It’s important to create a care plan for chronic pain so that you can get back to living and enjoying your life.
Chronic pain is a silent epidemic that affects millions of people worldwide, robbing them of their quality of life and leaving them in a constant battle with discomfort.
Whether it’s a persistent ache, stabbing sensations, or throbbing agony, chronic pain can make even the simplest daily tasks seem insurmountable. In this post, I dive into the complex world of chronic pain, understanding its root causes, crafting personalized care plans for relief, and debunking common misconceptions.
Chronic pain isn’t just a condition; it’s your body’s way of signaling that something is amiss.
From nutrient deficiencies to imbalances in your gut microbiota, hormonal fluctuations, environmental toxins, and an overstimulated nervous system, we’ll explore the myriad factors that contribute to this debilitating condition. Each root cause demands a unique approach to treatment, emphasizing the importance of personalized care plans.
We’ll also discuss how diet and nutrition play a pivotal role in your care plan for chronic pain, demonstrating how what you eat can either fuel the fire or extinguish it. While there are various treatments available, from natural remedies to prescription medications, the key lies in finding the right balance that works for you. By tracking your progress and embracing self-care, mindfulness, and relaxation techniques, you can regain control over your life and pave the way for a pain-free future. Additionally, we’ll offer guidance on how to find a practitioner who specializes in creating personalized care plans for chronic pain, ensuring you receive the support you need on your journey to recovery. With the right care plan, relief from chronic pain is not just a distant dream but an achievable reality.
What is chronic pain and what are the symptoms?
When you cut your finger, what happens?
You may say a few dirty words first but then you immediately feel pain.
Your finger will throb and heat up while continuing to hurt for several days as it heals. You fully trust your body to heal the cut, but you don’t fully understand what’s happening?
Injuries like a cut, broken bone, surgery, illness, or any sort of damage to cells release chemical messengers that go directly to the nervous system and to the brain. The signals are translated into pain once they reach the brain. More signals are sent to the site of injury to protect the site keeping it free from infection and further injury. Messages are then sent out to alert healing nutrients to come quickly.
During the healing process, you may notice swelling, heat and pain. The symptoms you feel will lessen and eventually resolve once the injury is healed completely. The swelling is from inflammation. Inflammation is a normal function in the body during the healing process.
Pain can remain for a few days, weeks, or even a couple months.
It doesn’t become chronic until pain lasts longer than three months.
It can be continuous or it can come and go, set off by a trigger. Chronic pain typically comes with some sort of physical diagnosis such as arthritis, back or neck problems, cancer, migraines, gallbladder problems, digestive problems, and others.
Chronic pain can interfere with everyday life making it hard to work, eat, participate in physical activities, and enjoy life in general. Chronic pain may be localized to a specific area like one joint, headaches/migraines, back, neck, digestive system, or the site of injury. It can also be all over pain as in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis or fibromyalgia.
The pain can be unbearable at times or feel mild and dull other times. It may feel like it burns, shoots, aches or even sends electrical signals. Soreness, tightness and stiffness are also very common with chronic pain because of the inflammation present.
What are some common causes of chronic pain?
Chronic pain can come from a previous injury or illness, making the initial cause known. It can also come from an unknown and not obvious cause creating frustration because chronic pain can come and go without you knowing why. You will have a trigger but what does that even mean? You feel like you’re just living your life the same as you did before you started having pain, why do you have “triggers” now?! Or if you had an injury, you wonder why your body hasn’t healed by now?
As a root cause practitioner, I look for the root cause of why your body hasn’t healed or why chronic pain is being triggered in the first place. Many nutrients have been found to be deficient in those diagnosed with chronic pain, the root cause being the diet.
What you eat is the foundation for your health.
Most Americans eat the standard American diet (appropriately named S.A.D.), which doesn’t provide many nutrients making the foundation for health weak. Chronic pain is one of the most costly health problems in America. It is estimated that about 20% of Americans have chronic pain. If you choose to eat the standard American diet, you choose to suffer from standard American diseases.
Your body uses nutrients to run every process smoothly. Nutrients come from the food you eat. When you eat a very nutrient poor diet, processes in your body can’t function properly. On the other hand, when you eat a very nutrient dense diet, each process in your body has access to the nutrients needed to function properly.
