"It only makes sense to recommend lifestyle changes to improve chemical balance while treating pain." – Dr. Dustin Dillberg
In Part 1 (March 2019), we discussed looking at physical pain a different way and identifying potential reasons away from the site of symptom. These include movement pattern imbalances, compensations, muscle tension issues, scar tissue/adhesions, and suboptimal neural firing patterns. All of these help us identify "WHY" the symptom is happening "WHERE" it is. However, there are many other factors that contribute to what I commonly refer to as the "perfect storm" of circumstances that resulted in the current health situation, whatever that may be.
Understanding the Pain
I'm sure we have all been there, a patient tells us, "I don't understand why I am in pain ... doc, can you tell me what the cause is?" Of course, we want to help our patients and we also want to provide them with an amazing answer, but is there only one cause? Is there only one reason that this has occurred? Or is there one thing we could have had them do different that would have cured the whole issue?
Maybe, but I usually lay out the many contributing factors that I have identified (knowing there are most likely even more I haven't identified) that all play a role. A "perfect storm" of physical, chemical, emotional, and environmental factors that have landed us where we stand today. It is all connected, and we should as often as possible, look to assess other associated imbalances if we are to treat the cause of disease rather than just the symptoms of disease.
The human body is infinitely wise. It does not surprise us that improving the balance of lifestyle factors including diet, movement, stress, breathing, and relaxation often reduces or eliminates many ailments including pain. So as TCM practitioners working in a society that is riddled with pain, with a medicine touted for its ability to treat pain, I believe it is our duty to further impact our patients who are suffering by providing additional lifestyle recommendations in addition to our wonderful herbs, treatments, and acupuncture.
The New Normal
It has become commonplace for chronic inflammation to be considered normal. Most of my patients when interviewed on their first visit, are prescribed more than one medication. These might be for high cholesterol, blood pressure, anxiety, depression, GERD, allergies, and or pain. Many of these medications have been shown to influence certain nutrient deficiencies through depletion or reducing absorption.
The average American diet tends to be highly processed, low in nutrient density, and contain many components that are considered pro-inflammatory. Nutritional deficiencies have numerous implications on our health including relation to fibromyalgia, arthritis, neuropathy, osteoporosis, muscle spasms, acute, and chronic pain.
I have identified digestive weakness in an overwhelmingly majority of my patients also, including leaky gut, poor stomach acid production, decreased pancreatic enzyme production, gallbladder dysfunction, and inflamed intestines/colon. If our patients are eating poorly, medicated (which may change digestion, absorption, and nutrient balance), and have weakened digestive systems it only makes sense to recommend lifestyle changes to improve their chemical balance while treating pain.
Lifestyle Factors
Dehydration
Deficient water intake can cause plenty of symptoms, but one of these that is often overlooked is pain. I have the belief that anything that increases the rate of cramping, spasms, and tension, should be looked at for its role in pain. Let's consider a couple aspects of hydration. First, our spinal discs are largely made up by water. If our tissues are systemically and/or chronically dehydrated it only makes sense to me that this can contribute to thinning and stressed discs. Second, concentration of inflammatory compounds and can increase with dehydration. Improving the hydration status of our pain patients may contribute to the effectiveness of our treatments and assist in lymphatic processing of inflammatory waste products.
G.I. Inflammation & Leaky Gut
Modern science has made a connection between serotonin and pain. Serotonin assists in regulation of far more than just mood, but also pain perception and a host of other functions I will leave for another article. This is why serotonergic drugs are prescribed for headaches, chronic pain management, and fibromyalgia. It is estimated that 90-95 percent of all serotonin is produced in the gastrointestinal tract.
Second, leaky gut can let undigested food particles into your system triggering an inflammatory cascade. This type of stress may be adding to the "perfect storm" mentioned earlier. The gut-brain connection can also be thought of as a gut-pain connection.
Adrenal Fatigue
After working overtime in a very stressful world, our poor adrenal glands get a lot of blame in our current medical newsreel. The over-excitement, stimulus, and eventual exhaustion of these little powerhouses can make sense of slower healing times and elevated inflammation. Supporting the wellness and healing of the adrenal glands through lifestyle, herbs, and vitamins can act as a supercharger to our acupuncture treatments.
There are many nutrient, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies associated with pain and inflammation. A few include:
In an effort to continually further our knowledge and understanding of the human body and its health, I am encouraged to seek from both East and West. With the utmost respect for TCM, our tried and true medicine, integration with functional medicine techniques has proven incredibly valuable to my practice. It is my hope that this article inspires and sparks excitement to better serve all those around us.
My Lifestyle Checklist for Pain Patients
My Recommendations
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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