Posts Tagged ‘Pain Management’

Fibromyalgia patients need more than pharmaceuticals. What is needed is a solution, and the only way to find it means knowing the cause. If there ever was a condition crying our for a natural solution this is it.

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a condition that has a profound impact on one’s life. The range of symptoms are so great than everyday living becomes a chore. From constant pain, interrupted sleep, fatigue, sore muscles, headaches, irritable bowel, anxiety and depression the condition is takes away any feeling of well being.

The fact that this is diagnosed in females aged 20 to 50 years of age doesn’t help. Until the pharmaceutical companies found a drug for this condition, most doctors thought of it as either a psychological problem or an imagined one. Now, it has an official diagnosis, which requires that there are a certain number of designated tender points that are extremely sensitive to pressure induced pain.

Pharmaceutical Solution

Pharmaceutical solutions can be anything from antidepressants, painkillers and anticonvulsants. Lyrica is an anticonvulsant and the first medication approved by the FDA  specifically for fibromyalgia. The list of medications for this condition has become quite long. Cymbalta and Effexor Cymbalta and antidepressant approved by the FDA to treat fibromyalgia pain, Paxil and Zoloft for sleep, wellbeing and pain relief. Elavil and other trycyclin antidepressants are often prescribed. This has side effects such as weight gain, dizziness and fatigue.

With all these drugs complete relief from the pain isn’t always possible. That is why the natural route seems a good way to find a solution.

Natural Approach

There are ways to restore normal function. Emerging evidence is being to see fibromyalgia as a metabolic condition. One of the areas being look at is how this condition is tied to low thyroid function. The evidence is pointing in that direction. Right off the bat there can are some overlapping symptoms that makes this well worth looking into. More women that men suffer from both hypothyroidism and fibromayalgia. The fibromyalgia symptoms are usually more severe, but they both create havoc in the patients life. From fatigue, depression, digestive issue and muscle weakness both conditions are debilitating.

Vitamin D Deficiency

There is a link between fibromyalgia and vitamin D deficiency. Muscular pain and weakness can be a sign of a vitamin D deficiency. What studies show is that Fibromyalgia sufferers have deficiencies of calcium and serotonin. These contribute to the depression, since vitamin D helps create serotonin, the feel good hormone, this vitamin is extremely important. Serotonin helps you sleep better, and reduces grain fog, depression and anxiety.

Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, which helps your muscles relax. The Mayo Clinic has identified a relationship between low levels of vitamin D and chronic pain.

Ribose Supplementation

D-Ribose is a 5-carbon sugar (unlike 6-carbon glucose sugar), directly involved in the production of “ATP”. The body uses this sugar for energy production. Many patients that supplement with D-Ribrose have experience significant improvement. This is especially true in muscle strength. Patient’s with fibro reach the anaerobic threshold in their muscles earlier. Their muscles get tired faster and are using less of the available energy. Ribrose increases the muscles energy pool which reduces the metabolic strain in affected muscles. This allows the patient to resume activities that tired them out before.

Restoring Health

The way to restore your health naturally, means seeing that you aren’t deficient in either nutrients or hormones. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a powerful antioxidant, which helps restore energy in the form of adenosine triphospate (ATP). This is deficient in people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Physical activity provides some pain relief along with improved sleep. There are many people that see benefits of a diet consisting of vegetable juicing, fruits, seeds, and barley grass juice. A whole food diet is essential to healing.

The one modality I don’t want to leave out is Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care. Many patients were able to resume their full activities after treatment.

Micro-current therapy is a non-invasive technique that encourages healing. It is the use of tiny electric currents, like those similar to the body’s own electrical currents.  This brings about an Electro-Chemical change at the cellular level. This is what gives it the ability to treat chronic conditions.  Many times it can produce remarkable changes that improve the condition, including a reduction in pain, swelling, and skin tone.

It is becoming well recognized that trauma will effect the electrical potential of the cells.  Micro-current therapy is helpful in initiating chemical reactions in the cells.  Micro-currents therapy does not just block pain, it may reduce the cause of pain by altering the electrical activity.  The most intriguing part is that micro-current can increase adenosine triphoshpate (ATP) production many fold.  This is where this therapy is miles ahead of any pharmaceutical solution for pain, swelling, and discomfort.

