DESTROY
CHRONIC PAIN
CHRONIC PAIN
|
CHRONIC PAIN
|
CHRONIC PAIN
|
CHRONIC PAIN
|
CHRONIC PAIN
|
If you are one of the estimated 50 million Americans who suffer with Chronic Pain, you are aware of just how miserable and life-altering it can be. There is not a single area of you life that remains unaffected. You no longer sleep well. Your sex life is non-existent. Everyday activities have become your daily “Mount Everest ”. You cannot concentrate because the pain IS ALWAYS ON YOUR MIND. It is wearing you out, both physically and emotionally. Chronic Pain is slowly killing you!
People can see the pain on your face and in your eyes. Chronic Pain and the inability to do the things you love, is making you feel depressed (not the other way around like your doctor may have suggested). Recent studies have even shown that brains of people suffering with Chronic Pain, show patterns of atrophy that are virtually indistinguishable from what is seen in patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s. In fact, a recent study from a prominent Canadian University showed that Chronic Pain causes the brain to degenerate at almost 10 times the rate of someone without pain!
Although your Chronic Pain may seem hopeless, there are some things that you can do to help yourself — even though your doctor undoubtedly failed to educate you in this regard. Some of the most basic of these include eating only healthy foods and taking only WHOLE-FOOD SUPPLEMENTS, drinking more water, giving up the cigarettes, and exercising to the degree that you can (difficult when suffering with Chronic Pain or Fibromyalgia).
Although doing these simple things will certainly help a large percentage of you who suffer with Chronic Pain; there is a significant percentage of you whose pain is not greatly diminished by these measures. It is for you that I created this website. But before we move on to treatment of Chronic Pain, you must first understand what Chronic Pain is and how it really works.
People can see the pain on your face and in your eyes. Chronic Pain and the inability to do the things you love, is making you feel depressed (not the other way around like your doctor may have suggested). Recent studies have even shown that brains of people suffering with Chronic Pain, show patterns of atrophy that are virtually indistinguishable from what is seen in patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s. In fact, a recent study from a prominent Canadian University showed that Chronic Pain causes the brain to degenerate at almost 10 times the rate of someone without pain!
Although your Chronic Pain may seem hopeless, there are some things that you can do to help yourself — even though your doctor undoubtedly failed to educate you in this regard. Some of the most basic of these include eating only healthy foods and taking only WHOLE-FOOD SUPPLEMENTS, drinking more water, giving up the cigarettes, and exercising to the degree that you can (difficult when suffering with Chronic Pain or Fibromyalgia).
Although doing these simple things will certainly help a large percentage of you who suffer with Chronic Pain; there is a significant percentage of you whose pain is not greatly diminished by these measures. It is for you that I created this website. But before we move on to treatment of Chronic Pain, you must first understand what Chronic Pain is and how it really works.
HOW DOES CHRONIC PAIN WORK?
For years, neuro-scientists have known that Chronic Pain can cause brain atrophy (shrinkage) that is indistinguishable from Alzheimer’s or Dementia. More recently, the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience reported research from McGill University showing that, “The longer the individual has had Fibromyalgia, the greater the gray matter loss, with each year of Fibromyalgia being equivalent to 9.5 times the loss in normal aging”. Think about this statement for a moment. Every single year you live with FIBROMYALGIA (or other CHRONIC PAIN SYNDROMES) is the equivalent of nearly 10 times the brain loss seen in the normal aging process. Re-read this paragraph until the urgency of your situation sinks in!
Although there are several types of pain, and chronic pain can get extremely complex, we are going to try and keep this as simple as possible. For our purposes, there are two types of Chronic Pain. It has to do with where the pain comes from. Chronic Pain originates in one of the two following areas.
However, pathological pain syndromes that arise from a malfunctioning CNS are not the most common causes of Chronic Pain. This website is specifically devoted to Chronic Pain that is not “locked” into the Brain, but is instead originating from the body.
NOCICEPTION
“Simple Nociception” is the most basic type of pain. If someone steps on your toe, it hurts. This is normal, and means that your nervous system is functioning properly. Get the person off your toe, and the pain goes away — almost immediately. Simple.
