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5 Steps For Better Health If You Have a Chronic Illness or Pain

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Today, medical care is a highly specialized and compartmentalized business, and many physicians are pressured by significant time constraints. When your health problems are complex, it can be difficult and frustrating to find answers. Be your own advocate, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and seize control of your health.

5 Important Steps For Better Health When You Have a Chronic Illness or Pain

  1. Find An Expert. Chronic pain can undermine every aspect of your life – your work, relationships, recreational activities, self-esteem, and hope for the future. You want – and need – a pain specialist who is going to investigate the causes of your particular pain problem, strive to understand exactly how it has affected your life, and work with you to create and implement a personalized and comprehensive treatment strategy that fits the context of your life. You don’t have to just live with it. Chronic pain or illness should not define who you are and what you do.
  2. Understand Your Diagnosis. A diagnosis is not just a label; expect your doctor to provide you with resources to help you better understand your own condition; and expect him or her to lay out clear recommendations for your short and long-term treatment, including steps that you can take to assist with your own healing process.
  3. Understand the Value of Non-invasive Manual Therapies to Your Recovery. Seek out a physician who is knowledgeable about non-invasive manual therapies that will support your recovery. Ideally, you want a doctor who can recommend highly skilled manual practitioners who will communicate with your doctor about your progress and the need for adjustments in your ongoing medical care.
  4. Be Careful about Using Pain Medication. While medications may help with pain, some also have the potential to cause other problems with your health and quality of life. Be confident that the medication your doctor has prescribed for you is truly the most effective and least invasive way of treating your chronic pain problem.
  5. Understand All the Factors that May Be Contributing to Your Condition. Many times there are underlying, undiagnosed factors that may be contributing to your pain. Nutrition, emotional issues, hormone imbalances, biotoxicity or neurotoxicity, and sleep disorders can all cause inflammatory reactions in the body which can lead to a cascade of painful symptoms.

Chronic pain is a multi-faceted problem that requires a multi-disciplinary approach to diagnosing and treating your pain.

We are here for you, and we want to help.

Our goal is to return you to optimal health as soon as possible. To schedule an appointment please call: 703-532-4892 x2

Updated September 16, 2024

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Research Confirms This Ancient Practice Helps With Low Back Pain

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We are at a crossroads in the applications of yoga for modern medicine. Traditionally, yoga was designed to promote harmony within the body and with the natural world. Modern medicine is now acknowledging that this ancient approach of breath practices, movement, and meditation is proving beneficial for an issue that plagues many Americans: back pain.

If your smoke alarm sounded, imagine cutting the wires to the alarm instead of putting out the fire. This is what many of us are doing when it comes to our health.

Back pain remains a primary reason many Americans find themselves on over-the-counter NSAIDS and even prescription narcotics. As common as it is for us to want to cover up symptoms rather than address the root of the problem, it gets us nowhere, fast. We end up addicted to medications to help us get through the day (or night), experiencing side effects like heartburn and worse, all the while allowing the underlying problem to fester.

Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine put yoga side by side with physical therapy (PT), one of the most widely prescribed treatments for low back pain, and found that yoga had “almost the same amount of improvement in pain and activity limitation over time” as PT.

However, patients are strongly encouraged to consult a physician before engaging in a yoga routine to establish limitations and avoid further injury. The research also gives hope that insurance companies will more widely offer yoga as a covered treatment.

Yoga eases back pain first by increasing awareness.

When our bodies are in pain, we tend to “check out” – we don’t want to feel it. However, the body is full of wisdom when we stop to listen to it. Inherent in any imbalance is the mechanics of its healing. As you tune into your body, you gain a natural understanding of what needs strengthening, what needs to stretch, and what needs to relax.

