(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best books about pain management

We found 141 Reddit comments discussing the best books about pain management. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 32 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

21. Paradoxical Relaxation : The Theory and Practice of Dissolving Anxiety by Accepting It

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Paradoxical Relaxation : The Theory and Practice of Dissolving Anxiety by Accepting It
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23. The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders
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26. The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

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The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders
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Weight1.14 Pounds
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28. Why Does It Hurt? The Fascial Distortion Model: A new paradigm for pain relief and restored movement

Why Does It Hurt? The Fascial Distortion Model: A new paradigm for pain relief and restored movement
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30. Pelvic Pain: The Ultimate Cock Block: A no bullsh*t guide to help you navigate through pelvic pain

Pelvic Pain: The Ultimate Cock Block: A no bullsh*t guide to help you navigate through pelvic pain
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31. The Mysterious Mind: How to Use Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science to Heal Your Headaches and Reclaim Your Health

The Mysterious Mind: How to Use Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science to Heal Your Headaches and Reclaim Your Health
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32. Pain Chronicles

Pain Chronicles
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Release dateAugust 2011
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🎓 Reddit experts on books about pain management

The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where books about pain management are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
Total score: 43
Number of comments: 7
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Number of comments: 2
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Total score: 2
Number of comments: 2
Relevant subreddits: 1

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Top Reddit comments about Pain Management:

u/benedictus · 5 pointsr/Fitness

This sounds a lot like Pete Egoscue's method. I took a basic fitness class in college and his book was required reading. It's a great book I would recommend to anyone interested in fitness. It's chock full of exercises designed to correct these "imbalances" and restore posture to correctness.

here's the amazon link

here's a youtube link

u/CommentsOMine · 1 pointr/TMJ

I'm a Mind-Body Life Coach and I highly recommend Dr. Sarno's "The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders".

I passed on the recommended jaw surgery myself, and keep my jaw functioning better with bodywork. I don't even need to wear an orthotic anymore. You'd be surprised just how much of a problem tight muscles can be. Everything we do is forward: keyboards, steering wheels, etc. Stretching backwards on my balance ball is one of my favorite things to do because it just feels so good.

If you can afford to go to a massage therapist that specializes in ortho-bionomy, you should definitely do that. I would like to be able to see mine more often.

https://ortho-bionomy.org/

u/nigmondo · 2 pointsr/flexibility

Here's a good link with video and docs listing the exercise routines. It's important to do the exercises in strict order!


https://thepostureguy.com/what-condition-is-your-posture-in-832584ce0fb0


I'd recommend Egoscue's 1st book to get the background on the conditions - The Egoscue Method of Health through Motion


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Egoscue-Method-Health-through-Motion/dp/0060924306

u/lurking_lion · 5 pointsr/TheRedPill

Most of us are here because we have trusted our intuitions and value "connecting the dots" above receiving credentials.

In case you haven't noticed the credentials that TRP holds are squat. I'm sure all of us would love to have our posts headlining nightly NBC, but instead we are "banished" here on reddit.

Odds are that a degree in Psychology will leave worse you off then where you began. Modern psychology in deeply entrenched in the BP brainwashing engine. You are better off studying the Humanities or the Classics if you want to learn about the human condition.

Psychology has fallen. Comparing today's pop psychology nonsense to Freud and Jung is like comparing the Founding Fathers to today's so-called "statesmen".

Not exactly related to the post, but I highly recommend you read this. A great book on an important issue and it's where I learned much about the unconscious.

https://www.amazon.com/Divided-Mind-Epidemic-Mindbody-Disorders/dp/0061174300

u/i_have_a_gub · 1 pointr/eldertrees

It may be worthwhile looking into the work of Dr. John Sarno.

u/seztomabel · 1 pointr/skeptic

The Divided Mind by Dr. John Sarno is worth reading. It's largely focused on chronic pain, but he has mentioned that his theory applies to allergies, digestive issues, etc as well.

There is plenty of research looking at the connection between inflammation, stress, and depression. The field of Psychoneuroimmunology overall, and it's research is worth reading up on.

Research on the microbiome/gut health, and it's connection with inflammation, depression/psychological health, immune function, etc. also seems to be part of the puzzle.

Research on social status and health is also interesting.