Bioelectric currents in our bodies are usually found to be in the microamp range.  All injury to a muscle decreases ATP and causes a decrease in oxygen and nutrients to the cells.  This injury also results in the accumulation of metabolic by-products.  All this leads to a perception of pain, micro-current stimulation increases mitochondrial function, which is important to healing. With ATP replenished in the injured tissues, cells can get the nutrients they need, and remove the waste (lactic acid) materials.  Now healing can take place.

The cell is the like an electric battery, each one with its own electro-magnetic system.  With Micro-current therapy there is no discomfort, the patient does not feel anything during a treatment.  With a recharge of the cellular battery, the body can finish the healing.  There are studies that show that tissue can heal faster with micro-current treatment.  Every cell in the body can be seen as an electric generator.  We depend on the energy currents through the body for health.

In the case of esthetics micro-current is used for muscle lifting and toning, firming and cellulite treatments.  In this case the technology is used to re-educate the muscles.  Clinicians can tone and lift muscles on the face to diminish the creases that appear between the brows or around the mouth. By re-educating the muscles to stay toned and tighter, it may reverse some of the signs of aging.  It takes a number of treatments depending on the amount of correction needed.  Cellulite treatment utilizes micro-current treatment to increase circulation, metabolism, and lymphatic flow.

Frequency Specific Micro-Current treatment has been clinically proven in studies to reduce inflammation and pain.  It is effective in treating types of fibromyalgia.  Micro-Current Therapy has many applications, and as the lists of treatable conditions grow, also will the use of this therapy.

Pain amplification syndrome is a condition that develops when the nervous system gets used to carrying pain signals and continues to after the cause of the pain is gone. Pain signals can become embedded in the spinal cord, as a painful memory. Trauma turns on pain signals, which alert us and at the same time mobilizes our internal resources. Once the trauma is resolved, the alarm goes off, no more pain. When the alarm does not go off, a loop is created between the nervous system and the brain. The nerves keep firing and send electrochemical signals to the brain and they are interpreted as pain. The longer the loop continues, the stronger the pain signals are amplified.

Pain amplification syndrome has increased significantly over the last 10 years. The numbers of adults with pain amplification syndrome have become the third-largest patient group in specialized rheumatology clinics. Part of the reason is there is more rheumatology patients. Twenty percent of persons in the general population have something identified as chronic regional pain.

Allopathic medicine uses drug treatment to decrease inflammation and reduce pain by blocking inflammatory mediators. Drugs known as analgesics can be a useful short term solution, but chronic pain is something that is on- going. Long-term side-effects of drugs can include stomach bleeding, bone demineralization, kidney damage and even nutritional deficiencies.

Natural pain remedies are often as effective as drugs, but without the side-effects. These painkillers include food choices, supplements, phytonutrients, herbs and homeopathic remedies. Let’s explore a non-drug approach to pain. The pain amplification syndrome cannot exist without your brain’s perception of it. There are a few things to do, one is to increase the pain blocking chemicals in the brain. Complementary medical therapy approaches are acupuncture, naturopathic remedies, diet, craniosacral therapy, and reflexology.

Inflammation plays a role, and can cause pain. A good diet reduces the body’s inflammatory response. Whole foods such as legumes and vegetables should be a large part of your diet. Essential fatty acids, Omega-3 fish oils, and flax seeds reduce arthritic pain. Omega-6 fatty acid from whole food sources such as nuts and seeds. Evening primrose may work to reduce inflammation in a way that is similar to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Vitamins B3, B6, and C, and certain minerals such as biotin, zinc, and magnesium are essential.

Pain is a signal that your body is out of balance. It is the job of any healer to help your body reach equilibrium, equilibrium can not be bought with a pill. If anything pharmaceuticals that are taken over an extended period with interfere with that process.  

There is a new technology that we will be talking about at yourhealthupdates.com that is capable of firing up the cylinders to power up every cell in your body. This is how you help heal from chronic pain, and the conditions that accompany it.  Stay tuned so you can energize for wellness, and see the future of healing.