Pain Relief!

I have suffered from chronic pain for most of my life.  I realize that there are several things that have contributed to that pain, and everyone has their own flair of pain so there is no "one size fits all" for pain relief.  That being said, there are a number of things that I believe can be widely applied to our generation of Americans due to our shared habits, diets, and culture.

I grew up with a mild scoliosis which, if you are unaware, is a side to side curvature of the spine.  While mine was what they call "functional" scoliosis, it affects me nonetheless because it causes my spine to pull harder on certain muscles than they should be pulled and causes other muscles to be lax when they should be taut. Some of this pain has lessened - and my scoliosis has improved - simply by regularly working out.  Many of our pains come from simply not stretching our muscles and/or working out certain muscle groups while ignoring others. A good yoga routine and a good workout program can go a long way to helping us with many pains.



Limit inflammatory foods

Most of us grew up with a view of healthy eating to look something like this food pyramid that the USDA put out several decades ago.  We were told that the foundation of our diets should be carbohydrates like grains and that the top of the pyramid - what we should eat the least of - should be fats.  While there is all sorts of emerging science out there beginning to firmly prove this wrong, anecdotal evidence is all over the place.  Just ask your neighbor who has gone on Atkins or has adopted a ketogenic diet and see how much weight they have dropped (and how much better they feel!).  Grains are inflammatory - as are sugars and alcohol - and we Americans consume enormous amounts of all three. Nearly every processed food has added carbs in it and we eat a lot of processed food. Nearly every mixed drink has a ton of sugar in it.  One of the number 1 things that my clients who have been on the ketogenic diet tell me is how their level of chronic pain has diminished since they have changed their eating habits.  First hand experience tells me that when I eat a lot of sugar I feel like crap, am always hungry, and I have a higher level of pain in my body.

Fats, too, have been unfairly demonized.  While it's true that some fats are bad for us (like hydrogenated oils), many fats are actually essential to our health.  We do tend to get those fats out of balance, but it is essential to include them in our diets.  Americans do tend to overdo fats that are high in Omega 6 EFA (like corn oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, and other vegetable oils) and under do foods that contain Omega 3 essential fatty acids (like fish, grass fed meats, flax oil).  The balance between Omega 3 fats and Omega 6 fats should ideally be about 1:1.  Many Americans have ratios of 1:20 or even higher.  Excess Omega 6 fats can be inflammatory and cause pain.  Try eschewing some of the fried foods and eat a few more greens.  Or at a minimum, take a green veggie and fish oil supplement.  There are lots of good ones out there.  I personally like Green Lightning from Nature's Plus for my veggie supplement and Nature's Truth fish oil because the ocean mercury has been removed from it.  Finally, the importance of choosing grass fed/grass finished beef cannot be over emphasized.  The Omega balance of grass fed cattle is near 1:1 versus grain fed cattle that routinely rival the typical American at 14:1 or higher.  When possible, choose grass-fed beef.  It is anti-inflammatory, full of flavor, and now widely available at most grocery stores.

Herbs and Essential Oils for Pain Relief

 Quite possibly one of the most remarkable discoveries that I have recently made is how spices, roots, and essential oils can decrease my systemic inflammation.  I have always been open to natural medicines but often I must admit that I become quickly disappointed by how they do not live up to the hype that they receive on the internet.  I have tried many oils and herbs over the years and generally see little to no real effect from them.  There are a few, though, that have done wonders for me and most of these are cheap and easy to find.  If you know of others that have worked for you, let me know in the comments.  I was turned on to these from friends and clients who have experienced positive effects from them.  Like the ketogenic diet results, anecdotal evidence is often a worthwhile footing for further exploration, so I listen closely to people's experiences and take them to heart.