Another root cause of chronic pain is in your gut.
Trillions of microorganisms live in your gut creating a community called the gut microbiota. The function and purpose of the gut microbiota is to help break down food, aid in metabolism, produce vitamins and short chain fatty acids, support the immune system, and more.
The gut microbiota can either help or harm the functioning of your body depending on what microorganisms are present. Certain microorganisms have been shown to do certain activities. Some microorganisms help the body. Some are neutral. Some are harmful. Dysbiosis is a term used to describe the balance, or rather the imbalance of gut microbiota. Meaning there are less helpful microorganisms than there are harmful microorganisms.
The gut and the brain talk to each other through the gut brain axis. Signals can be sent from the gut to let the brain know if and when something isn’t right so it can alert the rest of the body. Gut dysbiosis has been linked to chronic pain, especially chronic pain with an unknown initial cause. When there is dysbiosis, the gut is alerting the brain that something is off.
Here’s the kicker though, your brain can talk to your gut just like your gut can talk to your brain. So your thoughts also play a role and can be a root cause. Just like your gut microbiota can cause chaos in your thoughts, your thoughts can cause chaos in your gut. It’s a two-way street.
The microbiota is also responsible for the production of several neurotransmitters like serotonin, GABA, glutamate and dopamine. Neurotransmitters (fancy word for brain messenger) are crucial in pain reception and perception. Much of these neurotransmitters are produced in your gut by certain microorganisms. If you don’t have enough of those microorganisms present and thriving in your gut, production of neurotransmitters suffers.
The gut microbiota can change though because it lives off the food you eat. Helpful microorganisms thrive off different food than harmful microorganisms. So what you eat matters, making your diet a root cause of chronic pain.
Hormones also play a large role in how you feel and your pain level.
Hormones are the chemical messengers of the body. When something isn’t running smoothly, hormone levels can be decreased or elevated, telling organs and body systems to function differently. For example, women with menopause symptoms have been found to be twice as likely to have chronic pain like fibromyalgia.
We live in a toxic world.
Every day you are exposed to thousands of chemicals your body has to package up, make safe, and remove (aka detox). The detox pathways can sometimes get backed up and need a little help. If help does not come, the environment can be right for unexplained chronic pain, making environmental toxins a root cause.
The last root cause I think is important to note is the nervous system.
The nervous system is your control center. It helps you react and respond to events that happen throughout the day. In our overstimulated world, the nervous system can get stuck in the sympathetic mode. When in the sympathetic mode, you are not able to respond, only react. Your body can’t relax, can’t heal, and is always on edge. That always on edge feeling can trigger chronic pain that doesn’t have an obvious cause.
As you can see, there are a lot of root causes for chronic pain.
You may have only one or several contributing root causes.
Can chronic pain be cured, or is it a lifelong condition?
Chronic pain does not need to be a lifelong condition.
Once the root cause is removed and the body heals, chronic pain can resolve. Inflammation causes chronic pain in many women. The inflammation is said to be the culprit by traditional medicine, but inflammation doesn’t just happen, there is another root cause. Once the root cause to the inflammation is identified and removed, your practitioner can guide you on the next steps to heal your body.
When you put the work into finding the source for your pain, make a plan, and stick to the plan, your body can do what it is designed to do…thrive.
What is a care plan for chronic pain?
A care plan for chronic pain is a written plan that a practitioner or a team of practitioners develop and follow to communicate with the patient how they will be treated for their specific condition. In hospitals and doctor’s offices, it is the patient’s chart. Every team member has access to the care plan and every team member must document their plan so everyone is on the same page.
It’s the way the practitioner thinks is best for you to get from point A to point B. You can think of it as a roadmap. That is why I have named my program The Diet 180º Roadmap! You can’t get well in the same environment you got sick. Complete change is needed if you want to find health. It takes you turning around and not looking back.
Care plans can change as you make your way through the journey of health but it should always be available to you so you can know what your next step is.
How can a care plan help manage chronic pain?
Since chronic pain can make women feel out of control because it is triggered in many by an unknown initial cause or by a cause that isn’t healing for some reason, having a care plan can help you feel more in control of your health. Many care plans for chronic pain will have specific steps to take but may not necessarily be in a specific order. You can feel a sense of control by choosing the next step you feel ready to take.