We start by deepening the breath and learning to direct the breath into the back and hips. Beginning with gentle movements, we increase the flow of energy into areas of the body weakened by pain and lack of use. Health is flow. Imagine what a stagnant pond looks like; all sorts of microbes and bacteria can fester there. Now imagine a clear flowing stream; illness and pain can’t take hold as easily when energy is flowing. It is important to focus both on strengthening and stretching – many people over-stretch when in pain. However, the key for back pain is increasing stability; this means engaging your core, back, and hip muscles while also allowing them to lengthen.

Lastly, meditation is key.

They call back pain the “new ulcer” — a societally acceptable physical manifestation of stress, the way ulcers used to be. As with any stress-related illness, the key is learning to calm and soothe the nervous system and to increase your love and appreciation of yourself and of life. Meditation helps to press the pause button. It offers a choice as to where you place your attention — I can choose to focus on the pleasant feeling of breath in my body right now, rather than running a mental movie in my head about something that is going (or not going) to happen tomorrow. As our present-moment awareness grows, the tension in our bodies dissolves.

Yoga is a systematic approach to health and happiness that has an infinite variety of applications. May you discover the power of yoga to support you on your journey toward health.

* Before starting any new exercise routine, patients should discuss potential limitations with a physician.

We are here for you, and we want to help.

Our goal is to return you to optimal health as soon as possible. To schedule an appointment please call: 703-532-4892 x2

This article was originally published in June 2017. It was reviewed and updated in September 2023.

Dr. Gary Kaplan Speaking at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine Conference

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Dr. Gary Kaplan has been invited to speak at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s (A4M) Conference in Los Angeles, CA. Several educational workshops/modules will be offered to attendees; topics include Hormone Replacement Therapy, cardiovascular health, peptide therapies, and autoimmune disease.

Dr. Kaplan is participating in Module VI, “DRIVERS OF IMMUNE SYSTEM AND MITOCHONDRIAL DYSREGULATION”; his presentation is titled, “Redefining Chronic Pain: Etiologies, Immunology, and Mitochondrial Dysfunction”.

About Module VI

More than 50 million individuals living within the U.S. now suffer from one or more autoimmune illness and 80% are women. Thirty years ago only one in 400 people developed an autoimmune illness but today one in 12 within the U.S. and one in nine women are diagnosed with an autoimmune illness. Currently, there are 100+ autoimmune disorders all caused by the common thread of autoimmunity. Why the radical change in incidence? Module VI will review the various etiologies of modern-day living that are skyrocketing the incidence of immune and mitochondrial dysregulation and inflammation leading to the clinical manifestations of autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, pain, and sleep dysregulation.

About A4M

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) is dedicated to the advancement of tools, technology, and transformations in healthcare that can detect, treat, and prevent diseases associated with aging. A4M further promotes the research of practices and protocols that have the potential to optimize the human aging process. A4M is comprised of 26,000 members across the globe, including physicians, health care practitioners, scientists, and governmental officials, all of whom collectively represent over 120 nations.

For more information, visit A4M.com.

CES 2020: Dr. Kaplan Spotlights Pain & Sleep Modulating Devices

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Dr. Gary Kaplan was back at CES 2020 exploring the latest advancements in digital health technology.

With over 100 million Americans in daily, and sometimes debilitating pain, there is an urgency to find viable, drug-free products for people to manage their pain and overall wellness.

Two companies of particular interest to Dr. Kaplan were Sana Health, Inc.* and URGONight. These companies make wearables with the ability to modulate pain perception and sleep patterns.

For people in chronic pain, these products have the potential to improve their day to day lives without the side effects of medications. As the opioid crisis grows larger each year, finding practical solutions for drug-free pain management is critical.

 

 

 

 

 

Break the Cycle of Chronic Pain

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Breaking the Cycle of Pain

by Paul Wynn, Pain-Free Living Magazine, September 2017

THE FOUNDER OF AN INTEGRATIVE-MEDICINE CLINIC EXPLAINS WHY CHRONIC PAIN SHOULD BE TREATED AS AN INFLAMMATORY DISEASE

Imagine talking to your doctor and finding out that chronic pain is actually an inflammatory disease. It’s an unconventional idea that sur­prises many people, but it’s slowly gaining traction thanks to the work of Gary Kaplan, D.O., a clinical associate professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. (Click here or on the image below to continue reading this article.)