There are several different types of “Nociceptive Pain“, but the one that we are most concerned about on this website is the one that has to do with “deep” musculoskeletal pain, otherwise known as Deep Somatic Pain (Greek “Soma” = body). Deep Somatic Pain is pain that originates in tissues that are considered to be “deep” in the body. Although we do not always think of many of these tissue types as being “deep”, this category includes things like LIGAMENTS, TENDONS, muscles, FASCIA, blood vessels, and BONES. There are two main types of Nociceptors
I. CHEMICAL NOCICEPTION
The Chemical Nociceptors are stimulated by noxious chemicals. The chief of these is INFLAMMATION. Inflammation is actually made up of a large group of chemicals manufactured within your body as part of the normal Immune System Response. They have names like prostaglandins, leukotrienes, histamines, cytokines, kinins, etc, etc, etc. When these chemicals are out of balance / increased, the result will be a whole host of health problems ---- and Chronic Pain.
Although inflammation is at the root of lots of America's health problems (DIABETES, Cancer, FIBROMYALGIA, ENDOCRINE & IMMUNE SYSTEM PROBLEMS, THYROID PROBLEMS, ARTHRITIS, Heart Disease, and numerous others that are all considered to be “Chronic Inflammatory Degenerative Diseases“), you will soon see that inflammation sometimes gets more credit than it deserves — particularly when it comes to tissues of the Deep Soma. However, you also have to be aware that exposing microscopic scar tissue to chronic inflammation can potentially hyper-sensitize nerves. This hypersensitization makes the nerves within Scar Tissue up to 1,000 times more pain sensitive than normal. Gulp!
Increased tissue acidity (usually caused by hypoxia — “diminished tissue oxygen levels“) is another common form of Chemical Nociception. This frequently occurs as the result of a junky diet, but is also caused by relentless Mechanical / Neurological / Immune System Dysfunction. It is a big reason that both our Brain-Based Therapy Protocols & our SPINAL DECOMPRESSION THERAPY PROGRAM utilize Oxygen Therapy extensively.
II. MECHANICAL NOCICEPTION
As you can imagine, Mechanical Dysfunction stimulates the Mechanical Nociceptors. This group of nociceptors (pain receptors) is stimulated by constant mechanical stress in the tissues of the Deep Soma --- particularly ligaments, tendons, and fascia. Mechanical tension, mechanical deformation, mechanical pressure, etc are the things that cause Mechanical Nociception, which can in turn, cause pain --- chronic, unrelenting, pain. Remove the offending mechanical stressor, and you can oftentimes remove the pain. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, nothing is ever quite as simple as it initially appears.
Be aware that even Simple Nociceptive Pain can actually become Brain-Based over time. This is called “Supersensitivity” and is caused by alterations in the Brain and Central Nervous System that perpetuate the pain cycle. Even though the injured tissue has, according to all of the medical tests, “healed“, it has healed improperly; i.e. microscopic scar tissue and tissue adhesion. Although this frequently causes Deep Somatic Pain, these tissues can actually become Hyper-Sensitized. I probably do not need to tell you that this is really really bad news!
As nerve function and PROPRIOCEPTION become increasingly fouled up, degenerative arthritis and joint deterioration begin to set in. Because of involvement in the Brain or Central Nervous System, this pain is often referred to as “Neuropathic Pain” or “Neruogenic Pain”. Sometimes people end up with HYPERALGIA (Extreme sensitivity to pain. Stimulus that should cause a little pain, causes extraordinary amounts of pain). Or they end up with ALLODYNIA (Stimulus which do not normally elicit any pain at all, now causes pain). Sometimes these two overlap. Stay with me and you will begin to understand why.
MICROSCOPIC SCAR TISSUE & ADHESION
As we learned a moment ago, scar tissue (yes, even the microscopic kind we will talk about at length shortly) can become hyper-sensitized. Recent scientific research shows that due to increased nerve conductivity and diminished ability to receive oxygen (hypoxia), as well as subsequent tissue acidity and constant tissue deformation and restriction, scar tissue can become up to 1,000 times more pain-sensitive than normal tissue! In case you failed to grasp this, please re-read the preceding sentence again.
HYPER-SENSITIZED NERVES & THEIR RELATIONSHIP
TO INJURED OR DAMAGED CONNECTIVE TISSUES
Think of nerve endings as the twigs at the very end of a tree limb. Nerves (just like a tree) begin with a large trunk, which splits into smaller and smaller branches until eventually you arrive at the end — the tiny twig (or nerve ending) at the end of the very smallest branches.
If you have ever seen a “topped” tree, you can understand what happens to nerve endings that are found in microscopic scar tissue. Professional Tree Trimmers cut (or “top“) the largest branches just above where the trunk splits into two or three limbs. What happens to these stubs? Instead of having limbs that continue to branch out and divide into ever-smaller limbs in a normal fashion, you get a stub or stump, that in a short matter of time, swells up and has hundreds of tiny twig-like limbs growing from it. “Topping” stimulates the growth of twigs from the stump. The injured nerves found in microscopic scar tissue act in much the same way.