Turmeric seems to be one of the trendy spices lately with all sorts of fun and exotic claims about how it can affect the body in positive ways.  Apparently, though, it works best if used in combination with other spices.  I've tried it in the past various ways with little to no effect, so I was hesitant to try it again.  But on the advice and personal testimony of a good friend of mine, I did.  In the past I obtained ground turmeric from the bulk spice aisle and encapsulated it at home.  I tried taking approximately 1000 mg a day and I did notice a slight benefit from it, but not enough to warrant the annoyance of encapsulating the herb and taking it every day.  My friend let me know that doTerra recently introduced a Turmeric essential oil and her experience with that oil was a substantial drop in pain in a joint that she has had chronic pain in for years.  While doTerra and Young Living are the cream of the crop in essential oil quality and purity, I do think they are a bit pricey.  So I searched and found a quality Turmeric oil at a VERY reasonable price. I then encapsulated about 300 mg of turmeric powder with 3 drops Turmeric oil, 1 drop black pepper essential oil, and 1 drop ginger essential oil per capsule.  If you need an encapsulator and empty gel caps, you can find them online.  I use something like the one linked to above, and typically use size 0 gel caps because they hold about 500 mg each and are relatively easy to swallow.  They come in handy for all sorts of things of you are holistic minded.


A different friend of mine recently broke a rib in a fall.  As she recovered, she was attempting to avoid the narcotics that the doctors like to throw at us as well as excess NSAIDs.  Her holistic healthcare provider suggested a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) herb called Corydalis. I went to Amazon and immediately bought some of a different brand and had almost no results.  A couple weeks later she brought to me a bottle of what her provider had given her and I tried it.  Like my initial experience with turmeric, this was night and day difference.  TCM blends herbs to achieve the desired effect and Corydalis also seems to work best when blended into the right formula.  I had good experience with this particular brand/formula of Corydalis.

When I took the Turmeric pills and the Corydalis formula together, though, WOW!  My tight neck began to loosen and all of a sudden I heard a loud pop in my neck when I leaned over to pick something up.  My neck - for those who do not know me - is nearly always extremely tight and in pain.  My chiropractor told me a while back that I was in her "Top 10" special cases of difficult people to adjust.  I always wake up in pain.  Turmeric apparently works best taken on an empty stomach, with a fat (like coconut oil, which also can be bought in capsules).  Best as I can tell from the research that I've done, as long as you consume reasonable amounts of corydalis and turmeric, there are no significant risks.

A Word on CBD

CBD is the flavor du jour with pain relief.  Many claims have been made in regard to its efficacy.  I have personally tried in an several forms: tincture, gummy candies, salve.  As a massage therapist, I often find certain parts of my body in pain (usually my wrists or fingers).  I did not find much benefit in taking the CBD internally, nor did I find much benefit in topically applying it.  However, what did work for me (and it worked with dramatic effect) was topically combining the CBD with DMSO.  What had negligible effect without the DMSO has nearly instantaneous effect with it.  The pain relief lasted about four to five hours.  CBD seems to work better on certain types of pain.  It did not work for me for inflammatory pain, but did seem to help considerably (with the DMSO) on my tendonitis pain.  One thing to be aware of with CBD is finding a reputable source.  Like essential oils, CBD is often adulterated.  Finding a good source of it is also rather expensive. Be careful with the DMSO, if you use it.  DMSO is a solvent carrier that will take whatever is with it through the skin and directly into the blood stream.  While this can be great for pain relief, it can also be bad if you have contaminated stuff on your skin.  Be clean.  Also, be sure to keep it away from your eyes.  It also can have a smell that some people find offensive, so it is best to experiment with it when you are not going to be out on the town for the day.

Kratom

I won't spend too much time on kratom, but it deserves a mention here.  Kratom is an amazing herb from the coffee family that grows in SE Asia.  It acts on the same brain receptors that opioids act on, so it has an analgesic effect.  If a person has chronic pains like fibromyalgia, kratom seems to have amazing pain relief qualities.  Additionally it helps to promote restorative sleep which is instrumental in healing.  Unfortunately, the FDA seems to have an unnatural hatred for this plant and continues a disinformation smear campaign against it.  They are making it hard to obtain, and therefore expensive.  I have used it nearly every day for the past 2 1/2 years so I can personally tell you that the FDA is full of B.S., but the fact is that the FDA is demonizing the herb so it is hard to get unbiased information on it.  For the time being, I can help you get some if you want it.  That may change in the future.

There are other things, of course, that can help with pain.  I am a massage therapist, so you can bet that I will tell you that massage can be beneficial for pain relief.  Come see me and I will prove it to you.  Chiropractic can be amazing, acupuncture has value, and fascia blasting can help with pain related to scar tissue and fascia adhesions. Most people will find something in this blog that will help them, because we are all in this boat together as modern Americans.  If you have specific issues, I welcome you to come in and see me. If you have additional things that have worked for you, leave them in the comments for others!

Much love...