At this point, the research isn't solid, but there are some dots to be connected in some manner.

u/jimvo99 · 1 pointr/nba

I've had a ton of panic attacks and am diagnosed with GAD (General Anxiety Disorder). Glad KL came out and talked about it, as it will encourage others to seek help. You're not crazy, its OK to seek help.

As an aside, I read a book that helped me a lot to conquer my mind, which was the cause of basically every ailment I suffered for almost 10 years. You don't beat this in a week or a month, it takes time, but you start somewhere. Seek the books by Dr. John Sarno.

https://www.amazon.com/Divided-Mind-Epidemic-Mindbody-Disorders/dp/0061174300/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520380451&sr=8-3&keywords=sarno

u/andrewdotson88 · 3 pointsr/PelvicFloor

He doesn't really go into it in this book. He has another book specifically about it.

Paradoxical Relaxation : The Theory and Practice of Dissolving Anxiety by Accepting It https://www.amazon.com/dp/0972775587/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_stlxCbA5K4GZY

I have tried some of the techniques. It's still not super specific or clear but it's basically the same as other anti anxiety approaches for accepting what is and fighting resistance in the mind like negative self talk, not accepting the present, letting go and surrending to relaxation. The book also goes into how PFD and anxiety are related.

u/basssrm · 1 pointr/Posture

Make your own standing desk. It can be done with random finds. And read this it helped me tremendously with having a desk job and battling tendonitis in my shoulder. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E1HDJ64/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_6ZT9AbBX9P6BF

u/tjdatc · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Consider the impact that stress and your emotional state are having on your condition. Read Dr. John Sarno

http://www.amazon.com/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-Pain/dp/0446675156

http://www.amazon.com/Divided-Mind-Epidemic-Mindbody-Disorders/dp/0060851783

u/L33tminion · 1 pointr/IAmA

Have you ever had to make any difficult life-or-death calls? If so, have you ever regretted or second-guessed any of those decisions?

Also, I read Perspectives on Pain a few years ago and found it very interesting. Any other reading recommendations on the topic? (Note that my background in psychology and medicine is minimal.)

u/I_AM_YOUR_MOTHERR · 2 pointsr/videos

We don't even know of many potential side effects. I highly recommend everyone reads the book "A Nation In Pain" by Judy Foreman

Foreman goes into great detail about just how difficult it is to study effects of marijuana using modern science. The studies we have are all from 60's and 70's, when biomedical science wasn't in it's best shape. Nowadays, any experiments are tightly controlled by the DEA, very few human trials are approved, so scientists must use animal models, which are less than accurate to say the least.

I personally have no interest in MJ, I've tried it and I don't like it. But I understand the relative harmlessness of it to grown ups as well as the medicinal benefits in both children and adults. The reasons why it's illegal are absolutely ridiculous, and it scares me that so many people know about the latest memes as opposed to the massive lies that have been told to the citizens and governments of the modern developed world.

u/woodwife · 10 pointsr/photography

>How can you relieve severe pain for a body part that is no longer there?

With mirror therapy! I first heard of it when I read The Pain Chronicles, which is an excellent book if you're interested in the subject.

u/jmvp · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

One of the problems is that low-quality shoes generally take a while to reveal their crumminess. You might have to walk a couple days in them to really see how bad they are. In the case of my Skechers (see other response in this thread), it took a while before I noticed that half of my middle toe was numb 24/7 (not front or back half, the whole right half!). Then I noticed that I was losing feeling in other toes, too - not to mention the nice scabs I had from where the toe cup cut back onto the top of my foot. I was in a job where I had to walk all over a very large restaurant for long hours several days a week.

The $30 I paid for the Chinese ones I bought in Japan was a bad choice, but I was broke. The Skechers were like $60 or something - though I did get refund for them. I concede that price may not be an indicator of "quality." The Chinese shoes caused my ankles to tighten up significantly, because, as I discovered, the flex point in the sole was too far forward, causing my lower leg muscles to contract with each stop (to hold the ankle in place). That combined with the heel being a tad too thick caused my ankles to get all sorts of tight. (EDIT: I think that Converse All-Stars are "good shoes" because they let your feet be your feet and don't try and control where they flex - so price is not necessarily an indicator of whether a shoe will screw up your feet.)

