Does your Doctor/Therapist specialise in Pain Relief?

What are the different types of pain?

Acute pain is when you have an accident or injury and the nociceptors (pain receptors) trigger an alarm impulse. This is useful pain – it’s protective and necessary for survival.

Chronic pain is when the signal has stopped serving a useful purpose. Pain travels through nerves, and these can be damaged due to repeated trauma or poor posture resulting in compression, however brief this may be.

Limbs are just an extension of your spine. When we were a ball of cells developing in the womb, we had cells dedicated to specific zones, such as the skin cells (dermatomes), the muscle cells (myotomes), and the organs (sclerotomes). These flow out from the spine to the limbs and are numbered according to the spinal segments to which they belong. Often, therefore, painful chronic problems will not switch off because a nerve is faulty, for example, with tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, whiplash, and sciatica.

Poor posture repeated injury, and wear and tear of the spine (spondylosis) can all cause the phenomenon of neuropathic pain. This is when the nerve becomes super-sensitive, which leads to false chronic pain stimuli, as well as palpable muscle contractures and chronic degenerative tendonitis/tenosynovitis (where the muscle attaches to the bone via the tendon). 

We feel pain long after the cause has happened. Unhelpful, unpleasant pain. Ring any bells?

 

Of course, everyone has a reasonable idea that they need to exercise and eat healthily and have purposeful thoughts to do this, but you don’t always do it, do you? You procrastinate. “I’ll start tomorrow… I don’t have the time…It’s not my responsibility… I’m far too busy… I don’t believe things will get better… I can’t make a difference, not me, not just one person out of billions… I have more important priorities…” The excuses go on.

What you have to remember is that, actually, your health is your number one priority, and nothing should come before it. If you want to have a happier, longer, pain-free life, where you can be around for your family and friends, you need to put your own health right at the top of your list. Everything else comes after.

I must confess: I’ve been in your shoes, many times, and yes, it’s a constant battle. I remember how I felt about my mother’s severe chronic back pain. My endless anger and disappointment. Hating the fact that no one could do anything to help her.

Well, she’s conquered her problem now. In fact, she hasn’t had it for about 40 years.

I strongly believe that integrative medicine is the way forward, combining the most potent aspects of modern medical practices and complementary therapies. My interest in ancient medicine and wisdom has taken me around the world, meeting shamans and healers who still use the ways of their ancestors.

I also believe in – and use – modern technology; and can I just ask: where does it say that we can’t use both in our modern medical treatment of pain? I use techniques from all of these ancient and modern types of healing, and I think that we should all be more open to the different ways in which we can help our bodies and, therefore, help ourselves.

There is so much more that you can do – without the help of a doctor or a pill or surgery – than you may realise. In fact, there is a whole host of things you can put into practice to give yourself a longer, healthier life. And who wouldn’t want that?

With my background,in biology, psychology, alternative medicine and physiotherapy; I am very aware of the power of the mind, and I feel privileged to be in the driving seat of the physical medicine of tomorrow.

I strongly believe that analysing any block to a patient (in terms of pain) and getting the healing results they want is incredibly important. In the future keeping accurate records of both an intuitive and scientific approach to tackling health issues, we will be able to experience a broader understanding, something which will pave an exciting way forward in terms of healing for our future generations.