Reviews/Press

From Westover Magazine - Spring 2005

OFFERING ALTERNATIVES TO PAIN MEDICATION

Roberta West Waddell tackles challenges with a fundamental rule: "A problem is an opportunity for a solution."

"That's what I tell people," Bobby explained. "I try to live my life solution-oriented. I get impatient with people who are problem-oriented." For 30 years, Bobby has had to face chronic pain. Wary of standard medical practices that had come to rely on a host of drugs to suppress pain, Bobby began exploring a variety of alternative solutions to treat and overcome her chronic pain. Her career as a writer and editor specializing in alternative healthcare gave her an in-depth and broad exposure to the various forms of treatment, as well as a range of experts. To treat her own pain problems, she said, she would research various drug-free procedures available and see how well they would work for her. "If something wasn't working," she said, "I would try something else."

That combination of optimism and determination resulted in Bobby co-authoring Relieving Pain Naturally, published by Suqare One Publishers in late 2004. Bobby and her co-author, Sylvia Goldfarb, Ph.D., a writer specializing in medical topics, structured it into two parts. The first section examines 37 of the most common chronic pain-related conditions, from abdominal pain and sciatica to arthritis and tendonitis. Each disorder is explained, the conventional treatments are listed along with any problems attached to them, and are followed by a listing of appropriate alternative natural treatments. The second half of the book discussed 27 drug-free therapies, including treatments now considered conventional, such as exercise and massage, and alternative modalities, such as acupuncture, applied kinesiology, biofeedback, hypnosis, nutrition, and oxygen therapy. The two sections are cross-referenced to help guide readers to the appropriate options available to them. Clinical trials for treatments are included, and there is a sprinkling of case histories throughout. "As of now, there is no other pain-management book of its size and scope that focuses only on alternative treatments," Bobby said. "A lot of original research went into this book; I spent a great deal of time e-mailing and talking on the phone with dozens of doctors. Being an editor, I knew some of them from my old days with the publishing company, and from my freelance editing, but many were cold calls."

The idea for the book came about at a local health club in the 1990s. Bobby had been told to take up swimming to help relieve a chronic pain problem and was engaged in a poolside conversation with a person who, upon learning she was an editor at a direct mail publishing house specializing in alternative health, suggested they collaborate on a book because he was a pain-management specialist. Intrigued, she took the idea to her then boss, who passed on it, leaving Bobby to pursue the subject on her own after becoming a freelance editor in 1999. She tracked down the doctor, who was too busy to collaborate at that point, but did agree to supply the material for a Foreword and review the manuscript for accuracy. She also asked Sylvia Goldfarb, whose three books she had edited, to co-author the project. For a time it looked as if their guide might not find a publisher, but Bobby never lost faith in her enterprise - at one point she even borrowed against her life insurance to finance her research. Eventually, after describing the book on the phone to a publisher she knew, he took it sight unseen because, he said, he trusted her. Bobby and her co-author then spent several years researching and writing. "Crunch time came in the summer of 2003," Bobby recalled. "I spent two solid months on the computer, working nonstop. I watched the summer of 2003 go by," she said with a laugh. "I only looked out the window at it."

The timing of the book's publication late last year was fortuitous because it followed a spate of damaging disclosures about the health risks associated with such prescription pain-relief drugs as Vioxx and Celebrex. As a result, Bobby noted, the media coverage emphasized the sudden lack of safe pain-relief drugs for consumers. "Everybody was talking about how awful it is that there are no safe drugs," she noted, "but nobody was talking about the alternative side. Can't take painkillers anymore? No problem - take this book instead! My feeling is that alternative natural medicine is the medicine for the 21st century and that drug medicine is the medicine of the 20th century."

Bobby said she has had "extremely positive feedback from people who have used the book. Sales are growing from word of mouth. It's taken on a life of its own." The book is available through all the major bookstore chains and on Amazon.com. "Even my health food store has it in their window," she said. "I was told by the owner that he has had to reorder it, which is very nice to know."