GOLDEN NUGGETS ON TREATING COMING CHRONIC PAIN

Today, this addition of the Golden Nugget concerns itself with the human body’s ability to overcome chronic pain. Several days ago, I was giving a chronic pain and nutritional seminar to a group of people and at the end of the seminar a gentleman made a statement, followed by a question. He said, “I have had back pain for years and have seen many different types of physicians and they have not helped me. I still have my pain.” “How can you me?” My reply shocked him. I said, “perhaps I can’t, but your success is determined in part due to your attitude. I am only a facilitator to your body.” I am convinced after treating chronic pain and headaches for over forty years that without a winning attitude, it is impossible for the clinician to help you overcome your chronic pain problems. In other words, you must believe that you can make those changes. Treating chronic pain problems is no different then any other problem in life. You can change and be pain free, but it will take some effort on your part. Napoleon Hill wrote this years ago, “you must be clear about what it is that you will give before you can expect to get in return.”

Chronic pain is defined as a pain that you have had for six weeks or more. The longer you have chronic pain of any type, the longer it takes to eliminate it. It is also something that sets the body up for additional problems. As an example, changing the way you walk in order to eliminate or reduce pain, causes the hip joints to become tight. The tightness is due to ligament tightness, which now needs to be stretched and corrected and this does not happen over night. Substituting motion to avoid pain causes pain in the entire body. It is something that needs to be dealt with quickly or the problem becomes worse.

Basically, the reason for chronic pain comes in three areas. They are 1) chronic weakness in the muscle structures, which leads to muscular imbalance. 2) The connective tissue which is called fascia becomes wound up, sort of like a rubber band being twisted. X-rays will not provide any answers, but a clinician with delicate hands and training can find what is called strain patterns and release them. 3) Nutritional dysfunctions. Every chronic pain problem produces a nutritional problem. Without correcting that problem, the pain most likely will not be eliminated. I am not talking about just “eating better” although that is important. What I am writing about is eating the things that your body needs in order to change for the better. There are all sorts of ways to determine what your body needs and when it receives these whole foods on a daily basis, your body will change and conversely, when it does not receive proper foods, it will progressively degenerate. We see the evidence of that, just be looking at people with huge guts, and those who have arthritis and diabetes. The list goes on and on.

The actual bio-mechanical changes in chronic pain will be explained in later additions of the Nuggets. The principle reason for not treating chronic pain successfully is that the clinician does not know what the focal point of the pain feels like. If they can’t feel the twist in the function of the connective tissue, they are not usually going to treat you successfully, no matter how hard they try. When chronic pain sites are x-rayed, there is usually no trace of a problem and if there is an abnormality, it does not mean that the focal point of the problem is exposed.

The clinician who treats chronic pain will use techniques such as myo-fascia releasing, which is a discovery and treatment manual method. Sometimes direct energy techniques will be beneficial as are mobilization techniques for soft tissue as well as joints. For nutritional disorders we will use trace mineral analysis, direct response methods, which include applied kinesiology and a whole host of other discovery techniques. Body balancing is very important and can be used as a part of the discovery methods. I will have more to say about these techniques in future Nuggets.

I am always open to questions or comments. Please call me or go through my web site in order to contact me. I am looking forward to hearing from you and if you want your friends to be on the mailing list, please e-mail me with their name and address. In the meantime, STAY IN GOOD HEALTH.

One last thought. The next issue of Nuggets will be on headaches, with emphasis on TMJ pain.

Bud Golden
Physical therapist
Certified nutritionist and fitness consultant