Tackling Pain Without Vioxx

Pain Expert Jacob Teitelbaum M.D. Offers Strategies for Natural Pain Relief In His New Book Pain Free 1-2-3—A Proven Program for Eliminating Chronic Pain Now!

ANNAPOLIS, MD – SPRING 2006 – Chronic pain plagues 50 million Americans. And according to the American Chronic Pain Association, the majority of these patients turn to alternative treatments regardless of the medication they are using or the nature of their pain.

“Why risk potential side effects from prescription drugs when natural and less costly alternatives are available?” says leading pain expert, board certified internist Jacob Teitelbaum, MD. ”Today’s FDA controversy around the Vioxx recall is now driving record numbers of Americans to seek safer alternative therapies for chronic pain and arthritis,“ he explains. Dr. Teitelbaum is the author of the newly released Pain Free 1-2-3—A Proven Program for Eliminating Chronic Pain Now! (McGraw-Hill, April 2006).

“Pain can range from a nagging headache to excruciating chest pain that signals a heart attack. Pain is the body’s natural warning mechanism,” explains Dr. Teitelbaum. “It’s like the red light that flashes on your dashboard to let you know something is wrong and needs immediate attention.” Dr, Teitelbaum is Director of the Center for Effective Fibromyalgia/CFIDS Therapies in Annapolis, Maryland, specializing in Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that afflicts six million Americans and is routinely misdiagnosed.

“There is no magic cure for conditions like Fibromyalgia and its disabling partner Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which manifest as complex syndromes with an array of seemingly unrelated symptoms. FMS/CFS is best treated through an integrative medical approach,” states Dr. Teitelbaum, whose landmark research on effective treatment for FMS/CFS appeared as the lead study in the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 8:2, 2001. This gold standard study showed an unprecedented 91 percent improvement in quality of life within two years (p<.0001 versus placebo) among patients using his integrative medical protocol. Overall in the active group, energy levels increased by 87 percent and pain decreased by 50 percent after 3 months of treatment.

The method was editorialized in 2002 in the Journal of the American Academy of Pain Management as “an excellent and highly effective part of the standard of practice for treating fibromyalgia” and other pain conditions. The protocol brings results 90 percent of the time by focusing on four broad areas of treatment: insomnia, hidden infections, hormonal imbalances, and nutrition.

Dr. Teitelbaum is also author of the perennial best-seller From Fatigued to Fantastic! (Avery Penguin Putnam). Having suffered from and overcome Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as a medical student in the 1970s, he dedicated the next 28 years of practice as an internist to developing effective therapies for chronic pain sufferers and giving them their lives back.