Let your body heal itself

What I’ve learned about pain.

 

 

Ten years ago, I was in pain 24/7 and I wanted to die. I’m now pain free. I’m going to share what I learned in those ten years. I hope you will find it helpful.

The importance of diet

Firstly, I learned that your diet is enormously important when you’re trying to reduce pain. I am very fortunate in that I have what I call my ‘barometer’ muscle in my left calf. If I eat anything that causes inflammation, I very quickly get pain in that muscle. This enables me to avoid that food before it starts to affect the rest of my body. The following foods cause me (and a lot of other people) pain:

• Gluten (wheat, barley, rye).
• Nightshades (tomatoes, white potatoes, peppers, aubergines etc.).
• Oils (any oils including olive oil and coconut oil).
• Any food that I’m allergic to (there are too many to list).

I was also fortunate that I got pain-free on a traditional gluten-free diet (and nutrition), but a lot of people need to remove ALL grain from their diet before this happens. (Please see my article Why traditional gluten-free diets do not always work. and the video posted below: No Grain No Pain Initiative – Dr Peter Osborne.)

Nutrition

Secondly, I learned the importance of nutrition. I’ve been taking all 90 essential nutrients every day for the last ten years (from Youngevity).

When choosing nutritional supplements, bear two things in mind: a) make sure they are of good quality from a reputable company. Low quality supplements will be a waste of money. Even worse, they will encourage you to believe that supplements don’t work. b) Carefully consider any food allergies you may have. For example, glucosamine is often derived from shellfish.

(For a detailed examination of supplements that can help pain, please see the video below: Chronic pain? Try supplementing with these.)

Essential oils for pain relief

When I was in chronic pain, I heavily relied on essential oils for pain relief. A number of good essential oil companies offer a good and effective oil blend for pain. The best oil I found for pain relief was hemp essential oil, but it’s very expensive. However, even cheap and readily available peppermint oil is worth having on hand for pain. (Again, make sure the essential oils you choose are of good quality.)

Light therapy (stem cell activation) patches

One thing I didn’t know ten years ago, and I really wish I had, was that light therapy patches can be incredibly helping with pain relief. (This includes the stem cell activation patches, and I couldn’t have used them ten years ago because they have only been available for the last four years.)

Here is a brief compilation of testimonies about the patches and pain relief. If you would like to know more about these patches, please email me at [email protected].

 

 

Conclusion

There are a lot of things you can do to help yourself with pain that don’t require the use of pharmaceutical drugs which have unpleasant side effects and can be addictive. As with all aspects of health, your diet is central.

 

No Grain No Pain Initiative – Dr Peter Osborne.

 

Chronic pain? Try supplementing with these!

 

Why am I feeling worse when I expected to feel better?

 

When you start to take responsibility for your health and start making life-style changes, you may find you go through periods of feeling worse before you feel better.

Why does this happen?

There are two mechanisms that could cause this:

1. Detox symptoms (die-off, Herxheimer reaction)
2. Healing crisis (re-tracing, ROOS or Return of Old Symptoms)

Detox symptoms

These occur when the body is removing toxins at an uncomfortable rate. This can happen when:

1. You deliberately undergo a detox programme.
2. You change your diet or make other life-style changes.
3. You start a new natural therapy programme (e.g., I’ve experienced detox symptoms after a chiropractic adjustment.)
4. You use the light therapy patches.

A healing crisis

When symptoms are suppressed (e.g., through the use of pharmaceutical drugs), the disease process is pushed deeper into the body. If deep healing occurs later on, these symptoms may temporarily resurface.

How long can you experience these symptoms?

The symptoms usually last 1 – 3 days, but they might last up to two weeks.

What symptoms can you experience?

Possible symptoms may include:

• Headaches
• Tiredness
• Temporary muscle aches
• Mucus or other discharge
• A coated, pasty tongue
• Flu-like symptoms
• Irritability
• Difficulty sleeping
• More need for sleep
• Weakness
• Cravings
• Nausea
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Gas
• Skin Rashes
• Low energy levels
• Frequent urination
• Smelly urine

What can you do when experiencing these symptoms?

• Take it easy. Rest and give yourself time to recover.
• Drink lots and lots of water.
• Take a break from the cause, e.g., if you are doing a detox programme, slow it down. If you are undergoing some kind of natural therapy, speak to your practitioner and maybe delay the next treatment. If you are using the light therapy patches, reduce the number of hours you are wearing them or stop using them for a few days.
• Remember, your body is healing. It may feel lousy, but it is a good thing. Your body is detoxing and/or dealing with long repressed symptoms.
• Remember, what you are experiencing is only temporary, and you will reap the benefits when it is over.

