heart disease. But up to half of people prescribed these drugs are no longer taking them within a year or two. The reasons vary, but some people experience what they believe to be statin-related side effects — most often muscle pain. Others avoid statins altogether because of worries over side effects.

"Far too any people think they cannot tolerate statins when they actually can," explains Dr. Jorge Plutzky, director of preventive cardiology at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. To be clear, muscle problems are a known side effect of statins. However, serious muscle-related complications are extremely rare (see "What is rhabdomyolysis?"). And when people experience the more common — but less worrisome — muscle-related symptoms, those issues usually resolve with a lower statin dose or a change to a different statin, Dr. Plutzky says.

Ask the doctors

Q. My friend insists that her arthritis pain gets worse just before it rains. Is it true that joint pain can intensify based on the weather?

A. Despite what your friend, your grandmother, and generations of people have sworn is the case, experts haven't found consistent evidence that arthritis pain gets worse on rainy days. At best, study results over the years have been mixed, and one large, recent study seems to cast doubt on the theory.

The benefits of meditation go beyond stress reduction.

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Most of us sense instinctively that clutter is unhealthy. Sure, we may joke about a disorganized desk or a teenager's messy room, but we feel that a clean, organized space is a healthier, more soothing environment. What about a cluttered mind — a mind constantly presented with different simultaneous challenges and distractions? Is that unhealthy, and is there a fix?

Uncluttering — or, as is usually said, "emptying" — your mind through meditation has a host of health-related benefits, and maybe that's why more people are taking up the practice. Data from a national survey conducted by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, published online by the CDC in November 2018, found that 14% of American adults reported meditating in 2017, compared with just 4% in 2012.

Because addiction to pain pills often starts with an operation, surgeons are shifting to non-opioid approaches for pain control.

 Image: © Morsa Images/Getty Images

Many people who are struggling with opioid addiction didn't start taking the drugs at a party or at a friend's house. They were introduced to these painkilling medications by their doctor after a surgical procedure.

In the 1990s, the number of opioid prescriptions written for people undergoing surgery or experiencing pain conditions grew — and so did related problems. As a result, "we are in a current opioid epidemic, with 91 substance-related deaths each day, according to the CDC," says Dr. Elizabeth Matzkin, an orthopedic surgeon and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

A fundamental goal of healthy aging is to keep walking as long as possible. Barring an injury or disabling disease, most of us think of the ability to walk as a defining capability of the human body. Of course, people who lose their ability to walk can still retain mobility through wheelchairs and assistive devices, and they can have full and happy lives. But there's no reason why most people can't keep walking their whole lives. It's important to stay active in order to maintain this ability—or, if you haven't been active for a while, to start with whatever simple measures it takes to boost your level of activity and start improving mobility.

Staying active with joint pain

It's important to keep joints moving, even if you're dealing with pain from arthritis or an overuse injury. But sometimes you'll need to keep weight off a joint and rest it more than you usually would. Don't let a painful joint prevent you from exercising; try these joint-friendly options instead: