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Me Where It Hurts
By Lisa Moretti
Photos by James Patrick, www.jamespatrick.com
ccording to a 2011 report by the Institutes of Medicine of the National Academies, 116 million Americans live with chronic pain more than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. But many of us arent looking to just mask the pain by interfering pharmaceutically with our bodys pain signaling system. We want to get to the bottom of it and fix it! We asked experts, athletes and those who have experienced personal, painalleviating success for their advice about natural fixes for chronic pain. They have a myriad of suggestions for you.
flexibility program that includes joint mobility work. For more information, visit www.GoPrecisionFitness.com. geT Your Head on sTraigHT. Dr. Stan Pierce, Jr. uses Orthogonal Chiropractic, a specialized form that only adjusts the first two vertebrae of the spine (cervical 1 and 2) painlessly with a sound wave to gently put them back in alignment. Orthogonal chiropractic helps open up the spinal nerve network choked off by the first two vertebrae being out of place. Pierce points out that when your spine is aligned, the nerves get full transmission, but, the longer a vertebra stays misaligned, the more damaged the tissues of the body will get. A little known fact, most of us have our first two vertebrae forced out of joint during birth when doctors grab us by the head to pull us out of the birth canal. Using traditional chiropractic techniques, Pierce has also had great success correcting carpal tunnel pain by a quick correction of the lunar bone in the wrist. Many of his patients have been able to cancel their scheduled surgeries. For more information, visit www.advancedorthogonal.com. rewire Your Hard drive. Internationally recognized Dr. John Downes helps professional and Olympic athletes with their pain and athletic performance. He has developed a ground-breaking diagnostic technique called the Performance for Life Method, because many times
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the places where we think the pain is coming from is often a work-around to compensate for miscommunication between the brain and body. Downes looks to the nervous system for global (versus regional) clues to how the body has adapted and created new patterns of movement due to previous injuries or extreme demands placed on it. Then he can reset the communication system using chiropractic methods. A big red flag that youve got some faulty wiring is a crosspattern of injuries, for example, a bad left knee will often produce pain problems in your right shoulder. For more information, visit www.pflmethod.com. Be an animal. Eduardo Barrera, 49, lived with fibromyalgia for more than 20 years, but hes been pain free for the last 14 years and just won a soccer gold medal at the Washington State Senior Games (four games in two days!). Eduardo uses a form of somatic exercise called pandiculation. Somatic exercise uses gentle movement patterns that keep the central nervous system communicating with the muscles. We dont ever see a cheetah pull a hamstring [while] running at 60 mph, he said. Like animals, we can reboot our natural movement software and take out stiffness naturally. While it may look like stretching, it isnt! Pandiculation has six characteristics: 1. extending the arms/forelimbs 2. extending the legs/hind limbs 3. extending the head and neck upward or forward 4. flexing the vertebral column by depressing it or arching it regionally 5. stiffening the trunk 6. yawning Taking a cue from his faithful canine companion, Eduardo pandiculates throughout the day and has successfully avoided knee surgery, eliminated his chronic pain and found a new career helping others. For more information, visit www.gravitywerks.com.
GettinG A HAndle On it
not all pain is the same. Some pain is
caused by receptors that are stimulated either somatically (skin, muscle, joints, bones) or viscerally (internal organs or deep within your body), or it comes from injury or problems with the neuropathic (nerve) or sympathetic (the bodys autopilot) systems. We also experience pain when various structures of the body are deprived of oxygen. Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts longer than six months. It can also lead to other problems like an inability to sleep, depression, anger and may even suppress the bodys immune system. Anyone living with any type of chronic pain knows that getting out of it becomes a life priority.
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The Chronic Pain Program. Mahoney developed the protocol to deal with his own Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Marilyn now makes his program available here in the United States. For more information, visit www.healthyaudio.com. mediTaTe. Dr. Anne Dunnewold of Dallas, Texas is a psychologist who teaches meditation techniques to her clients to help them handle chronic pain. She points out that neuroscientists at Harvard and MIT have shown that meditation helps people to control alpha brain waves and focus their attention to turn down the volume on pain signals. For more information, visit www.livingselfcare. wordpress.com. TIP: For an easy meditation technique, try putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Keep your focus on your tongue as you breathe in and out. When thoughts try to grab your attention, simply refocus on the connection between your tongue and the roof of your mouth.
Find a good supplement and be sure to eat your eggs to get your aminos. For more information, visit www. everywomanover29.com. eaT Your vegeTaBles. We rust in our joints, immune cells, DNA, arteries and all other cells all over the body, says Staci Ellis, a registered nurse. She recommends neutralizing oxidative stress by eating a diet that is high in colorful fruits and vegetables. Staci notes that plants use color compounds to protect themselves (what we call antioxidants), that donate electrons that pair up with free radicals, turning off the destruction. A diet thats full of color can help reduce pain. For more information, visit www.pacific-coastwellness.com.
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Hook uP wiTH THis one. Dr. Shane Mangrams specialty is physical medicine and rehabilitation, so he treats a lot of people with chronic pain. He prescribes Devils Claw for low back pain. One study found that more than 50 percent of people with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip or low back pain who took Devils Claw reported less pain and better mobility after 8 weeks, he said. Devils Claw, or Hook plant, is an African plant whose roots and tubers are used to create pain medicine. For more information, visit www.backexercisedoctor.com. geT Your sulFur. Organic white sulfur (MSM) and vitamin C are wonder twins for pain reduction according to Dr. Mike Bauerschmidt, a doctor who has spent more than 25 years in emergency medicine. I have used them successfully for plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis and also rheumatoid arthritis in addition to the daily aches and pains of the weekend athlete. Bauerschmidt recommends using therapeutic doses, which are much higher than over-the-counter versions. For more information, visit www.mbauerschmidtmd.com. TrY HomeoPaTHY. Dr. Eric Udell is a naturopath at Arizona Natural Health Center who uses homeopathy because it calls on the bodys own anti-inflammatory and antipain responses. He recommends homeopathic formulations (derived from plants) like arnica to reduce inflammation and pain, Bryonia for pain and inflammation aggravated by movement, and Rhus Toxicodendron (aka poison ivy) for pain made worse by sitting or lying in one position too long. You can find these at your natural health store. For more information, visit www.aznaturalhealth.com. inTegraTe Your aPProacH. Dr. Henry Roca is the medical director of Greenwich Hospitals Integrative Medicine Program in Connecticut. He uses a comprehensive approach to dealing with chronic pain that includes Omega 3s (especially EPA), bromelain, papain, turmeric and ginger to bring down long-standing inflammation, which can be the precursor to disease. He also uses the Graston Technique, a chiropractic approach that employs a specialized machine to find and treat over-use or trauma injuries, and then break up resulting scar tissue.
Roca also includes exercise and acupuncture to restore normal function or range of motion and eliminate pain. For more information, visit www. greenwichintegrativemedicine.org.
Many people are able to manage their chronic pain using exercise. Exercise can help the body release its own natural pain relievers, but using exercise to deal with pain requires extreme care you want to be sure youre not creating or aggravating an existing problem.
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