Beating Neuropathy & Chronic Pain» Podcasts

This week on Beating Neuropathy and Chronic Pain, we have Hank Cardello, author of Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat. Hank decided that he wanted to help people live healthier lives when he was nearly diagnosed with leukemia. His area of expertise is the food and drink industry and ending the "obesity epidemic" in America. Hank argues that Americans are consuming more calories than ever because there are more calories available to consume, particularly fried food and grain products. Although large food and drink corporations (as well as fast food restaurants) are easily vilified for continuing to produce foods which have unhealthy ingredients or large serving sizes, Hank favors working with, rather than against, these companies to make healthier choices more accessible. Making foods healthier has proven to make more money for these companies, and they are generally moving in this direction. Ultimately, he says, our health is in their our own hands. He is does not think foods should be taxed extra for containing certain ingredients, or that banning products like sugary sodas effective, because not everyone consumes these things to excess. He believes the solution is in moderating one's own caloric intake. Hank can be contacted through the Hudson Institute or on his website, Stuffed Nation. For more information on Dr. John Hayes, visit NeuropathyDR.

This week on Beating Neuropathy, we have Nell Stephenson, author of Paleoista. Nell follows the Paleo Diet, which emphasizes consumption of unprocessed fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood, and healthy fats. She turned around her own health by following this diet and shunning grains and refined foods, and is helping others to do the same. Nell argues that diet has a huge impact on our health. She says grains and legumes (beans, lentils, etc.) contain anti-nutrient properties which prevent us from absorbing vitamins and minerals. They can also create "leaky gut" which will eventually cause inflammation and disease. Our bodies are not able to process these foods, especially gluten. Many people who start trying to eat "healthier" will often feel sicker because they start replacing refined foods with whole grains. Consuming gluten can set the stage for neuropathy and chronic pain in many people. Nell offers some tips to make the transition to the Paleo Diet. It can be difficult to change one's diet when one is not experiencing any negative effects from their current diet. Often, one needs to reach a "tipping point" before they are convinced to change their diet. Trying the Paleo Diet requires complete elimination of foods may cause problems. Any amount of gluten in a gluten-intolerant person will continue to cause problems. Removing dairy from the diet can be difficult as well because of the perception that dairy is essential for health. It is important to look beyond these perceptions and instead listen to what one's body is saying. Using a visual of what each meal should look like is more useful than counting calories when making the switch to the Paleo Diet. Nell says following the Paleo Diet can eliminate blood sugar peaks and valleys, improve recovery after exertion, and enhance the quality of life. She offers nutrition plans and more at Paleoista.com. She is also on Facebook and Twitter. For more information on Dr. John Hayes, visit NeuropathyDR.

Tonight on Beating Neuropathy, we will be answering the questions sent in over the last twelve weeks. The most common question has been, "'Can you tell me more about neuropathy? What are the causes? How?" Neuropathy is just the term that is used for nerve damage. Neuropathy can very from on patient to the next. It can be pain or tingling feelings, burning, numbness, or a combination. Neuropathy is caused by physical damage to the nerve. The most common causes of nerve damage are diabetes, chemotherapy, prescription medicines, oxygen loss and sleep apnea, carpal tunnel syndrome, and low back injuries. All of these conditions cause changes in your body that can lead to neuropathy. The best treatment for neuropathy is prevention. It is best to take care of yourself enough to control the conditions you have that may lead neuropathy in order to prevent neuropathy from taking its effects. Carpal tunnel is an example of a condition that cuts the oxygen off to the nerves in the hand and can cause neuropathy. Carpal tunnel could be caused by a car accident, where a person braces against their wrist, or on the job typing on a keyboard. Low back problems can cause neuropathy in the same way. It can cause neuropathy symptoms in other parts of your body besides your hands and feet. ReBuilder nerve stimulation has been the most successful nerve stimulation in treating neuropathy. The first step is to remove the problem causing neuropathy. The second step is to support the nerves with balanced nutrition. The third step is nerve stimulation. Please send all questions, comments, or concerns to neuropathydr@gmail.com. Please also view our new website at www.beatingneuropathy.com.

Once again on Beating Neuropathy we welcome Mal Duane. Mal is the author of the fabulous book The Alpha Chick: Five Steps From Moving Pain to Power. A BIG tip to get involved in the personal practice of meditation is to lead your day feeling peaceful. Meditation is not a practice that you can do wrong because everyone does it in their own way. Meditation allows you to look inside yourself for a solution to your pain. It is hard for people to do this because they are always taught to look to the world for solutions in things like medication. When you meditate, you should be come "centered". To become centered means to be completely at peace with yourself and your sense of well being. This helps you to focus on the way you are affecting yourself and your chronic pain and if the problems in your head are making it worse. When you finally are centered with yourself and you let go of your feeling of pain and suffering you tend to finally feel relief. It also helps to ‘live in a state of grace’. This means to step back and enjoy the small things in life. When you do this you tend to be more relaxed and less focused on the negativity in the world and in your own health. You should try as much as you can to surround yourself with a positive outlook. This means avoiding the negative news of the world and the distractions that make life less peaceful. It sometimes just means living your life a little more simple. To learn more about Mal Duane go to http://alphachick.com. You will be able to contact her from this site via email.

