Many researchers have devoted their entire career to exploring and learning more about what happens inside the brain when chronic pain develops and persists. Even though there is no one area for pain in the brain, neuroscientists have been able to recognize some key brain structures involved in the various components of the pain process. This is what is known as the neuromatrix theory of pain. Dr. Tim Salomons is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Reading in the UK. His work aims to understand how the brain and body interact to create the experience of pain, and why some people might be prone to develop pain while others are relatively resilient. Learn all about the pain neuromatrix, how neuromatrix informs modern pain care, how progress in neuro imaging is advancing pain medicine, and how one's emotional response to pain may be at the center of reversing this chronic pain trends.
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When we think of pelvic pain, we easily associate that with women disorders which they even call women’s health therapy or women’s health section. There aren’t enough specialized care provided for men who are experiencing pelvic pain, even more so for the LGBT community. Dr. Sandy Hilton is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and one of the world's leading pelvic health experts and the founder of Entropy Physiotherapy which is a practice that specializes in the treatment of complex chronic pelvic pain conditions. She sheds light about women's pelvic pain, men's pelvic pain, the challenges of the LGBT community with regard to finding adequate pelvic health services, how the tragic events surrounding gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and the #MeToo Movement affected the public's perception of pelvic care, and the role of prevention and education plays in being a pelvic health physical therapist.
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If the red pill were real, would you take it? If you’ve seen the movie The Matrix, then you know what Robbe Richman is talking about. Robbe is the creator of the Xpill. The Xpill is not a prescription drug or a supplement. All it is is brown rice protein with no active ingredients. On its own, it has no healing properties, and yet the moment people take it, their whole perception and approach to life changes. The power of a pill lies in the transformation effect it has on people. What’s more interesting is that even if people knew, it can still be really effective. Try to keep an open mind as Robbe talks about how he created the Xpill and his method.
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Many people have questions about the role of spirituality in pain management and pain relief. Dr. Amy Wacholtz, a licensed clinical psychologist, pain researcher and assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, explores the role of spirituality as part of an integrative pain management program. Spirituality can be defined as the experience of transcendence, connectedness, meaning and purpose. If you have pain, you know all too how it can derail you from your path and journey in life. Research on the neurobiology of pain has begun to explore the relationship between spirituality and pain relief. We know those who struggle with pain use a number of cognitive and behavioral strategies to cope, including religious and spiritual methods. What does the science say about the spirituality of pain? Is it truly an effective means of pain management? Find out more about this with Dr. Amy Wacholtz.
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PTSD can happen to anyone. It's not a sign of weakness. In many ways, it's a normal part of the traumatic healing process. Post-traumatic stress disorder can occur after you've experienced any type of trauma. A trauma is defined by a shocking or a dangerous event that you see or experience. Depending on which study you read, approximately 15% to 35% of patients with PTSD also suffer from chronic pain. Is there a link between trauma, PTSD, and chronic pain? Dr. Peter Levine, author of “Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma” think so, and offers ironclad research to support his claim. Dr. Levine received his PhD in medical biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, and also holds a Doctorate in Psychology from International University. For over 40 years, Dr. Levine has worked in fields of stress and trauma, leading to his development of the Somatic Experiencing Method, giving a new lease in life for PSTD survivors.
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For a lot of practitioners, medical and psychiatric patients are difficult to treat, approach, or figure out. Dr. Les Aria is a rehabilitation and pain psychologist with over a decade of experience in working with patients with chronic pain and other types of chronic diseases. He specializes in treating complex medical-psychiatric chronic pain patients, when others suggest nothing can be done. His love for the brain and pain has helped him develop a unique style in helping patients who are suffering by helping them retrain the mind to rewire their brain and body. Dr. Aria explains what adverse childhood experiences are, how they relate to the development of pain and poor health, and what you can do to prevent or treat them.
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If you have chronic pain, you’ve been told for years, decades, and even still today, to take it easy, to rest, and to not do any type of activity that may cause pain oftentimes by people who are well-intentioned and are trying to help you feel better. With the latest research and data coming out in the new world of pain science, exercise in its many forms and varieties actually have very specific benefits to reducing the severity of chronic pain. It promotes better sleep and decreases disability, anxiety, and depression. You can burn fat and alleviate pain through exercise, as well as get your energy back and have a general increased quality of life with less healthcare costs. Certified health coach and physical therapist Erin Nielsen’s true passion is to spread the word that no matter your age, you can naturally reset your body to live your best life in a lean, healthy, vibrant, and youthful body.