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How Sleep Disorders Affect Us and How To Lay Them to Rest

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Sleep is absolutely essential to good physical and mental health, and most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep EVERY night. Sleep deprivation — caused by insufficient sleep or poor quality of sleep — impairs the body’s immune system, physical reflexes, emotional stability, and cognitive functions, such as memory, decision-making, the capacity to focus one’s attention, and the ability to complete complex creative activities or mathematical calculations. Severe sleep deprivation may lead to weight gain, an increase in muscle, joint, and nerve pain, depression, and even hallucinations. Sleep disorders can also be symptomatic of more serious illness, such as clinical depression and/or heart disease, meaning that it’s essential to talk with your doctor if you are having problems falling, or staying, asleep.

If you or your doctor think that you might have a sleep disorder, the first step in further evaluation is to answer the 8 questions on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. If your score is equal to or higher than 10, the results should be discussed with your doctor. Depending upon your symptoms, your physician may determine that you are a candidate for a sleep study.

Another step is to begin keeping a sleep diary that documents your daily activities, including your sleep activities (i.e. tossing and turning, waking in the middle of the night, sleepwalking, grinding teeth, etc.). Take careful note of the times you actually get good sleep versus the times you don’t. If you’re attempting to heal from an acute injury or a chronic illness, your treatment program will be greatly enhanced by your commitment to proper sleep hygiene.

Commonly-Diagnosed Sleep Problems

There are a large variety of sleep disorders. Some are caused by physical problems, such as an airway obstruction that leads to sleep apnea, or chronic pain or indigestion/reflux sufficient enough to cause insomnia. Sleep problems can also occur as a side effect of taking certain medications or supplements, or because of emotional difficulties including depression, post-traumatic stress disorders and/or anxiety about life situations. In many cases, there can be several factors contributing to the sleep disturbance, including anxiety about the sleep deprivation itself. Some commonly-diagnosed sleep disorders include:

  • Insomnia: Inability to fall asleep within 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Dyssomnia: Frequent awakenings throughout the night and/or early-morning awakenings.
  • Restless leg syndrome: When lying in bed, unpleasant “crawling” sensations in the legs that create an irresistible and sleep-disruptive urge to move one’s legs.
  • Sleepwalking: Walking during sleep or engaging in other activities, like eating, that are normally associated with wakefulness.
  • Sleep apnea: Obstruction of airway during sleep, causing breathing irregularities that interrupt and interfere with sleep. Sufferers are at higher risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Snoring may be a sign or symptom of sleep apnea, so it’s something you should mention to your doctor. (Click here for more info from the National Institutes of Health about sleep apnea.)

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Treatment of Sleep Disorders

There is a wide range of over-the-counter and prescription medications advertised as sleep aids. All of them – including nutritional supplements, Chinese herbs, non-prescription-medications and prescribed-medications – may have side effects or cause drug interactions; for example, long-term use of Benadryl or Tylenol PM may increase your risk for developing Alzheimer’s. Please talk with your doctor before taking any sleep aids.

