Pain Relief Without Drugs Or Diet Changes
What have you been missing?
I’ve worked at an injury clinic for more than 2 years. One of my biggest frustrations is seeing people who could likely recover faster if they implemented a few lifestyle changes. However, insurance doesn’t cover “that” kind of care so there’s very little intervention in this realm.
If you know my story, I began playing with food back in 2014 because I was chronically stiff with intermittent joint pain. One day I saw a post for a paleo diet and somewhere in the description it said “anti-inflammatory,” and I thought, “Instead of taking anti-inflammatories, what if I simply ate that way instead?”
Before I began playing with my diet I couldn’t walk barefoot because it hurt my feet. If I sat in a chair for 15-20 minutes I’d hobble like an elderly person when I got up to walk. (I was 38.) My entire body felt like it was constantly flexing and the only advice I ever received was to “drink more water.”
Paleo, autoimmune paleo, keto, Wahls paleo, and carnivore: I can tell you for sure that food choices definitely affect how my body feels. Before I went carnivore I ate 9 cups of vegetables (Wahls Protocol) while also eating autoimmune paleo. Because vegetables are “healthy” eh?…
For those who haven’t figured out their food triggers I created a journal to help you with that. It’s not just for joint pain. So often we assume rashes, allergies, headaches, brain fog, and fatigue are normal, or just part of getting older. More often than not, that’s not the case.
Fast forward to today and I’m on track to test for my black belt in Taekwondo this May at the age of 50. Here’s a pic from my last belt test. Not so stiff anymore.
Since I began my self experiment with food I haven’t taken any Tylenol, Ibuprofen, or other anti-inflammatories since 2014. ( I did take aspirin when I had COVID because a PA friend said it was highly important.) In these last 10+ years I’ve broken a tailbone, jammed toes more than once in Taekwondo, knocked knees with opponents, angered my meniscus, and experienced the occasional headache. I’m not saying these things didn’t hurt, they just didn’t hurt like things used to hurt.
As an avid reader I’ve been reading more about pain lately and there are a number of things that modern medicine overlooks.
Wearing The Correct Shoes
Proper body alignment begins with your feet. I’m not talking orthotics and fancy contraptions - contraptions are how many of us got here. I used to buy shoe inserts because that’s what we’re led to believe we’re supposed to do.
The first problem is that traditional shoes don’t allow our toes to expand when we walk. Then we put a heel on everything, including your athletic shoes, which is where many postural distortions begin.
Structurally people experience pain and discomfort when their body is out of alignment with gravity. When you’re wearing heels, even if they’re minor, they affect your ankles, knees, hips, back, and neck.
Many of the barefoot shoe brands with zero drop can run somewhere in the ballpark of $100. I found these on Amazon. Typically I wear a women’s 12 narrow but these 10 wide in men’s fit me perfectly. I think if you had a wider foot you could loosen the laces a bit. I’m not sure how ultra wide feet would do, but I think these would work for most people. As I write this they’re currently $44.
Grounding For Pain Relief - The Schumann Resonance
The sun transfers electrons to the upper atmosphere. When lightning occurs these ions are discharged to the ground keeping the Earth full of negatively charged energy. This process is what helps create the Schumann Resonance.
As you might remember from science class opposites attract. When our bare skin touches the Earth we soak up these electrons through the fascia (connective tissue) network of the body. These electrons become available to our mitochondria (power house of the cell) in any cell that needs it.
Why does this matter? Increasing our charge decreases our chances of developing inflammation and pain. [1, 2] If you’ve ever experienced muscle soreness after a workout grounding could help alleviate that pain. [3] Massage therapists also reduced their inflammation and were able to work without pain by grounding. [4]
The concept of human health being boosted by direct electrical contact with the earth is well over a century old, being suggested first by Louise Kuhne in 1892 in his book The New Science of Healing [5], then echoed by Adolf Just in 1897 in his book The Return To Nature [6]
Non Native EMFs & Pain
We used to live more naturally with the world making contact with our bare feet, sleeping under the stars, and dirt in our hands. Today we’re not only surrounded by plastic soles on our shoes and synthetic fabrics (plastic), there are also cell phone towers and Wi-Fi signals everywhere. We’re cutting off the beneficial frequencies I just mentioned and introducing foreign frequencies.
I’m fortunate in that there’s a place I like to go where there are no cell towers but it’s about 3 hours away. In my experience it takes about a day before I feel differently. If I had to describe it - it feels like the vibration in my cells finally settles. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a massage therapist for nearly 25 years, but I feel these sorts of things.
What does the science say?
Non native EMFs increase oxidative stress which increases the number of free radicals. [7] These foreign frequencies affect the voltage gated calcium channels in our cells causing this oxidative damage. [8] When minerals like calcium end up where they’re not supposed to be it affects the charge of the body which in turn creates inflammation. [1]
While hiring a building biologist to evaluate your home for EMFs would be the best solution there are other measures you can take.
Don’t hold your devices on or near your body: phone, tablet, laptop etc
Buy an outlet timer and turn off your Wi-Fi when you go to bed
Decide to hard wire everything in your house instead of using Wi-Fi
Install a kill switch to cut the power to your bedrooms while you sleep (that’s where you’ll spend the most time
Next Level
Begin switching to natural fabrics in your wardrobe and bed linens.
A healthy human body registers a frequency of 100, but a very diseased body has a frequency of 15.
Signature frequencies different fabrics: [9]
Linen: 5,000
Wool: 5,000
Mixed linen and wool: 0… it appears that the frequencies cancel each other out. Perhaps this accounts for the ancient instructions not to mix these fabrics.
Organic cotton – 100
Cotton – 70
Silk – 15
Polyester – 15
Rayon – 15
What Does Jen Do?
My Wi-Fi is on a timer so it turns off at night
I have linen sheets on my bed
I love wearing wool
This year I’m working on getting rid of synthetic fabrics
I don’t own a microwave
I don’t wear sunglasses
I walk barefoot to the mailbox
Sources
[1] Dr. Stephen Hussey, Pain Sense: Revolutionary Insights Into Human Physiology And How It Helps Us Understand And Eliminate Chronic Pain
[2] Koniver L. (2023). Practical applications of grounding to support health. Biomedical journal, 46(1), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2022.12.001
[3] Brown D, Chevalier G, Hill M. Pilot study on the effect of grounding on delayed-onset muscle soreness. J Altern Complement Med. 2010;16(3):265-273. doi:10.1089/acm.2009.0399
[4] Chevalier G, Patel S, Weiss L, Chopra D, Mills PJ. The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Bodyworkers' Pain and Overall Quality of Life: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Explore (NY). 2019;15(3):181-190. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2018.10.001
[5] Kuhne L. 1892. New science of healing; p. 458. [Google Scholar]
[6] Newton J.F. Pub. Union; 1897. The return to nature. [Google Scholar]
[7] Schuermann D, Mevissen M. Manmade Electromagnetic Fields and Oxidative Stress—Biological Effects and Consequences for Health. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2021; 22(7):3772. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22073772
[8] Santini, Silvano Junior, Cordone, Valeria, Falone, Stefano, Mijit, Mahmut, Tatone, Carla, Amicarelli, Fernanda, Di Emidio, Giovanna, Role of Mitochondria in the Oxidative Stress Induced by Electromagnetic Fields: Focus on Reproductive Systems, Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2018, 5076271, 18 pages, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5076271
[9] https://empoweredsustenance.com/frequency-of-fabric/
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