iPain 101 - a great iPhone/iPad App - An Easy to Understand Patient Education Application About Pain Management

iPain 101 has just recently been brought to my attention.  Spent the $1.99 to download and it really is worth it.


What is it?
An Easy to Understand Patient Education Application About Pain Management


What is pain and why do people feel it?


Where exactly does it come from?


What is the precise physiology behind pain?


And, most importantly, how can pain be eliminated or at least reduced?


This app helps summarize the multitude of “pain” studies in ten simplified lessons and five true patient case studies.

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/ipain101/id414135724?mt=8

How Brain Training Can Make Us Smarter

Neuroscience is showing us that the brain needs exercise in much the same way our muscles do, and the right mental workouts can significantly improve our basic cognitive functions. Thinking is essentially a process of making neural connections in the brain.

To a certain extent, our ability to excel in making the neural connections that drive intelligence is inherited. However, because these connections are made through effort and practice, scientists believe that intelligence can expand and fluctuate according to mental effort.

This article describes this in more depth:
http://www.howlifeworks.com/Article.aspx?Cat_URL=health_beauty&AG_URL=brain_training&AG_ID=291&cid=7190br&aid=1049985

The article features information about "Lumosity" - a brain training program designed (by experts in neuroscience and cognitive psychology from Stanford University) to actually help people improve and regain their mental sharpness.

Lumosity is an online place to exercise your mental skills. They have integrated these exercises into a Web-based program that allows you to systematically improve your memory and attention skills. The program keeps track of your progress and provides detailed feedback on your performance and improvement. Most importantly, it constantly modifies and enhances the games you play to build on the strengths you are developing--much like an effective exercise routine requires you to increase resistance and vary your muscle use.

http://www.lumosity.com/app/v4/personalization

Focused symposium: Teaching people about pain

This symposium brought several world leaders in pain education together.

Taking this symposium will enable you to gain a basic understanding of what is currently known about the biology of pain and to be familiar with principles of conceptual change theory and evidence based strategies to teach people about pain. 

It takes about 1.5 hours to get through, but is worth the time investment!

http://www.wcpt.org/node/46728

Neuro Images - Take a Break and Appreciate the Beauty of the Nervous System

Just a couple examples of the fine pictures/photos at the Neuro Images Tumblr Blog.  There are also historical pictures and very interesting art.

http://neuroimages.tumblr.com/

Quadruple fluorescence image of the mouse retina, showing optic nerve axons and glia stained red and green, respectively, actin in endothelial cells of the blood vessel walls stained blue and nucleic acids stained orange.

Scanning electron micrograph of the human cerebral cortex.

BrainFacts.org - Check it Out!

BrainFacts.org is a public information initiative of The Kavli Foundation, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Society for Neuroscience. It is an excellent source of information about the brain and nervous system.

http://www.brainfacts.org/

The "Recent Neuroscience in the News" section is particularly interesting.

People In Pain Network

A great resource for people living with pain.


Development of local level chronic pain support groups to provide support to people living with persistent pain.  This is achieved through the development of trained support group leaders and the guided direction provided by the People in Pain Network's "ToolKit" for pain self-management and ongoing support provided by the People in Pain Network and it's support groups.


For more information visit their website:
www.pipain.com