Last week I wrote about some of the problems with over-the-counter painkillers and prescription painkillers, such as the huge number of people that die each year from their use and abuse.  To be clear, the occasional use of these painkillers is well tolerated by most people, but it is the regular daily use for weeks at a time that is the biggest problem.  A tablet once or twice a month generally will not hurt a healthy person.

I then wrote about the physical things you can do to decrease and eliminate pain, such as Chiropractic, a good diet, exercise, massage, physical therapy, acupuncture, and the like.  These are the best and first lines of defense against pain.  They are about keeping your body healthy in order to avoid the causes of pain.

In spite our best efforts, we will still have pain visit our lives.  We will injure ourselves, stress ourselves out, eat the wrong foods, and over do our lives in ways that end up producing pain in our bodies.  Gentle stretching, using heat followed by cold, and a good night's rest will often settle these simple pains down.  If you are hurting the next day a good Chiropractic adjustment may be in order.  But what else can we do to tame the inflammation and settle down the pain? 

Well, there are many natural pain relieving herbs and products that work quite nicely to bring down pain.

The first class of pain relievers I want to mention are the enzyme therapies.  I first heard about the use of enzymes for pain and injury in connection with professional athletes - football players to be specific.  They were using very high doses of pineapple and papaya digestive enzymes on an empty stomach to reduce swelling and bruise formation from the beating they were taking during a game.  I also read accounts of the enzyme urokinase, an enzyme released in the urine of humans after trauma, being used to greatly reduce tissue damage when administered very soon after the trauma.  This therapy was being used in Germany, but not America.

Well here we are 20 years later, and the use of enzymes for pain and inflammation is well established.  More powerful and sophisticated enzymes formulations have been developed.  The two I am most familiar with are Purozyme, and Vitalzyme.  They can both be used in much the same way you might use a drug type painkiller, only without the negative side effects.  But the much greater effect of enzyme therapy can be found in its ability to slowly digest away unnecessary scar tissue in our bodies.  Scar tissue that forms after an injury can foul up normal blood flow and lymphatic drainage in that area, causing long term health issues.  The pain killing benefits can be felt within a few hours, while the scar tissue benefits slowly build up over many months of enzyme use.

As a side note, another enzyme called nattokinase, is the therapy of choice in Europe for thinning the blood after a stroke or blood clot.  It does not cause the many toxicity problems associated with coumadin that we use in this country.  (Coumadin was originally and still is marketed as Warfarin - a rat poison.)

Enzymes must be taken on an empty stomach so they will not be wasted trying to digest your food instead of going into the blood stream and to the area of the body needing help.  Use first thing in the morning and just before going to bed works nicely.

The next most powerful anti-inflammatory from the natural world is Turmeric.  The curcuminoid pigments found in turmeric have been found to have very powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.  In fact turmeric is probably the most heavily studied natural medicine around with literally thousands of studies done on it.  The big problem with turmeric is that it poorly absorbs in both water and fats and consequently is very poorly absorbed in our gut.  Less than 1% of the turmeric we take in capsule form will be absorbed.  Fortunately a few companies like Apex have developed a nanoparticle microemulsion technique for making the turmeric 10 times more absorbable.  I use Apex's Turmero-active every day.  I was taking several grams of turmeric in capsules each day because I thought it was cheaper.   But when I discovered the absorption problem and did the math, I found the Turmero-active was in fact about half the price of my capsules for the dose I was actually getting into my body.

Another powerful pain fighter I want to mention is fish oil.  Fish oil is high in omega-3 oils which the body uses to make its own natural anti-inflammatory chemicals.  The opposite of the beneficial omega-3 oils are the omega-6 oils found in grains and seeds that induce inflammation in the body.  They are why I tell all my patients to never use vegetable oils like corn, soy, sunflower, safflower, canola, cottonseed, and the like.  Our diet is already overloaded with these oils in the foods we eat, so we don't want to add fuel to the fire by using these oils in our diet.  Fish oil omega -3 fights this problem.

Unfortunately plant sources of omega -3 like flax seed are of no value to most of us.  Men can not convert the vegetable form of omega-3 to a useful form at all, and only 8% is able to be converted by women.  We have to use animal sources of omega - 3, and fish are the most potent source.  Take fish oil daily to fight pain and inflammation, but be careful that the fish oil does not have mercury in it - a common contaminant in fish.

