Pain Solutions Docs Don't Tell You About

In my last newsletter I shared with all of you the story of my injury. In its wake, I got many emails and physical letters from my subscribers—lots of encouragement, personal stories of injury and pain, advice, and best wishes. I regret that I couldn’t respond to each one of them personally, but I read every single one of them—many got several readings.

I felt uplifted by your prayers, kind words, testimonials of what my work has done for you, and by your own stories of personal triumph over pain and injury. I can’t thank you enough. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for your loving wishes and support.

You can always expect beauty and anti-aging tips from me. I’ve been delivering those for 14 years regularly. And, of course, I’ll continue to provide them. But this newsletter I wanted to dedicate to a specific problem across our nation—pain—and to some solutions I’ve found for it.

Estimates are that chronic pain affects over 100 million Americans. And yet it surprised me immensely that, according to Google Ads, very few people are searching for “Alternative Pain Relief Solutions.”

Most people, when in pain, are so used to going to a doctor. And the doctor most likely will prescribe meds or surgery, which in turn, for most people, will bring more pain. Most can’t even imagine there are measures available to relieve pain—even eradicate it—naturally.

Beauty and anti-aging efforts take a back seat when you’re in pain. If you or your loved one is experiencing pain, I know how you feel. And it’s my utmost desire to help.

I compiled this list of not-so-well-known techniques which offer great potential to relieve pain. Any of these methods could bring you long-needed relief. I feel I must share what I have learned in case someone can be helped, as I was. 

When You are in Pain, and Doctors are Clueless.

Once upon a time, in order to make a diagnosis, a doctor would examine a patient’s body—check their mouth, eyes, fingernails—and then might even smell their excrement and taste their urine. That time is long gone. Now, we have what is called “evidence-based medicine.”

Nowadays, before a specialist even sees you, your primary care physician will order a batch of tests as evidence for your illness. But when your X-ray, your CT scan, your blood tests, etc. come out normal, your doctor is at quite a loss.

So, when something like that happens, you’re basically on your own. Here are a few ideas you can look into when your doctor cannot help. If you’re experiencing pain that doesn’t go away, don’t give up and settle for pain medications. Know that somewhere, a real solution exists. May you find in one of these ideas a way on how to release your pain and, perhaps, even a total cure of your condition.

2. Alternative Pain Relief Techniques

Fascia and the Mystery of Chronic Pain

Ever peeled chicken skin? Maybe before your raw food days? If you have, you’ve noticed that thin film running just under the skin. That’s fascia. Humans have it, too. It’s like a seamless dress. It runs under the skin throughout the body and even envelopes each individual cell.

Fascia is a fibrous layer of connective tissue that surrounds and connects individual muscles and muscle groups, along with blood vessels and nerves. The entire fascial system runs throughout the body, rather than as a series of separate coverings over muscle, bone, organ or blood vessel. It is one continuous structure running head to toe. Your fascia is alive.

Sensorily, it’s our richest organ. Yet not too long ago, medical schools thought of fascia as the body’s “packing material”—as insensible sinew holding nerve-driven muscle to bone. It’s anything but insensible. Fascia is acutely pain-sensitive. In fact, the fascia has something like ten times the nerve endings per square inch as compared to muscle.

In healthy fascia, individual collagen fibers align parallel to one another. This makes the tissue smooth and elastic. When the fascia is injured, its microscopic fibers become cross-linked and deranged, running in every direction. To picture this, think about a mess of knotted or twisted-up yarn.

Such fascial adhesions and tissue restrictions often bring pain and limited range of motion. Yet, try telling your doctor that the reason for your pain might be fascia. You’ll almost certainly get a blank stare. Scar tissue injuries to fascia are usually so microscopic that they won’t show up on a CT-scan or MRI.

Myofascial Release

This method is helping me big-time with my rib cage injury. It is the brainchild of a physical therapy veteran, John Barnes, PT, LMT, NCTMB. Since developing this form of treatment, he has trained over 100,000 health professionals in its use.

Barnes uses the term ‘straightjacket’ to describe the pressure and pain that can result when injuries, trauma, or deformities cause pain and immobility. He explains that traditional treatments in physical, occupational, and massage therapy treat “the symptoms caused by the pressure of the ‘straightjacket’ of the myofascial system, but [do] nothing about the ‘straightjacket’ of pressure that causes and perpetuates the[se] symptoms.” This explains why many patients enjoy only temporary results, then plateau or actually decline.

Only Myofascial Release treats the entire myofascial mind-body complex, Barnes says, eliminating pressure in the restricted myofascial system—the ‘straightjacket’—which is the underlying cause of these symptoms. I can testify from personal experience that by using Myofascial Release, my therapist is working on my own impressive accumulation of scar tissue from past surgeries, and with tremendous results.

Rolfing™

Developed in the mid-sixties and named after its founder, Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Rolfing™ was born from a desire to ease chronic pain. Rolfing uses the elements of Myofascial Release, but takes it to a more complete level.

Rolfing™ is effective at reducing pain caused by chronic muscle tension. And it does that without drugs. Limited studies prove it can lower pain levels in those with fibromyalgia and lower back pain. It’s been used to reduce chronic stiffness in tight joints. If you have a mysterious pain in your body, try this method.

It's quite different from a standard massage. My understanding is that Rolfing™ works with fascia, and not so much with muscles. By contrast, a standard massage targets primarily the muscles. But it is often your fascial adhesions that are responsible for your pain.

Typically delivered in session sets of ten, Rolfing™ sessions each target a specific area of the body. They impact posture and work with all the layers of the body, reducing “wear and tear” on strained muscles and systems caused by physical and emotional trauma.

The ultimate goal? Loosen the body, strengthen the core, create internal balance… all toward long-term improvement in your body’s alignment and function.

