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Chronic Pain Syndrome

CHRONIC PAIN SYNDROME
(From Inflammation and Free Radical Damage)

By Dr. Michael Badanek, BS, DCV, CNS, DACBN, DCBCN, DM(P), Monsignor, Chaplin Hosp.

With 32 years of direct contact of clinical experience treating thousands upon thousands of patients, we have noted similar conditions which in many cases precipitate chronic (long term) pain syndromes. these conditions can include the many areas of spinal pain, joint pains, muscle-ligament-tendon pains, and overall chronic fatigue and weakness of the body as a whole. In many circumstances, these chronic conditions are directly related as a result of lifestyles which in turn cause inflammation and free radical damage to the body as a whole. We stride to educate our patients at our facility on personal behavioral lifestyle changes while actively treating these numerous clinical conditions. With the addition of these personal lifestyle changes incorporated with clinical care received many of these conditions which are inflammatory in nature resolve faster and with long term or permanent relief.

How many patients continually seek care form health care providers for chronic, moderate to severe conditions only to receive temporary relief which last one to three days on average and then must return for additional treatment of the same condition over and over again. One must assume that something was not noted by their treating physicians during this perpetual rollercoaster of events.

Arthur Guyton, MD, in his Textbook of Medical Physiology, dedicates and entire chapter to alkaline balancing, and states that when the body alkaline it converts free radicals to harmless water and oxygen, which maintain energy and vitality. The acid-alkaline balance relates to the chemistry of the body's fluids and tissues as measured by pH.

The cells of the body need a slightly alkaline environment to survive. With a blood pH of 7.365 the cells are in homeostasis and they receive nourishment and release waster with ease.

When you eat, drink and live an acidic lifestyle, your cells and the inner environment become toxic. Your patient's diet and lifestyle choices will either help or harm their delicate pH balance and improve or worsen their clinical outcomes.

Free radicals, inflammation and pH


Understanding the relationship between chronic muscle and joint pain, inflammation and saliva pH is critical for improving outcomes. Most chiropractors agree that the majority of injuries presented at their practices are chronic muscle and joint pain problems.

These problems may be secondary to acute or repetitive stress, but typically they develop from improperly manages inflammation and acid/alkaline imbalances in the body.

A major factor in the formation of chronic inflammation is the presence of free radicals occurring in greater abundance than the body's ability to remove them, frequently referred to as "oxidative stress". Excess acid- forming foods, drinks, and acidic lifestyles in general put an enormous strain on your patient's digestive system, liver, kidneys, and other areas prone to chronic inflammation.

The body's attempt to neutralize all that acid creates even more free radicals, which further damage inflamed tissue cells and steal electrons-your patient's life force-from existing healthy tissues. By integrating a simple saliva-pH test and offering an alkaline, antioxidant, and phytonutrient-rich green drink supplement, you may see improved outcomes and faster healing times.

Monitoring your patient's pH

A simple and accurate way to read a patient's pH is to test his or her saliva. Saliva pH is a reliable body fluid to test outside of the blood, and it can easily be measured using litmus paper strips, which are available in most pharmacies. Many doctors buy small pH-testing kits that contain a small number of test strips (around 15), and a pH color chart to measure results, all enclosed in a small sealed bag.

It's best to have patients track their readings a few times a week for two to three weeks to get a general idea of where they fall on the pH scale. This will give you and the patient a fairly accurate reading of their body chemistry.

Keep in mind that pH operates on a logarithmic scale, meaning that each increase of a single number in either direction away from seven is a multiple of 10. So when your patient's pH moves from seven to six on the scale, that's 10 times more acidic; seven to five is a hundred times more acidic, and so on. Coffee, for example, has a pH of around four and soda a pH of two.

Guyton says it takes 20 molecules of alkalinity to neutralize one molecule of acid, which means when your patients drink one 8ounce glass of cola; it will take 20 8-ounce glasses of water to neutralize it. It's obvious how the Standard American diet (SAD) can produce such devastating effects on your patients' health.

The power of alkalizing the body

Plant-based green foods add alkalinity to the reserves of your patient's body. Barley grass, chlorella, spirulina, and vegetables such as carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, parsley and kale along with fruits like blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, plums, pears and many others flood our bodies with chlorophyll, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and oxygen.

Healthy cells thrive on an alkaline, oxygen-rich plant -based diet, while unhealthy cells or viruses, bacteria, and cancers hate oxygen. Pathogens prefer an acidic diet high in animal products, processed and refined foods, and synthetic chemicals.

When you east a plant-based diet or supplement with an alkaline green drink, you assist the body in maintaining an alkaline aerobic environment. The more oxygen you get in your food, the more health you should experience.

Excessively acidic food creates an unhealthy cellular environment, which increases the change of pathogen growth. Living foods from fruits and vegetables are the most alkaline, oxygen-rich foods you can eat. They are the prescription for optimum health because they still contain their life force.

Alkaline balance and pH testing protocols

Since the majority of injuries in your office are muscle and joint pain related and are chronic in nature from improperly manages inflammation and acid/alkaline imbalances, it's likely that the tissues surrounding the area of main complaint are acidic and loaded with free radicals.

Simply conducting the typical patient workup that includes the main complaint and history along with examination findings should be enough for you to suggest an antioxidant-rich supplement. As part of our routine treatment of inflamed tissues, recommend a change in dietary and lifestyle habits that favor alkalinity.

Knowing that most patients are more interested in getting out of pain than changing their lifestyle habits in the initial phase of care, it seems most prudent and beneficial to consider offering them an easy and simple way to alkalize their bodies and quench free radicals as part of their initial treatment program.

Enzymes to the rescue

Another very important area to address is institution of enzymes to reduce and help eliminate chronic inflammation and free radical damage.

It has been documented that most Americans when reaching ages of 25 to 30 years of age are severely enzyme deficient. These enzymes have a two- fold effect.

1. Helping to properly digest your food

2. Acting as scavengers to help keep the blood and lymphatic tissue free from inflammatory products and free radicals.

We highly recommend our patients to be on specific enzymes while in inflammatory or free radical states to rapidly reduce symptoms while under clinical care.

Educate patients to improve compliance

Most patients, rightly or wrongly, think of chiropractors as neck or back pain doctors. Most patients will have difficulty in connecting their "back pain" to pH (Inflammation) and free radical damage and the benefits of natural nutritional supplements, foods, and enzymes to rapidly reduce presenting symptoms.

Putting it together

In chronic muscle and joint disorders, the presence of chronic inflammation, acid/alkaline imbalance, and oxidative stress in the myofascial tissues are inseparable; you cannot have one without the others. Therefore, to correctly heal chronic muscle and joint problems, monitor a patient's saliva pH and offer antioxidant rich foods, nutrients and enzymes that manages the metabolic factors of chronic inflammation and free radical damage.

Dr. Michael Badanek has been serving the Central Florida, Marion County region for more than 30 years in active clinical practice. Dr. Badanek is a licensed Chiropractic Physician with extensive continued training in alternative Complementary Medicine including nutrition, acupuncture, homeopathy, applied kinesiology, functional and traditional medicine, and electrodermal screening, with three board certifications. His real love and zeal in healthcare is treating patients with all types of conditions with alternative/functional medicine, especially people with a problem or ailment which has not responded to traditional or alternative treatments. Dr. Badanek's website is www.alternativewholistic.com. For a consultation, call 352-622-1151.

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