Alternative & Complementary Healthcare
Inflammation is behind pretty much every disease we know - it's not just about obvious inflammation from painful conditions like arthritis and muscle pain, although those are significant, I know. Think also: IBS and gut diseases, heart disease, cancer, asthma, depression, eczema, neuroinflammation (brain fog, migraine, anxiety etc), dementia. Every person has their 'inflammatory load' …
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"
Hope you enjoyed the switch to a digest last time rather than lots of little separate posts - do let me know which you prefer - I write these for you, so I want it to be what you need/enjoy most. Recipe of the Week Ooh, this looks like a yummy, spicy version of a …
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"
Quite a few of you have been asking me about collagen recently. Does it help skin, should you take it for anti-ageing, joint health, leaky gut etc? Which type is best? I spotted this technical article written by the always-excellent Michael Ash and thought it might be useful for you. It reminded me of one …
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 …
In the news recently, NICE changed the guidelines for people with chronic pain: In a major change of pain treatment policy, the National Institute for health and Care Excellence (Nice) say that in future, doctors should advise sufferers to use physical and psychological therapies rather than analgesics to manage their pain.Sufferers should not be started …
Continue reading "Natural Painkillers: Nice Guidance Changes for Chronic Pain"
When I did my neuroinflammation course last year, I learned something. It never occurred to me that if a patient is not getting well, no matter every intervention I and others tried, that it might be the result of a brain injury years before causing ongoing inflammation throughout the nervous system. I started regularly asking …
OK, so here is Gut Tip #4 for you if you are following the series. Many people take probiotics to help their bacteria balance, to establish a good 'microbiome', in the gut. However, sometimes I see that, even when someone has taken billions of bacteria daily for weeks or months, the bacteria balance is still …