Product Description

A top neurosurgeon and acclaimed author's unique and highly readable study of the paradox of pain, with fascinating anecdotes on childbirth, migraines, cancer, and more. Medical science has made brilliant discoveries over the last century but as any cancer patient can attest, it has yet to conquer, or even fully comprehend, pain. Beginning with his own battle against severe migraines, and citing numerous case studies of his patients, in Why We Hurt Dr. Frank Vertosick explains how pain evolved, and by highlighting the critical functions it serves, he helps us to understand its value. Well written, expertly researched, and movingly told, each chapter offers an amalgam of medicine, history, anthropology, drama, inspiration, and practical advice on a myriad of pain syndromes, from back pain to angina, arthritis to carpal tunnel syndrome. A skilled writer and compassionate physician, Vertosick believes knowledge is often the first, and best, analgesic, and in Why We Hurt, "he offers fascinating insight into the greatest mystery of all: what it means to be human" (The Seattle Times).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #395501 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-17
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .84" h x 5.75" w x 8.45" l, .90 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

From Amazon.com
If you've been paying attention, you've noticed by now that pain and suffering infiltrate nearly every part of life. Whether it's an executive nursing a quiet ulcer in the boardroom or a wailing child holding a skinned knee on the playground, this uniquely unpleasant signal must be important; if it weren't, we could more easily ignore it. Neurosurgeon Frank T. Vertosick Jr. explains the evolutionary, physiological, and psychological reasons for pain in Why We Hurt: The Natural History of Pain. Not a paean to despair, the book helps to ease suffering through understanding and learning just how far we've come in the short history of palliative practice. Vertosick's long experience working with sufferers of hideously intractable pain, and his own long battle with migraine, provides depth and illustrative stories that draw the reader into what might otherwise be dry medicalese.

It's heartening to see more surgeons like Dr. Vertosick coming to accept the often-strong psychological basis of pain and appropriate nonsurgical, nonpharmacologic treatments for it. Certainly, as in the case of the woman whose trigeminal nerve was eroded by a circulatory tangle, cutting and suturing have their appropriate place. And the author found several years ago that simple acetaminophen was all he needed to stave off his headaches. His gentle explanations and usually uplifting stories help us prepare for our own episodes of suffering. Though it might seem like small comfort, learning Why We Hurt can be as powerful as the strongest narcotic, with no side effects. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
This accessible and compassionate exploration of physical pain should be of great interest since, at one time or another, almost everyone has experienced severe or recurrent pain. As a neurosurgeon, Vertosick (When the Air Hits Your Brain) has treated patients with migraines, back problems, neuralgia, rheumatoid arthritis, angina and cancer. Drawing on case histories from his practice and on scientific research, he surveys the experience and the processes of pain, as well as the idea of it. He gives a brief, clearly stated history of painful conditions, explains how and why pain strikes and describes the various ways medical intervention can ease or eradicate pain. He also reflects on his wife's labor pains; details the history of anesthesia (a medical invention that he rates as "high among the greatest achievements of our age"); and tells a series of stories about how he and his patients have dealt with their pain. He recounts, for example, how he worked with Anne, a patient whose ruptured disc prevented her from walking on one of her legs. First he tried physical therapy, steroids and narcotic medications to alleviate her pain. Then, when all these treatments failed, he performed the back surgery that enabled her to recover. Combining personal narrative with scientific explanation, Vertosick, who describes himself as "a bit of a wimp" who dislikes seeing patients in pain, displays an enormous dedication to relieving suffering. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Neurosurgeon Vertosick's interest in pain began as a boy of 8 or 9, when he saw TV's Dr. Ben Casey cure a cancer patient's severe pain. He is also personally acquainted with pain from his long history of migraine. He examines the pain of migraine and also of phantom limbs (felt where a limb has been amputated), ruptured discs, and birth. Drawing from his practice and both scientific and literary medical writings, he fashions some of the strongest chapters out of such personal events as his wife's labor giving birth to their first child and his father's bouts of angina. In his account of tic doloreux, or facial nerve pain, he smoothly blends history, literature, anatomy, and neurology. The chapters on carpal tunnel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis deal strikingly with those timely topics, and Vertosick's exploration of malingering and the lack of pain is fascinating. He is obviously a deeply caring physician, who humbly says that "the true business of a physician is not saving lives but easing pain." William Beatty