Pain Related Therapies.
PROLOTHERAPY | OSTEOPATHY | ORTHOPEDIC MEDICINE | SPORTS INJURIES
Physical Factors That Influence Pain.
Why Do We Have Pain?
Mother nature in us is saying, “Protect this area because it is not strong at this time”. If structural strength is impaired, she says “Don’t move it this way or stress it by leaning on it.”
Inflammation.
Inflammation consists of redness, heat, swelling, and loss of function. It’s a reflection of the body’s efforts to heal a problem. We are all originally cave people, and mother nature was our doctor.
Redness.
Inflamed areas tend to be red, because of the bodies increased blood flow and the blood vessels are dilated to supply more nourishing blood as well as taking away debris.
Heat.
The warmth we feel in the inflammed area is the result of increased blood flow and increased metabolism (to accelerate healing).
Swelling.
In a joint injury, it decreases movement and stabilized the joint (mother nature’s splint). In an insect bite, the extra fluid might be diluting a toxic substance.
Loss of Function.
Mother nature is telling us to not use this structure until it is structurally strong enough to tolerate the stresses of normal use.
Tools for Pain Treatment.
Dr Rind has been working for nearly 40 years with modalities to treat acute and chronic pain. He has a broad variety of skills and tools at his disposal. The goal is to restore function. Thus, when the problem is successfully corrected, the pain no longer has a reason to exist. This is the goal and when it succeeds, it is beautiful to see. This approach avoids drugs and invasive procedures. Typically, fixing the problem is far more powerful than suppression of the symptoms.
Prolotherapy.
A useful tool that works to repair the ligamentous injury at a joint. Dr Rind uses a proprietary mixture of calcium gluconate, xylocaine, zinc and occasionally vitamin B12. He has also developed techniques that are typically relatively painless using the finest smallest needles that can get the job done. If needed, some numbing cream.
Osteopathy.
Osteopathic medicine is the original holistic medicine developed in the United States by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still in the 1800s.
IR Laser.
A tool that often gets rid of pain in a safe, simple, elegant and painless way. It is FDA approved for the treatment of pain.
Homeopathic Remedies.
.
A tool I’ve found very useful is TheraCreme (found at Theraben.com). Applied broadly over the area of pain, it often works within a couple of minutes and is a no risk, money back guaranteed product. There are other helpful homeopathic remedies such as Traumeel and Arnica that can help.
Supplements.
I find Quercetin to be unusually useful for acute trauma. Many years ago I accidentally discovered that in cases of acute (i.e. very recent) trauma such as a motor vehicle accident, other injury, surgery, tooth extraction etc., the immediate use of Quercetin can accelerate recovery so much that is can feel strange to get well so quickly.
Relox IV Therapy.
The goal of this treatment is to increase ATP (cellular energy) production by providing a burst of supportive substances such as magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C and oxygen in such a way that if strongly facilitates the production of energy. Typically, one feels a sensation of heat, ideally in the target area that needs treatment. It is given in a specific way to produce this result. Similar to what I wrote about Quercetin above but has a broader window of about 24 to 48 Hrs after the trauma. For best results, the closer to the trauma or injury the better although I’ve seen excellent results even a week after surgery. I often use Quercetin along with the Relox treatment.
Prolotherapy.
Non-surgical joint repair. Prolotherapy is an injection technique used to stimulate repair of damaged ligaments. This can be used in the treatment of acute and chronic pain.
Excellent Results.
Whiplash
Sciatica
Sports Injuries
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Shoulder Problems
Ankle Problems
Hip, knee, or ankle problems
Resistant painful orthopedic problems
Improvements are often observed within days of the treatment.
Dr. Rind has been using prolotherapy to relieve acute and chronic pain for over 30 years.
When former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop was told by several physicians that his back pain was incurable, he refused to accept this diagnosis. He searched for a solution until he found it…with prolotherapy. Within a few weeks he found complete relief from his ‘incurable' pain. Over the next few years he had several mild relapses which promptly responded with equal success to the same therapy.
The technique typically utilizes an injection of a mildly irritating natural solution at the site of a damaged ligament, in order to rekindle the repair process at the injury site. The repair typically takes three weeks to complete its cycle, but more than one cycle may be needed. The injection fools the body into responding as if damage had just occurred. The ligament's build up and the repair process is re-initiated and the healing process begins once more.
Osteopathy.
“I was first introduced to osteopathy 40 years ago. I fell in love with it from the start. Initially I thought I was going to learn a manipulative skill similar to chiropractic. Thankfully I was wrong. It turned out that the manual medicine component was just facet of a broadly multifaceted gem. The treatment of pain through the correction of structural problems was the first of many steps.”
There are some very basic yet profound principles that affect every aspect of medicine.
In short, they are:
The body functions as a unit
Form and function are related
The body has intelligence and the inherent capacity to heal itself.
Just as Newton’s 3 laws of motion were the foundation (Newtonian) physics (until Einstein came along), I have experienced that Dr. Still’s principles are the foundation of anything of value in the healing arts. Another equally important principle (we can call it #4) is that we should always fix the problem by going to the ‘key lesion’ or ‘root cause’. A modern physical therapist would say we need to look for the origin of the kinetic chain.
An example of a kinetic chain event could be like this:
John has a little ‘pebble’ in his right shoe he’s busy and ignores it, his subconscious response is to invert his foot to avoid it. This causes tension in the muscle of the inner lower leg. To compensate for the forces this produces, his outer right thigh muscle tenses, causing his left lower back to tense, the right upper back, then left neck muscle tenses. He goes to doctor #1 and says, “doc, I have these headaches on the left side of my head. The doctor says “here’s a prescription for a drug. As long as you take the drug you’ll have relief. Eventually he goes to doc #2. The doc explores deeper and says “I found out what’s causing the headaches. The left neck muscles are tense and have some trigger points that are referring pain to the head. I’ll just give you a shot of cortisone and pain will be gone. When it returns, come in for another shot etc.” Doc #3 has experience finding the root cause. Doc #3 takes the proverbial ‘pebble’ out of the shoe thus nullifying the kinetic chain (from the foot to the neck/head, and voilà. The headache is permanently gone.