What To Try When You Are In Pain

Over the past week, I've received a handful of notes from people suffering with pain in different areas, including the abdomen, back, hips, and feet.

Beyond the obvious step of getting appropriate rest for an injured body part, it can be remarkably helpful to fast for a good stretch each day as a way of reducing systemic inflammation and allowing the body to devote the bulk of its resources to healing the problematic area.

What does this look like?

From the time you wake up until the time you would normally eat dinner, stay away from all solid foods and have only healthy liquids.

In order from best to still acceptable, these liquids can include:

- Still or sparkling water, any temperature
- Herbal tea
- Broth made with non-starchy vegetables
- Black coffee (best to have no more than 2 cups a day)
- Green juices or other juices low in sugar - this means beet and carrot juices are not good choices
- Organic protein drink with little to no sugar

For dinner, have anything you crave, but keep in mind that your results will be best if you minimize sugar and refined carbohydrates.

In my experience, most people don't realize that an ongoing root cause of pain is regular intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates.  And many underestimate the self-healing capacity of the body and how much we can overcome when we don't have to spend energy digesting solid foods throughout the day.

On such a routine, the vast majority of us are fully capable of living actively.  And a wonderful natural consequence of following such a routine is that it naturally promotes loss of unnecessary adipose tissue throughout the body, including within our organs.

Bloating and abdominal pain often goes away.  Cardiovascular health tends to improve.  Chronic pain in weight-bearing joints can diminish as well, though the extent of improvement depends on how much cartilage still exists between joint surfaces.  

There are some groups of people who may not be able to thrive on such a routine, including people who struggle with eating disorders, those who have some stages of ostepenia or sarcopenia, and those who have ongoing issues with insulin production and blood sugar regulation.  So where there are any doubts about health status and ability to do well on such a routine, it's prudent to consult with your primary care provider.  To be absolutely clear, I recommend that growing children have multiple solid meals a day with sufficient calorie and nutrient intake to fuel healthy growth and development.

Of course there are some conditions that are unlikely to improve with such a program such as dental pain from pulpitis.  But the vast majority of physical injuries and degenerative issues - including those of the nervous and digestive systems - tend to benefit from this routine.