21st Century Pain Solutions

 What if you could drastically reduce your chronic pain all with a simple change? What if there were factors affecting your pain that you didn't know about? Dr. David Hanscom joins us today to discuss the correlation between anger and other emotional factors that affect pain, how changing our behavior and thought patterns can have an effect on pain, and what family issues can do to our physical pain.

Dr. David Hanscom is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in the surgical correction complex spine problems in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. He has expertise in adult and pediatric spinal deformities such as scoliosis and kyphosis. A significant part of his practice was devoted to performing surgery on patients who had undergone multiple prior spine surgeries.

Did you know that NOT exercising when you're recovering from pain can actually make you better? When everyone is telling you to exercise when you're undergoing therapy for your muscles and joints, practitioners like today's guest, Dr. Minesh Naran, advise you not to do elevate your exercise regimen. It helps with continuously releasing the muscle knots and relaxing them for improved recovery. Dr. Minesh also works with a form of laser acupuncture that is painless and capable of relieving pain at specific areas around joints and muscles.

Dr. Minesh Naran, originally from South Africa, is a certified doctor in trigger point therapy, focusing on releasing knots in the muscles. He was a general practitioner for 29 years but now focuses only on trigger point therapy and laser acupuncture because of the results he sees in his patients. Dr. Naran was certified in Washington D.C. after learning under the very same people who learned the methodologies that were used by Dr. Travell who handled John F. Kennedy's back pain.

Did you know that pain isn't always tied to an injury? We tend to think that acute injuries are tissue damage, but there's always a deeper reason why that pain started. If there was no physical trauma, what could be the cause? Charlie M joins us today to dive deep into how our mind affects the pain we feel in our body. We discuss the triggers, the aha moments, and the relief that people experience when they discover the causes of their pain. 

Charlie Merrill is a Boulder, Colorado based licensed physiotherapist and owner of Merrill Performance. He’s prototyped and patented mobility tools and is currently working on designing minimalist shoes. He’s been featured in books and magazine articles, has a growing presence on YouTube and Instagram, and is creating his next work called “The Merrill Method”. He teaches nationally and internationally and is currently writing curriculum to teach other body workers, athletes, and people in pain how they can use “The Merrill Method” to help themselves and others get and stay well.

Did you know that pain isn't all in your head? It's actually in your nerves! More specifically: the brain pathways that link up to the rest of your body. Gone are the days we've got bears and wild animals around us; and now we've got iPhones, traffic, deadlines, families, kids, and situations to deal with all the time. Christie joins us today to talk about neural pathways and chronic pain: what they are, the two-pronged approach to treating them, and what YOU can do about it.

Christie Uipi is a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, CA, specializing in the treatment of mind-body pain following her personal recovery. She guides patients through a holistic approach to treating their pain using a foundation of mindfulness-based and cognitive-behavioral therapies, but places an emphasis on teaching her patients the specific mechanisms that serve to deactivate pain pathways in the brain. Christie has worked alongside Alan Gordon at the Pain Psychology Center to help develop anxiety regulation and pain reduction techniques, and has presented on the topic of chronic pain throughout the country.

Do you know someone who's struggled with drugs? Natural addiction hasn't changed over the centuries; however, the drugs have become more powerful. There's a cost, not just to the user, but to you, our medical system, and our societies. 

In the United States seven people die every hour of a drug overdose; and in 2017, that was 72,000 people that died of an overdose crisis in the United States. In British Columbia, four die every day; and in Canada, 11 die every day to a drug overdose.

Guy Felicella joins us today to talk about these figures, what we're doing to bring them down with transitional housing and harm reduction programs, and what else we can do.

Guy is a worker with the Vancouver Coastal Health. He works with the homeless - people with poverty issues and with substance abuse in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver - and one big part of his job is working with people regarding harm reduction services in the heart of the opioid crisis that we are actually seeing here in BC and in particular Vancouver, but also in the communities around Vancouver. 

Guy Felicella grew up in a middle-class home in Richmond but fell into addiction at a young age. Guy spent 30 years in the repeated cycle of gangs, addiction, treatment, and jail. He spent nearly 20 years residing in the two-block radius in the Downtown Eastside and using many resources, including harm reduction, to keep himself alive.

Today, Guy has escaped the grips of the turmoils that kept him suffering and resides in Surrey with his wife and two young children with multiple years of recovery and sobriety under his belt.

Guy is passionate about advocating for the vulnerable people who still suffer in addiction and educating communities on harm reduction to eliminate the stigma that exists around it. Guy has started a career with Vancouver Coastal Health in addition to attending various school districts to educate students on addiction.

Guy spent nearly his entire life suffering from the disease of addiction and now he is using his experience to change the hearts and minds of people stating, “you can’t save a dead addict.”

Did you now that pain isn't centralized? We don't have a center of pain. We have a process called Central Sensitization. Mariana Vera joins us today to talk about all the parts of the brain becoming more sensitive to stimuli, how acute pain transitions over time to chronic pain (Chronification), and what Hydrotherapy can do for you. 

Mariana Arias Avila Vera received her Ph.D. in Physical Therapy from Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil) in 2014. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Physical Therapy Undergraduate and Graduate Program at Federal University of São Carlos, member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and Aquatic Physical Therapy International (APTI). Her research interests are electromyography, aquatic physical therapy, chronic pain, pain management, and electrophysical agents. 

Note: PT - Hydrotherapy and Pain Neuroscience Research Education Studies results not out - Dec 2018 Wayne

Did you know that writing about your pain CAN make you happier? Jamie Pennebaker joins us today to share the benefits - and his insights - on the revolutionary pain-killing technique he pioneered, called "Expressive Writing."

Join us as we discuss the numerous studies validating this technique, what's happening inside your brain when applying the "Expressive Writing" technique, what this means for you, and how you can apply it yourself to be happier than you've ever been.

James W. Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Chair of Psychology and the Executive Director of Project 2021 at the University of Texas at Austin. He and his students are exploring the links between emotional experiences, natural language, and physical and mental health. His most recent research focuses on how everyday language reflects basic social and personality processes. Author or editor of 9 books and over 250 articles, Pennebaker has received numerous awards and honors. Beginning in 2016, he has assumed the leadership of Project 2021, a program to change the way the University of Texas thinks about and delivers undergraduate education.

Visit him at: https://www.secretlifeofpronouns.com/

Neuroscience research has taken big, stunning leaps in the last five years, showing us the exact answer to solving chronic pain. Today's guest, David Hanscom, tells us how he has taken these landmark studies and integrated them into his daily practice.

David Hanscom (backincontrol.com) is a back surgeon and is currently working in Seattle. He's been doing this for 30 years and he has a personal journey himself of having chronic pain and suffered for 60 years with low back pain himself and had two failed back surgeries. He's the author of the book: "Back in Control." He runs a radio show in Seattle, and he produces weekly emails for people to learn more about how to master and cure chronic pain.

My very special guest today is David Schechter. David is a physician who works in Culver City and lives nearby San Jose in California, and he is a family physician, he also works in sports medicine, and he has a special interest in mind-body medicine. Today we learn about his treatment of patients, the results he's been getting, and what you can do about your chronic pain. Check him out at mindbodymedicine.com.

Joe Lackie returns to discuss treating chronic pain with medical marijuana. In today’s episode we start with an overview of what’s going on at the (Canadian) government level, the different types of dispensaries, what’s changed in how patients get their products, what doctors and patients are faced with now, Joe’s online store, and what kind of results he’s been getting from his clinic trials.