PAIN

by Janis Holzman Betz, RN, BSN

Everyone gets it!

There is a reason for its existence.

There are better solutions to resolve it.

The Mosby’s Medical Dictionary (6^th ed) defines PAIN as “an unpleasant sensation caused by a harmful stimulation of the sensory nerve endings. It is a subjective feeling and an individual response to the cause. Pain is a classic symptom of inflammation and is valuable in the diagnosis of many disorders and conditions. It may be mild or severe, chronic, acute, intermittent, burning, dull or sharp, precisely or poorly localized, or referred. Experiencing pain is influenced by physical, mental, biochemical, psychological, physiological, social, cultural, and emotional factors” (2002).

No matter what type of pain you are experiencing, it is not pleasant. It often causes a disruption in your activities of daily living and emotional health. It also disrupts the lives of those around you. No one likes pain, and everyone will do what it takes to get rid of it. Pain can be a good thing when it warns you of a problem in your body, such as abdominal pain with appendicitis. Pain is also a good deterrent to help prevent repeated injuries. Pain, on the other hand, may cause stress which may weaken your immune system and lead to illness.

Why do you get pain? What is the reason for it? What is the best solution to get rid of it?

First, let me examine the pain resulting from hitting your thumb with a hammer. This type of pain is described as acute, simply meaning, immediate. In other words, the pain did not exist prior to hitting your thumb with a hammer. This pain has an anticipated or predictable end.

Acute pain happens when the impact of the hammer striking the thumb damages soft tissue in your thumb. This sends an immediate pain signal through the sensory nerves to your brain then back down the motor nerves which causes you to pull the thumb away from danger. Continued pain in the thumb is caused by inflammation or swelling around the damaged soft tissue. This is the body’s response to clean up damaged cells. The swelling puts pressure on the sensory nerves, sending a signal to the brain that there is still a problem. Then the brain sends a signal back down the motor nerve to cause you to guard the thumb from further damage until the thumb’s soft tissue is repaired. What a wonderful design. (Information from any Anatomy and Physiology textbook)

What is the best solution to get rid of acute pain? Many first aid books will tell you to put ice on the thumb immediately to decrease the swelling so that the pressure on the sensory nerves is lessened, and you have less pain. This action is the best in this situation. I find it interesting that you tend to want to grab your thumb and dance around, swear, and sometimes stick it in your mouth. Believe it or not, the level of pain is decreased by dancing around and swearing. You ask, “how?” These actions cause a distraction so that your attention is turned away from the pain of your damaged thumb. Even the action of sucking your hurt thumb helps to move the fluid out of the tip thereby decreasing inflammation and then pain. Damaged tissue will also put off a chemical which acts as a nerve block and pain is reduced. What a great design.

For acute pain, the book The American Medical Association Family Medical Guide (3^rd ed) recommends the RICE routine for first aid. “RICE, which stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation, is usually the best way to treat minor soft-tissue injuries such as bruises, strains, sprains, and bursitis. Rest the injured part of your body to reduce further bleeding and swelling. After 24 hours movement is encouraged, if tolerated, to stimulate lymphatic fluid flow, which helps decrease swelling and prevent stiffness. Apply an ice pack (over a cloth barrier) to the injured area for 20-30 minutes every 2-3 hours for the first 48 hours after an injury. After 48 hours, doing a warm Epsom salt soak for 30-40 minutes, 2-3 times a day, helps with healing. Wear a compression bandage (ace wrap) for at least 2 days to help reduce bleeding and swelling. Elevate or raise the injured part of your body to help drain fluid and reduce swelling” (1994). Lightly brush your skin with your fingertips or a natural bristle brush from the point of injury up to your clavicle (collar bone) in one long stroke. This will help lymphatic fluid flow to decrease swelling and pain. (Italicized words are for a better and improved solution.)

Second, let me examine pain associated with arthritis. This pain is described as chronic, simply meaning long term duration lasting 6 months or longer. This pain has no anticipated or predictable end.

Chronic pain happens when there is a constant and persistent source of irritation or inflammation. A lot of arthritic conditions have a strong genetic tie. Some arthritic conditions come from wear and tear from hard work and/or obesity. Other reasons are chronic dehydration (< ½ your body weight in ounces of water per day), chronic misalignment (out of joint), an old injury that did not heal correctly, repeated injury, immune system attack (auto-immune), or a toxic/acid accumulation in the joint area. For example, Gout is an arthritic condition of the toe joints that is directly related to uric acid crystal accumulation from eating too much protein.

