| I look at pain as a failure to heal. Resetting the nervous system, getting this ramped-up pain with central sensitization [a state in which the brain and spine become more sensitive to particular stimuli] reset to normal, is just healing. And to heal you have to be eating a good diet. So you’ve got to get all the pro-inflammatory foods out. We know the list: trans fats, substantial amounts of sugar, heavy saturated fats, preservatives. I’m not saying everyone needs to become a vegan, but unless you are eating lots of fruits and vegetables, the natural Paleolithic or Mediterranean diet, the anti-inflammatory diet, you’re just not going to heal. That’s the fundamental concept.
There are other things you can add on top of that, such as certain supplements or anti-inflammatory herbs. I would prefer to have people get most of that in the regular diet. I want people to cook with turmeric, ginger and other natural anti-inflammatory compounds. You can eat your medications, in many ways. That’s perhaps hyperbole, but food has to be the foundation. Neurontin and Oxycontin and Pamelor, or even spinal manipulation and acupuncture, cannot fully override being on a horrible, pro-inflammatory diet. It’s just not going to do it. When I get somebody on a pretty healthy diet, and maybe some fish oil or other anti-inflammatory compounds or herbs, their psycho-emotional picture often gets much better. They’re less anxious, they’re less depressed. You have to be off the pro-inflammatory diet and on the anti-inflammatory diet as much as possible, with a focus on the fruits and vegetables.
Also, look at where you get your food. I’m a big fan of getting to know your growers, I love farmer’s markets. You’ve got to have high quality food. My wife and I pretty much eat only organically grown food. We look for chard and kale, beets and beet greens. And leeks, I love leeks. You can prepare them with garlic and ginger. It’s beautiful, beautiful food.
Is there anything else you’d like to add that we haven’t covered yet?
Many people who suffer with chronic pain problems lose heart and lose hope for getting better. They bounce around from practitioner to practitioner. They’re desperately looking for the magic bullet, one big single thing. They’re hoping against hope that somebody’s going to do a test that nobody else has done and discover that they really have humpty-dump disease and there’s a perfect cure for this. That there’s this one thing that everybody else missed.
What I want them to know is that you have to keep working at it, you have to have hope that you can get better, you have to keep your mind flexible, look for other therapies, be willing to try something that you haven’t tried before. Be willing to get the Reiki treatment, be willing to do the biofeedback work, be willing to get hypnotized, be willing to see that chiropractor on the other side of town that’s got a great reputation. And always believe that you can be better than you are.
I sit down with a patient and I say, “Okay, you’re clearly doing better. How much better are you than when you first came to see me?” and they’ll say, “Thirty percent.” I’ll say, “That’s great, but for me it’s still not good enough. We’re going for 40 percent, we’re going for 50 percent better. Let’s think about other possibilities. How else can we optimize this?” Keeping your mind open, when it comes to the conventional medical field, the conventional chiropractic field, the conventional acupuncture field, massage, mind-body medicine, diet and nutrition. You can keep your mind open to all the possibilities for how you can get that 30 percent better to 40 percent better.
You have to believe that that’s possible, and by mobilizing yourself, starting to move, starting to use your body, get strong again and feel less fragile, you can come back to your life. That is the basic message I try to give people. Not unrealistic hope. For many people, we can’t take all the pain away. But we can get them back at least part of the way to their lives. And I think that’s what they really want.
Daniel Redwood, DC, the interviewer, is editor-in-chief of Health Insights Today. |