As the larger nerves that are found in soft tissues are injured, you end up with an inordinate number of immature nerve endings (twigs) growing out of an inflamed nerve “stump”. As you might imagine, extra pain receptors are never a good thing! As I said a moment ago; the latest research is saying that scar tissue and microscopic adhesion can hyper-sensitize nerves up to 1,000 times. This is a commonly seen phenomenon in Facial Adhesions
Although there are several types of pain, and chronic pain can get extremely complex, we are going to try and keep this as simple as possible. For our purposes, there are two types of Chronic Pain. It has to do with where the pain comes from. Chronic Pain originates in one of the two following areas.
- Central Nervous System
- The Body
However, pathological pain syndromes that arise from a malfunctioning CNS are not the most common causes of Chronic Pain. This website is specifically devoted to Chronic Pain that is not “locked” into the Brain, but is instead originating from the body.
NOCICEPTION
“Simple Nociception” is the most basic type of pain. If someone steps on your toe, it hurts. This is normal, and means that your nervous system is functioning properly. Get the person off your toe, and the pain goes away — almost immediately. Simple.
There are several different types of “Nociceptive Pain“, but the one that we are most concerned about on this website is the one that has to do with “deep” musculoskeletal pain, otherwise known as Deep Somatic Pain (Greek “Soma” = body). Deep Somatic Pain is pain that originates in tissues that are considered to be “deep” in the body. Although we do not always think of many of these tissue types as being “deep”, this category includes things like LIGAMENTS, TENDONS, muscles, FASCIA, blood vessels, and BONES. There are two main types of Nociceptors
- Chemical
- Mechanical
I. CHEMICAL NOCICEPTION
The Chemical Nociceptors are stimulated by noxious chemicals. The chief of these is INFLAMMATION. Inflammation is actually made up of a large group of chemicals manufactured within your body as part of the normal Immune System Response. They have names like prostaglandins, leukotrienes, histamines, cytokines, kinins, etc, etc, etc. When these chemicals are out of balance / increased, the result will be a whole host of health problems ---- and Chronic Pain.
Although inflammation is at the root of lots of America's health problems (DIABETES, Cancer, FIBROMYALGIA, ENDOCRINE & IMMUNE SYSTEM PROBLEMS, THYROID PROBLEMS, ARTHRITIS, Heart Disease, and numerous others that are all considered to be “Chronic Inflammatory Degenerative Diseases“), you will soon see that inflammation sometimes gets more credit than it deserves — particularly when it comes to tissues of the Deep Soma. However, you also have to be aware that exposing microscopic scar tissue to chronic inflammation can potentially hyper-sensitize nerves. This hypersensitization makes the nerves within Scar Tissue up to 1,000 times more pain sensitive than normal. Gulp!
Increased tissue acidity (usually caused by hypoxia — “diminished tissue oxygen levels“) is another common form of Chemical Nociception. This frequently occurs as the result of a junky diet, but is also caused by relentless Mechanical / Neurological / Immune System Dysfunction. It is a big reason that both our Brain-Based Therapy Protocols & our SPINAL DECOMPRESSION THERAPY PROGRAM utilize Oxygen Therapy extensively.
II. MECHANICAL NOCICEPTION
As you can imagine, Mechanical Dysfunction stimulates the Mechanical Nociceptors. This group of nociceptors (pain receptors) is stimulated by constant mechanical stress in the tissues of the Deep Soma --- particularly ligaments, tendons, and fascia. Mechanical tension, mechanical deformation, mechanical pressure, etc are the things that cause Mechanical Nociception, which can in turn, cause pain --- chronic, unrelenting, pain. Remove the offending mechanical stressor, and you can oftentimes remove the pain. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, nothing is ever quite as simple as it initially appears.
Be aware that even Simple Nociceptive Pain can actually become Brain-Based over time. This is called “Supersensitivity” and is caused by alterations in the Brain and Central Nervous System that perpetuate the pain cycle. Even though the injured tissue has, according to all of the medical tests, “healed“, it has healed improperly; i.e. microscopic scar tissue and tissue adhesion. Although this frequently causes Deep Somatic Pain, these tissues can actually become Hyper-Sensitized. I probably do not need to tell you that this is really really bad news!
