Thanks for reading!!! Today we’ll finish up on our introduction to chronic pain with a focus on the lower back. In the last issue we covered the physical causes of pain that won’t go away. (You can find that newsletter by clicking READ ONLINE above and scrolling to the archived articles at the bottom.) Today we will look at emotional and chemical causes. And as always you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this page if you’d rather not get these newsletters. We hope you’ll stick around though! This is all original and custom made (no AI) just for you! Please feel free to share/forward this to friends/family.

Chronic Pain - Some of it may all be in your head?

Ancient philosophers and modern physiologists agree that our thinking can affect a variety of physical outcomes. Where our body function is concerned, specific kinds of thoughts lead to specific emotional states that can have a direct effect on our glandular secretions and our immune system. There is a kind of thinking and subsequent emotional state that can perpetuate chronic pain. This for want of a better expression is an example of ‘psychosomatic causation.’ This used to be a term that folks found insulting because it suggested their suffering was imagined. Nothing could be further from the truth however, as psychosomatic causation can be as real as any other cause of pain or even disease.

Fight or Flight

When we perceive a threat, our bodies instantly make chemicals designed to give us the ability to fight the ‘monster’ or run for our lives. One of these ‘fight or flight’ chemicals is called cortisol. Cortisol reduces inflammation and pain signaling - which is good for our survival if we have to fight for our lives, or sprint away from an attacker. The problem for us in the modern world is that our bodies react no differently in response to encountering an angry grizzly bear heading our way than the way our bodies respond to all the modern things that frighten us, or anger us, or upset us. Road rage, traffic jams, nasty bosses at work, anxiety over finances, bad relationships, fear of tomorrow - those kinds of monsters. And so… many of us stay in fight or flight all day long, 24/7/365. And we produce cortisol all day long. And eventually, our tissue cells become RESISTANT to cortisol, and the marvelous chemical our body makes that normally shuts-down inflammation no longer works for us - contributing to all forms of chronic pain.

The best I can do here and now is make you aware of where some of your pain may be coming from. In future newsletters I will provide you with suggestions about how to ‘hug the monster’ - ways of better managing the things in life that produce the thoughts that contribute to chronic pain.

If you’ve read my prior newsletters, you’ve learned how certain foods can cause chronic inflammation which is a HUGE perpetuator of chronic pain, including lower back pain. These foods are:

• grain ( All of it! - wheat, corn, rice, oats - all of it! )

• legumes (peas, beans)

• dairy

• nightshade veggies

• processed foods

• refined sugar

This is why I espouse a Paleo type diet.

We looked in some detail in prior newsletters at Chronic Inflammation (CI) and how certain foods will cause your immune system to put out chemicals that act like ‘lemon juice on paper cuts.’ The physical damage to our lower back discs that we looked at in the prior email is like the paper cut. The chemicals your immune system puts out in response to the wrong food is the lemon juice. It’s a situation that can make mild pain ramp-up into the 3 Alarm Fire range. Some authorities are now suggesting that the damage to our joints (lower back included) actually begins with CI. This is yet another reason why how we eat and what we eat plays such a huge role in how long and how well we live.

Stay Tuned

In the next edition of ‘On The Level’ I will provide details on how to eat to lose weight rapidly in a healthy manner, which is also the same diet that rids us of chronic inflammation. There is only ONE ideal way of eating - and it handles a multitude of health problems.

Until next time,

Blessings to you!

Dr. Seiler