Episode 8 of Australian Stories of Healing Pain introduces Craig Lipnicki. Craig is a father of 3 in Western Australia and co-owner of Five Vegans online store.

At the age of 17 Craig started to experience intermittent back pain and by the age of 23 he was diagnosed with Sherman's disease. It wasn't until Craig was 33, after suffering from pain for over a decade, that he was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. Craig was offered anti-inflammatories and over the counter medication for his pain. He was referred to a group class to discuss pain where he was told that he would be in pain forever. A mindset that didn't sit well with Craig.

It was when Craig's wife was studying naturopathy that he decided to take another path with healing his pain. Dietary changes were an easy transition for Craig, first cutting out processed foods and dairy. Cheese was hard, but is now a distant memory!

After following a plant based diet Craig's pain had basically disappeared, including pain in the hands and iritis. But this is when Craig was faced with symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome which caused pain and discomfort. He tried altering his diet again including a low FODMAP diet but was still experiencing symptoms. Craig was referred to a psychologist where he learnt about pain centres, neural pathways and TMS - tension myositis syndrome.

Tune in to find out how Craig has retrained his brain to forget about the IBS pain and any lingering Ankylosing Spondylitis pain. A fantastic episode full of amazing insights into nutrition, gut health, animal activism, anxiety and how the brain perceives pain.

You can connect with Craig here:

Instagram: @fivevegans

https://www.fivevegans.com.au/

Craig's recommendations:

Rebecca Strachan - Naturopath - https://www.healingwithincentre.com/

Clint Paddison - https://www.paddisonprogram.com/

Michael Greger - https://drgreger.org/ - Book: How Not To Die

Website: https://nutritionfacts.org/

Dr Neal Barnard - https://www.pcrm.org/yourbodyinbalance - Book: The Vegan starter kit

Dr Howard Schubiner - https://www.unlearnyourpain.com/ - Book: Unlearn your pain

App: The Curable App - https://www.curablehealth.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-7eTvdbE8gIVSoNLBR3vsAo8EAAYASAAEgJ4MfD_BwE

James Aspy - @jamesaspeyhttps://www.instagram.com/jamesaspey/?hl=en

Documentaries

- Forks over Knives - https://www.forksoverknives.com/

- Game Changers

- What the Health

- Dominion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRAfJyEsko&t=4479s

Ready to tell your story?

Please connect with me, Tess Thompson:

Instagram: @myowithme

E-mail: [email protected]

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