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The overall state of cancer care has improved over the past two decades through the widespread use of traditional therapies such as surgery, medications, and chemotherapy. Improved cancer therapy has led to an increased life expectancy and cure rates. The good news is that in most types of cancers, the survival rate has increased dramatically. The not so good news for the more than 10 million survivors of cancer in the United States of America is that when most returned to a normal life, 20% will have functional limitations up to five years later, and some of that may persist indefinitely without proper treatment. One of the greatest challenges presented to this growing patient population of survivors is that of cancer-related fatigue and pain. Dr. Nalini Chilkov speaks about creating a body where cancer cannot thrive as well as how to heal from cancer-related fatigue and pain.
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To increase lifespan and longevity, practitioners as well as patients need to identify what they are doing incorrectly with their health practices and lifestyles. Jason Prall believes that the biggest component to the destruction of our health is the error in our ways of using technology, our bodies taking in toxins from food production, and even emotional traumas. He teaches people the mental framework of a healthy lifestyle and the emotional components of health, where it comes from and how we can incorporate them in our lives.
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Physical Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy are two of the most important therapies for pain relief. To live an active life beyond pain, Jennifer Battles believes that combining ACT with PT is the best method. Your time and focus shifts from finding a way to reduce the pain to living your life knowing that your battling the pain and winning it. She shares her research about ACT, values, goals, and how to defuse unpleasant sensations, thoughts and emotions when you are in pain.
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Dr. Beth Darnall’s most recent paper, Patient Centered Prescription Opioid Tapering in Community Outpatients With Chronic Pain, raised some concern on opioid addiction and the reduction of opioid prescribing. Dr. Darnall highly believes opioids have a place as part of an integrative pain care program for certain types of chronic pain syndromes. If you're somebody who has chronic pain, conservative pain care can be difficult to access because it's often not prescribed. Her paper tackles the role of opioid in chronic pain and the numerous barriers patients have to go through to receive the care they deserve. The study also focused on how patients would do if physicians worked with them in a voluntary patient-centered way, each step of the way allaying their concerns and fears about opioid reduction, and working with them to very slowly reduce their opioids over a certain course.
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Have you ever wondered how your heart and brain interacts and coordinates? For decades, Dr. Stephen Porges, a leading expert in developmental psychophysiology and developmental behavioral neuroscience, has been studying the connection between human behavior and physiology, specifically the vagus nerve. Dr. Porges’ work on the vagus nerve opens up new insights into the way our autonomic nervous system unconsciously mediates behaviors such social engagement, trust, and intimacy. Simply put, the simple or observable physiological measures open up windows into the nervous system for understanding human behavior. This fresh perspective and its emphasis on the link between our psychological experiences and the physical manifestations in our body is what chronic pain is all about. Learn more about what this theory means and how they can apply to health and the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, autism, and varuous other disorders.
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When women get pregnant, they carry the child for nine months then go through hours of labor. The notion that women are more tolerant to pain stems from this. However, studies show that women are greatly over-represented as pain patients. Dr. Jeffrey Mogil explains that women say that they are in pain more often than men do, but that can also mean that women are more prone to diseases that happen to be painful. The only way to know the sex differences in pain between a man and a woman is when they are taken to the lab for tests, which is being done now. However, the questions remains, who really feels more pain, men or women?
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America is in the middle of an opioid epidemic because it has become the alternative agent for practitioners and patients suffering from chronic pain. It is a natural way of alleviating pain but not without its side effects. There are already 29 states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana for medical purposes, but this still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Dr. Rachna Patel has been working with CBD oil and medical marijuana to develop a methodology that allows her to walk a patient through the healing process without overdosing. She explains that CBD oil isn’t a psychoactive substance, so you should not feel high with regulated intake. Dr. Patel raises the subject on the pros and cons of using the drugs for medical purposes in relieving chronic pain.
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One way to define mindfulness is awareness of your experience in the present so that your perception of what is happening is not distorted by certain emotions. Being present in the moment of pain allows the mind to tell the body that healing is possible with mindfulness meditation. Sharon Salzberg believes that when you make peace with fear, you can start dealing with your pain. She shares how a world losing a sense of community and human connection can accept love and kindness into their lives leading the soul and the body to feel better.
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Freedom to move and perform activities is a privilege most people take for granted. For some people suffering chronic pain, the ease of doing simple tasks is a luxury. Chronic pain has been defined as any pain persisting over twelve weeks. It may result from injury or ongoing illness and may be accompanied with other health problems like sleep deprivation, decreased appetite, and fatigue, limiting a person’s strength and movement and lead to depression and disability. While medication, surgery, and other treatments are the immediate solutions, they do not always eliminate the pain. Dr. Bronnie Lennox Thompson, a pain management specialist, has been helping people with chronic health problems achieve their highest potential in life with chronic pain management through developing a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, as well as physical therapy.