My personal experience with the light therapy patches.

In my first few days on the light therapy patches, I experienced some minor detox symptoms — just feeling tired and a bit groggy. (At the same time, I was seeing amazing results. Three days after starting the patches, I could run for the first time in 12 years.)

Five months into the patches, I was experiencing some deep healing in my back, left hip, and left thigh. Then I hit a really nasty healing crisis. I was weak and dizzy and shivering (though I didn’t have a temperature). I felt nauseous and lost my appetite. I had an excessive amount of mucus in my nose and down the back of my throat. Mentally, I felt unusually negative about life. When I searched for these symptoms on the internet, it came up with ‘drug withdrawal’. I believe my body was clearing out the effects of the heavy load of pharmaceuticals I was given in my early life.

The worst of the symptoms only lasted two days, but it took me another two weeks to get back to normal. I stopped using the patches for a few days. When I started using them again, the deep healing that had been occurring in the back, left hip, and left thigh just picked up where it had left off, and in the following week, I noticed significant improvement in the flexibility of my back.

Conclusion

Detox symptoms and healing crises are unpleasant, but they are important signs that your body is doing what it was designed to do and you are going through a necessary healing process.

So, please bear in mind that it can happen. Forewarned is forearmed.

May God bless you through your healing journey.

Why traditional gluten-free diets (avoiding wheat, barley, and rye) do not always work.

 

 

In 1992, I was struggling with a lot of stomach pain. The pain would get worse as the day went on, and by lunch time, I would have to lie down for the rest of the day.

I tried an elimination diet and found that gluten was my biggest problem. I went on a traditional gluten-free diet, avoiding wheat, barley, and rye. My stomach pain reduced significantly and life got better.

Twenty years later (2012), my mobility crashed. I could barely walk, I was bent over to the left, it took me five minutes to get out of a chair, and I was in pain 24/7. I made a ‘miraculous’ recovery when I followed the diet and nutrition advice of Dr Joel Wallach, the founder of Youngevity. Dr Wallach defines a gluten-free diet as including the avoidance of oats as well as wheat, barley, and rye. So, at this time I stopped eating oats (I was still eating rice and corn), and I also started using gluten-free personal care products.

However, five years later, I was still struggling with constipation. It was then I discovered Dr Peter Osborne’s book No grain, no pain. In it, Dr Osborne explains that the traditional gluten-free diet (avoiding wheat, barley, and rye) does not always work because grains such as rice and corn also contain a form of gluten. He also explains that a protein in milk mimics gluten, and those with gluten sensitivity often have to avoid dairy too.

I stopped eating rice, corn (and other grains), and dairy. Within two weeks my constipation problem had resolved. Also in two weeks, I had lost weight and gone down a size in clothes. This was an unintentional result. I was not seriously overweight. During those two weeks, I felt hungry but I was not restricting the amount of food I ate. I ate as much ‘allowed’ food as I could. After two weeks, my weight stabilised.

So for me, a traditional gluten-free diet was not enough. I eventually had to go grain-free and dairy -free.

In the video below, Dr Osborne explains why traditional gluten-free diets just do not work.

The main problem is that most people who start a gluten-free diet head straight to the gluten-free aisle in the local supermarket. They then buy highly processed food labelled gluten-free. Dr Osborne describes this food as ‘processed garbage’.

Here are some of the problems he mentions:

1. 40% of food labelled as gluten-free is cross-contaminated with traces of gluten. People with very sensitive guts (like mine) will react to this.
2. Most gluten-free foods are made with rice or corn. As already mentioned, these also contain gluten, just in a different form to wheat, barley, and rye.
3. Gluten-free food is not necessarily healthy food. It may contain other substances that are very bad for health such as additives, dyes, preservatives, GMO ingredients, pesticides, hydrogenated fats, heavy metals, and large amounts of sugar.
4. Gluten-free food may contain dairy and, as already mentioned, people with gluten sensitivity are often sensitive to dairy too.

Also in the video, Dr Osborne explains that people who go on a traditional gluten-free diet often feel better initially but then develop additional health issues later. Gluten can cause a whole range of health issues besides gastrointestinal problems (Dr Osborne lists them on the video). An improvement in the gut does not necessarily mean that gluten is not causing other damage in the body.

So, if you are on a traditional gluten-free diet but are not seeing the results you had hoped for, I suggest you read Dr Osborne’s book No grain, no pain, and consider trying a grain-free, dairy-free diet.