The Holistic Approach to Chronic Pain

Read this if you have:

• Past injuries or surgeries
• Back problems
• Migraines or headaches
• Arthritis
• Nerve Damage or pain
• Fibromyalgia

Chronic pain can range from mild to severe. It can continue day after day or come and go. The pain can feel like:

• A dull ache
• Throbbing
• Burning
• Shooting
• Stinging
• Soreness
• Stiffness

Sometimes pain is just one of many symptoms, which can also include:

• Feeling very tired and lacking in energy
• Loss of appetite
• Lack of sleep
• Changes in your mood
• An overall sense of weakness

Bowen Therapy for chronic pain is amazing – but when you add the more rounded avenue of self-healing – namely improvements to your food, some more exercise, calming the mind and just basic stress management – the result improves tenfold!

You can read more about the benefits of Bowen for chronic pain here but this is all about the combined effort that’s necessary for true management and understanding of what you are going through and how to manage it.

The effects of the food you eat can be devastating to begin with.

Grains are a proven inflammatory food – and inflammation is the main source of all long-term pain and illness, including diabetes.

Then we get to Dairy – also an inflammatory food and one that basically just not necessary in our diet – many people react badly to it, and I always suggest for people who are suffering from any long term problem to stop dairy for a while and see how they feel.

Then we get to the sugar aspect – and yes – it is as addictive as cocaine – if not MORE addictive! Plus being another inflammatory food for our body to deal with.

And it just doesn’t deal with it well – but ultimately causes more pain and illness.

 

There is nothing worse than being labelled with an “incurable” diagnosis – whether it’s classified as a disease or a structural problem. The outcome is life-changing – but it can be eased or fixed completely.

Here’s a quick rundown of foods that can cause joint inflammation:

• Sugar (even coconut sugar and any other food that has “sugar” as a word – there’s no such thing as “healthy” sugar)
• Vegetable oil ( canola, safflower – basically anything except coconut and olive oil)
• Fried foods
• Dairy – and that includes yoghurt and cheese and even low-fat foods (I’ll get to them later)
• Artificial sweeteners and all additives
• Saturated fats – that’s lard, cream, cheese, refined flour (note:they are all refined)
• Grain fed meat
• Grains – all of them even the gluten-free ones
• Processed meats – salami, pastrami, devon etc
• Margarine
• Fast foods

This is not as impossible as it may seem. 

The first step to getting rid of your pain is to make the decision to do it!

This is the MOST important part of it – I can’t do it for you, neither can your Doctor, friends or family. It’s really up to you.

My job as a Health Practitioner is to help you help yourself. To guide you through what needs to be done and provide answers for all the questions that come up during the healing process.

Once that hurdle has been jumped, the next step is to make a plan.

Without a plan you have nothing but a nice idea. No matter how much determination you may be feeling – if there’s nothing set in place then the outcome will be as vague as the desire.

A plan involves:

• Discovering what foods are causing you problems
• Learning of new ways to eat, what to have for breakfast for example – once the usual cereal or toast has been removed
• Removing those inflammatory foods from your pantry and your life
• Having a shopping list of new foods and a fridge full of vegetables of all colours

Then we get to the exercise part:

• It’s time to break the habit of fear
• Start small, no matter what it is. Walk around the house but use bigger steps, swing your hips more, practice moving more fluidly.
• Take your time – there’s no hurry
• Never push yourself – but do something every day

Stress is the fun bit:

The “fight or flight” response is a natural occurence that is fantastic when we are in an emergency situation. It can save our life. But when everyday life is a constant flow of stressors –  for example – job pressures, relationship difficulties, pain then we have a reaction that becomes long-term and this is a major cause of inflammation and ill-health.

• Have a good look at your life – what is causing you the most unhappiness.
• Decide if it’s possible to remove it from your life – and if not
• Begin and program of management to control the effects it has on you
• Once again – take your time, knee-jerk reactions rarely turn out well.
• Prepare and plan and be very honest with yourself