Root cause practitioners have spent a lot of time and money learning how to help others find lasting health. You could learn the same things, but do you have the time? Ultimately hiring a practitioner will save you time and money. Each step in the root cause care plan should be a technique to help you learn more about managing chronic pain or a treatment to help resolve the root cause of chronic pain. The care plan, along with the practitioner’s guidance, will bring you closer to health with each step you take.
What should be included in a care plan for chronic pain?
Components of a care plan for chronic pain will be techniques and treatments that bring you more knowledge of how to manage the pain or to heal your imbalances.
Some practitioners will include testing. Examples would be to test for hormone imbalances or gut microbiota dysbiosis. The tests a root cause practitioner runs will be different than a traditional medicine practitioner. These tests are more comprehensive and give a better picture as to what may be happening in your body.
Some of the hormone tests you may be asked to take will be a snapshot of your hormones at a specific time in your cycle. Some of the tests may be a month-long test if you are a cycling woman. This type of test allows for the practitioner to see variations in all hormone levels, including where and when imbalances may be present.
A root cause practitioner may want to test your gut microbiota using a test that determines what microorganisms are present. Some harmful bugs may be present and/or you may be missing some very helpful bugs.
These types of tests can help your practitioner get a comprehensive look into what’s going on and come up with a care plan specific to you.
Other components of a care plan for chronic pain include steps to create health by incorporating wellness into your lifestyle. Changing how you live, how and what you eat, how you think, and how you react brings healing and brings you closer to health.
What are some common misconceptions about managing chronic pain with a care plan?
Many of my clients have come to me asking if it’s all in their head because that is what they’ve been told. Chronic pain can affect your mental health, but what’s happening in the brain is also happening in the rest of the body. Every cell hears your thoughts but also the brain is triggered when something in the body isn’t working correctly.
Women are told it’s all in their head because chronic pain isn’t fully understood yet. It’s also not taught in traditional medicine that the body is one system and each part works together. Traditional medicine tends to separate parts and has created specialists to only focus on that one part that may be functioning improperly.
The truth is, it’s not all in your head, but like I said, every cell hears your thoughts. Your thoughts have the ability to cause chaos in multiple organ systems in your body, but other parts of your body can cause chaos in your brain as well because communication goes both ways.
Traditional medicine practitioners will usually only treat chronic pain with medication. Since our society relies heavily on traditional medicine, women have the misconception now that they have to be on medication if they have been diagnosed with chronic pain. That simply isn’t true.
Prescription medication can have its benefits and is very useful at times, but in the case of long-term chronic pain, there are many other treatment methods without the use of medication.
Finding and removing the root cause will help heal your imbalances and the pain will resolve.
How can I tailor a care plan for chronic pain to my specific needs and situation?
What triggers chronic pain for me may not trigger chronic pain for you, so figuring out your own triggering events is helpful in creating your own unique care plan. Your root cause practitioner will sit down with you and ask LOTS of questions. You may not think they are pertinent but they are to the practitioner. It’s a way for the practitioner to get to know you and your unique circumstances.
In my practice, I spend an hour and a half to two hours with you on your first session because I want to get to the root. That’s the only way you will truly find health.
Once all the questions are asked, your practitioner may ask you to take some tests that will help determine the root cause. The tests will be more comprehensive than a traditional medicine practitioner and will provide a deeper picture to your own situation.
As you work your way through your unique care plan, your practitioner may have you change course based on meetings and conversations you have together or based on test results.
Your care plan for chronic pain can and should be tailored to meet your specific needs and situation. If it isn’t, find another practitioner.
How long does it take to see results from a care plan for chronic pain?
You can think of chronic pain like a plant with a root system. Let’s say the feeling of pain is the plant… what you see above the ground. That part may be big or small but what feeds it and makes it grow is the root system… what you can’t see underground.
Traditional medicine only focuses on the part you can see… the plant. Your doctor may prescribe you medicine to cover up or cut down the plant but it will still keep growing because it’s being fed by the root system underneath. That root system will do all it can to come to the surface and create a plant, maybe even creating a plant in a new area (aka pain or another symptom somewhere else that your doctor will prescribe more medicine for).
