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How People Experience Pain
I would like to describe the various types of chronic pain people experience. A formal diagnosis, such as “herniated disc” can limit one’s perspective of the source of pain. The descriptions that follow are fairly detailed. Many people experience a variety of symptoms so if you don’t fit into a particular category, don’t worry. The point of this chapter is to further your perception about the pain you’re experiencing. You’ll be pleased to know that there are many natural alternatives to drugs and surgery when it comes to pain relief. But before we delve into those, let’s talk about what you might be feeling.
Dull, Achy Pain, Pounding, Throbbing Pain
Achy pain can come from muscles, joints, bones or internal organs (also called viscera). With achy pain in the muscles, people often report that the pain gets better with movement. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we would attribute this type of pain to stagnation of Qi, i.e. poor energy flow through the energy channels. Pain relieved by movement means more blood and Qi is flowing through that area of soft tissue. Achy muscles and joints that worsen with damp weather or an impending storm signify “dampness” in TCM which roughly translates to having too much dampness in the tissues. Eating “damp-producing” foods such as milk, cheese, sugar, fried foods, wheat, cold raw foods, and cold drinks may exacerbate this type of pain.
Believe it or not, a common cause of achy low back pain is intestinal problems. Often when my patients have a flare of low back pain, I’ll ask them what they’ve been eating the past few days. Usually they look sheepish because they’ve been overindulging in sugar, wheat or unhealthy snacks. We’ll cover how intestinal issues can cause chronic pain in the Body section.
The last type of achy pain I’d like to describe is literally “tooth-achy” pain. This type of pain is extremely uncomfortable and medications generally do not work well. If you’ve ever had a toothache, you’ll know what this type of pain feels like. It can throb and feel as if it’s coming from deep within your bones and muscles. I used to have this type of pain whenever I ate cheese and it would keep me up at night.
Sometimes there is inflammation of a tiny fluid-filled sac acting as a cushion between the bones, tendons and muscles. With repetitive motion and continued inflammation these sacs can fill with fluid and become painful. This condition is referred to as bursitis and it can cause achy, throbbing pain. The major bursae are located adjacent to the tendons near the large joints, such as the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.
Sharp, Piercing, Stabbing, Shooting or Knife-like Pain
This type of pain usually occurs with movement. People describe it as a sudden severe pain associated with a specific motion or body position. Occasionally, a sudden loss of strength can occur particularly when two joints are misaligned. The most typical example is the sacroiliac joints. These joints consist of the pelvis bowl and the triangular bone called the sacrum. Stand with your backside to the mirror, see any dimples? Those dimples represent both sides of your sacrum where the sacroiliac joints are located. The pelvis can lose its symmetry in various ways, thereby causing a misalignment of the sacroiliac joints. Bending or twisting movements can exaggerate this pelvic misalignment and cause sudden sharp pain. This sharpness can literally bring a person to his knees, so he cannot walk. Unfortunately SIJ (sacroiliac joint) misalignment is never recognized by conventional radiologists reading X-rays of the spine or pelvis, although it is by most chiropractors.
Sharp pain can also occur when soft tissue is being squeezed or rubbed with movement. An example of this is impingement syndrome whereby a tendon gets trapped in a joint space during movement. In shoulder impingement syndrome, there is often no pain on moving a straight arm out to the side until it gets to about ninety degrees from the torso. As the shoulder joint space narrows past this point, the tendon of the supraspinatus muscle gets trapped and causes a sudden sharp pain in the shoulder.
Burning Pain
This type of pain is a form of neuropathic pain (pain coming from the nerves) and it can be very severe. People with uncontrolled diabetes can experience burning foot pain because their poor circulation has deteriorated the small nerve endings in their feet. This type of nerve damage is a complication of uncontrolled diabetes.
When bigger nerves are trapped, such as the sciatic nerve (a huge nerve that runs from the spine through the buttocks area and down the leg) the same burning pain can occur. When people “slip a disc” in their lumbar spine, the extruded disc can entrap the nerve roots coming out of the spine and cause severe burning pain. Classic “sciatica” is severe burning leg pain.
Cold, Numb, Stiff Pain
Yes, this type of pain sounds weird. I have a lot of experience with this one. It is the feeling that not enough blood or warmth is travelling to an area of your body. In Chinese Medicine, we would say that the energy (Qi) is stagnant in the area. In other words, because the energy is low or nil in the area, it produces this type of “cold” pain. Usually with this type of pain, movement or exercise improves it to a degree, as well as using a heating pad. Prolonged inactivity, such as sitting or sleeping makes the pain worse. The sensations of cold and numb often go together. The sensation of numbness often travels down an acupuncture meridian or a nerve.