Alternative Treatments

  • Calcium (1,500 to 2,000 mg daily, taken after meals – 500 mg per meal – and 500 mg at bedtime). Calcium is a nutritional supplement that helps relax the body’s muscles.
  • Magnesium (1,000 mg daily). A nutritional supplement that helps to calm the body’s nervous system and relax the muscles.
  • Cortisol Manager (One tablet daily). Cortisol Manager reduces cortisol levels for all-day stress reduction and restful sleep. It’s safe to use every night.
  • Valerian (1,000 mg daily). Valerian is an American herb that has been found effective in helping to induce the onset of sleep.
  • Phosphatidylserine (PS 100; take one to two at bedtime). Phosphatidylserine is a phospholipid nutritional supplement that stops hyperactive production of cortisol in the body, allowing unhealthy, elevated cortisol levels to decrease, and consequently, more restful sleep to occur.
  • Melatonin (1 to 3 mg daily, but consult with your doctor before using, especially if you’re taking an antidepressant). Melatonin is a hormone that helps induce and maintain sleep. It can be useful in helping people recover from jet lag by reorganizing the sleep cycle (assisting the body in adjusting to time-zone changes).
  • L-Tryptophan (1,000 to 3,000 mg, 30 to 40 minutes before going to bed). L-Tryptophan is a serotonin-precursor, amino-acid nutritional supplement that can help initiate sleep and can be used to reduce chronic pain and depression.
  • Chinese herbs. These can be very helpful in treating and resolving sleep problems but need to be prescribed by a physician or licensed acupuncturist trained in Chinese herbal medicine.
  • Acupuncture. Talk with your doctor about the frequency of treatments that might be helpful for you.
  • Meditation. Twenty minutes daily.
  • Aerobic exercise. Three to four times a week, completed at least three hours prior to bedtime.

Immediate Steps You Can Take to Help Ensure You Get the Rest You Need

  1. Plan your daily schedule to allow seven to nine hours for sleeping every night.
  2. Keep a consistent sleep pattern, even on weekends.
  3. Eliminate caffeine from your diet or reduce your consumption to one cup of coffee or tea, or one soda per day. Caffeine is a stimulant, and it takes six hours or more for your body to metabolize.
  4. After 3 p.m., drink only non-caffeinated beverages.
  5. Take B-vitamins and ginseng in the morning, not before bedtime.
  6. Get regular physical exercise (three to four times a week).
  7. Avoid drinking alcohol near bedtime (although alcohol may cause drowsiness initially, alcohol inhibits sleep continuation).
  8. Make sure sleeping conditions are comfortable (proper temperature and darkness).
  9. Create a bedtime-relaxation routine, which might include:
    • Getting ready for and going to bed at the same time each night.
    • Taking a hot shower or bath before bed.
    • Enjoying a cup of chamomile tea before sleep.
    • Reading a book rather than watching TV once in bed. (Instead of having a relaxing effect, watching television before bed actually stimulates the mind.)
    • Journaling – as a way of getting problems “off your mind” and onto paper – so they can be dealt with in an orderly way in the future.


Overall, try to remain consistent with your sleep routine – even on weekends and holidays.

Good night!

This article was first seen on US News & World Report.

We are here for you, and we want to help.

Our goal is to return you to optimal health as soon as possible. To schedule an appointment please call: 703-532-4892 x2

8 Reasons Your Pain Won’t Go Away

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by Julia Westbrook | As first seen on RodaleNews.com.

What you don’t know is hurting you.

Gary Kaplan, DO, author of Total Recovery and founder of The Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine, recently held “office hours” during a Rodale News Facebook chat. One of only a handful of physicians in the country who is board-certified in Family Medicine and Pain Medicine, Dr. Kaplan was able to apply his pioneering perspective to help answer one of the most difficult questions plaguing our country: What is causing my pain? If you weren’t able to make the chat, we’ve pulled out 8 key takeaways to consider when you’re trying to figure out why your pain just won’t go away.

#1: Inflammation, part of the normal repair process, may have gone awry.

Cytokines are chemical messengers secreted by the body. They have effects ranging from inciting nerve repair to causing inflammation. In the case of chronic pain, we know that the microglia, which are the innate immune system in the central nervous system, are “stuck” in a mode where they continue to excrete predominantly inflammatory cytokines. Under normal circumstances, microglia will shift from producing inflammatory cytokines to making anti-inflammatory cytokines and call in other cells to initiate the normal repair process.

Balance is restored by eliminating all of the factors that caused the microglia to get turned on in the inflammatory state and then doing things such as meditation, exercise, getting adequate sleep, and using things such as low-dose naltrexone (LDN) and turmeric to get the microglia to go back to their resting state.

