WHY WE HURT -AND THE WELLNESS APPROACH TO HEALING YOUR PAIN is very different from other books on the market today that address chronic pain disorders. First, the perspective of the author is unique; a chiropractor with years of experience treating chronic pain naturally, who developed disabling back pain that no clinician was able to help. This combined with his daughter's severe fibromyalgia instigated his return to academics to understand chronic pain disorders and become a Board-certified neurologist. Second, the book is singular because WHY WE HURT takes you on a fascinating journey that helps you to better comprehend the workings of your body and is dysfunction, from a more holistic perspective. Through understanding how pain is vital to our survival and that its appearance signals dysfunction within the body that must be properly addressed, the reader is motivated to no longer content to just cover-up their pain. Thirdly, the book exposes the reader to the uncomfortable reality of relying on drugs for pain relief and then empowers them with specific practical natural strategies to heal their pain. But even more then this, the book clearly demonstrates to the reader that to live a healthy pain-free life one must attend to the health of their environment as well as the wellness of their inner ecology, for they are not two but one. Original to this book is its exploration of the underlying factors that set the stage for chronic pain and how these same risk factors are involved in the development of degenerative diseases. Our Standard American Diet (SAD) and modern lifestyle causes metabolic changes such as, chronic 'silent' inflammation and insulin resistance that can lead to degenerative disease such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. One of the first indications of this metabolic dysfunction is the development of chronic or recurring myofascial pain disorders. Therefore, this book not only points out the urgency of actually healing chronic myofascial pain but shows the reader on how to accomplish this step-by-step through diet, nutrition, exercise and the use of specific herbal medicines. This book is unparalleled with its special section that educates the reader on how to self-treat the specific pain-causing muscle knots of various muscle and joint pain disorders of the back, neck and extremities. Through years of clinical experience the author, utilizing diagrams and descriptive text, instructs the reader on how to effectively relieve the source of their pain in common conditions such as chronic low back pain, rotator cuff syndrome of the shoulder, stiff neck and tension headaches as well as the global pain of fibromyalgia. By utilizing items found commonly or specific trigger point therapy pools the author gives a detailed explanation of the physical removal of myofascial trigger points, the primary source of pain and stiffness in most muscle and joint disorders. This section, with the chapters that follow detailing the dietary and nutritional intervention for the challenge of chronic myofascial pain, gives the reader a comprehensive natural approach to their pain and suffering.