Pins and Needles Pain
Also a form of neuropathic pain, pins and needles pain can be a milder form of pain caused by compromised or damaged nerves. Some patients refer to it as feeling “buzzy”. One common diagnosis is called meralgia paresthetica. The cause of meralgia paresthetica is compression of the nerve that supplies sensation to the skin surface of your outer thigh and it can be caused by tight clothing, obesity, local trauma or diabetes.
There is another cause of “buzzy” pain which stumps most doctors and some chiropractors, simply due to a lack of understanding and/or training. I was ignorant as well until I experienced it myself. Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a condition involving the connective tissue. Specially trained MPS massage therapists and physical therapists know beneficial treatment techniques proven to ease symptoms.
Myofascial pain occurs when a muscle knots up and stays in constant contraction without the ability to relax. The fascia is the thin layer of connective tissue that envelopes the muscle. The fascia can also be tight or tighter than the muscle itself. These knots are tender when pressed on, but often the pain is temporarily relieved upon release of the pressure. These painful knots are known as trigger points. Janet Travell, M.D. is probably the best known in this field for her work with myofascial pain syndrome.
Have you ever performed a shoulder massage on anyone with tight, painful knots? They often say it hurts but feels good at the same time. Typically myofascial pain is achy; however, I’ve had many patients with pins and needles or numbness sensations running down a limb because the muscle and fascia were literally strangulating the flow of Qi. In severe cases, blood flow to the skin is affected and the painful limb can even look a different color (usually bluish) from the normal limb. People sometimes worry that the color disturbance is due to a blood clot, but are reassured when the color returns to normal after appropriate treatment. Nerve damage or even a trapped nerve may not be necessary for this symptom to occur. With the release or relaxation of the associated trigger points, often the pins and needles pain diminishes or disappears.
A short time ago, I experienced pins and needles in my left calf when doing a left hamstring stretch. I didn’t have damage to any of my nerves yet wondered why the feeling resembled classic “nerve” pain. I realized that the fascia extending from my hip to my foot was tight and was sending electrical signals every time I tried to stretch. I’ve learned by releasing the tight fascia, the pain sensation melts away. If the fascia is chronically tight, as mine was, it can be an indication that something systemic is causing the fascia to be tight. One of the most common causes I’ve found in my practice is gluten sensitivity i.e. inflammation from eating wheat products. I’ll discuss more about dietary issues related to chronic pain in the Body section.
Electrical Shock Pain
As you can imagine, having this type of pain is horrible. It’s not unlike putting your finger into an electrical socket. Most often this pain occurs in the arms and legs where there are long nerves. This is true nerve pain. Carpal tunnel syndrome can cause this kind of pain whereby the median nerve is trapped in the wrist and sends pain signals into the hand. Sciatica can also present as electrical shock pain as a result of compression of the sciatic nerve due to spasm of the piriformis buttock muscle. This condition is called piriformis syndrome. Just by invoking relaxation of the tight muscle, the pain signals go away.
Doctors often recommend a nerve conduction test which determines exactly which nerves are affected and to what degree. A slowing of nerve conduction indicates nerve damage. Many people worry that the only treatment for nerve compression is surgery; however, in my experience, if addressed early, natural non-surgical options can work well.
Cramping, Squeezing Pain
People refer to these as charley-horse pains. The muscle gets locked into spasm and cannot release. Multiple muscle groups can be involved. Occasionally, muscle twitching under the skin may be observed. Recurrent muscle spasms are often caused by nutritional deficiencies, namely minerals like magnesium and potassium. Too much calcium relative to magnesium in our Western diet can cause a mineral imbalance that encourages muscle contraction and spasms. The average American consumes far more calcium in his diet than magnesium, although both may be low. In fact, the soil in which we grow our conventional produce has been depleted of important minerals like magnesium for at least eighty years, so even if you think you eat a healthy diet, you may still be magnesium deficient. Furthermore, common medications such as blood pressure lowering medications often deplete the body of vital minerals such as magnesium and potassium.
Old-fashioned Epsom salts are used to treat muscle cramps because of the magnesium sulfate in Epsom salts. In the Body section, I’ll discuss how magnesium chloride works even better, as well as what you can do to improve mineral balance in your diet.