#2: Allergies can make your pain worse.

Anything that incites an inflammatory response in the body has the potential to spill over into the brain and worsen the inflammation in the central nervous system, as with fibromyalgia. The allergies are not the cause of the fibro, but something that is further aggravating it.

#3: Your diet can cause inflammation.

I would start by thoroughly looking at your diet and make sure there is nothing still in your diet causing inflammation. I saw one woman who is a vegan, and it turned out she was allergic to blueberries. For ongoing inflammation in the brain, turmeric may be helpful.

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#4: Your fatigue may be a symptom. Don’t ignore it.

Sleep is not a thing, but rather a series of different brain waves divided into stages 2, 3, 4, and REM. People who are deficient in 3 to 4 sleep will present with chronic pain. If you have sleep apnea, where you stop breathing at night, it can cause chronic pain. If you have restless leg syndrome, it can also cause chronic pain. A proper evaluation of the quality and amount of sleep is necessary for anyone suffering from chronic pain and depression.

#5: A migraine problem isn’t just in your head–it’s in your nervous system.

Dehydration, alcohol, bright lights are all triggers that can cause migraines. The underlying cause of the migraine is an irritated nervous system. The nervous system is irritated because of an underlying inflammatory condition in the brain. The key to preventing migraines is to identify what it is that’s causing the inflammation. I would start with an anti-inflammatory diet of rice, fish, chicken, fresh fruits, and vegetables.

#6: Overlapping problems can come from the same source.

  • Migraines and depression: Brain inflammation
    The basis of both migraines and depression is inflammation in the brain. I address this at length in my book, Total Recovery. Yes, the two are related and the cause of the inflammation needs to be identified.
  • Chronic pain and weight loss problems: Gut imbalance
    One of the reasons that you may not be able to lose weight might be related to either food allergies or sensitivities or mold toxicity. We know that the composition of the bacteria in your gut has a very significant effect on your ability to lose or maintain weight. Skinny people have different gut flora than people who are overweight. If you have other symptoms, it’s very likely you have a chronic inflammatory condition but the cause has not been discovered or addressed.

#7: The underlying root cause may still need to be identified.

  • Arthritis (…which isn’t always arthritis)
    Sometimes arthritis in knees and joints can be from Lyme disease, sometimes from rheumatoid arthritis, and sometimes from tendinitis. It can also be associated with food allergies and food sensitivities. The first issue is getting a clear diagnosis.
  • Complex regional pain syndrome
    Also known as CRPS, it is a horrific pain condition. I see a number of patients who suffer from CRPS, and the solution can, unfortunately, be elusive. Again, it’s important to try and understand what it is that has caused the nervous system to be so hyper-reactive. Get evaluated for Lyme disease and its co-infections, celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and neurotoxins associated with mold, along with a number of other conditions that I address in my book. I am familiar with Calmare therapy, and the research on it looks very exciting. While we do not do this therapy in our office, I have referred patients for this therapy. It is certainly worth the trial for anyone suffering from CRPS.
  • Tinnitus
    Tinnitus can be an extremely difficult problem to address and can be a result of multiple issues and not a single problem. Meditation and yoga are extremely effective in reducing inflammation, as is curcumin. You also need to identify the causes of the inflammation, such as the trace mineral imbalances, as well as eliminate anything that may be poisoning your system.

#8: Your body may be more responsive to alternative therapies.

We find that acupuncture can be extremely effective for a large number of pain conditions. But most commonly our treatments are layered, involving a number of therapeutic approaches, which work synergistically for a comprehensive solution. I also recommend meditation or yoga.

We are here for you, and we want to help.

Our goal is to return you to optimal health as soon as possible. To schedule an appointment please call: 703-532-4892 x2

Is Your Medication The Root Of Your Chronic Pain?

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5 Pills That Might Be Hurting You

By Julia Westbrook

It’s time to stop ignoring the aches and pains and finally live a healthy life.

