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21 May

Anti-inflammatory Drugs May Lead to Chronic Pain

A new study found that short-term use of anti-inflammatory medications may contribute to chronic pain.
In the United States, there are about 50 million adults with chronic pain, with injury being a common cause.
Research has shown that while anti-inflammatory medications like NSAIDs may resolve pain in the short term, they can also lead to long-term pain for some people.

Using anti-inflammatory medications like steroids or ibuprofen may relieve pain in the short-term setting, but a new study suggests this may lead to chronic pain.

Research published in the journal Science Translational Medicine led by clinicians at McGill University in Canada suggests that it may be time to re-examine how pain is treated in the short term and how that translates to long-term pain.

There are about 50 million adults with chronic pain in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), injury is the most common cause of chronic pain, and 25% of U.S. adults report having lower back pain in the last three months.

Inflammation is a natural response

After an injury, inflammation starts to increase throughout the body. This is the body’s natural response to infection or injury, and as inflammation increases, the person may feel pain in stronger amounts. However, blocking these natural inflammation pathways may result in possible long-term and chronic consequences.

Jeffrey Mogil, PhD, an author of the study and the Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Pain at McGill University, tells Healthline that the inflammation is intentional and necessary.

“It’s possible that that inflammation that the body naturally makes might be there for a reason,” Dr. Mogil explained.

“There is already evidence that if you block the body’s inflammation that it disrupts wound healing, so it’s possible that you shouldn’t be blocking something that the body is trying to do for a reason,” he said.

Research findings

The researchers examined patients and mice with lower back pain for three months on a physical and cellular level.

Many people who experience pain take anti-inflammatory medications like nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or steroids to help resolve their pain. However, while some people will fully resolve their pain, others will translate this into chronic pain.

The researchers examined 98 patients over three months and found that a particular cell in the body called neutrophils was a key player in the pain response pathway.

They discovered that while blocking these neutrophils may help reduce pain in the short term, in mice, blocking them can prolong the pain for up to 10 times longer. Similarly, patients who had elevated levels of neutrophils — those without having these cells reduced by medications — had protective findings against translating acute into chronic pain.

The researchers also said that other studies had supported their findings as well. An analysis in the United Kingdom that included about 500,000 individuals found that people who took anti-inflammatory medications experienced long-term chronic pain for the next two to 10 years.

“There are multiple studies of evidence that are pointing in the same direction, each of them compensating for the flaws of the other, and this is all part of a bigger story in understanding chronic pain,” Mogil told Healthline.

“In patients with chronic back pain, the association between NSAID use and the persistence of pain is a little more than suggestive, but it is significant and means that it is worth our time to better controlled studies to see if this is truly the case,” said David Edwards, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology & Neurological Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Guidelines from the American Academy of Family Physicians suggest that instead of initially turning to medications to treat pain, using heat, massages, or physical therapy should be the first step. If those don’t work, medications like anti-inflammatories or other analgesics like acetaminophen can assist.

Dr. Edwards suggests that you should ask your doctor two important questions before starting any pain medications, even common ones like NSAIDs or acetaminophen. “What are the side effects of this medication if I use too much? And how long is it safe to use this medication, and when should I stop?”

More research needed

Scientists continue to investigate and answer questions about pain both at acute and chronic levels. Pain affects almost everyone and understanding how it works and how to treat it is important.

While this data is compelling, both Edwards and Mogil agree that more randomized and controlled studies need to be performed before there is a complete shift in how to treat pain.

“This research points us in the right direction and makes us reconsider how we treat pain, and the next step is to test this in a prospective way, in the clinic,” Edwards told Healthline.

Mogil tells Healthline that while his teams are already discussing and evaluating how they’re going to investigate this further, he believes that others will use this evidence to further understand the pain process in other areas.

Click here to read the original article.

17 Feb

Understanding The Energy Body

In this blog I will try to bridge the gap between you as the reader and me the energetics practitioner by giving you a basic understanding of: what the energetic body is comprised of, what can put it out of balance and what can be done to help put it back into balance.

