CHRONIC PAIN
Chronic pain is one of the top 5 reasons for GP consultations in the UK. This data is based on studies published in the British Journal of General Practice. The direct cost to the UK healthcare system from chronic pain is estimated to be £12 billion per year. The overall economic impact (including lost productivity and social costs) is around £50 billion a year. The impact on the personal lives of sufferers is incalculable. The drivers of such high costs include high numbers of GP consultations, long-term pain-killer prescriptions, referrals to pain clinics, and co-management with mental health services. If you are experiencing chronic pain or know someone who is, please read on to find out what more you can do to address these debilitating symptoms …
Protective Amplification
Please not that if the root cause of the pain is not identified and addressed, the body’s response to pain is to turn it on harder to get us to take notice and do something.
This is because pain isn’t just a symptom; it’s also a protective system. If the body perceives an ongoing unresolved threat, it amplifies the signal to force you to rest, attend or change behaviour. This is not a conscious process. It is autonomic and biochemical.
It is important to realise that when the pain is ignored (e.g. “pushing through”), or if the root cause is not identified and addressed, the system turns on pain even harder to get us to take notice.
This triggers an inflammatory cascade. The spinal cord and brainstem cells that receive pain signals from the body become more sensitive. Excess inflammation fires up local pain nerves, crosses the blood brain barrier and sensitises the brain to pain. A state of chronic low grade inflammation starts up in the nervous system. This is not psychological - this is physical cell signalling which has been verified in both human and animal studies.
The Problem with Painkillers
Painkillers can temporarily dampen down the pain response. But they don’t address the root causes of pain. I liken the chronic use of painkillers to putting a piece of sticky plaster over the warning light in your car. You won’t see it for a while but the trouble is still festering away under the bonnet and is likely to get worse.
In the short term, pain killers can provide relief from unbearable pain. But in the long-term, with chronic use, the body adapts to painkillers and they can become ineffective. The danger is that you keep needing to increase the dosage to get the same effect. This is unsustainable as you don’t want to reach a fatal dose.
We have become so used to suppressing pain with painkillers in acute clinical settings that we forget that they can mask life-threatening situations. When my husband was waiting in A and E with an undiagnosed blood clot blocking the main blood supply to his small intestine, he was given morphine during his long wait to dampen the pain. Because the pain had been successfully suppressed by the time he was seen several hours later, treatment was not initiated even after an MRI identified the blood clot. Several hours later (presumably when the morphine wore off) his condition deteriorated rapidly and he was rushed into emergency surgery and intensive care.
Sources of Pain
Therefore, the importance of finding the root causes of your pain is very clear. If you don’t, your body will keep on increasing the pain signal to get you to take action. Below are some potential sources of pain:
Surgical/traumatic injury
Effects of surgery/injury to the body.
*Post-surgical adhesions
*Nerve entrapment in scar tissue
*Failed back surgery
*Whiplash injuries
Tissue-related pain
Caused by ongoing inflammatory damage to muscles, joints, bones, organs.
*Osteoarthritis
*Rheumatoid arthritis (autoimmune)
*Tendinitis or bursitis
*Endometriosis
*IBD (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis)
*Autoimmune conditions
*Injured fascia (fascia is like a wetsuit that surrounds the entire body). It can develop scar tissue and stick in a ‘frozen' position. Think of a ‘hunched over’ back position.
Nerve damage or irritation
Pain caused by damage to the nervous system itself, often described as burning, tingling, or like electrical zaps.
*Peripheral neuropathy (e.g. from diabetes, B12 deficiency)
*Sciatica (nerve root compression)
*Trigeminal neuralgia (from sources like dental infection)
*Postherpetic neuralgia (shingles)
*Multiple sclerosis
*Phantom limb pain
*Stroke-related central pain
*Side effects of medications (e.g. antipsychotics)
Sensory processing dysfunction
Pain where there is no obvious structural injury, but the central nervous system still amplifies signals.
*Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
*IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
*Allergic ‘reactive muscle’ pain
*Mitochondrial dysfunction
*Metabolic syndrome (pre diabetes)
*Thyroid/adrenal dysfunction
Structural or Mechanical Sources
Triggered by physical misalignments or dysfunctions that lead to repetitive strain, inflammation, or nerve impingement.