More Americans are suffering from chronic pain than have diabetes, according to a panel of researchers at the National Institutes of Health. While 29 million people are diagnosed with diabetes, the panel estimated that 100 million Americans live with chronic pain.

While the statistics are staggering, the scary truth is that, despite the apparent universality of pain, there isn’t nearly enough research on safe, effective treatments.

“We learned that sufficient clinical research doesn’t exist to show physicians how best to treat chronic pain in adults, many of whom suffer from multiple health problems,” said panel member and founding director of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research, Christopher Callahan, MD.

Instead, our medical system is heavily reliant on painkillers, both over-the-counter and prescription, despite the fact that, according to the panel, clinicians recognize that pain narcotics aren’t the solution for long-term pain treatment. (Here are 5 reasons over-the-counter painkillers are a bad idea.)

Gary Kaplan, DO, author of Total Recovery: Solving the Mystery of Chronic Pain and Depression, explains that medication—either for treating pains or treating other conditions—can be at the root of chronic pain. “Because of the powerful, short-term effectiveness of many drugs, we’re beginning to experience polypharmaceutical problems, where patients end up taking one drug to treat the side effects of other drugs,” he explains.

“The rough guideline I give my patients about taking medications is this: A drug has to work better than the side effects it creates,” he says. “If it doesn’t, get rid of it.” Of course, it’s important to do so under the supervision of your doctor, he adds.

While it’s easy to tune out the side-effect disclaimer on pharmaceutical ads, you may want to talk to your doctor if you’re experiencing chronic pain and are taking one of these prescriptions:

Statins

Statins are commonly used to lower cholesterol. “They can be the cause of cataracts and unexplained muscle pain. Some studies show they may increase your risk of developing diabetes,” says Dr. Kaplan.

Diet can have a big impact on cholesterol. Consider eating avocados, as research has shown that they’re a food that helps lower cholesterol.

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)

In the ultimate irony, your painkiller might be causing you more discomfort. “More than 70 percent of people chronically taking NSAIDs—such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Naprosyn), diclofenac (Voltaren), and aspirin (Bayer, Bufferin)—will get ulcers in their small intestines, creating a permeability problem (aka leaky gut syndrome),” says Dr. Kaplan.

Leaky gut is associated with all kinds of painful issues, including food sensitivities, joint pain, headaches, and psoriasis.

Antibiotics

Speaking of your gut, taking antibiotics may be causing more painful inflammation than the infection itself. “Multiple treatments of antibiotics for any reason can profoundly change the gut flora,” says Dr. Kaplan. “Those changes can then damage the intestinal tract enough to create leaky gut syndrome, which will result in inflammation and activate the microglia.”

While he doesn’t dismiss the lifesaving importance of antibiotics, Dr. Kaplan recommends balancing their use with a probiotic supplement. And be sure to support a your gut bacteria with healthy foods.

Opioids

Another counterintuitive finding: Dr. Kaplan says that opioids can heighten your sensitivity to pain. “Additionally, these painkillers—such as codeine, hydrocodone (Vicodin), morphine (Avinza), and oxycodone (Percocet)—can lead to depression, constipation, and sexual dysfunction,” he says.

Instead of popping a pill for your pain, consider meditation as an effective treatment.

Sleeping Pills

Sleep is so important for your health, but popping a pill to get there isn’t the answer. “A chronic reliance on any type of sleeping pill—such as zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), or zaleplon (Sonata)—can, in the short term, make it hard to focus and, in the long run, even shorten your life span,” says Dr. Kaplan. Plus, you might be missing key warning signs of sleep apnea.
Article reprinted from www.RodaleNews.com, Jan/2015

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Understanding the Risks of OTC Painkillers

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5 Problems With Over-the-Counter Painkillers

By Emily Mann

Pills you pop every day could be causing serious damage in the long run.

Aspirin is hailed as a miracle drug, and there’s not a person among us who hasn’t popped an ibuprofen or acetaminophen to deal with achy joints or a crushing headache.