Regarding quality, I believe that most people don't know how to evaluate shoes because they don't know how their feet are connected to their knee stabilizing muscles. Essentially, people blame pains they have on their knees or ankles when they should really blame their shoes. The problem is that the shoes have too much cushioning in the sole. When the sole provides too much cushioning then the nerves in the feet are incapable of sending quantity-of-force and direction-of-force nervous signals to supporting muscles around the knee. This is because the sole's softness dissipates the forces coming into the foot, providing a confusing signal for the nerves in the feet. So, the leg muscles do not properly stabilize the knees because they don't know how to do so (the muscles don't get the correct information about the directions of force they would protect against). Ironically, people are convinced that shoes with "more support" are somehow better for them. This can't be true.

If you want to fix your knees walk barefoot on hard surfaces at least part of the time everyday. You will learn, by use, how to place your foot on the ground, because mistaken use is painful. This will help to retrain your leg muscles at stabilizing your knees - though there are exercises which are even better, which I don't know that I could describe in textual form. The foot should be placed heel, ball, toe and in a direct straight line where the ankle lies under the knee lies under the hip. If you need exercises to correct that (it's safe to assume that yes, you do) see Pete Egoscue's book Health Through Motion. Regarding the nerves firing to your stabilizing muscles, Pavel Tsatsouline's book Power to the People discusses this in the context of why you should not lift weights with gloves on - for safety. This last is because, like the feet, the hands have nerves in them which perform the same function (stabilizing elbow and shoulder by providing direction-of-force and quantity-of-force data to supporting muscles).

u/adams_ · 2 pointsr/IAmA

Hey, man, I know what chronic pain is like... I had sciatica for 7 months, and occasionally it comes back... Check out wobenzym supplements and http://www.amazon.com/Egoscue-Method-Health-Through-Motion/dp/0060924306

If you're depressed, you should be able to find other people on the internet with the same problem... you're not alone.

EDIT
absolutely try the Egoscue method with wobenzym supplements (if you can, change your diet to natural anti inflammatory foods as well)... the book will re-build cartilage and balance all your muscles.

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/AskReddit

> I have messed up joints.

How bad are they messed up? I was able to fix my shoulder problems with some exercises in a crappy book from the 90s I found at my local library. I know it sounds kind of dumb but maybe it can help? The only problem is it is a lot of work. I continue to do about 45 minutes of physical therapy type exercises every day just to counteract my relative sedentary lifestyle and maintain healthy joints and posture.

I don't know if this is complete bunk or not. Nobody else seems to know anything about this guy and there is no medical papers or science to back him up. :/

u/PhnomPenhDangerous · 4 pointsr/Fitness

Data in this fields is scarce. All the information I have is anecdotal or unpublished, but I do believe that as we learn more about fascia and develop better techniques for imaging adhesions, facial release will become a commonly taught modality.

I have had facial release performed by two doctors, both of them leaders in the study of the fascia distortion model of injury.

I broke my back in a skiing accident and had difficulty with pain and flexibility.

At my first treatment the physician used his thumbs to push on trigger points in my back. This is not a comfortable massage, it's much stronger and more targeted pressure. It hurt a lot, but after he pushed the fascia around and flattened out the bump, I was able to touch my toes again.

I was fine for months, then I hurt my back again. I had a similar procedure done by a different physician and I was fine again.

I now use a foam roller a few times a week to keep the knots from forming. It works really well to iron out smaller points, but if a big knot forms it needs a pair of hands.

The doctor who first performed on me teaches the method for a school in the Pacific Northwest. I haven't read his book, but it might be worth checking out.

http://www.amazon.com/Does-Hurt-Fascial-Distortion-Model/dp/1592989411

Edit*

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23768283

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24703512

u/catnipfarts · 5 pointsr/CPTSD

Myofascial pain and CPTSD are enormously comorbid.

I would suggest the following books for your friend. They don't talk about pain in terms of CPTSD but they do talk about pent-up rage, the people pleasing personality, anxiety and things of that nature and their influence on pain.

Unlearn your Pain

The Mind-Body Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing Pain

The MindBody Workbook

The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mind-Body Disorders

What your friend should understand is that pain is a side effect of chronic hypervigilance from her trauma. And that treating the trauma will, in turn, treat the pain.

u/memento22mori · -1 pointsr/Neuropsychology

I'm not sure how much any particular neuropsychologist could help you because of all of the factors involved, so I wanted to suggest much less expensive but lesser known options which you may want to pursue whether or not you visit the neuropsychologist first. I know that even a single session of certain kinds of testing can cost thousands of dollars even with insurance. As soillogical suggested a "history of anxiety/depression makes one far more susceptible to developing chronic pain" and this is what my final paragraph of this long post is about. And like Daannii mentioned, CBT can certainly help you as well, it's one of the most efficient treatments for anxiety and depression, as well as many other conditions involving conditioned/learned responses or whatnot.