*Degenerative disc disease
*Cervical or lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing)
*TMJ (jaw joint) dysfunction
*Poor dental occlusion
*Tongue tie
*Pelvic tilt/leg length discrepancies
*Old dysfunctions with altered biomechanics
*Lack of movement, chronically poor posture, spinal fusing/fascial misalignment
*Coccyx injury or sacroiliac joint dysfunction
Infection-related or Immune-driven Pain
Chronic pain that persists after infection or as a part of an ongoing immune response.
*Fibromyalgia (autoimmune)
*Long Covid ( still active Covid)
*Viral reactivation (e.g. EBV, Coxsackie, CMV, shingles)
*Lyme disease and co-infections (especially Bartonella)
*Fungal/mould infections (CIRS - Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome)
*Autoimmune diseases
*Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)
*Histamine intolerance
*Silent dental/jawbone infections (pain in distant organs rather than at the site of the infection)
*Autoimmune infection-driven brain inflammation (e.g. Pans/Pandas in both children and adults)
Trauma-triggered Pain
Once the underlying physical causes for pain have been found, a successful treatment programme usually involves some combination of addressing the 3 I’s: Infection, Inflammation and Immune Imbalance. Plus whatever factors are specific to the case i.e. dietary therapy, improving energy production, detoxification, dental revision etc.
But what if you are doing all the right things indicated by your blood tests but your pain doesn’t go away? Some people say that injured cells or fascia can hold past trauma that prevents effective healing. But when we get into emotions and severe stress, especially the stress of emotional losses, I advise a technique called Dianetics therapy. The word “Dianetics” means “what the mind is doing to the body.”
Take a 10 year old out walking his dog. Another dog leaps over a fence and rushes up to sink its teeth into the boy’s dog. In the ensuing fight, the boy starts to panic, he gets pulled around trying to hang onto the lead, loses his balance and bangs his head and the base of his spine on the hard concrete path. He loses consciousness for a few seconds. The dog owner rushes up, there is shouting and panic. Someone asks if he is all right and offers him a cup of tea.
The things of that moment can act as triggers days, weeks or even years later. Ten years on, he’s on another dog walk and sees another dog approach. Although this dog is clearly friendly, the young man feels anxious and slightly shaky. A little while later, he develops a headache and the base of his spine starts to hurt when he sits down for long periods of time. He now gets diagnosed with sacra-iliac dysfunction which needs regular chiropractic treatment to keep pain at bay. He gives up drinking tea as it makes him feel a little headachy and nauseous.
All of these types of past mental image pictures can trigger weird body aches and pains, phobias, and keep the body on high alert and stressed. When this is fully understood and Dianetics technique applied, this allows the person to heal from physical trauma.
To sum up, pain or discomfort originating from stressful mental image pictures (remembered or not remembered) can make a person physically ill. It has also been discovered that painkillers inhibit the ability of the individual to create mental image pictures as well as impeding the electrical flow of nerve channels. This can produce a ‘wooden’ sort of state, where people feel blank, forgetful and emotionally flat. When the painkiller effects were off, the ability to create mental image pictures turns on physical pains and sensations much harder. A person then asks for more drugs. Creating a painkiller that doesn’t inhibit the creation of mental image pictures with minimal resulting “woodenness” would be a good research project. There are no such biochemical painkilling preparations at this time.
If you have chronic symptoms and and would like to find out the underlying causes, please get in touch with the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com to request a free 30 minute Enquiry Call or book an appointment. Please note that an Enquiry call is not a consultation but an exploratory call to see if this is a clinical approach you wish to pursue.
To your very good health,
Suzanne Jeffery (Nutritional Medicine Consultant)
M.A.(Oxon), BSc.(NMed), PGCE, GNC, BSEM, MNNA, CNHC
The Good Health Clinic at The Business Centre, 2, Cattedown Road, Plymouth PL4 0EG
Tel no: 07836 552936/ Answer phone: 01752 774755
Disclaimer:
All advice given out by Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic is for general guidance and informational purposes only. All advice relating to other health professionals’ advice is for general guidance and information purposes only. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information provided with other sources. Patients and consumers should review the information carefully with their professional health care provider. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by other practitioners and physicians. Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.