From childhood we are taught that maintenance of ones body is crucial for optimal health and vitality, but we don’t fully grasp the importance of putting ourselves first in order to do so. The body is a very exquisite machine if one takes the time to admire the true beauty of it’s design. If we were to look at our body like a vehicle we would notice similarities on what keeps our system in an optimal state. For example if we take our vehicle in for regular maintenance there is a very small percentage of disruption within the system, but if we neglect to do so one small problem leads to a bigger problem down the line.

Electromagnetic Fields
Each cell in the body creates an electromagnetic field that acts like a shield for the cell. This field is similar to our planets electromagnetic field protecting us from subatomic particles to astroids size particles. When these cells combine to create bone, muscles, organs, glands, nerves, etc. these fields resonate at a particular frequency. Your skeletal, muscular, organ, glandular and nervous system then create a unique electromagnetic field around you also known as an aura. So when you maintain your body you provide a good ecosystem in and around your body. If this ecosystem is not nurtured it can cause damage to one or multiple ecosystems affecting the overall health of your body.

Circuitry Of The Energy Body
Acupuncture is a treatment that has been used within the eastern country of China for over 3000 years. This modality provides a detailed map of hundreds of acupoints systematically littered across our body that nourishes our nervous, skeletal, organ and glandular systems. These acupoints run through specific meridians affecting organs and glands when stimulated. These meridians route energy through our body similar to a circuit board in a computer. The most common way to access this system is by needling or acupuncture. Other methods may include modalities such as Reiki, Jin Shyn Jytsu, or acupressure that use physical pressure and or non-physical means to regulate these meridians.

Power Centres – Organs and Glands
A city is comprised of small communities which house buildings, houses, traffic lights and power centres. Without the power centres there would be no power flowing to the buildings, houses and traffic lights. And without power flowing to a specific community for long periods of time the people in that community would have to migrate to other areas leaving their original community to become barren of life. This can be said for the power centres of the body which in this case are our organs and glands. If the basic life force energy (Qi/Prana) is deprived within an organ the organ will eventually become diseased. So like electricians keeping our community power centres functioning energetic practitioners keep our body’s energy system flowing.

Symptomatic Problems
As a massage therapist and energetics practitioner I interact with people on a daily basics. A majority of my clients come to me to address physical pains they may experience ranging from once or twice a month to several times a day. What I found with a majority of my clients who have chronic ailments is that they have organ related symptoms which can be mistaken for simple body aches. When these meridian access points are under-active, over-active or blocked we may experience a variety of symptoms such as headaches, migraines, brain fog, tinnitus (ringing in the ear(s)), hearing cutting in and out, blurred vision, dizziness, hot flashes, weakness in the legs, and various body aches which may happening all at once. These symptoms tells us that one or multiple ecosystems are out of balance and if left unchecked for long periods of time can cause disease in the body.

Irregular Vibrations In The System
When an organ, gland or muscle becomes unstable it creates an un-natural vibration in the body. This vibration can over or under-stimulate a localized area or whole body depending on the nature of the problem. These vibrations can be held in the nervous system which spans throughout the organ, gland and muscular systems. This can produce a tipping point of what we call stress. So to simplify it imagine drinking something that overstimulates your nervous system such as alcohol or coffee. These products can over exert organ functions making them work harder and faster. The over-stimulation in the system produces a vibration that can be seen as a trembling of the hands, or felt like anxiousness which is held within the body or worst case scenario, depression which is a systemic disharmony of the entire system when it has been out of balance for long duration’s of time.

What Can Cause Energy Imbalances?
Stress
Moods we express to any given situation (anger, fear, guilt, etc.)
Physical injuries (internal and external scaring, car accidents, sports injuries, etc.)
Foods that are not beneficial to the body
Improper hydration
Lack of sleep
Electronic or radio wave frequencies (radio, TV, etc.)

What Are Some Benefits From Energy Medicine?
Reduces/Relieves feelings of stress and depression
Reduces/Relieves anxiety and heart palpitations
Detoxifies the organs
Improving circulation
Strengthens the immune system
Improves mental focus
Increases your energy and vitality
Improves ones quality of sleep

How To Balance The Nervous and Energy Systems
When working on my clients I use a meditative technique I created by tuning into their vibratory state and at the same time focus on silence. What this does is bring the overstimulated vibrational state of their body down to the same frequency of silence activating their parasympathetic nervous system. This system puts ones body into a meditative state allowing their organs to relax and repair itself. The parasympathetic system moves along longer pathways and is responsible for controlling homeostasis, which is the balance and maintenance of the body’s systems. This system is responsible for restoring the body’s state of calm and balance. Depending on how chronic the problem is it may take a few sessions to balance out the affected system(s).

