In the past couple of weeks I have seen the most dramatic change ever in a client’s pain levels. I have known this person for almost three years. He comes weekly or biweekly for massage because of chronic pain.
You’re probably waiting for me to tell you that one hour of Reiki took that pain away and that everyone should try Reiki! Ha ha, yes, I do love Reiki but that isn’t what I was going to say.
It wasn’t a new, breakthrough massage technique, either. Regular massage helped keep his pain at bay. I “knew” what caused the pain in the soft tissue and worked every week to keep it as loose as possible.
The thing is, our muscles and tissues are “tight” for many different reasons. Sometimes there is scar tissue from an injury. Sometimes there are trigger points (knots) from overuse. Sometimes emotional stress keeps the muscles way too tense.
The culprit here, though, was something less obvious, and something that my efforts could never massage away. Ready?
It was sugar. My client, “pre-diabetic” for some time, became sick with dangerously high blood glucose levels. He immediately cut all added sugar from his diet and his blood sugar is now normal. He feels better than ever, has no sugar cravings…and guess what.
Infographic from the website www.ditchthecarbs.com
He is, for all intents and purposes, pain free!
Of course your diet is completely outside my professional scope of practice, but I felt I should share information that might help someone in chronic pain for whom this story might ring true. I’m going to also share a couple of articles from Dr. Mark Hyman, a popular physician and author in the field of Functional Medicine.
As I stated about causes of muscular pain, the causes of disease may be different for each person, even if they have the same diagnosis. That’s why massage doesn’t always work for everyone with back pain and why certain pain relievers work for some people and not others. This is the premise behind Functional Medicine.
Of course massage feels great. Even if you have a problem with chronic inflammation such as that caused by sugar, getting a massage can help to a certain extent. Sometimes, though, seeking other avenues may be necessary to get to the “root of the problem”, as they say. There is so much junk in our food these days. It’s actually not that mysterious or far-fetched that it would be causing pain and other dysfunction. It can be hard to change a long-standing diet, but for some people, it’s well worth the effort.
(I have no relation to Dr. Hyman and nothing to gain from sharing his information. I only hope the information is useful for someone who reads this.)
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