Pressure, Tight, Expanding, Vice-like, Swelling, Heavy Pain
Some people say that certain body parts, such as their head, neck or back, feel as if they are in a vice or are about to explode. Standing upright can compress the spine increasing back or leg pain and causing a heavy feeling in the lower body which causes the person to prefer sitting. The causes of these types of pain are more difficult to determine using traditional Western medicine approaches. In Chinese medicine, we can describe it as blood and Qi being stagnant in one area and not flowing properly.
People with migraine headaches will describe that their head hurts so badly that it feels like it is about to explode. I’ve had similar experiences when the barometer changes rapidly or when a storm is approaching. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this a symptom of “dampness”, meaning that there is extra fluid stagnated in the body where it shouldn’t be. Examples of internal “dampness” would be diarrhea, nasal congestion or swollen legs.
In my practice I treat several young Nordic ski racers. Whenever they practice with roller skis (skis with wheels), their lower legs can get extremely stressed and swollen. Sometimes the chronic swelling requires surgery to literally cut the fascia that separates the layers of muscle in an attempt to decompress the leg. This condition is called compartment syndrome and can be dangerous as it shuts off the blood supply to the lower leg. Unfortunately, the roller ski manufacturers have yet to design a system of boot and skis that eliminates compartment syndrome in its skiers. By using some of the energy tools I’ll mention later, as well as dietary changes, my patients are able to avoid potentially disabling surgery and perform better in their sport.
Dull, Stiff, Cold Pain
Although relatively low on the pain severity scale, morning stiffness or stiffness with inactivity (like sitting for prolonged periods of time) is a common symptom of chronic pain. In Western medicine, we consider morning stiffness that gets better with movement to be caused by inflammation. Yet, as you’ll read later, inflammation is related to almost all forms of acute and chronic pain as well as many chronic diseases, so this description isn’t terribly helpful.
What I learned recently from Dr. Robert Cass, a homeopathic doctor in Canada, is that stiffness brought on by inactivity (sleeping, sitting in a chair too long etc.) is due to calcium precipitating out of solution into the tissues. In other words, the calcium starts becoming solid and is no longer dissolved in the fluids of your muscles, joints and tendons. This apparently happens in environments of low phosphorus or magnesium. Adequate levels of these minerals are required to keep the calcium in solution. Medications are notorious for depleting minerals such as magnesium and phosphorus. In addition, processed foods containing fructose (high fructose corn syrup for example) seem to promote the loss of phosphorus in the urine.
According to Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of The Magnesium Miracle, you can do your own experiment at home to demonstrate this phenomenon using a calcium tablet and a magnesium tablet. Dissolve a calcium tablet in a little bit of water and notice how there is still some solid left over. Then add a magnesium tablet and watch how the rest of the calcium dissolves into the solution.
“Run over by a truck” Pain
This type of pain is also described as “all over achy” or “flu-like”. Typically people diagnosed with fibromyalgia will suffer from this type of debilitating pain. I can tell you first-hand that I wouldn’t wish it on anyone! Just imagine the last time you had the flu. It felt awful, didn’t it?
People with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions can feel “flu-like” symptoms twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, for months or years on end. The pain literally drains the energy right out of them. They have no life and are often depressed. They are told by their doctors to get exercise, but if they overdo it, they suffer worse pain. Usually this type of pain gets worse with too little or too much exercise, as well as too little or too much sleep. If you suffer from this type of pain, even just once-in-a-while, know that holistic treatments offer hope. The underlying cause may take time to resolve, but the pain relief doesn’t have to.
“Mixed Bag” of Symptoms
The grand majority of chronic pain sufferers experience two or more of the various pain symptoms I’ve discussed so far. The mixture of pain symptomatology can be confusing for both patients and doctors. As a young doctor, I remember that occasionally a new patient would present with inexplicable and weird symptoms that I could not explain using traditional biology and physiology. My professors would sometimes dismiss this type of patient as a hypochondriac or would assume it was all psychogenic (created by psychological disturbances). It wasn’t until I became very sick myself that I understood what some of these patients were actually feeling. I’ll give you an example of a patient complaint that would typically drive a doctor insane:
“Doctor, I’m getting these annoying eye twitches every day and they are getting worse. And I just began having a buzzy electrical feeling in my body, but it’s only on the right side of my body, including my head. I get it mostly at night and I can’t sleep. I can see little muscle twitches in my arms and legs sometimes and I can see my veins poking out for no reason, even if it isn’t hot or cold out…and I’m bumping into walls. Why is that? Can you test me for multiple sclerosis? Then there is this heavy feeling behind my eyes. No, it’s not a headache exactly, just a heavy feeling…and my memory is getting worse. I get to the top of the stairs and can’t remember what I went upstairs to get! I know I’m only 30, but I think I’m getting Alzheimer’s. Can you test me for that? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I have a weird metallic taste in my mouth and my stool smells like metal too. What is that from?”