To improve ones state of being they have to be the co-creator in their progress. This means getting support for whatever ails them. For example depression is a symptom of stress. Stress is a symptom of a bigger problem which could be related to a personal or work related issue that has not been dealt with. So as a practitioner I maybe able to shift your body’s energy state, but if nothing changes with the root problem causing the depression it becomes a vicious cycle of chasing ones tail.

Things I would suggest avoiding are high activity sports, running or anything that starts to over stimulate ones system. A daily practice of meditation, yoga, Qi Gong, or Tai Chi can greatly improve ones state of being transforming their mind, body and spirit back into balance. The one thing these modalities have in common is that they trigger the parasympathetic nervous system to help circulate the energy through the body’s meridian system nourishing the organs, glands and muscular systems.

How To Balance The Energy System
I have come up with a specific technique which should be used as a daily practice in maintaining ones energy meridian system. This technique which I call “Awakened One” specifically moves energy throughout the meridian and organ systems systematically unblocking any congested or blocked points.

This technique is very simple to do, but should only be attempted by intermediate to advanced practitioners of meditation or any modalities which are listed above under “How To Balance The Nervous and Energy Systems”. The reason for this is because moving energy from a congested organ has the same affect as detoxing, which can cause physical pain throughout ones body as well as moderate to extreme emotional shifts lasting anywhere from a few seconds to several days.

If you choose to proceed with this practice make sure that you have a doctor of Chinese medicine and acupuncture on standby or an energetic practitioner who understands the meridian systems and the ability to locate blockage points. To access this practice click “Awakened One“.

14 Mar

What is an acupuncture energy meridian?

Do you suffer from anxiety, stress, depression, chronic pain, headaches or migraines? Well maybe the problem is deeper than you realized. As we embark in the age of information our world is becoming smaller and smaller as time goes on. With information at our finger tips we are now learning at an exponential rate. This post was created to give my readers a general understanding of the acupuncture meridian systems. Unlike the western medical system which does not take the flow of energy through and around the body into consideration our eastern counterparts does and has for the last 3000 years.

I have added three short videos which will explain what a meridian is and things in our every day life that may affect it such as physical and emotional traumas as well as dietary imbalances. These imbalances if kept unchecked can eventually affect the organ the meridian is related to causing disease within the body.

Skilled energy practitioners and acupuncturists can help maintain clear energy channels in conjunction with meditation, yoga, Tai Chi and Qigong.

Understanding acupuncture meridians:

Dietary and emotional factors and how they affect the acupuncture meridians:

Learn how energy imbalances can affect the organs:

12 Oct

You and your health

Do you know your true self? Are you following your dreams or feel that you’ve got hurdles at every turn that continually blocks you from your passions? Do you feel stressed, depressed, unhappy most of your days? The attached video I provided below sums up information that I try to convey to my clients and friends in order to help balance ones state of being. There are many toxic indicators that can come about based on the decisions we make on a daily basis. If we don’t understand who we are as an individual sometimes it makes it hard to know what we like or want in our lives. The exploration of self is important for our well-being. I’ve been following my inner passions the last few years and it has been an eye opening experience. I found that the by-product of this experience is fulfillment. I give my children the same advice in hopes that I save them several decades of damage to their minds, bodies and spirits.

12 Oct

What do you know about cancer?

Many of us at one time or another knew someone who has or had cancer. This word sparks fear and desperation into the hearts of the afflicted along with the friends and family connected to them. We also hear about the people who try alternative methods which cleanses the cancer from their bodies. There are very few people who understand what cancer is or how to treat it. Many of us realize that the mismanagement of our body can bring about diseases such as diabetes, cardio vascular issues, etc. and in some cases we change our life style to reverse these issues.

We come from a history of people that we followed to get us to the times we’re currently in today. If we trace back our steps a generation or two, we learn that our body has inherent abilities when cared for altering our state of disease to a state of balance. The video “The Truth About Cancer” provided below has informative information from the perspectives of medical and alternative doctors about cancer.