Our special guest tonight on Beating Neuropathy is Mal Duane. Mal has had plenty of troubles in her past and always turned to alcohol to relieve the pain from the time she was sixteen til her early forties. Once the alcohol stopped relieving the physical and emotional pain, she began to think about ending her life in order to feel relief. She then began to realize that she was capable to turning her life around live life the way she wanted to live it. There are over a 100 million people in the world that suffer from this chronic physical and emotional pain. Some advice for people that are suffering is to let go of the image of you being the victim of your pain. You then need to realize that you have more control over your pain then you think you do. The quickest way out of the chronic pain or neuropathy pain is to gain some control back. The first suggestion Mal has for people that are suffering from chronic pain is to change where your focus goes. Meditation is one of the best ways to help you focus on yourself enough help relieve your pain. The biggest issue in today’s lifestyle that prevents people from doing this is that they do not set aside personal quite time to focus on themselves and relax. The next step in the process is to accept what is going on. The third is setting goals for yourself with your illness. This changes your whole thought process and put your mind in the right direction to heal. To learn more about Mal  go to http://alphachick.com. You will be able to contact her from this site via email. Watch for Mal to Be Back with us!

Tonight on Beating Neuropathy, we have special guest Mary Beth Curreri. Mary Beth is a physical therapist that specializes in non-traditional ways. She decided instead of doing harsh therapies she used more sensitive therapies to help her patients. She has since found zero balance therapy, which is now her new love. Mary Beth has turned the zero balance treatment as a base for her own practice. It's no secret that a lot of medical physicians are very uncomfortable about the body being referred to as an energy field. There are many different energies in the human body. When there are disturbances in their energy pathways it is almost impossible to make a patient feel better. In zero balance treatment it is excepted that the skeleton is the conductor of the energy. With special zero-balancing manual treatment you are able to see how each energy is moving and adjust the energy to move more freely in the body. Once a person’s spine loses their flexibility it would also mean that their energy is "". The zero gravity treatment begins with your feet up to your head to see where your body is unbalanced. The treatment is very gentle and very soothing. This is very important because when the body is relaxed it makes it easier for the person to heal. There are some patients that are not able to be treated by this. Newly diagnosed cancer patients are told to shy away from zero gravity treatment because of the medical stress in their life. Women in their first trimester of pregnancy are also told to shy away from this type of treatment. The same is true for people who have just have had surgery. It is suggested that they wait til they are medically cleared before being treated. To contact Mary Beth, go to http://collaborativetherapies.net or http://zerobalancing.com

This week on Beating Neuropathy we have special guest Dr Kim De'eramo. By now you know the purpose of Beating Neuropathy is to help patients with chronic pain and neuropathy but introducing to them lifestyle choices that could help them. Dr. D'eramo went to medical school to be able to treat chronic pain patients with osteopathic medicine. Osteopathic Medicine is different because it's based on the premise that your body is able to heal itself. In Dr. D'ermos own practice, she has used this system to teach patients to use their belief systems about themselves and their health in order to make them get better. The most important thing when trying to improve your health is to be ready to get better. You need to be able to embrace a lifestyle in order to release all of the negativity in your past and heal yourself. This means realizing that you need to do more then take medication to get better. With a patient that is ready to help their self get better almost anything could work to make them feel better. This is called the placebo effect. This means that patients that think that they are getting better are usually the ones that get better. Patients can never really get better until they are able to live healthy lives--meaning that they are not only physically healthy, but mentally healthy. This means being happy with your life if in every aspect of living. With the osteopathic treatment, patients cannot only relieve physical pain but emotional pain as well. The treating doctor has to be able to know how to treat the patient in order to help them relieve their emotional and physical pain. To contact Dr. D'eramo please go to http://www.youattractwellness.com/