But if you’re doing that every day, you could be causing long-term damage to your health, says Gary Kaplan, DO, medical director of the Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine and author of a new book called Total Recovery: Solving the Mystery of Chronic Pain and Depression.

“The biggest misconception people have about over-the-counter painkillers is that they’re completely safe and harmless,” says Dr. Kaplan. “They are neither of the above.” In fact, most over-the-counter painkillers started out as prescription drugs but now are sold at lower doses without your needing to talk to a doctor.

And they’re all bad in their own way. While Dr. Kaplan does contend that low doses of aspirin (81 milligrams) do have some benefits for people with risk factors for stroke, heart disease and some forms of cancer, larger doses taken daily to deal with the pains of daily living do not. “People pop these things like it’s no big deal,” he says. “If you do this every day, in the majority of people, you’re doing real damage.”

Before getting into what that damage is, it helps to understand how these medications work. Aspirin, ibuprofen (sold as Advil and Motrin), and naproxen sodium (sold as Aleve) all fall into a class of drugs called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, or NSAIDs. They work by inhibiting prostaglandin, a hormone that can produce pain and inflammation in response to an infection or injury. Acetaminophen (or Tylenol) falls into a different category and seems to interrupt the pain messages your brain receives.

#1: Gut ulcerations
NSAIDs, particularly ibuprofen and aspirin, are rough on your stomach, and they’re just as rough on the lining of your gut. They create ulcerations and inflammation in the gut lining, damage that causes something known as a “leaky gut.” When your gut is leaky, it doesn’t absorb nutrients, which can lead to deficiencies (which can also contribute to pain problems), and problematic proteins and allergens, such as gluten, soy, or egg proteins, can escape, triggering food sensitivities. “Your gut is a very sophisticated filter,” Dr. Kaplan says. “It’s a very complex organ that’s not one to disrupt, but one that we disrupt all the time.”

Furthermore, NSAIDs disrupt the gut bacteria that control your immune system. As a result, you get sick more frequently and you might develop more chronic ailments.
Sixty to 80 percent of people develop gut inflammation within 24 hours of taking an NSAID, Dr. Kaplan says, and 50 to 70 percent of people who take them long term will develop chronic small intestine inflammation. And initially that might present as just feelings of bloating, gas or changes in your bowel movements, but over time, you might start experiencing chronic fatigue or develop food intolerances.

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#2: Liver damage
Acetaminophen doesn’t cause those gut ulcerations, Dr. Kaplan says. Rather, its problem is that it will damage your liver—sometimes, in unexpected ways. Things like alcohol can interfere with the way your body breaks down acetaminophen, even if you’re taking a normal dose. “That leads to the potential to get a toxic level of acetaminophen in your system, which leads to liver damage,” Dr. Kaplan says. He’s also found that taking too many painkillers that contain caffeine can stress out your liver and interfere with sleep.

#3: Kidney damage
Along with your stomach, your kidneys are a major production site of prostaglandins, the hormones that NSAIDs are designed to silence. In addition to controlling the acid secretions in your stomach, prostaglandins help the kidneys fulfill their function of removing proteins and waste from your blood. Too many prostaglandin-inhibiting NSAIDs can interfere with that process, leading to kidney damage and a buildup of toxic waste by-products in your bloodstream. “As soon as we start seeing damage to kidneys, we tell people to get off all anti-inflammatory medications,” Dr. Kaplan says.

Furthermore, prostaglandin produces inflammation in response to damage your body is experiencing. “Inflammation is not always a bad thing,” he adds. “It’s critical for repair—inflammation cleans up damaged tissue and brings in new cells to repair it. When inflammation gets disrupted, the normal healing process gets disrupted.”