Chronic pain, such as rheumatoid, inflammatory, and/or reactive arthritis, and lupus, is caused by an attack of your immune system on your joints and spine. This attack is related to an auto-immune disorder that is being caused by malfunctioning blood type cells. Your blood type cells are supposed to secrete an antigen (specialized protein) into your tissues and fluids, which causes your immune system to recognize normal tissue as friendly; therefore it will not attack healthy tissue. But for some people, their blood type cells are not secreting this specialized protein, and their immune systems are attacking healthy tissue. All auto-immune disorders are caused by this phenomenon. The problem lies in your bone marrow. The blood type cells come from your bone marrow. Problems with the blood type cells occur because there is a disturbance(s) in your bone marrow that you have inherited, such as emotional disturbances, genetic disturbances, toxin disturbances, etc. I have been able to remove these disturbances using a method that I have discovered called, Cellular/DNA Disturbance Releasingä, which uses a Color Light Therapy technique. I have been successful in reversing auto-immune disorders and chronic pain.

If you have an auto-immune disorder, consuming sugar will stimulate an immune system attack. Other foods that may stimulate an attack are dairy, wheat, soy, and corn. Taking the supplement N-ACETYL-CYSTEINE will block the negative effects of eating sugar and foods outside of your blood type diet. The Blood Type Diet works! Many chronic pain issues/problems are resolved by avoiding foods that react with your blood type cells. The book Live Right for your Blood Type by Peter D’Adamo will give you more information about the secretor status of your blood type. It will also give you information about the foods to eat and foods to avoid.

I have found that a lot of chronic pain is related to chronic dehydration and chronic constipation (≤ 1 BM/day). Let me explain. The disks in your spine are filled with a jelly-like fluid, and your joints glide over a fluid layer. When you do not drink enough water, your body robs your joints, disks, and bowels of fluid. As a result, your joints, disks, and stool matter start to dry up, which stimulate irritation, then inflammation, leading to pain. When your bowels are not emptying large amounts 2-3 times a day, you are accumulating fecal matter in your bowels, which will put pressure on your nerves coming out of your spine. This may cause chronic low back pain.

The solutions to relieving chronic pain may include many of the recommendations for relieving acute pain. The better solution is to 1) drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water per day (136 lb = 68 oz. or 8½ c./day); 2) clean out your bowels by taking extra fiber; 3) eat mostly raw vegetation from your blood type diet; 4) limit protein intake; 5) take an essential fatty acid, such as flax seed oil; 6) drink freshly extracted vegetable juice; and 7) take a green barley grass juice supplement. Other solutions include: seeing a chiropractor, losing weight, if this is an issue, and having any disturbances released from your bone marrow and/or other cells.

If you need to take a drug remedy to help with pain and inflammation, then ibuprofen is a choice, but it comes with very serious side effects, such as kidney failure, bleeding, multiple blood disorders, and many more potentially life-threatening side effects. Take the time to go to the library or bookstore and look up what your drugs do for you and what side effects they have. Tylenol just helps with pain, and it also comes with side effects, like all drugs.

In most cases, the key to pain relief is removing inflammation. There are a lot of natural remedies, such as White Willow bark (aspirin comes from this bark, but the bark does not have all the side effects of aspirin), DL-Phenylalanine, Devil’s Claw, MSM, Valerian, Inositol, Feverfew, Vitamin C, Vitamin B complex, Barley grass juices/tablets, Turmeric, Boswellia, Cat’s claw, Garlic, Essential fatty acids, such as flaxseed oil, and metabolic enzymes, such as Bromelain. Therapeutic north side magnetic therapy and castor oil packs may also be very beneficial. There are natural pain relieving rubs which include arnica, menthol, birch, or wintergreen. Natural remedies may also have some side effects, so research the herbs you are taking.

You can have a referred pain. This means that the cause of your pain is located in a different part of your body. For example, gall bladder pain often shows up as pain between the shoulder blades at the center of your back. You may think you are having back pain, and it really is gallbladder pain. Your gallbladder is located on your right front side. Sometimes you may be having a bowel problem which may stimulate pain somewhere else in your body. This is because you have reflexes in your bowel to all areas of your body. When these reflexes are irritated, then you may have pain in that part of your body.

The best solution for relieving referred pain is to see someone like myself who uses muscle testing to correctly identify the source and reason for your pain, and then find the appropriate therapy to resolve it. Call Healthy Journey at (814) 355-5500 to schedule a consultation.