|
Essential Oils |
Bella Mira Essential Oil Supplements
Essential Oil Information and Use
|
Chemical Free |
Chemical Free Body Care Products
|
Gluten Free |
Gluten Free Living and Recipes
|
Important Information |
Detoxification and Digestion Products
Save Your Computer Free Protection
|
Great Products |
|
FREE Wellness Tests |
Hormone Balance Test New Improved
.gif)
|
Contact Us |
Our Shopping Cart Is:
Free Samples w/$150 Order (when available)
Chronic pain can alter the brain
Study: Scans of sufferers found activity in areas that should be at rest
CHICAGO - Brain scans of people in chronic pain show a state of constant
activity in areas that should be at rest, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, a
finding that could help explain why pain patients have higher rates of
depression, anxiety and other disorders.
They said chronic pain seems to alter the way people process information that is
unrelated to pain.
“It seems that enduring pain for a long time affects brain function in response
to even minimally demanding attention tasks completely unrelated to pain,” the
researchers wrote in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Story continues below ↓advertisement
Click here to find out more!
Dante Chialvo, a researcher at Northwestern University in Chicago who worked on
the study, said: “People with chronic pain — meaning pain that lasts more than
six months after their injury — have many other issues that affect their quality
of life as much as pain. It is not known where they come from.”
Recent studies have shown that in healthy people, certain regions of the brain
take over during a resting state, something known as a default mode network. “It
takes care of your brain when your brain is at rest,” Chialvo said in a
telephone interview.
When a person performs a task, this network quiets down, he said, but not in
people with chronic pain.
Instead, a front region of the cortex mostly associated with emotion is
constantly active, disrupting the normal equilibrium.
To study this activity, Chialvo did a type of brain scan known as functional
magnetic resonance imaging on 15 people with chronic back pain and 15 healthy
people.
They gave their volunteers a simple attention task — tracking a moving bar on a
computer screen — to observe the brain shifting out of default mode to handle
the task.
Both groups performed the task well but when they measured areas of the brain
activated, differences emerged.
“Where we were surprised is the difference in how much brain they used to do the
task compared with the healthy group. It was 50 times larger,” Chialvo said.
They said disruptions in this default network could explain why pain patients
have problems with attention, sleep disturbances and even depression.
“These findings suggest that the brain of a chronic pain patient is not simply a
healthy brain processing pain information but rather it is altered by the
persistent pain in a manner reminiscent of other neurological conditions
associated with cognitive impairments,” they wrote.
Sick and Tired of Pain?
Here's the real answers to permanently reversing the cause of pain.
What causes pain? We may experience pain as a prick, tingle, sting, burn, or ache. Receptors on the skin trigger a series of events, beginning with an electrical impulse that travels from the skin to the spinal cord. The spinal cord acts as a sort of relay center where the pain signal can be blocked, enhanced, or otherwise modified before it is relayed to the brain. One area of the spinal cord in particular, called the dorsal horn, is important in the reception of pain signals.
The most common destination in the brain for pain signals is the thalamus and from there to the cortex, the headquarters for complex thoughts. The thalamus also serves as the brain's storage area for images of the body and plays a key role in relaying messages between the brain and various parts of the body. In people who undergo an amputation, the representation of the amputated limb is stored in the thalamus.
Pain is a complicated process that involves an intricate interplay between a number of important chemicals found naturally in the brain and spinal cord. In general, these chemicals, called neurotransmitters, transmit nerve impulses from one cell to another.
There are many different neurotransmitters in the human body; some play a role in human disease and, in the case of pain, act in various combinations to produce painful sensations in the body. Some chemicals govern mild pain sensations; others control intense or severe pain.
The body's chemicals act in the transmission of pain messages by stimulating neurotransmitter receptors found on the surface of cells; each receptor has a corresponding neurotransmitter. Receptors function much like gates or ports and enable pain messages to pass through and on to neighboring cells. One brain chemical of special interest to neuroscientists is glutamate. During experiments, mice with blocked glutamate receptors show a reduction in their responses to pain. Other important receptors in pain transmission are opiate-like receptors. Morphine and other opioid drugs work by locking on to these opioid receptors, switching on pain-inhibiting pathways or circuits, and thereby blocking pain.
Another type of receptor that responds to painful stimuli is called a nociceptor. Nociceptors are thin nerve fibers in the skin, muscle, and other body tissues, that, when stimulated, carry pain signals to the spinal cord and brain. Normally, nociceptors only respond to strong stimuli such as a pinch. However, when tissues become injured or inflamed, as with a sunburn or infection, they release chemicals that make nociceptors much more sensitive and cause them to transmit pain signals in response to even gentle stimuli such as breeze or a caress. This condition is called allodynia -a state in which pain is produced by innocuous stimuli.
The body's natural painkillers may yet prove to be the most promising pain relievers, pointing to one of the most important new avenues in drug development. The brain may signal the release of painkillers found in the spinal cord, including serotonin, norepinephrine, and opioid-like chemicals. Many pharmaceutical companies are working to synthesize these substances in laboratories as future medications.
What Types of Chronic Pain Are There?
Inflammation: is the first response of the immune system to infection or irritation. Inflammation is characterized by the following; redness, heat, swelling, pain and dysfunction of the organs involved.
Nerve (Neuropathic) pain is pain that is caused by damage to nerve tissue. It is often felt as a burning or stabbing pain. One example of a neuropathic pain is a "pinched nerve."
Bone or Joint Pain: (Nociceptive) means pain caused by an injury or disease outside the nervous system. It is often an on-going dull ache or pressure, rather than the sharper, trauma-like pain more characteristic of neuropathic pain. Examples of chronic nociceptive pain include pain from cancer or arthritis. Bone, joint or osteo-arthritis types of pain can be very painful and intense and can lead to both inflammation and neuropathy.
