Alternative & Complementary Healthcare
This one surprised me, to be honest. Something everyone can do, it's easy and takes hardly any time - I like that kind of tip! So, if you have any kind of inflammatory condition - arthritis, fibromyalgia, heart disease, IBS, listen up... When people think of the causes of inflammation, they think of leaky gut, …
Continue reading "One Surprising Way To Lower Chronic Inflammation and Pain"
That's the title of a great article in The Guardian about the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a two-way communication channel, linking the brain with the heart, lungs and a number of other vital organs. This pathway helps to control involuntary processes, such as breathing, digestion and immune response. Over 200 years ago, scientists …
Part of the way I approach any chronic illness nowadays is psychological - mind-body-healing and vagus nerve work mainly - as well as the biochemical/nutrition/functional medicine side. When someone experiences a traumatic event, the sympathetic nervous system activates the fight or flight response to respond to danger. For some people, the nervous system gets stuck …
Fascinating article today for you if you are a chronic pain sufferer. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could identify how the brain is 'triggering' pain and stop it? Researchers have been working on how to do just that. They found different areas of the brain and different signals were involved in chronic and acute …
Continue reading "Brain Studies Give Hope For Chronic Pain Sufferers"
Never heard of MCAS? No, not many have. But boy, once you know, it explains an awful lot of chronic illness that's not responding to usual interventions! here's the A-Z factsheet on MCAS for you. I will release the full, much more extended version, in a bit when I have just finished a few more …
Continue reading "New MCAS Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Factsheet"
Most patients have to trial several pain meds and combinations of approaches until they (hopefully) find something that lowers their pain levels. Think: fibromyalgia, head pain, TMJ pain, musculoskeletal pain (hip, knee etc) for a start. How much better would it be if you had some idea of what type of painkillers or approaches might …
Many cases of chronic pain syndrome are due to a neurological phenomenon called negative plasticity. Brain plasticity refers to neurons connecting together through repeated activation, and it can be positive or negative. Examples of positive plasticity include adopting a new habit, learning a new language, or learning a new skill.PTSD is an example of negative plasticity. An adverse event activates the …
Yep. I confess I'm mad as heck, at the end of my tether, spitting feathers-angry just at the moment. Sometimes you have times like that with a chronic illness, don't you? Well, I do. Why do I - and so many of us - have to be so ruddy sensitive to stuff all the time? …