Alternative Ways to Assist Pain and Help with Pain Management

Posted on February 12, 2018September 3, 2019 by Andrew Orr

After my recent posts of the management of pain, pain medications and how pain affects so many people lives daily, it is pretty clear that there are lots of people out there in pain.

Worst still it highlights what I have known for many years, is that many people who are in pain, or have inflammatory pain conditions, are not being managed really well.

Unfortunately many are also trying to manage their own pain conditions and may even be dependent on pain medications. Some of these medications taken long term may in fact be exacerbating their current symptoms, or actually making their pain and inflammation worse. Some of the medications may in fact by shutting off the body’s ability to know that it isn’t actually in pain anymore, but the body actually thinks it is.

It is such vicious never ending cycle for many people and there seems to be no long-term, or short term, solutions for many who have to endure the physical and emotional consequences of all these things combined.

The one thing for sure, is that pain often isn’t managed well and there need to be more done to help those in pain. But, it also requires those in pain to seek proper help too. Again it is a bit of complex issue and many in pain often get dismissed initially as well, or are looked at as people who are dependent on pain medications just seeking more pain meds.

Pain does need proper management and if pain is not managed properly, it can do more damage than the medications health professionals, and the person in pain, are worrying about. But sometimes the blanket pain medication treatments don’t work, or they just aren’t enough, and this is why when it comes to pain, it need to be managed with a multi-modality approach.

It really cannot just be all about taking medication, or telling people to just go and learn to live with their pain and all will be OK. It won’t be OK and we need to start to educate all concerned that there other options that may assist the current medical treatments and management strategies.

Let’s look at some of the alternatives to pain medications and how these things can help assist those in pain and can be used alongside medications to give better control of pain and also help in reducing dependency of pain medications.

1.Watch your diet

Eating the right foods may provide some protection from the symptoms of pain and the disease state that you may have. The role of diet in inflammatory conditions has been investigated in recent years due to the influence of diet on some of the processes linked to certain disease states that are causing pain and inflammation on a daily basis. Many of the so called anti-inflammatory diets out there are now outdated and have outdated nutritional and dietary advice that don’t really help much at all.

Adopting a low GI and anti-inflammatory diet may help to assist with settling any inflammation and pain in the body and also help the immune system. A healthy diet also needs to include prebiotic and probiotic bacteria to help with digestive function, immunity and gut health. Regulation and restoration of gut function and the microbiome is so important and assisting with pain and inflammatory conditions.

Excess bad carbohydrates increase insulin response and this then causes the body to store fats and stops the burning of fat. This also leads to inflammatory conditions and more inflammation in the body. Excess body fat, now known as obestrogens (because it is estrogenic) needs to be controlled and managed through diet and exercise too. Excess fat and excess weight all lead to inflammation and stress on the body and this can also exacerbate pain and pain pathway.

Certain environmental estrogens, known as endocrine disruptors, such as preservatives, plastics, pesticides and insecticides that can be ingested through certain nutrients have been suggested as risk factors for exacerbating pain and creating inflammation in the body too

2.Try complementary medicine and complementary therapies

Many people with pain and inflammatory disease states find symptom relief from using a range of different complementary and alternative medicines. There is some good solid research to show that some natural medicines may help with the management of pain and inflammatory disease states and the associated symptoms.

There is now some good research to support many natural medicines treatments such as Acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, vitamins, omega 3 oils, probiotics, chiropractic/osteopathy, Yoga, Pilates and more. (1)

When it comes to assisting pain, Acupuncture and Chinese medicines has been one of the most researched complementary medicines. There is some good research and evidence to shown that acupuncture and Chinese medicine may assist those suffering pain and chronic inflammatory disease and their associated symptoms, alongside medical interventions. (1,2,3,4)

Acupuncture has been widely researched to assist with many pain conditions and is now even used in some emergency departments around the world, for acute and chronic pain. (4)

Certain strains of prebiotics and probiotics have also been shown to help with the immune system, microbiome, bowel, and digestive associated symptoms of some pain conditions. Probiotics have also been shown to not only help with digestive and immune function, but also with the psychological function as well. It does need to be specific strains of probiotics though. Correction of the microbiome, but using pre and probiotics may assist in reduction of inflammation in the body and thus assist with pain and painful disease states.

There are also western herbal medicines and naturopathic herbal formulations that can assist with pain and assist with pain management. There are also certain amino acids and nutritional medicine supplements that have been shown to assist with managing pain and inflammatory conditions. Like any conditions, management need to be done on an individualised approach and what works for one person, may not work for another.

Chiropractic and Osteopathy have been used for centuries to assist with pain and pain conditions. By correction of the sublaxations and correction of posture, this can assist in better nerve functioning, better blood flow to muscles and also help with pain reduction and reducing inflammation.

Just like with medical treatments, when it comes to complementary medicines, it is important to find someone who is a qualified practitioner and who specialises in pain management. Just like in the medical model, this can also be hard to find. Please find someone who is a registered healthcare practitioner, or part of an association for qualified healthcare practitioners.

3.Boost intake of omega-3 fatty acids

The is lots of research on the health benefits of taking Omega 3 fatty acids and a diet high in these healthy fats. Omega 3 fatty acids may assist many inflammatory conditions such as depression, cardiovascular disease, arthritic conditions and many conditions where inflammatory processes are then leading to pain.

