Word: chronic
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...none of the circuitous posturing and preening of public officials, who cannot give you the time of day without saying that time is a topic of great concern to them, as it is to all Americans, and that they have long devoted themselves to finding a solution for the chronic problem of time shortage. Governor Ventura just says it's 12 o'clock...
Although an estimated 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, only 26% of those battling moderate to severe pain are referred to the proper specialists. This doesn't mean other doctors can't treat pain effectively, but the complexity of diagnosing the condition and designing a treatment for a specific patient, especially prescribing possibly addictive narcotic-based painkillers, can make this a difficult and tedious task if a physician isn't well versed in pain management...
...Chronic pain is generally defined as persistent pain, like daily migraines, or pain that continues after an injury heals or fails to heal. Everyday aches and pains don't count. "A patient's complaint of 'Oh, doctor, my aching back!' isn't enough to just pull out the prescription pad and write for conventional narcotic meds," says Dr. Russell Portenoy of New York City's Beth Israel Medical Center, president of the American Pain Society, a professional group. Instead, he urges a comprehensive assessment of the pain's characteristics, including its causes and impact on the patient's activity...
...Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) documented an increased prevalence of risk factors for chronic disease--including obesity--among non-whites and among those with lower levels of education. Level of education is an imperfect proxy for socioeconomic status, but it is often the only marker available in large-scale surveillance studies...
FINAL CARE Doctors and health experts have long known that much of the help for patients with terminal and chronic illnesses comes from family members. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that the burden is heaviest when the relative is suffering from a chronic illness like heart disease, which doesn't garner as much public attention or medical support as cancer. Such care, they note, disproportionately falls to women, who handle it in 72% of cases...