I have scoliosis as well, it's not very bad, but I get lower back pain- especially in the winter and for the last 10 years or so I've had chronic hamstring pain which feels sort of like acid on the muscle. I was in a bad accident 13 years ago where I was hit by a large AC van and ended up with brain swelling and I was in a coma for a week, I had bad vertigo and a horrible sense of balance. My friend is a personal trainer and he recently suggested that I go see a Neuro Kinesiologist, NKT is a "body work method that can be used both as an assessment tool and as a rehabilitative technique. It gets to the root of chronic and acute muscular tightness and pain, relieving it through working with the motor control center (MCC) of the brain itself in the cerebellum." My NKP practitioner told me that most people with scoliosis have some degree of dysfunction in their diaphragm which can lead to multiples problems, one of which I'll describe below.

I've only been two one appointment so far, but it's not something where they want to see you a bunch of times or anything like that, I found a NKT practitioner at the link below and went in to see her, she works at a Physical Therapy/Orthopedic Center and is a DPT, PT, and OCS:
http://neurokinetictherapy.com/certified-practitioners
The first appointment was $70 and lasted about an hour and a half, they did several exercises to test muscle groups, the main one was some variation of the therapist attempting to lift my legs while I was laying on a table- my goal was to resist by contracting my leg muscles and pushing downward. She did this with me breathing normal first, and then the same thing while I was holding my breath after an exhale, and then holding my breath with full lungs- it was easy for her to lift my legs in all cases except when I had full lungs. This meant that I was using my diaphragm to provide stability to my body whereas I should have been using my core muscles in my abs and back. She then began to examine my diaphragm for tension, I believe it was but probably something else too.

There's probably tons of other issues that NKT can examine/diagnose, but the way she explained my issue was essentially your body is constantly balancing itself and making minor adjustments multiple times a second, but your brain doesn't tell every muscle exactly what to do every millisecond- instead your body learns patterns of movement, or whatnot, and your brain sends balance signals down to the lower body, if for some reason the appropriate muscles don't act as they should (usually one or more of the core muscles) and provide the needed balance and stability then muscles which aren't properly equipped will have to pick up the slack. In my case my abdominus rectus and multifidus in the lower back weren't activating properly so my hip flexors and part of my upper legs is being overworked much of the time. She explained a diaphragm release stretch and gave me three exercises to do after the stretch twice a day, I've been doing the exercises for over a week now and they are very challenging. What seems to have happened is after the car accident my muscles were forced to deal with much worse balance, and vertigo and double-vision at the time, than ever before so they dealt with the issue but not in the best way possible and 99.999% of physical therapists aren't trained in NKT (which was made in the mid-1980s) so they weren't looking for particular issues, they were just training me to walk again on the macro level.

Keep in mind that all of the above is based on my understanding after a single session of NKT, so it may not be exactly right, but the main thing is an NKT practitioner can diagnose issues which even surgeons and other specialists aren't looking for and in many cases aren't even familiar with. Even if you never go back to the NKT specialist again just doing the exercises will help your issue, I'm going back in about two weeks to check my progress and make sure I'm doing the exercises correctly but this isn't required so you're not going to be out much money my checking into this.

This is unrelated to the above post, but I think both of these recommendations can help you, as to which one would help you more I can't say but I am confident that one of them will help you quite a bit. This is a really good book by the Dr. that treated Howard Stern for chronic back pain which he had always thought was from sitting for many hours a day in a chair over several decades while doing radio shows and writing/etc [The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders](http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0061174300?psc=1&redirect=true&ref
=oh_aui_search_detailpage)
He found that the unconscious mind can oftentimes make pain worse if not cause the pain altogether as a way to attempt to distract the conscious mind from serious emotional pain which may be completely repressed or the person may seem glimpses of it on occasion.

u/theaftstarboard · 1 pointr/raisedbynarcissists

Anger isn't easily let go. Many people suffering from child abuse have permanently altered limbic systems. The anger thus, is always there. You can take care of it however. Rather like a special needs child. (And not simply let it take over you.)

I recommend a book called The Divided Mind by a child abuse survivor and M.D.