Muscle, Tendon or Fascia Pain: This type of pain can be caused by injury, defect, inflammation, or microorganisms (such as bacteria, parasites or viruses) and can be chronic or acute.
What Can I do About My Chronic Pain and Painful Conditions?
Inflammation: The most important thing you can do for chronic inflammation is to stop the cause of inflammation! Inflammation has several causes. Inflammation can be caused by diet ( to much grains, animal protein and not enough raw fruits and vegetables) injury (strain, sprain, bruise, cut, etc..) and infection (such as bacteria, parasites or viruses).
1. Start fallowing The Steps to Healthier Living! Eat as many raw fruits and veggies (organic preferred) and reduce acid forming foods like all grains (wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats etc) Juicing is a very easy way to get a lot of fresh produce down! You will not believe how easy and tasty this is!
2. Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of distilled or reverse osmosis water. I cant stress this enough! Chronic dehydration leads to chronic inflammation. If you are not drinking 1/2 your body weight in ounces of pure water a day you will be chronically dehydrated.
3. Fish Oil is a potent anti-inflammatory! Make sure yours is molecularly distilled so it does not contain mercury, pcb's, pharmaceutical drugs, or other known fish toxins. Take 3-6 capsules daily. The fallowing essentials oils are potent cox-2 inhibitors and strongly anti-inflammatory; ginger, frankincense, and black cumin. 5 drops of each taken daily in a gelatin cap works wonders!
4. Bella Mira Perfect Enzymes taken with each meal and between meals. Not only stops chronic digestive problems but removes inflammation caused by undigested food particles in the blood stream.
5. Learn and use the Rejuvenation Technique to kill all bacteria, fungus and parasites lodged in the spine and causing inflammation.
6. For Pain relief while using these other steps. Try Release and Organic Excellence Arthritis Pain Cream.
Nerve (Neuropathic) Pain: Is one of the hardest types of pain to treat; it is also the most painful!. It can be sharp, stinging, severely itching, searing or burning.
1. Clove essential oil is instantly numbing to the nerves! It can be used for instant relief to certain local areas ( foot, back, etc..) and for chronic pain relief. Use it daily on the sole of your foot 3-5 drops and it will prevent pain in any area of the body.
2.Helichrysum can strengthen and regenerate nerves. Ylang Ylang and Blue Tansy are very calming to nerves.
3.Avoid artificial sweeteners like the poison they are! Aspartame, Splenda (sucralose) and acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One) has been proven to cause and worsen nerve damage.
4. Avoid all excitotoxins include such additives as MSG, hydrolyzed protein and soy protein extract. These also cause nerve damage.
5. Use Hexane Free Evening Primrose (EPO) oil, Cranberry Seed Oil , Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)(300mg per day) to Protect and regenerate the myelin sheath covering the nerves. EPO contains GLA, or gamma-linoleic acid, which acts as a synergist to ALA making it much more potent, and it has many of the same functions as ALA especially in protecting nerve function. I recommend taking 400 to 1000 mg of GLA daily.
6. For immediate and continual pain relief try Organic Excellence Arthritis Pain Relief and Release essential oil blend.
Bone and Joint Pain: These types of pain are very painful and are usually caused and exacerbated by inflammation, and can lead to nerve damage. Bone and joint pain is usually dull and constant or worse with movement (arthritis). Bone pain can be caused by cancer, osteopenia, osteoporosis or injury. Joint pain can be caused by osteoarthritis, or injury. Rheumatoid arthritis is autoimmune inflammation based. (see inflammation)
1. Make sure you get at least 1/2 hour a day of sunshine. You can't use or metabolize calcium without vitamin D. 1/2 hour of sunshine gives you 400mg of vitamin D. Vitamin D is also very anti-inflammatory.
2. Most everyone with low bone density is very magnesium deficient. You cannot use calcium without magnesium. You need to get at least 400mg per day.
3. For woman: Take the FREE Hormone Balance Test! Progesterone cream helps build and preserve bone mass.
4. Start fallowing The Steps to Healthier Living! Eat as many raw fruits and veggies (organic preferred) and reduce acid forming foods like all grains (wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats etc) Juicing is a very easy way to get a lot of fresh produce down! You will not believe how easy and tasty this is! High body acidity robs the bones of precious minerals. This type of diet reverses high body acidity.
5. Use Organic Excellence Arthritis Pain Formula daily! Apply to the place of pain or injury 2 times a day for the first month; then once a day for maintenance. This works much better than oral supplementation with glucosamine and chondroitin.
6. Wintergreen essential oil has cortisone like properties and can be very helpful in joint pain. Release and Immune Power are essential oil blends that are very helpful for instant pain relief.
Muscle, Tendon or Fascia Pain:
1. Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of distilled or reverse osmosis water. I cant stress this enough! Chronic dehydration leads to chronic inflammation. If you are not drinking 1/2 your body weight in ounces of pure water a day you will be chronically dehydrated. Often muscle pain is due to lactic acid build up and water helps flush it out.
2. Magnesium is a very potent muscle relaxer and if the pain is a daily occurrence take at least 400mg a day. Kava Kava is also a great muscle, tendon and fascia relaxer.
3. If you are suffering with Fibromyalgia Please see Fibromyalgia 101 for steps to reverse it!
4. Ylang Ylang, Basil, Wild Marjoram, Black Pepper, and Blue Tansy essential oils are anti-spasmodic. Immune Power, Alleviate More, Heart of the Forest or Release are great ways to get many of these essential oils already together.