The Costs of Pain for Those with Pain and Others Who Care for Them

Pain is a burden not only to those who suffer it, but also to family members, co-workers and employers. Self-treatment for pain is effective, immediately available when needed, and very cost-effective.

A person who is laid up with serious backaches, neck pain, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, premenstrual and other pains often requires assistance from family members. Thus, the strains of dealing with pain extend beyond the pain sufferers themselves.

Case Example: George was a 35 year old divorced machine tool worker who slipped and injured his back on the job. His back pain persisted for six weeks before he was able to return to work. In the first two weeks, he was unable to have his two young children stay with him on the weekends and for either the Thursday or the Monday night. This left his wife, a nurse, with extra childcare costs that put a severe strain on her limited budget, as she worked several extra shifts on weekends and evenings in order to make ends meet.

Absenteeism in the workplace due to pain costs billions of dollars annually. J. W. Frymoyer and W. L. Cats-Baril calculated these costs in an article in Orthopedic Clinics of North America. In the US alone, "Costs associated with back pain are estimated to range between $50 billion and $100 billion each year. Medical care accounts for about one-third of costs, while the remainder includes lost wages, disability payments, and retraining costs. Only five percent of people with back pain become permanently or temporarily disabled, but these people account for 75 percent of back pain costs." Similar high costs have been tallied in Canada, England, Ireland and other countries.

Case Example (continued): George's employer had to lean heavily on several of his co-workers, and had to pay them overtime to get them to work extra hours to cover George's responsibilities. As George was the fourth person that year injured on the job, the insurance company insisted on detailed explanations regarding safety regulations and their enforcement in the workplace. George's employer had several discussions with the union foreman about hiring someone new to replace George, as his recuperation stretched past the end of a month's absence.

While George was cleared by his doctor to return to work, George was unable to resume his job because he had to take pain medications that clouded his consciousness and made it unsafe for him to be operating the equipment for which he had been responsible. His boss had to bite the bullet and retrain George for a job in which he would not be endangered, and to train a new person into George's previous position.

Costs for medical care are rising in the Western world to levels that are unsustainable. The benefits derived from the high costs are not commensurate with the outlays. The US, with the highest medical costs in the world (more than 15% of gross domestic product, a greater portion than in any other United Nations member state except for the Marshall Islands), is ranked 37th in health care provision by the World Health Organization (WHO). By comparison, many countries with a national health service get much better ratings, e.g. France = 1st; Singapore = 6th; United Kingdom = 18th; Germany = 25th; Canada = 30th.

Suggestions
There are new, rapidly and deeply effective self-treatment methods, such as WHEE: Whole Health - Easily and Effectively(R), for dealing with physical pains of all sorts. These are easily learned and used. Better yet, once a person knows how to use them, they have this treatment available immediately, any time they need it.

Within minutes, even severe and chronic pains can be significantly reduced or eliminated. In addition, stresses that contribute to the pains and that result from them can also be reduced.

Researchers of treatments for pain would do well to examine cost savings as well as more direct, personal benefits of treatments.

Reducing pain
* Relieves the suffering of those who experience the pains
* Available immediately, anywhere, any time pain and stress relief are needed.
* The process of releasing pain with WHEE has the extra advantage of uncovering stresses that have contributed to the pain, and helping to relieve these as well.
* WHEE identifies and neutralizes the causes underlying the pain. (See YouTube demonstration of WHEE relieving shoulder pain that was present for over 4 years.)
* Relieves the stress on family members who have to take care of them when they are disabled by the pains
* Relieves stresses on co-workers who have to pick up the slack when someone is absent from work.
* Reduces employer costs for
- Reduced productivity
- Absenteeism
- Insurance premiums
- Replacing a disabled worker
- Lost investment in employee training when
employees cannot continue working on their jobs
- Retraining

Reducing the use of pain medicines
* Lowers healthcare costs, both to those who consume them and to those paying the costs of medical insurance.
* Reduces side effects of pain medications, which can include allergies, nausea, mental confusion, constipation and more.
* Often, medical doctors will add more medications to treat side effects of a primary medication, so there are further savings to be had here.
* Reduces fatalities due to drug reactions in people using. Pain medications produce about 15% of the 100,000 deaths resulting annually in the US alone from medications that are properly prescribed and used

Broader benefits of self-healing for pain
* Having skills to deal with pain and stress that are immediately available as needed
* Empowering people to feel competent in dealing with their problems
* Enhancing confidence in one's abilities to deal with pain, stresses and other life challenges
* Improving work relationships and teamwork - as stresses are handled more competently
* Improving personal relationships

Cost/benefits of learning self-treatment for pain

The basic costs for learning to use WHEE for pain are minimal - compared to costs of medications. Once learned, a person has the immediate use of WHEE as needed.

Not everyone is ready to take responsibility for dealing with their own pain. The prevalent Western mind-set is to turn over one's body to the doctor for diagnosis and treatment of pains or any other problems. Some people find it difficult to understand and engage in taking responsibility for dealing with their own problems themselves. Even when people do assume this responsibility, some do not have the patience or persistence to use self-treatment methods. They prefer the quick fix of immediate relief with pills. So in some cases, even after learning to use self-treatment methods, people revert to using medications

Those who use WHEE often report that their lives are transformed. The pain becomes a teacher, an invitation to uncover inner stresses that produce the pain. People feel enormously empowered through using WHEE.

Overall, the benefits of self-healing vastly outweigh the costs.

Daniel Benor, MD authored '7 Minutes to Natural Pain Release: WHEE for Tapping Your Pains Away' (http://www.paintap.com), and many articles on wholistic healing. He is Editor of the International J. of Healing & Caring (http://www.ijhc.org); and appears internationally on radio and TV.