The limbic system tends to take over when the frontal lobe undergoes trauma. This is why patients with dementia or Alzheimers often become more and more grouchy as the illness progresses. (I'm a caregiver and I can testify to this.)

I hadn't connected this until recently to my own trauma however.

Up until about 7 years old the childs brain is extremely fragile and sensitive to trauma.

Emotional regulation is developing the most at this time. If a child is traumatized, they are permanently changed as beings.

I'm just telling you this because I think your statement is misleading. I would correct it and say "you have to learn how to manage the symptoms of your trauma..of which anger is one."

You cannot recover from permanent emotional damage. The hypervigilance and irritability are a part of me and likely most people here.

u/Smarmar400 · 2 pointsr/PelvicFloor

Before I was diagnosed by a colon and rectal specialist as having Levator Ani Syndrome I had about three weeks of agony. I thought I had the world's worst case of hemorrhoids at first because most of the pain was localized there. I would flare up for four hours a day, like clockwork (from 9am-1pm, give or take an hour) and I was moderately sore for the rest of the day and night. During flareup hours I couldn't sit (I have a desk job), much less concentrate on work. I soldiered through the first few days of it but had to call in from work or try to work from home if I was feeling up to it. I have a 30+ minute commute to the office and the whole drive I was shifting in my seat, punching the steering wheel, shouting. While home I would spend much of the day lying down, punching the floor, or pacing around the house in a cold sweat. I tried Epsom Salts sitz baths, stretching exercises, herbal teas, meditation, taichi, pain meds but nothing got rid of the pain until my specialist put me on Elavil, a tricyclic antidepressant. Two days after I started taking it I was fully functional again. I still had constant tightness, difficulty pooping, and discomfort but, man, the agonizing pain was gone.

So, Elavil was a game changer for me. Another was going to a physical therapist specializing in male pelvic floor disorder. She got me feeling really close to normal, I mean, some days no tightness or discomfort at all. She recommended a book called Pelvic Pain: The Ultimate Cock Block, which has some good exercises and thinking-outside-of-the-box insight.

u/woodspleasedream · 1 pointr/kratom

I’m sorry you have issues with pain. I also deal with pain on a daily basis. But this is not “my bullshit theory”, there is tons of valid and repeatable research on this topic. I’ll include some links at the end.

The difference between his case and someone more susceptible is how long he’s had his issues. He’s already proven his chiropractor wrong, so the chiropractor holds much less sway.

For people who see their first doctor after an acute injury, they are totally unaware of how the injury will progress. When the doctor tells them “I’ve got some bad news for you bud.. this is going to be something you’ll probably have to deal with for the rest of your life”, this is what creates the problem. It instigates a cascade of effects where the person is afraid of injuring it further, thus they become less physically active, which causes more problems over time (muscle wasting, decreased blood flow to injury).

Secondly, tissue damage does not necessarily correlate with pain perception. The perception of pain is largely influenced by how great a threat we believe the injury to pose to our long-term welfare. The brain’s job is to protect your body, so when you are injured, you automatically become more attuned to the injured area. Your neural circuitry involved in vigilance toward that region of your body becomes more active, strengthening their synaptic connections. You may have increased cortisol. You’ll engage in sickness behavior such as rest and social isolation (of which the latter, notably, may also exacerbate perception of pain, as the brain regions involved in social rejection and inclusion also play roles in physical pain perception as well) Source

Usually, as the injury heals, the neural circuits that were activated in response to the acute pain will lose the strength of their synaptic connections, and you pay less attention to the pain. However, if you believe that the injury will will worsen over time, not improve, then your anxiety is only strengthening the connections within that circuitry. Your brain still regards it as a handicap. The pain signal originating from the damaged tissue may have slowed or ceased altogether, but the subsequent reorganization of neural circuits remains. Thus, in a way, your brain is “hallucinating” a higher degree of pain than it is actually being signaled from the damaged tissue. This is thought to also be the mechanism behind phantom limb syndrome (check out Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran’s remapping hypothesis.

I also deal with chronic pain, and I’m by no means saying it’s all in our mind. There is, however, substantial evidence that our attitude has a great influence on the outcome. I suggest reading Melanie Thernstrom’s book The Pain Chronicles, which goes pretty deep into the restructuring of the brain that occurs with chronic pain.

