Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"My point is not that sexy is a bad thing; my point is that sexy and smart are not oil and water, and you don't have to dumb yourself down to be cute." -- rock star Pink, regarding her song, "Stupid Girls", on the daytime television show Oprah, 2006-04-10 (air date -- I don't know when it was taped)

"Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center have discovered a protein in nerve cells that acts as a switch for chronic pain, and have applied for a patent to develop a new class of drugs that will block chronic pain by turning this switch off." (Thanks to tdj for pointing out the story/link.)

Dayum. If that works, and is safe, and works on me, and is available to me, it'll be radically life-changing. I wonder how many years I'll have to wait to find out whether they're able to make this discovery useful, and (if so) how much longer after that before the treatment actually starts being applied in the field instead of in the lab. Could it possibly get here in time for me to start earning a living again before I get "too old for anyone to want to hire"?

Hurry up, science! Gimme!

"We're very optimistic that this discovery and our continued research will ultimately lead to a novel approach to pain relief for the millions suffering from chronic pain."

Also, in the section on the problems with existing drugs, they mention that Tylenol is "ineffective for chronic pain". And here I thought it was just my funky body chemistry. (So why is Vicoprofen -- hydrocodone plus ibuprofen -- so much harder to find than Vicodin -- hydrocodone plus Tylenol -- if Tylenol is known to be ineffective for a whole category of patients bad enough off to need opiates? For me, Vicodin, Percoset, and codeine work a whole lot better if I take 0.8g or 1g of ibuprofen with 'em.)

In the much shorter term, I'm still hoping for time-release tramadol (Ultram) to make it more likely that I'll stay asleep more than four hours at a time. (That's about how long tramadol works for me.)

But for the long view ... a way to just switch off chronic pain would be such a win.

It's not clear from the press release whether a single treatment using this approach turns the switch off so that it stays off, or they're just talking about a much more effective drug for temporary relief.