That’s the beauty of holistic wellness and functional nutrition, the root system is addressed. When the root system is pulled up and removed, there’s no need to cover up the plant anymore because it’s no longer growing. And even better, you will remove the other plants popping up like weeds that you feel are out of control.
Natural treatments for chronic pain can be very effective if the root is found and removed. Most holistic wellness practitioners will have a detailed and thorough assessment to ask specific questions leading them to the root. Results are seen and felt pretty quickly. Most of my clients feel a drastic improvement in their health and their pain level after just two weeks. The longer the care plan is followed and the more lifestyle changes are made, improvements are continual.
For chronic pain specifically, the root cause determines how long it takes for improvements to be noticed. Nutrient deficiencies can be corrected quickly to ease pain, but nervous system reactions take a little longer to calm and ease pain. Most women have multiple root causes though so coming up with a comprehensive care plan will help women see results quickly.
Are there lifestyle changes that can help manage chronic pain?
Like I said, you can’t get well in the same environment you got sick. Usually a complete lifestyle overhaul is needed to find health. But don’t get overwhelmed…you aren’t asked to make all the changes at once! Thankfully with each step taken to change your lifestyle, improvements in health and your pain level are noticed so it makes you want to continue.
Lifestyle changes include changing what you put in, both physically and mentally, changing triggers if possible, changing reactions to triggers, slowing down if needed, and mindfulness.
What you eat is the foundation for health. Both nutrient deficiencies and toxins eaten can trigger chronic pain. What you put in mentally is a lifestyle habit that can be changed to make dramatic differences in your pain level. Changing what you put in mentally can also help you change your body’s reaction to triggering events and it can help you slow down if needed.
How do diet and nutrition fit into a care plan for chronic pain?
If you take the analogy of the root system and the plant, the root system feeds the plant, but something has to feed the root system. In a normal plant, water and nutrients in the soil feed the root system and plant. In your body, there are multiple sources of food for the root system of chronic pain, food being one of them. What you eat has a direct impact on how you feel because food feeds everything in your body.
If you are eating food that provides the root system plenty of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and water, the root system will have the nutrients needed to defend itself from the traumas that may trigger chronic pain.
On the other hand, if you are eating a standard American diet (aka S.A.D.), then your diet can become a trauma event itself and contribute to triggering your chronic pain. The S.A.D. is known to cause inflammation and not provide enough vitamins and minerals. (spoiler alert…the food industry that sells you the food that fits into the S.A.D. isn’t in it for your health…just your wallet).
Can a care plan for chronic pain be used in conjunction with other medical treatments?
There are multiple schools of thought. The extremes are traditional medicine and alternative medicine. Traditional medicine is what our healthcare system has become, seeing a doctor which focuses on symptom management and is medication based. Alternative medicine is using anything but prescription medicine.
Integrative medicine is the school of thought that integrates the two extremes (get it…integrate-ive). When you find a good integrative wellness practitioner, they will have multiple modes of treatments including prescription medication and natural treatments.
Your care plan for chronic pain can include both natural treatments and traditional prescription medicine. You should always be your own advocate and be in control of your own path to health. If you want to jump all in and never look back at traditional medicine, you have the power to do that. If you prefer to keep one foot in and one foot out, you can do that too. Your health is your own decision. Gain knowledge and make the choices that are best for you.
Are there natural remedies that I can include in a care plan for chronic pain?
Focusing on the root cause for why you have chronic pain in the first place should be the starting point when you want to fully resolve your painful symptoms. There are multiple causes for chronic pain including nutrient deficiencies, gut microbiota dysbiosis, hormonal imbalances, toxic overload, nervous system overload and a poor diet.
The techniques and treatments should be focused on balancing your own specific root cause. In my practice, I usually start with a woman’s diet, but each person is unique and may have another area that needs more attention.
Some common techniques and treatments include breathwork, mindfulness, meditation, prayer, change in diet, positive affirmations, environmental changes and cleanses.
How can I track my progress and success with a care plan for chronic pain?
Journaling is a great way to track progress. It helps to write down a list of your symptoms. You can then rate them on a scale or write beside them how often and how severe they are. Choose a specified time like once a month to go through that list to rate them again.