Here’s another paper that goes into the relationship between anxiety and pain perception.

u/inexile1234 · 22 pointsr/rva

This is a big issue with SO MANY points to argue, you could write books, and many have.

So I'm just going to keep to a small subset of this big issue that I have personal experience. People who suffer chronic pain, and this pain could be from a palliative state such as terminal bone cancer, or just someone who on a daily basis and don't receive proper pain management... kill themselves, a lot.

Living and working in the family business (funeral home) back before my current career, I saw this a lot. It used to piss my father off to no extent when patients in end stage, horribly painful cancer were not given adequate pain medication, it was almost like they didn't want this guy who was gonna die in 4 days to get addicted to opioids, it make no sense.

So where am I going with this? People underestimate the effect of how constant pain ravages your mind and body, they just don't have a true understanding of it.

So if someone is in palliative care and the most extreme methods of pain management are failing, and they wish assisted suicide, then absolutely yes.

I'd also recommend a great book to truly attempt to understand the personal hell of pain:

The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering

Melanie Thernstrom

http://www.amazon.com/Pain-Chronicles-Mysteries-Prayers-Suffering/dp/0312573073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425919402&sr=8-1&keywords=Melanie+Thernstrom

u/kalayna · 2 pointsr/migraine

Note, I'm listening while working, so these won't be by any means all-encompassing.

David Dodick, Director of Headache Program, The Mayo Clinic

It's not your fault.

Repeat.

It is not your fault.

There are numerous (40+) genes that have been tied to it. He calls the heritable condition a hyper-responsive brain (as opposed to hyper-sensitive). It is a combination of biology + environment.

  • Phases of attack:

    Premonitory/prodrome: Roughly 3/4 of patients (possibly more that don't realize it). It's not in the blood vessel, or the nerves, it begins in the brain. This gives us an interesting window for treatment, especially considering the total time of attack when we consider from start of prodrome to end of postdrome. Take care not to mistake prodromal symptoms with triggers (food cravings/scent are common).

    Aura: Spreading electro-chemical event in the surface/cortex of the brain. 2-3mm/minute. Typically starts in occipital cortex, which explains the visual disturbance. Sensory aura possible depending on where that moves. Language, motor, brainstem auras all fall under the category.

    Pain/headache phase: Usually begins with mild pain but usually progresses to moderate-severe. This window of progression varies. Nausea usually here, but can land anywhere and run all the way through postdromal phase. Aura can also start after pain begins or come back after pain phase.

    Postdrome/hangover: How long before you feel 'back to normal'? If you can't function, you can't function, and that's just as important as being unable to do so because of pain.


  • Why are triggers so cumulative? Because of how responsive your brain is at any given time based on other factors, including other triggers, stress level, fatigue, etc.

  • Visual disturbance- at least 1/2 of patients without aura will have something wrong w/their vision during attack. Blurry, can't see as clearly, not as crisp, etc.

  • Where you experience pain doesn't necessarily reflect where the pathology lies. Examples: TMJ, sinus issues, neck, etc. Migraine refers pain all over the head and neck. That being said, if you're susceptible to migraine attack, other pathologies (sinus, TMJ, etc.), may leave you more likely to see more migraine attacks.

  • Ayurveda/TCM - may have real biology behind them. If patients are finding things that help them, maybe we need to go back to the lab and find out. He does however say to his patients, 'Let's stick with what we know. Let's stick with what we know to be safe.' He has had patients who have had serious complications from homeopathic products. This is important. We need to be sure that what we put in our bodies is safe. Is there a rationale? Are there safety concerns?



    Move Against Migraine Foundation

    American Migraine Foundation

    Headache on the Hill

    American Headache Society


    Dr. Trupti Gokani, Neurologist & Author, The Mysterious Mind

    Interesting to me that she talks about ayurvedic medicine after the comments above. :)

    The number of nerves in the nervous system vs the enteric nervous system is about even- when you include the rest of the GI, there are more. You can cut the connection b/w gut and brain and both will continue to function.

    Migraine physiology in the gut: Liver (detox- cleanses, breaks down toxins, etc) and gallbladder (breaks down fats) are often overburdened in the effort to break down an excess of food, fats, bad fats, bad emotions. Toxins build up. If you don't have enough bile to buffer your stomach acid. Too much food, too much toxin, not enough bile to buffer the acid. About 50% of migraine patients have some sort of reflux system.