Olive oil on the other hand has a natural chemical, oleocanthal, which acts like ibuprofen to fight pain.  Along those same lines is the herb White Willow Bark.  It contains natural salicylic acid that is the chemical that aspirin imitates.  Unlike aspirin, the natural salicylic acid in white willow bark does not produce the negative side effects that aspirin overuse causes.

Also operating in a similar fashion to decrease the formation of inflammatory compounds is Boswellia.  The boswellic acid it contains is more powerful than the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs the medical doctors prescribe.  We are more familiar with the Biblical use of Boswellia as it is also the tree that the sweet smelling resin Frankincense comes from.  Clinical studies found boswellia 97% effective on rheumatoid patient pain, swelling, and stiffness.  Doses of 450 to 750mg daily for 3 weeks showed these results.

For joint pain most everyone is aware of the use of MSM, glucosamine, and chondroitin.  These compounds actually help rebuild the protective capsule of the joint.  Maximum benefit from these supplements is generally achieved within 6 weeks, and all the work it can do is usually done within 3 months.  So there is no need to keep taking it past that point.

A less well known natural remedy for arthritis pain is the herb Devil's Claw.  Again, studies have found it works as well as medical drugs without the side effects.  One interesting note, Devil's Claw also increases the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach - a common problem when we get past the age of 40.  In fact it is low hydrochloric acid production that is responsible for most of the acid reflux problems we see today.  Our stomach acid simply is not strong enough to trigger the valve at the top of the stomach to stay tightly closed, which allows the weaker stomach acid to wash up and burn our esophagus. 

A special little remedy specifically for gout pain I have been using with patients for 30 years is black cherry juice.  The high doses of anthocyanins in the black cherries causes the body to expel the excess uric acid that causes the gout attacks.

Susan McDonald, the clinical massage therapist in the office, has been preaching the magical pain relieving praises of Arnica as long as I have known her.  Arnica tinctures can be used directly on areas of joint and muscle pain and homeopathic Arnica can be taken internally for systemic relief from pain.

Other skin application methods for blocking pain can be found using herbs like peppermint due to the menthol found in them, eucalyptus oil, and the red pepper extract capsaicin.  These use a clever neurological trick to block deep joint pain.  The body will block the messages from the tiny deep joint pain fibers when the larger skin irritation fibers are firing.  These natural oils irritate the skin just enough to cause the body to block deep pain messages.  Sports creams, sprays, and roll-ons that either feel like they heat the body (like Sombra) or chill the body (like Bio-Freeze) do a nice job of blocking pain.

Feverfew, skullcap, and valerian root are excellent herbs for relieving headachs, especially due to stress and tension.

Stomach pain is greatly soothed with the herbs slippery elm, aloe vera , ginger, or chamomile.  For serious stomach inflammation or even ulcers, I have found freshly juiced cabbage will settle this down quickly.  Cabbage contains a substance that at one time was called vitamin U because of its effectiveness on ulcers.  Deglycerized licorice is also a great benefit for stomach problems.  And of course there is the traditional use of licorice in throat lozenges for pain in the throat.

There are many other herbs that are used for pain associated with specific health conditions, but these will give you a basket full of alternatives to use instead of pharmaceutical medications with their many nasty side-effects.

Personally I always try to use natural remedies first.  My body likes them better.  A healthy lifestyle is still the best remedy so I don't get pain in the first place.  But stress in different forms happens to all of us and eventually that means pain. Once I have listened to the message my body is telling me with the pain, gentle methods to relieve that pain are what I turn to next.

Take care,


David                      

Hours Changing at FOHAC for Dr. DeLapp

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Take care,

David            

Ozonated Water Decontaminates Fresh Produce

Industry research finally has caught up with a simple way to protect our food supply from bacteria - ozone.  Infusing water with high concentrations of ozone and then spraying it over fruits and vegetables kills the pathogenic bacteria that produce illness in lots of people.  Best of all, after about 15 minutes the ozone breaks down into normal water - no residual poisons are left.  Ozone is naturally produced when lightening is formed.  This technology has been around for a long time and is most commonly seen in ozone units that are put into hot tubs to kill bacteria.  I have been using an ozone system for years to clean our vegetables and household items.  The big research has now been done that proves it will work on an industrial scale for commercial food producers.

 

Ozone 

 

If you are interested in having your own ozone vegetable cleaner and household cleaner, check out this link to the unit I use on Amazon

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Online social networks may inflate your self image while decreasing your self control
 

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Bacon-flavored condom firm hopes to taste success

  "Humor is an affirmation of man's dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him. "

~ Romain Cary

About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
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