I have women complete a symptom survey each time she meets with me. It is a long list of possible symptoms. She has to tell me how severely she suffers from them by giving me a number on the survey scale. I love using it as a tool because it shifts her focus onto how she feels. When your focus is on how dramatically improved you feel making intentional wellness changes, it’s easier to stick to.
How can self-care, mindfulness and relaxation techniques help manage chronic pain?
One possible root cause of chronic pain is the overstimulation of the nervous system. If your nervous system is staying in the sympathetic mode (aka fight or flight), signals can be sent to the brain to alert the body there is something wrong and to signal pain. You may have been told it’s in your head and you need to relax. Being told to relax is a foreign language to some though. You simply don’t know how to relax. Mindfulness and relaxation techniques should be on your care plan if this resonates with you.
Being mindful is being in the present. It means you have the mind control to redirect your thoughts away from the pain, and onto what’s in front of you. Mindfulness comes with practice. It’s not easy and most people are terrible at it at first. But what happens with practice…you get better.
Relaxation techniques and mindfulness are practices that help teach your nervous system how to respond rather than react. The nervous system isn’t designed to stay in the sympathetic mode, rather it likes to be in the parasympathetic mode (aka rest and digest). In our overstimulated world, though, the parasympathetic mode is hard to maintain without being mindful and intentionally switching it back.
Are there any potential risks or drawbacks to using a care plan for chronic pain?
As with any life change, there will be a ripple effect on the rest of your life. Making intentional wellness changes and incorporating a care plan for chronic pain is not meant to keep your life the same. You need change to get well. So using a care plan for chronic pain is meant to encourage change in all areas of your life.
One of the most significant drawbacks would be the potential for you to feel left out. In our society, social events are centered around food. To feed crowds, the food is usually S.A.D. food and cheap quality. Following a care plan for chronic pain, you would intentionally not eat that food. Although there are many ways around the feelings of being left out, that is a potential drawback.
Another potential drawback is possibly being called a “hippie” or “granola” by your friends. But are they really your friends if they don’t want the best for you and just want to make fun of you? Find your people that won’t say those things. Better yet, find friends that are practicing the same intentional wellness practices so you can find health together.
How can I find a practitioner who specializes in creating care plans for chronic pain?
If you are interested in finding a practitioner who specializes in creating care plans for chronic pain (and don’t want to use me of course), there are several ways to find a qualified practitioner. And if you don’t find one in your area, remember many practitioners practice remotely now so don’t give up. If you do find someone remotely, make sure you will get good quality time with that practitioner and you won’t just be following a program they developed without any one-on-one time (unless you know that going into it and that’s what you’re looking for).
- You can search for the terms Integrative practitioner/dietitian/doctor, functional practitioner/dietitian/doctor, holistic practitioner/dietitian/doctor, or root cause practitioner/dietitian/doctor in your area to see if you have any local practitioners. Searching for a dietitian will ensure you have a strong focus on nutrition and will receive more guidance in this area. Many practitioners will just give a handout and not give individualized guidance on nutrition so make sure you know what you get in advance.
- The Institute for Functional Medicine and the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy both have a practitioner search database. Practitioners who have completed the certification process and have requested their information be shared get listed in the database. Not all practitioners who have completed the training, though, will be listed because usually there is a certification route and a non-certification route. The only difference is a test at the end of the training.
- You can join Facebook groups centered around certain chronic pain topics to ask questions from others that have found healing with the advice from natural medicine practitioners.
Chronic pain can be an overwhelming and persistent challenge, but it doesn’t have to be a lifelong burden.
As we’ve explored in this blog post, understanding the root causes and crafting a personalized care plan is the first step towards relief.
By addressing nutrient deficiencies, gut health, hormonal imbalances, toxins, and your nervous system, you can unlock the path to healing and regain control over your life.
Now, if you’re ready to take the next step and embark on a journey towards a pain-free life, consider working with a functional nutritionist (like me!) Their expertise can guide you through the process of uncovering your unique root causes and developing a care plan tailored to your specific needs. If you’re seeking a holistic approach to wellness, don’t hesitate to reach out to our functional nutritionist, who can provide you with the support and guidance you need on your path to lasting health.
Let’s work together to transform your life and empower you to thrive, free from the shackles of chronic pain.
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