    Gastroparesis starts w/the gut being unable to keep up. Then... we don't have enough enzymes to break down the food.

    If we're not managing the stressors (food, overall stress, etc), the pain will get worse and the gut will get involved. When it turns off, you may be ok in that moment, w/o lifestyle changes to strengthen the system (as Eastern medicine tells us), the pain will come back.

    So... her focus is on addressing the underlying causes that stress the system.

    You need a healthy gut. Good poop! Regular poop (yoga and ayurveda are ALL ABOUT THE POOP!). Without help (coffee, laxative). Lack of gas, bloat, constipation, diarrhea. Are you having symptoms? Are you able to have an appetite/hunger signal?

    GABA - a neurotransmitter believed to play a role in migraine and affects the gut bacteria. If we eat while stressed, the vagus nerve will kick us into fight or flight and move blood away from the digestive system. Gaba is the inhibitory neurotrx that is released in rest & digest mode. Your gut bacteria like to snack on gaba. Nomz. And it's manufactured by the bacteria in the gut, consumed by bacteria in the gut, and its mfr is triggered by the vagus nerve.

    100 TRILLION bacteria in your gut. 10x more bacteria than human cells.

    Why isn't there research on this? It's complicated. The gut is complicated. Your'd think your neuro crazy if they asked you about poop. The enteric nervous system (the small intestine has 100 million neurons- as many as in the spine) - it's a powerful system and one we should be paying attention to. It may be doing more to signal well being in certain circumstances. We're becoming more aware and beginning to pay attention (95% of serotonin is produced in the gut) - there's now a field of science- neurogastroenterology- looking at the gut & brain. Most docs aren't trained in this, so studies haven't yet been done.

    How can this (ayurvedic medicine) help? Understand your gut type so you can use ayurvedic medicine - digestive enzymes, food, ancient herbals, tea, so you can dose it based on your gut flora, symptoms, headache, etc. She's doing it in her practice but would like to see the studies done, as well as studies regarding how your emotions impact your digestion. Her book does get into research re: the 3 dosha types. She discusses the dosha types, headache types, and what you can do for them.

    Go to bed by 10. Make lunch your biggest meal. Make sure you're setting up time to sit and be aware every day- even just 2 minutes to be quiet and mindful.

    Food as medicine. Spices (usually cooling- cilantro, cumin, fennel). Supplements/nutrients (magnesium, CoQ10, B2). Start the day with a warm beverage.

    Medications that impact gut health: NSAIDs and steroids damage the microbiome- the bugs and the prostaglandin layer (the place your bugs call home). For triptans she recommends non-oral delivery.

    The Mysterious Mind: How to Use Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science to Heal Your Headaches and Reclaim Your Health

    Trupti Gokani, MD

    Deepak Chopra – Ayurvedic

    Triggers session:

    18% accuracy in determining triggers

    only 2 of hundreds had greater than 75% accuracy

  • Common triggers
    The profile used to be menstruation, neck pain, stress, etc.

    In the study referenced, what they found that NO ONE IN THE STUDY had the average trigger profile. Many had derivatives and combinations, but no one checked all the boxes for the 'average'. Even those of us that have been at it for years aren't very good at this.

    My takeaway - looking at a common list and assuming you should cut them all out is probably a LOT of unneeded pain.

    We have a bias for making positive associations vs. negative. If nothing happens, we don't remember the dozens of times we've been exposed to a 'trigger' and have been just fine. Just the one when we were.

    One person's potential triggers are another's potential protectors (alcohol, coffee, travel all examples).

    'Risk factors' encompass both triggers and protectors in his context. Other things are termed 'no association' factors.

    Migraine severity modifiers! These have nothing to do w/whether you will get a migraine, but do have an impact on whether it will be more or less severe.

    He also discusses the Curelator app, which has the benefit of some pretty well tested algorithms behind it to help with flagging triggers, protectors, and no association. They are testing the algorithms for the severity modifiers and hope to have that out soon. It's 3 months of tracking to get the maps, and the app, if you don't have a neuro in the coupon program, is $50. Most of us wouldn't drop $50 on any number of other things regarding our migraines, so while it's expensive for an app, if it were, say, a computer program, etc., the expectation would be different (and the program would be harder to use). I've contacted my doc already and if they're not participating in the program I'll be buying the app.

    Curelator.com

    RTI International

    Cincinnati Children's Hospital

    Curelator Facebook Page