Once again, we have Brian Petrie as our special guest this week on Beating Neuropathy. We will again be speaking about neuropathy. Neuro- means the nervous system and -pathy means "gone wrong". This means that the definition of neuropathy is a problem with the nervous system. Brian's easy explanation of neuropathy is: burning, tingling, pain, and loss of function in the hands of feet. Most patients that are suffering from neuropathy hear these symptoms and know that they have it. Most of the time, neuropathy is secondary to diabetes and chemotherapy treatments. If you would like to know more about Brian, please visit www.neuropathybristolcounty.com or www.bristolcountychiropractor.com or call the office in Raynham at 508-821-4049. There are many components to treating neuropathy. One of them is dual-frequency nerve stimulation. This is done with a ReBuilder machine. There are two parts to treating neuropathy. The first part is the home treatment that the patient does themselves. The second is the in-office treatment which is done with the doctor. When starting the in-office treatment with a ReBuilder unit, the first few appointments would be shorter to see how the patient reacts to the machine. Once the doctor says that there is no problem with the treatment, then the time is increased. The treatment for the feet can be done under water with electrolyte solution or it can be done with electrotherapy gloves. The hands are treated only with the electrotherapy gloves. The ReBuilder does not have to be used with just the electrotherapy gloves. It can also be used with electrodes to treat many other problems as well as chronic back pain. The ReBuilder is designed to rebuild your nervous system from the inside. It is FDA-approved and is also approved by Medicare. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please contact us at neuropathydoctor@gmail.com.

This week on Beating Neuropathy, we have special guest Brian Petrie. Brian is a Chiropractic Physician located in Raynham, MA. He is a marine veteran and has a long history of chronic pain and nerve pain himself. He was always interested in a chiropractic career and finally decided to begin training for one after a strenuous career of commercial diving. Brian is sharing one of his patient's stories tonight about treating her neuropathy. Gertrude was a patient of Brian that had neuropathy in her legs and feet. Within her first course of treatments with Brian she was able to walk a lot better then before she started the treatment. Gertrude was treated in a five-week clinical trial program. In this program, the patient is treated in the office for fifteen visits and also treats themselves at home. All treatment is done with a ReBuilder unit. In-office treatment involves not only the ReBuilder, but also chiropractic manual therapy. The first step of the treatment program is a neuropathy analysis. During this analysis, our clinicians will discuss your medical history and your current problems. We'll then decide if it would be good for you to come back as a new patient and be examined. During the follow-up appointment, the doctor would discuss what was discovered during the exam and what type of treatment would be best to help you recover. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please contact us at neuropathydr@gmail.com. If you would like to know more about Dr Brian Petrie, please visit Neuropathy Bristol County

Tonight's topic on Beating Neuropathy is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome is when the median nerve of the wrist is compacted. The most common symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome are burning, numbness, pain, loss of sensation, and tingling in the hands. The most common complaint among carpal tunnel syndrome patients is that the shooting pain wakes them up in the early morning hours. Before ever undergoing surgery for CTS, make sure that your doctor has explored every other possibility. Many patients that have had the surgery have not gotten better because the problem was not actually CTS. Carpal tunnel syndrome is seen more often in females because they tend to have smaller wrists. It is not always true that people who frequently use a keyboard will develop CTS. This means that just because you do a lot of activity does not mean that you will develop carpal tunnel syndrome. Sometimes you can reduce the symptoms of carpel tunnel syndrome by wearing a brace to relieve the pressure on your median nerve. Another way to relieve the symptoms is supportive therapy. A very good therapy to try is massage. This helps to relieve the swelling in the area of the median nerve. The best thing to do is to avoid repetitive wrist motions in order to prevent further damage. Try to treat at home for a few weeks, and, if nothing gets better or the carpel tunnel becomes worse then you need to contact a doctor. If you have any questions, comment, or concerns, please contact us at neuropathydr@gmail.com.

Tonight on Beating Neuropathy, we will be speaking with special guest Tim Kaufman. Tim is a local physical therapist in Pembroke, Massachusetts. The specialty of the clinic that Tim is working in is outpatient orthopedics. They are accepting patients of all ages for physical therapy. The biggest misconception is that when you get older you are supposed to gain weight and experience more health conditions. This can be prevented by exercising and keeping a healthy diet. A patient with chronic pain would be treated in Tim's clinic by first finding where the pain is coming from. Sometimes it is the weakness of muscles because they have not been exercised. The main goal is to return each patient to full function and a normal lifestyle. You can get in touch with Tim and Long Pond PT by calling 781-924-5289 or going to www.longpondpt.com. The reality is, adults should be exercising at least a half hour a day, five days a week. If you can not reach that half hour, then you should start at something smaller as long as you are exercising. The more you move, the more benefits you will see in your health. It is best to see a physical therapist when starting exercise because they can guide you in the right direction. Patients that are older and fit have an easier time being active or moving around. Other elderly patients that do not exercise and take care of their bodies tend to have more health issues. When getting older, you automatically lose muscle mass. If you keep your exercise up while getting older, then you prevent yourself from losing too much muscle mass. This prevents chronic pain and joint problems, which are common among elderly people who do not keep active. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us at neuropathydr@gmail.com.

