New Takes on Chronic Pain & Inflammation
If I had a nickel for every patient who has seen me for some kind of chronic pain syndrome, I might be rich by now. Pain is big business in medicine: it’s the “5th vital sign” and entire subspecialties exist to address it. NIH studies suggest about 21% of US adults experience chronic pain and 10% of adults worldwide are afflicted. The opioid crisis and now the astronomical rise of the use of medical marijuana are symptoms of our growing need to address pain in modern times.
As an osteopath, I thank God that my hands can soothe pain. I also thank God that I can think beyond pills as a solution for acute and chronic pain. It is an embarrassment to the profession that up to 75% of opiate addiction started with a legitimate prescription. Were all of those for legitimate pain that opiates could help? Probably no one will ever know. Certainly, opiate dependents equal patient loyalty & surefire office visits for those willing to perpetuate the addiction. I have only had a few in my practice that were ever on chronic opiates that I had to manage. But they didn’t like it any better than I did! They were constantly looking for an alternative to the crummy analgesic effects of their current regimen of pills.
At Vibrant Life, we’ve been fortunate to have found some treatments for pain that are actually helpful and not harmful. Each technique took us back to school for training, but the results are amazing. Patients like it, outcomes are better and certainly function improves as folks find freedom from pain with treatments that leave them clearheaded and good about what we’re trying to accomplish.
The first treatments we introduced were anti-inflammatory supplements to avoid pharmaceutical use or at least drastically reduce their use. Even though they are often over the counter, remember drugs have to be detoxified by the liver, excreted by the kidney and can do a helluva number on your gut. Whenever we can get you on a cocktail of anti-inflammatory supplements, we do so. All of them have a positive effect on the gut biome and vasculature and do not contribute to any organ damage.
At the same time, we always try to convert people to an anti-inflammatory diet. Every patient of ours gets a custom eating plan. The Standard American Diet (SAD) rife with heavily processed, nutrient poor, high carbohydrate food stuffs that consistently raise insulin levels and inflame the gut equaling body-wide inflammation. You’ve got to get off of that crazy to make the body work right.
Next, we got training in the use of a regenerative injections of our own healing serum: platelet rich plasma, or PRP. PRP has been in use for decades in the dental, orthopedic and plastic surgery fields to aid in healing and integration of graft tissue and implants. Its use in orthopedics was easily translated into our primary care office in lieu of the standard “steroid knee injection.” We use it on joints, tendons, ligaments, scars and even aesthetics with excellent results. There are thousands of papers in the medical and scientific literature to support the use of PRP whose long-term benefits in regard to pain relief. Often at one year, those who receive PRP injections have superior decreases in pain and more function compared to steroid injection or NSAID use.
Our latest technique is ozone therapy. Ozone has been around since 1900 for medicinal use and “ozonotherapy” came to the United States in the 80s. Oxygen is a potent medication, particularly the highly reactive version called ozone. Ozone is antibacterial on contact and when infused in the body aids in cellular repair & energy production by the mitochondria. One of it’s top 2 indications is in the treatment of chronic pain, including nerve pain. I’d say most of our patients using ozone in series are in it for chronic pain with excellent results. See one testimony here: https://fb.watch/louNjjlggF/
The newest kid on the block is IV vitamin C. Stay tuned to hear more about this potent anti-oxidant that can also be used for pain…
Sources:
Rikard SM, Strahan AE, Schmit KM, Guy GP Jr.. Chronic Pain Among Adults — United States, 2019–2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:379–385. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7215a1.
Hohmann E, Tetsworth K, Glatt V. Corticosteroid injections for the treatment of lateral epicondylitis are superior to platelet rich plasma at 1 month but platelet rich plasma is more effective at 6 months: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of level 1 and 2 studies. Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. Published online May 2023:S1058274623003956. doi:10.1016/j.jse.2023.04.018
Sharma,L Osteoarthritis of the Knee. NEJM 2021 384:51-9
The American Academy of Ozonotherapy: https://aaot.us/