#4: Heart disease
You may remember a prescription painkiller called Vioxx that was pulled from the market a few years ago. The reason? It caused heart attacks, and it’s not the only one. “It’s a lower risk than with Vioxx, but all NSAIDs pose a risk,” says Dr. Kaplan. NSAIDs block an enzyme called COX-2, which works with prostaglandin to protect your arteries. When both are silenced by chronic use of over-the-counter painkilllers, your risk of heart disease increases.

#5: Hypersensitization
Here’s an ironic fact: Painkillers can heighten your susceptibility to pain. While this phenomenon has been seen mostly with prescription opioids (such as Vicodin or Oxycontin), studies have shown that acetaminophen and NSAIDs can have the same effect on headaches. “It’s called a rebound headache,” Dr. Kaplan says. “They dull your response to pain, so you need more medications to get to the same place. And you end up developing increased sensitivity to pain.”

So are we all supposed to just grin and bear it if we have a headache or a sore knee? “The occasional use is fine, less than once a week,” Dr. Kaplan advises. “But if you have pain that requires that you take over-the-counter pain medication on a regular basis, you need to seek medical attention.”

Ultimately, Dr. Kaplan’s beef with painkillers is that they aren’t dealing with deeper health issues. “Doctors have to start looking at pain as a symptom and not the disease,” he says. “We’re better off addressing the problem. We need to understand where the pain is coming from.”

Published on www.RodaleNews.com on April 11, 2014

We are here for you, and we want to help.

Our goal is to return you to optimal health as soon as possible. To schedule an appointment please call: 703-532-4892 x2

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Meditation: Can It Help Reduce Your Pain?

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Meditation, which can be practiced in many different forms, has been used for thousands of years to benefit the mind, body, and soul. Medical research proves that meditation not only modifies brain function but can also actually change the way we experience physical pain.

A study reported in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that patients who had received only a little more than 60 minutes of meditation training were able to dramatically reduce their experience of pain. Patients experienced a reduction in “pain intensity” of about 40 percent and a reduction in “pain unpleasantness” of 57 percent. According to the lead author of the study, Fadel Zeidan, “Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 percent.”

The results confirm what we have seen clinically in our own patients at the Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine. In fact, in the mid-1990s, I had the opportunity to serve on an NIH Consensus Panel that confirmed the effectiveness of relaxation and behavioral approaches in the treatment of chronic pain and insomnia. Meditation training has been part of the Clinic’s comprehensive treatment program for close to 30 years.

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In the meantime, medical research has demonstrated that many difficult to treat chronic pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome, are mediated by central nervous system sensitization. It is only logical that meditation, which improves nervous system functioning, would help to alleviate chronic pain.

This is not to say that meditation is the entire answer; but can be a powerful part of an individual’s comprehensive treatment, along with physical exercise, dietary changes, nutritional supplementation, physical therapy, and appropriate medications.

The following are some practical resources on meditation and working with physical pain, offered by experienced meditators:

My hope is that these tools and the encouraging research results listed below will inspire you to commit to your own meditation practice.

  • A study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital found that mindfulness meditation, over the short period of only 8 weeks, increased the amount of gray matter in regions of the brain involved in learning and memory, regulation of one’s emotions, and self-awareness. This new study is very exciting because it suggests that meditation may be able to help heal the brains of people who suffer from chronic pain, depression, and anxiety disorders.
  • Other studies have shown that regular meditation helps improve immune function and reduces individuals’ feelings of anxiety and fear and enhances their natural creativity and problem-solving abilities.
  • Practicing mindfulness meditation has been shown to increase our empathy for others allowing for improved communication and relations with colleagues, family, and friends.
  • Research indicates that a regular practice of meditation, by facilitating relaxation of the body and mind, also can help improve sleep, lessen the sensation of pain, and lower blood pressure.
  • There is also clinical evidence that meditating can help improve depression and increase one’s overall sense of well-being by providing a method of letting go of fearful thoughts and decreasing emotional reactivity.

We are here for you, and we want to help.

Our goal is to return you to optimal health as soon as possible. To schedule an appointment please call: 703-532-4892 x2