Dear readers, our question this week comes from a client named Ryan who asked me how he could address his pain while he works with me to wean off of pain medications (his choice) and rebuild his health.
A much overlooked aspect of holistic treatment is pain management, as we tend to scrutinize emotional pain and trauma in holistic circles, but often neglect issues of physical pain.
Long term, we have a plan for how to reduce inflammation and pain, but in the short term clients need real solutions, and it’s a critical question because nothing motivates people to make a change like pain does.
We are frequently going to see clients with varying levels of pain. If we don’t address this issue effectively, nothing limits a person’s ability to make lifestyle changes like pain does. So kudos to Ryan for bridging up this incredibly important question.
What are the options for pain management?
The medical model employs a variety of over-the-counter drugs for discomfort during treatment, ranging from analgesics like Tylenol to Advil to more serious drugs like sedatives or anti-anxiety medications like Ativan and stronger pain medications like benzodiazepines and fentanyl.
All of these are known to cause health problems in the long term, and some to be very habit forming even when used for a short time, but they are often prescribed as a necessary evil. You have to have something to give clients who are grappling with pain.
This policy, in the medical model of suppressing disturbing symptoms to give comfort without addressing the underlying drivers of poor health, can be said not just of pain, but of sleep issues, digestive issues, anxiety and mood issues, and possibly, most ironically, addiction issues, as well.
In addiction, to help clients stop using substances of abuse, doctors frequently prescribe other body- and mind-altering substances. This is the popular approach in addiction centres in Canada today. It mirrors the medical ideology that is prevalent: that is, to reach for pills to suppress symptoms.
By the end of life, it becomes a veritable whack-a-mole, one drug for one symptom, another drug for the symptoms of that drug, another for the symptoms of that. And never are studies done on how all of these drugs interact together on the organism.
Can’t we find a better way? I’m not being facetious in asking this. I understand the usefulness of say, the patch, in quitting smoking. But this is a genuine question and a difficult one, especially as it pertains to persons with substance abuse or chronic health issues brought on by the use of medication.
For example, a person uses non-steroidal-anti-inflammatories for arthritic pain until they develop digestive disorders that cannot be ignored or medicated away. This is because NSAIDs damage the stomach lining. When used chronically, the pain of taking them can become worse than the pain that initiated their use.
Now they need something for the arthritic pain and the stomach pain, as well as the myriad of other symptoms that have cropped up as a result of the multiple food intolerances the leaky gut syndrome they now have has brought on. As a business model it’s brilliant. You take one consumer and create in them a need for multiple of your products - often for life. But as a model for health it’s abysmal.
In addiction treatment, it would seem important to ask questions like: “Is methadone truly less harmful than what it replaces?” And, “Is it ethical to use addictive pain medications like benzodiazepines, which have led to tens of thousands of premature deaths?”
And, “Is it ethical to use the drugs created to help address addiction to benzos - which profit the very company that created the benzo crisis in the first place?”
Holistic medicine alone offers a solution that is health giving in the long term. We ask uncomfortable questions such as does a body recovering from a habitual overload of toxins need - or benefit - from more toxins to get better?
And, if needed in acute cases, at what point does it become irresponsible to continue to prescribe such instead of proven lifestyle changes that would truly bring healing to the body?
And, do we really want to reinforce the impulse to reach for a synthetic and potentially damaging, body-altering substance whenever a client feels pain? Is this a model for optimal and full living?
The clinical approach of a holistic method of pain and symptom management, reserves pharmaceutical intervention as a last resort. Clients can get these prescriptions from their physicians in the lowest dose possible, and use them only when they feel they absolutely need it. In the meantime we focus on rebuilding their health as a means to address the pain.
The reason for this approach is five-fold:
- It’s highly effective because it addresses the root causes of pain
- It teaches people with a history of self-medicating a healthier norm
- It does not add to the toxic load of an already struggling body
- There are no dangerous negative side effects to worry about
- There is no risk that it can become habit forming
Clients are constantly amazed at the results.
One client came to me having had limited range of motion in one knee for the majority of his adult life, due to an old injury. After working together with diet and supplements he was overjoyed to be able to completely extend his leg and do weight bearing exercises - with full range of motion and consistent improvements in strength.
He also stopped using pain medications during his work with me. His pain completely went away after three weeks, which he attributed to the anti-inflammatory diet and orthomolecular protocol I prescribed.
Many clients come to me unable to sleep without a variety of sedative medications. They often become agitated on discovering I suggest they try to sleep with a herbal protocol instead. Usually within a week (and almost always within two) however, they invariably find they do not need (or desire) any sleep medication and are experiencing very regular and refreshing sleep.
Often, the best sleep they’ve had in years! The power of vitamins and herbal remedies to ameliorate symptoms should not be underestimated because it is natural.
The same can be said of anxiety, depression, and panic. I’ve had many clients who learn through my nutrition and life-skills programs to manage these debilitating conditions through diet and new life habits, rather than through pharmaceutical interventions alone. It’s not unusual for clients to decide to discontinue medical interventions for anxiety, OCD, and depression without return of symptoms when they have changed their biochemistry.
Their self-evaluation scores for disturbing symptoms often drop from over 100 on intake to single digits after only months. They tell me they feel empowered and free to start their new lives.
Some of the methods I use clinically are direct interventions, like all natural topical analgesics, ice, heat, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy and herbal analgesics. Others are indirect, like dietary and supplement interventions.
I believe it’s often the indirect methods that have the most profound impact, but in a pinch, the herbal remedies have incredible results. Even migraines respond to these. So don’t assume that just because it’s natural it won’t help address your pain.
Readers with questions can reach me at [email protected] and they can find me online at hopenotdope.ca.
Namaste!
Nonie Nutritionista