Imagine how overwhelmed a doctor might feel hearing a litany of seemingly unrelated symptoms like that? Most doctors label patients like these “extra sensitive” and a few actually think they are crazy. Western trained doctors get trapped into ordering a multitude of tests on these patients, partly because they ask for them, and partly to just placate them. Little time, however, is spent actually on healing. Why? Because neither doctor nor patient really know what to do in order to heal.
I had to learn how to heal myself. I didn’t know that many of the symptoms in the above example were symptoms of magnesium deficiency! Sadly, most doctors are not trained adequately in nutrition. We are not taught to treat patients with nutritional therapy, only with drugs. Who do you think funds a lot of medical school education programs such as hospital Grand Rounds? The pharmaceutical industry does, spending the majority of their money on marketing to both doctors and consumers.
Are You Extra Sensitive?
A friend of mine, Andrea, is sometimes able to see the outside world in pixels, just like on a computer or television screen. If you’ve seen the movie, “The Matrix” with Keanu Reeves, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. According to quantum physicists and spiritual teachers from ancient traditions, our “real” world is no more real than the pictures in our brain. In other words, we apparently “project” our environment from within. In traditional Buddhist teaching, everything is an illusion. Of course, you may argue that if you stub your toe, as the resulting bruise and pain feel real! Whether you believe in quantum physics or spiritual traditions, it is still important for you to be able to function in everyday life.
Andrea searched for years for the cause of her “condition” and went through many scans, eye exams, blood tests and x-rays. Her doctors couldn’t find a single thing to explain her symptoms. My intuition told me that Andrea had extraordinary abilities to sense things the rest of us could not, like auras (colorful energetic fields) around living things, so I told her she was gifted. At first she didn’t believe me. It wasn’t until she met with famous energy healer, Eric Pearl, D.C., a chiropractor, that she began respecting her divine healing gifts. After being trained by Dr. Pearl, she is now a certified Reconnective Healer and is able to harness her sensitivity into a healing skill to help others like her. This is what Andrea says about her visions:
I want you to know that I do not see in pixels all the time. It is not something that is continuous that I move through. It is more like seeing very fast moving tiny lights in objects, for example, the television… but I can look out the window and see them too in the whole sky. The time I saw an entire dresser turn into pixels, it looked like fast moving black dots, but still held the shape of the dresser. It is hard to explain. What I see is wavy-like energy, almost what you see with a mirage or when heat is rising off the road. Things can and do become illuminated and golden especially when I am experiencing my higher states and feeling love intensely; then they get wavy, not solid. Wish you could borrow my eyes when this occurs, to better help explain this. I really enjoy it now and like to go there often. Sometimes I will cry spontaneously. Tears will just begin and it feels like bliss, ecstatic joy and can be overwhelming, but in a good way!
Sometimes “sensitive” individuals like Andrea can initially suffer from their sensitivity until they learn that it is both a gift and a curse. Once “sensitives” are taught how to harness and protect their energy, they can turn that talent inwards to not only heal themselves, but also others if they choose to do so.
Please understand that your pain can manifest as anything, but you are not alone. Allow the frustration with the lack of improvement within traditional medicine fuel your efforts to explore alternative or energetic treatments. In fact, if you’re reading this book, you are likely to be the perfect candidate to take advantage of what holistic medicine has to offer.
Chapter Summary
People experience pain in all sorts of ways so you are not alone
Myofascial pain is a common source of chronic pain and most traditional doctors are not taught to diagnose or manage it
Mineral deficiencies such as magnesium, potassium and phosphorus can contribute to or cause chronic pain
Traditional Western medical doctors may not be adequately educated to treat chronic pain without drugs or surgery
Sensitive people may suffer more from their symptoms until they learn how to harness and protect their energy field in order to self-heal