As nerve function and PROPRIOCEPTION become increasingly fouled up, degenerative arthritis and joint deterioration begin to set in. Because of involvement in the Brain or Central Nervous System, this pain is often referred to as “Neuropathic Pain” or “Neruogenic Pain”. Sometimes people end up with HYPERALGIA (Extreme sensitivity to pain. Stimulus that should cause a little pain, causes extraordinary amounts of pain). Or they end up with ALLODYNIA (Stimulus which do not normally elicit any pain at all, now causes pain). Sometimes these two overlap. Stay with me and you will begin to understand why.
MICROSCOPIC SCAR TISSUE & ADHESION
As we learned a moment ago, scar tissue (yes, even the microscopic kind we will talk about at length shortly) can become hyper-sensitized. Recent scientific research shows that due to increased nerve conductivity and diminished ability to receive oxygen (hypoxia), as well as subsequent tissue acidity and constant tissue deformation and restriction, scar tissue can become up to 1,000 times more pain-sensitive than normal tissue! In case you failed to grasp this, please re-read the preceding sentence again.
HYPER-SENSITIZED NERVES & THEIR RELATIONSHIP
TO INJURED OR DAMAGED CONNECTIVE TISSUES
Think of nerve endings as the twigs at the very end of a tree limb. Nerves (just like a tree) begin with a large trunk, which splits into smaller and smaller branches until eventually you arrive at the end — the tiny twig (or nerve ending) at the end of the very smallest branches.
If you have ever seen a “topped” tree, you can understand what happens to nerve endings that are found in microscopic scar tissue. Professional Tree Trimmers cut (or “top“) the largest branches just above where the trunk splits into two or three limbs. What happens to these stubs? Instead of having limbs that continue to branch out and divide into ever-smaller limbs in a normal fashion, you get a stub or stump, that in a short matter of time, swells up and has hundreds of tiny twig-like limbs growing from it. “Topping” stimulates the growth of twigs from the stump. The injured nerves found in microscopic scar tissue act in much the same way.
As the larger nerves that are found in soft tissues are injured, you end up with an inordinate number of immature nerve endings (twigs) growing out of an inflamed nerve “stump”. As you might imagine, extra pain receptors are never a good thing! As I said a moment ago; the latest research is saying that scar tissue and microscopic adhesion can hyper-sensitize nerves up to 1,000 times. This is a commonly seen phenomenon in Facial Adhesions
NERVES LIKE TREES
UNINJURED NERVES
Photo by Stephen McCulloch
|
INJURED NERVES
Photo by Linda Bailey
|
FASCIAL ADHESIONS
MICROSCOPIC SCAR TISSUE
&
CHRONIC PAIN
One of the biggest revelations for many people suffering with Chronic Pain is the absurd numbers of CHRONIC PAIN SYNDROMES brought on by microscopic scarring of the FASCIA. It gets even worse once you realize that this Fascia is the most pain-sensitive tissue in the body ---- yet it does not show up on even the most technologically advanced imaging techniques, including MRI. Simply read our "Fascia" page to see why microscopic scarring of this specific "Connective Tissue" is at the root of all sorts of Chronic Pain Cases.
THE WEBSITES OF SCHIERLING CHIROPRACTIC, LLC
|
www.DoctorSchierling.com
www.DestroyChronicPain.com www.DestroyTendinitis.com www.DestroyPiriformisSyndrome.com www.BBTMO.com www.DestroyObesityToday.com www.ColdLaserCure.com www.SpinalDecompressionMissouri.com www.DestroyFibromyalgia.com www.EndoGut.com www.ThyroidEpidemic.com www.DestroyMigraineHeadaches.com |
GENERAL INFORMATION
SCAR TISSUE REMODELING / CHRONIC PAIN WE FIX TENDINITIS / TENDINOSIS PAIN IN THE BUTT / PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME BRAIN-BASED THERAPY WEIGHT LOSS & OVER ALL HEALTH COLD LASER THERAPY IS HOT! NON-SURGICAL TREATMENT OF DISCS THERE IS HOPE FOR YOU IMMUNE & ENDOCRINE SYSTEM / GUT THYROID EQUALS METABOLISM HEADACHES STEAL YOUR LIFE |
DESTROY CHRONIC PAIN
Bear in mind that the information presented on this website, is not a substitute for advice or treatment from your medical physician. Neither is it meant to diagnose or treat any specific person or health condition. Always get the “thumbs up” from your M.D. before embarking on any therapeutic treatment, exercise routine, nutritional supplementation program, diet, vacation, purchase of a used car, color you wish to paint your house, boxers or briefs, or anything else you happen to be contemplating having to do with health — or anything else for that matter.