This week on Beating Neuropathy, we will once again be discussing chronic pain. To review, with somatic pain it is the nerve endings that are affected. This means pain in the skin, muscles, and tissues of the body. Visceral pain is pain that comes with the illness of an internal organ. The next type of pain that we will be discussing is psychogenetic pain. This is the pain that comes with a psychological disorder such as anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and others. Exercise habits and diet habits can also relieve psychogenetic pain. Diet habits that can make pain worse are artificial sweeteners and large amounts of caffeine. Even though psychogenetic pain happens in the mind it does not mean that it is not real. It just means that it is much more treatable then other chronic pains. Fibromyalgia is one of the most common chronic pain disorders that doctors diagnose. Fibromyalgia is a condition that does not always have an apparent cause. There are many conditions like this and doctors should try to not handle them with drugs because drugs can lead to many other problems. Neuropathic pain is one of the most serious and common chronic pains that people experience. This is the type of pain that neuropathy patients suffer from. In NeuropathyDR clinics, we treat neuropathic pain without drugs. This is the best way because it prevents the body from further damage. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please send them to neuropathydr@gmail.com and be sure to visit our new website www.beatingneuropathy.com.

Tonight on Beating Neuropathy, we will discuss chronic pain and lifestyle. Your lifestyle plays a big role in the prevention and treatment of chronic pain. Chronic pain is pain that is permanent or pain that has happened for a long time. Everyone has a different pain level that they can take. Some people could have something as simple as a paper cut and think it is the worst pain, and some can have a very strong illness and not know because they are not experiencing pain. One of the biggest things that chronic pain patients have in common is the changes that they have to make to their life because of their chronic pain. The best thing to do when you start to experience chronic pain is to not avoid it. It is best to have it checked first thing before it becomes a chronic pain condition. Chronic pain is not always preventive though. Chronic pain can effect any person regardless of age, weight, or health. The first thing that a doctor needs to do is make sure that they are one hundred percent sure of what is causing the pain. It is not always easy or possible to understand what is causing the pain. The first type of chronic pain is somatic pain. This type of pain is the most common among chronic pain patients. It is when the nerve endings are injured and send pain messages to your brain. Some somatic pains that turn chronic are burns, amputation, arthritis, and joint pain. Somatic pain can be the easiest type of chronic pain to treat. The next form of chronic pain is visceral pain. One of the most common visceral pains is lower back pain. The only problem with this is that lower back pain cancover up worse problems.  Some of the problems that lower back pain may cover are gallbladder disease, pancreas issues, urinary tract infections, and prostate problems. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please send them to neuropathydr@gmail.com.

Once again on Beating Neuropathy we have special guest Lara Amaral. The easiest way to reach Lara is through http://AuthenticallyYouWellness.com. This episode will speak about being healthy in a way to avoid chronic pain, neuropathy, and inflammation.The most alarming concern is being hungry all the time and not being able to stop eating. This is just that your hormones in your body being thrown off and not working properly. This is a condition called metabolic resistance syndrome. Lara will then help you by showing you the tools to change your health, finally get you relief from you symptoms, and improve your body. It is not always about having will power in order to lose weight. Some people do not have the processes in their bodies to use the sugar correctly. This is not to say that your health is not affected by the choices you make. It is true though that you may not realize that the choices you are making are affecting your health in such a way that harms you. There is no way to give a common thing that affects everyone in such a way that they should avoid certain things. Every person is different in the makeup of their body; this is called bio-individuality. This means that someone could have no symptoms when eating common food as gluten, wheat and dairy but someone else could be feeling bad just because they are eating dairy. This just means that that person cannot eat a certain food because their body does not react well with it.  

Tonight on Beating Neuropathy, our special guest is Lara Amaral. Lara Amaral is a certified health coach. She came into health care because of her own health problems throughout her life. Lara, like many people, was put on medication to try to relieve these health problems. These medications then caused her to put on weight. Lara then decided to go to work for a major weight loss company. She felt so strong about making a difference in other people's lives that she traveled around the country to help people. Lara then had to leave the weight loss company because she felt guilty that the packaged food the company was offering was not helping her. She decided to start eating healthier while working for this company and by eating healthier, she improved her health. Lara then developed some more health issues. Lara decided to visit her doctor and he ran every possible test but could not improve the symptoms. She then decided to take matters into her own hands and change her diet. She removed gluten, wheat, sugar and all of her symptoms reversed. When in the hospital for a routine appendix removal, the surgeons found that her appendix had been falling apart for months and sending harmful toxins into her body. Then they told her that with her natural health diet she fought off these horrible toxins. This made her realize that all she wanted to do was promote the healthy way of life to help other people on the path to being healthy. The best way to be healthy is to realize that everyone has different reactions to body changes. This is called bio-individuality. Some people are what doctors call responders. These people respond very well to normal changes and have their health improve quickly. Other people have to have special natural supplements and foods in order to improve their health. Listen for Lara to return soon!