"Putting an end to chronic pain"
-by Roseanna Ellis

When you experience pain and have a basic understanding of why it occurs, then you will realize that pain is not your enemy but actually your friend. Pain is the body's way of communicating a concern it has when you are injured. The problem with a pain stimulus is not the actual injury itself, because the body is quite capable of healing all injuries, but what occurs after the incident especially on an emotional level, which will determine whether or not you will heal, and if so, how quickly. Healing is influenced by your perception of the painful insult which gets encoded into the hard wiring of your brain. Then the brain will react accordingly.

Reflexes are a part of our genetic makeup and are regulated by our autonomic nervous system within the brain. They are electric by nature and react at the speed of light. They are present before we are born. There are many types of reflexes and most disappear shortly after birth. A few remain and stay with us always.

•  The startle reflex, is activated when the brain feels that we are in great danger.

•  The pain or protective reflex occurs when we touch something hot or sharp. This is to protect the tissue from further injury. Just imagine if you reflex was not sharp enough when you touched a very hot stove. You would get a severe burn. Babies learn this rule very fast.

•  The eyes blink in a reflex manner to protect you from hurting them when placed in danger. Remember when you first tried to put in your contacts?

•  Every muscle in your body has a reflex that responds to prolonged stretch or pain.

These reflexes are activated mainly to protect us, but every now and then they can become much more of a hindrance then a help.

The mind plays a huge role on whether or not your injury is going to heal. Remember protective reflexes are activated by the brain. The brain is under the command of your thoughts and perceptions. If your panic when you get injured, you automatically tell the brain to activate the protective reflex. And every time you fear to move the area it will be encoded further into the brain. The brain's motto is “your will is my command”. As time passes and the joint has not been allowed to move, it becomes stiff which creates further problems. This cycle goes on and on creating more pain and more restricted fascia.

Imagine when you were a kid. Everything was perfect in your childhood world. When you were injured your thoughts were not on how much you hurt, but how fast you could get back out there to play with your friends. Your brain was making choices according to your desires and set out the process of healing you very quickly. Now think of what happens when you are injured now that you are much older. Fear of loosing your independence takes precedence over everything. Will you be able to play your favorite sports again? Will I be able to heal? What if I can't be the way I use to be? You worry and worry, and all this time the brain is listening to your thoughts and making a decision for you based on your perception of the event.

Let's say you hurt your lower back or shoulder. Immediately the body will respond by setting out an inflammatory response. The involved muscles and joints will be protected by a mechanism called a protective reflex response. Any attempt to move the area in this acute stage will cause the brain to spontaneously fire a protective reflex response. You will know this because you will feel a sharp pain when you try to move the muscle.

This is why many doctors encourage you to rest the area for about 48 hours following an injury to allow your system to make decisions and adjustments in order to begin the healing process.

If you continue to aggravate the injured tissue by worrying or over use, the protective reflex will be commissioned to continue firing in order to stop you. With repeated firing of this reflex, it may become conditioned to fire each time you attempt to move the area even though the tissue itself has healed. Dr. Pavlov, a famous psychologist, conditioned reflexes in dogs to salivate upon hearing a bell ring. He accomplished this by repetition.

What if the chronic pain you are experiencing now is no longer the results of the injury, but in fact is part of a conditioned reflex? You continually complain of pain and yet the M.R.I. result is negative. The pain killers your doctor order only worked for a while. How frustrating is this for you.

Reflexes can be conditioned to turn on or off by the brain or by outside intervention. There is a therapy out there called Primitive Reflex Release developed my John Iams. He has dedicated over thirty years of his life doing research and treating hyper sensitive or up-regulated reflexes. Doctors and therapists across the nation are flocking to his classes in California to learn this new revolutionary technique that has taken the medical field by storm. I myself have been privileged to attend two of his seminars thus far, and already have seen great results in a short time.

When clients come to see me at my office I first check for up-regulated reflexes that may be interfering with the healing process and may very well be the only cause of their pain. Once I down regulate the reflexes my clients usually experience about a 50% decrease in pain within the first visit. If the reflex alone was responsible for the pain, the client will have a 100% decrease in their pain level. When the reflexes are under control, the body is free to heal itself. Usually it takes anywhere up to about 6 to 8 visits for the reflexes to be de-conditioned, or down-regulated, the muscles stretched and strengthened before the clients can return to their normal activities.