Chronic Pain Management:
Principles and Strategies

Transcription

Good morning, everybody. Dr. Aaron Seaton here, with The Chiropractic Place. I wanted to shoot a video today talking about the principles of chronic pain. There are many things, many excellent secrets here, to help people who struggle with chronic pain better help manage that, and some even get completely clear of it. So this is a great video. I'm glad to do it today, so we're going to go ahead and jump right in—things that you could be doing to help with chronic pain.

Number one is movement, chiropractic care, exercise. Movement, actually, at the neurological level, you have nerve fibers that control pain, and you have nerve fibers that control movement. So if those movement fibers are firing, they inhibit the pain fibers. So the more you're able to move around and keep your joints moving, keep your spine moving, keep your body moving, the less that those pain fibers can send signals to your brain, where you experience pain. Movement is huge. Getting exercise, getting adjusted, getting some massage, doing yoga, whatever it is, you got to get your body moving because remember, movement signals shut off pain signals, a crucial concept with the body to know.

Number two - our diet. So omega-3s and omega-6s. This is an essential concept because Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory, omega-6s are pro-inflammatory.

Our diet in the West tends to be very omega-6 dominant. We're eating lots of food, things with corn products in them, soy products, these are loaded with omega-6s, they cause inflammation in your body, and we know chronic inflammation causes chronic pain. We are so getting things with omega-3s. Where do I get that? Wild salmon, you can take an omega-3 supplement, but grass-fed meats, eating healthier things for you will drive you more toward this in your diet and can bring chronic pain levels down massively.

Number three, and I find most people have never even heard of this related to chronic pain, most people have heard of vitamin D and its effect on our body. But did you know, about 60% of chronic pain sufferers have low Vitamin D levels? So when you do it, you can do a simple blood test to check your vitamin D levels. We'd like to see patients between 50 to 70, and you can talk with your doc about where your numbers are. But low vitamin D is associated with chronic pain. So again, this is another reason to either supplement with vitamin D or make sure you're getting it in your diet. Another great source of this is wild salmon, which is also a fantastic source of omega-3s. So consuming those a couple of times a week and getting healthier things in our diet and other areas will impact these levels. And again, you can supplement with this. It's not hard to do. Vitamin D3 is what I would recommend, very easy to take and not expensive.

Number four, eliminating excitotoxins. If you see something that says glutamate or aspartate or aspartame like MSG, these are excitotoxins - flavor enhancers that can explode nerve cells in your brain. That's what they can do. They over-excite your nerve system, and we know that they actually can cause desensitization in your central nerve system, which can lead to chronic pain. And some people who have eliminated these from this diet have had a 100% reversal of their chronic pain.

Number five, decreasing your sugar intake. Also extremely important because when our insulin levels are high, there's actually enzymes in our body that get upregulated, which can trigger more production of the problematic stuff in our body, with omega-6s, that can flare us up and cause more inflammation. So just let's keep this simple. I won't go into all the biochemistry on this, but if you're eating too much sugar or you're keeping your insulin levels too high, you are going to experience more inflammation, which can trigger more of this chronic pain if you're having that.

So number six, increasing our energy support. Anything that helps our cells work at a higher rate can help with chronic pain. We know for a fact, bringing... If you're smoking, obviously, quitting smoking can really help with energy production, with getting oxygen into your body. Again, exercise, eating better. These all affect chronic pain. So hopefully, this list of six things here, these six simple things, understanding can help you deal with chronic pain, usually number three and number four, most people have never even heard of, but these make a big impact on chronic pain. And then up here, obviously, being a chiropractor, I always encourage my patients, you need to be getting your chiropractic care if you experience chronic pain. Your body has to be able to move properly to be able to shut those pain fibers down.

So I'm Dr. Aaron Seaton. If you have any questions about chronic pain, feel free to reach out and contact our office.

Call our office today to schedule an appointment to kickstart your healthy life: 530-221-8443