Effects of Your Genetics on Pain: : Why You Hurt More Than Others - Paperback

by William Edward Ackerman III (Author)

One's pain perception usually differs from others. This observation is why a "one size fits all" to pain treatment does not exist. This process slows down when one becomes an adult and gets progressively slower with age. Some cells like those in the brain and nerves do not continue to grow. Our bodies reflect our genetic capacity to adapt and repair, as well as tolerate the cumulative damage from disease processes. With advancing age, all of the body systems eventually demonstrate reduced efficiency, slowed building and replacement and actual loss of tissue. There is a gradual loss of bone tissue and the reduced tissue loss may be permanent. When a person is born, cells in the body duplicate rapidly which enables growth resiliency of blood vessels. A chromosome is a cell is a long strand of DNA in it. At the end of a chromosome is a telomere, which acts like a bookend. Telomeres keep chromosomes protected and prevent them from binding with other DNA. Many cells in the body need to replicate to keep the body healthy. When the telomeres fail one's health is affected and this failure is related to aging and chronic pain perception in some instances.

Author Biography

Dr. William Ackerman is a pain management specialist, author and researcher. He is double-board certified in both Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. Dr. Ackerman was the former medical director of pain manage-ment and was an associate professor at a university hospital. He has authored over 135 scientific articles in prestigious journals such as Anesthesia Analgesia, Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management etc. He was on the editorial Board of two medical journals. Dr. Ackerman maintains an active private practice. His practice consists of interventional and medical treatment of chronic pain and is considered an expert in Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. He has published chapters in multiple medical textbooks and has published twelve books including coauthoring and editing the AMA best seller book the AMA Guides to Injury and Disease Causation (First and Second Editions). Dr. Ackerman has expertise in the treatment of a variety of chronic painful conditions including neck and low back pain, intractable neuropathic pain, shingles, joint pain, myofascial pain, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), cancer-related pain etc., with a multi-modal Evidence Based Medicine approach. Dr. Ackerman has been a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army and Chief of Anesthesiology at two Army medical centers. He has been an Associate Professor of three academic, universities, pain management departments and has been on the academy faculty at three medical schools. He has been on the Editorial Board of two peer reviewed medical journals. He was nominat-ed previously for the Southern Medical Society Medical Research Award and the Bristol-Meyers Squibb award for distinguished achievement in Pain Research. He was a past recipient of the prestigious Karl Koeller research grant from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine and was selected to "Who's Who in International Medicine". He has a strong interest in diversity and the appropriate pain management in different gender, age, race and ethnic groups. He analyzes the effectiveness of a pain management intervention in certain subsets of the population, such as in people sharing particular genetic features, as well as compared to the whole population.