You’ll find the experience intense. At times uncomfortable. But you should never feel pain when the Rolfing Technique is properly applied by a certified practitioner.  A quick internet search will bring you pages and pages of testimonials on its benefits.

The Wurn Technique

Searching for my own pain solution, I came across a method I believe has great potential for relieving the pain associated with many incurable illnesses. If your pain is located in or around your stomach cavity, definitely look into the Wurn Technique®.

Developed by physical therapists Belinda and Larry Wurn, it’s a hands-on alternative solution for many conditions—a solution that can replace drugs and surgery. The Wurns originally created the method to help treat Belinda Wurn’s incapacitating pain in the months after surgery and radiation therapy for cervical cancer. The treatment remedied her pain and greatly increased her quality of life. Since then, the Wurn Technique® has also proven effective for conditions including female infertility, endometriosis, hormonal conditions, and bowel obstruction.

How it Works

The body develops adhesions when tissues are injured, as during surgery. Adhesions form when scar tissue binds two parts of tissue together with tiny strands of collagen that shouldn’t be bound together. Once healing is complete, these adhesions remain. The result? Pain and discomfort—sometimes extreme. These adhesions can form anywhere in the body, in any organ or system.

The Wurn Technique® involves detaching these bound tissues, restoring the body to a natural, pain-free state—all gently, without surgery or drugs. Reportedly, this can drastically cut or even eliminate pain, improve your flexibility, circulation, and bodily functions, and restore your body’s natural balance. The group that developed and provides this technique is based in Florida. The treatment is expensive. But take heart. There are alternatives. Just look for a visceral manual therapist in your area.

Visceral Manipulation Therapy

French Osteopath, Jean-Pierre Barral, one of TIME Magazine’s Top Six Innovators for Alternative Medicine, has brought us Visceral Manipulation (VM). Barral and his international team have trained healthcare professionals around the world in the art of VM. These include osteopathic, naturopathic, and allopathic physicians, occupational and physical therapists, chiropractors, and Oriental medicine practitioners worldwide.

Simply put, VM is a manual therapy that increases your body’s ability to release unhealthy, restrictive regions that have formed. The body’s organs and systems are designed to move and work seamlessly. Maximum health relies on bodily harmony within and between all organs and systems. A VM therapist searches gently for places with decreased or altered motion—areas causing interruption in the body’s natural fluid rhythms. This process is sometimes casually called "listening with the hands."

The therapist follows the pattern created by this disruption through your body and treats compromised tissues using hands-on manual compression. As the therapist releases restrictions in problematic regions, the body begins to return to a healthier rhythmic state. Symptoms decrease. Pain subsides.
Visceral manipulation is gaining popularity. There are more and more practitioners, now. Try searching for someone in your area who provides this therapy. 

What is the Mind Body Syndrome?

Got back pain, sciatica, RSI, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, GI issues such as irritable bowel syndrome, or the like?

You’ve been to a doctor and been told you have a degenerative disc disease, a herniated disc, or scoliosis, you are over-stressed, you’ve over-used your body, or you’re just aging. So, no actual pain solution was offered.

I came across a doctor who has an unconventional approach and has helped thousands become pain free without medications or even treatments. It’s fascinating to me that many have healed themselves just by reading his book. If you are in pain, take my advice. Don’t be too skeptical to read Dr. Sarno's book Healing Back Pain. What do you have to lose, but your pain? He has more books—read them as well if you’re interested.

In his time, John E. Sarno, MD was shunned by many of his colleagues for his “out of the box” thinking. But in recent years, his ideas are being validated by the very people who once vilified him—scientists.
Sarno theorized that pain often results from the reduction of the flow of oxygen and blood to muscles and nerves. This decrease, he thought, is the brain’s unconscious response to negativity.

Our brains create this scenario to distract us from emotional pain. As a by-product, we feel physical pain. Sarno named this reaction “tension myoneural syndrome,” or TMS.

While this wasn’t seen as a valid diagnosis by the medical field at the time, mainstream science now understands that our social lives and psychological health can play a role in the physical pain we experience. It has also become accepted that, for some, signals are being exchanged between body and brain that increase sensitivity or frequency of pain.

These signals are actually common. Have you ever experienced an increased heart rate or muscle tension when you’re in a stressful situation? How about rapid breathing and sweat when you’re frightened or hurt? These are physical symptoms caused by signals the brain sends in response to our emotional state. So, for those who have signals that continue to repeat due to stress, anxiety, guilt, fear, or trauma, the result can be chronic fatigue, back and neck pain, acid reflux, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and other chronic ailments.

Sarno successfully treated patients with chronic pain through techniques that helped to calm their nervous systems while forging new neural pathways for these signals. His strategy was to determine the root of the problem, then change the brain’s response to that problem.  

Here are more devices and practices recommended to me, but I have not tried them yet. I hope some of you will find these emails helpful:

Dear Tonya,
I'm writing in case you did not know the wonderful healing powers of PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic fields). See drpawluk.com. He offers free phone consultation. I have several kinds and my favorite, EarthPulse, happens to be the lowest cost, invented by Paul Becker, the son of Robert Becker who wrote Body Electric. He designed it to be low EMF and to wear while sleeping for refreshing sleep and quick recovery from injuries. See sleep-tech.com and go to Research tab and read about his recoveries. It also reduces pain amazingly.
V.M.

Dear Tonya,

I've owned this device for over a decade. I keep it right by my bed. It helps with everything. It works on pain first. It adds electromagnetic energy that your body uses to run itself. Of course it's your body that uses that extra energy where ever it's applied that makes the magic happen. If you have any type of injury it will again first take the pain away while healing the area injured just that more quickly. Look for Keshe Plasma Products.
M.H.