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Are you finding it hard to resist sinking your teeth into that third donut? Do you find that your pants are getting a little bit more snug than it was just a couple of weeks ago? You are not alone. The struggle with weight loss has increased over the years with the onslaught of food choices in great portions. Shifting your focus from your gut to your brain may be the answer. Dr. Stephan Guyenet takes us into the inner circuits of the brain and delivers profound insights on how weight loss begins with the brain and why we overeat. These insights provide understanding on what to eat and help develop practical guidelines for eating well and staying slim.
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It's great to be here with you for another episode. Before this episode, I sat down for a couple of minutes and I started to write out a list of all the different ways we have to treat, alleviate, control, or numb pain. Think about it for just a moment. Think about all the different types of pills, lotions, potions, surgeries, injections, practitioners, and treatments that all claim to resolve pain. It's quite mind-numbing after a while. If I had a nickel every time someone sent me an email or said, "Dr. Joe, what do you think about this diet or this supplement or this exercise or this energy work or tapping?"it can be really confusing, especially if what you're looking for is the best solution for your pain. The irony is if you look at the results of all these treatments, most of them work quite poorly or even worse. More often than not, they really don't provide lasting relief. For decades, we've tried to invent ways to avoid pain, to block it out, to wall it off, and for the most part we failed.
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Blood sugar balance is critical for our cells to get nutrients and energy. Every single organ and system of our body will be affected when there blood sugar imbalance. A symptom of this is brain fog, where the brain just goes offline because it is not getting all its needed nourishment. This imbalance also affects the liver. Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo explains more on how blood sugar can affect the body and how it is even related to chronic pain. She shares that the first step is to dampen the need for sweets and not take it away entirely all at once.
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Physical therapists change people’s lives like they are working a miracle. But before they get to this point, PTs need to go to school and devote time to learn the practice. Most PT schools have a B Average environment of students which is helpful for some by way of academic excellence. However this also creates anxiety and depression for some students who are asking if they are really cut out for the job. Dr. Will Boyd, DPT understands this hierarchy system is a part of the rigorous component that will demonstrate competency at satisfactory levels, but this can lead to dehumanizing the students and make them think they are just there to get high scores in the exams. One way to solve this is to create a community between faculty and students and empowering physical therapy students to let them do what they want. Learn how Dr. Boyd was able to deal with his depression and anxiety and what he envisions the future of PT schools should be.
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You can eat whatever you want as long as you make the food yourself. If you want to eat cake, make one with ingredients that you can pronounce. Dr. Mark Hyman knows that functional nutrition plays a huge role in the natural healing process. Food has an enormous impact on our bodies which means eating isn’t just a personal choice. Food keeps the body healthy in the most natural way possible as long as it is not made from wheat, corn and soy. Learn more of the principles of healthy eating and clear up the confusion between food and nutrition.
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A good therapist should always point their patients towards a scientific direction from what an evidence based practice may have shown them. Which is why Dr. Ben Cormack, a specialist in the combination of pain science and exercise, believes that exercise is the best way to heal chronic pain naturally. Dr. Cormack knows that there are no specifics in exercise that will show that this yoga discipline will heal this, or this Pilates technique will heal that. The great thing about evidence based practice is that it doesn’t go in one direction and instead helps both the doctor and the patient see the bigger picture and make that vision into something tangible. Dr. Cormack explains more about peripheral sensitivity and how movement exercise helps patients deal with chronic pain.
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Emotional or sexual trauma, these two are just some of the contributing factors for people to suffer pelvic pain. By understanding the effects of the overall body to the small pelvic region, Dr. Evelyn Hecht is able to correct orthopedic issues as well as pelvic floor issues. But she also believes that modern pain care is revolutionizing the way physical therapists see their patients in therapy. Aside from developing a teamwork between the doctors and the patient, Dr. Hecht also reaches out to psychotherapists to help manage the psychological aspects of the healing process. Learn why pain science is both old and new and how allowing patients to find a healing path for themselves can also speed up the healing process.
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The technology that modern medicine possess is so powerful that it can change the life of a patient with a push of a button. The danger is that the medical community needs to be aware of how to harness this technology appropriately and judiciously, because if not more problems for the patient may occur. Author of Conquer Your Chronic Pain Dr. Peter Abaci believes that integrative pain care can help in chronic pain management with core principles like function, independence and social connectivity. Find out why the medical community is at a crossroads in health and pain as patients start to look for other paths of the healing process.
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