Researchers have also found that the type of fat included in your diet makes a difference in your risk factors for inflammation and pain conditions. Studies have shown that people whose diets were heavily laden with trans fats increased their risk of the expression of inflammatory disease by 48 % when compared with individuals who ate the least of these. By comparison, women whose diets were rich in omega-3 oils lowered their risk of inflammatory conditions by 22 % compared with those who consumed the least amount.

Eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, flaxseeds, almonds, and walnuts, may be helpful for pain and inflammatory conditions. Another way to get Omega 3 fatty acids is through supplementation, but please make sure you are using a practitioner only grade omega 3 supplement to ensure higher potency and better quality control. Just remember, it is all about reducing inflammation.

4.Exercise

Often, people who experience pain fear exercising, in case it causes more problems for them. But over time, regular physical activity may decrease the pain and discomfort that you feel. High-intensity exercise and resistance training may assist in helping to reduce the reducing the symptoms of pain and reducing inflammation in the body.

While resistance training and high intensity interval training may assist in pain management and reducing inflammation in the body, some of the more gentle forms of exercise, such as Yoga and Pilates, may also assist in reducing pain and inflammatory response in the body too.

Yoga and Pilates can stretch and strengthen your muscles, help with core strength, help with circulation, which all may be beneficial for pelvic pain management and stress reduction.There has been lots of research into the benefits of Yoga and Pilates and how it can assist pain and inflammation.

No matter what exercise, you choose, exercise may help those with pain and inflammation in many ways, including:

encouraging the circulation of blood to your organs
maintaining nutrients and oxygen flow to all your body systems
assist with decreasing pain and inflammatory response
assist with reducing stress
releasing endorphins in the brain, which are pain-relieving, “feel good” chemicals

Research has shown that those who engage in some sort of regular exercise have fewer symptoms of pain and less inflammation that those people who do not participate in regular exercise.

5.Managing Stress Levels

Stress and emotional factors are probably one of the most under rated causes of pain and inflammatory response. Stress and emotional factors, such as anxiety, are big factors in any disease and can make any disease worse. Have a read of my post all about anxiety exacerbating pain.
Not only can stress and emotional disorders be exacerbated by pain and inflammation, but so can pain and inflammatory symptoms be exacerbated by stress and emotional disorders, in a never-ending cycle.

Pain and inflammation could contribute to making your stress levels, or emotion issues worse, due to the impact that the associated symptoms have on all aspects of your life, including family and personal relationships and work.

Stress management, Counselling, Mindfulness and Relaxation techniques may all assist in reducing stress and emotional disturbances that exacerbates inflammation and pain pathways and painful conditions.

People with pain and chronic pain and inflammation need to manage stress and anxiety by using mindfulness and relaxation techniques. These can help you to increase your awareness of your body, refocus on something calming, and reduce the activity of stress hormones and inflammation in the body. It is all about learning coping mechanisms and what works best for you, not what works best for others.

6.TENS and Neuromodulators

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is an inexpensive nonpharmacological intervention used in the treatment of acute and chronic pain conditions. These small battery-powered devices deliver alternating current via cutaneous electrodes positioned near the painful area. The parameters of pulse frequency, and pulse intensity are adjustable and linked to TENS efficacy. TENS activates a complex neuronal network to result in a reduction in pain

Neuromodulation is the process by which nervous activity is regulated by way of controlling the physiological levels of several classes of neurotransmitters. Many pain management specialist now use a common form of neuromodulation involves using a device to deliver electrical current in therapeutic doses to the spinal cord to disrupt pain signals from the spinal cord to the brain, converting them to a more pleasant tingling sensation. This has been proven a safe and effective therapeutic approach for managing chronic pain of the arms and legs, neck and back often after spine surgery, or for other neuropathic conditions.

In Summary

It is important to know that people with pain and disease states that are causing chronic pain, will need a multi-modality, or team approach to deal with this disease.

The team you need and modalities that you will need will be dependent on your individual symptoms. This will mean finding practitioners who will listen to you and also be open to trying some of the alternatives to some of the pain medications and opiates alongside pharmaceutical medications.

As I said before, these alternatives may assist in treating your pain and managing your pain long term and also help with reducing some of the pain medications you may have been dependent on. Try and find healthcare professionals that can offer you a multi-modality approach for ongoing care and support and who also have a team of other people who specialise in the disease you are suffering from too. Again, the approach that you and your pain management specialist, or healthcare provider, choose to take will vary depending on your signs and symptoms.

Before starting any pain management, or new treatment, it is important to know all of your options and the potential outcomes of all of them and to know that the people that you are seeing are specialists in your condition and know how to manage the disease properly. That can often be the hardest thing to find and why you need to do your homework and see people who are specialists in this area of medicine. Too many people are missed and dismissed purely because they are just seeing the wrong people in the first place.

Lastly, if you are in pain and have a pain condition, please do not try and keep managing it yourself, or try to self-medicate. You need to be managed properly and should be getting the advice of a professional, not your friends, family or social media buddies.

Pain needs to be managed and it needs to be managed properly and this also goes for pain medications as well. If you are still in pain and pain symptoms are getting worse, this means that you need to get something done about it because your disease may in fact be getting worse, or your body may not be responding to medication any longer.

Take care

Regards

Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate

References

1.Xue CCL, Zhang TL, Lin V, Myers R, Polus B, Story DF. Acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy use in Australia: a national population survey. BMC Public Health. 2008;8:105–112. [PMC free article][PubMed] [Google Scholar]

2. Zhu X, Hamilton KD, McNicol ED. Acupuncture for pain in endometriosis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011;9:CD007864. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

3.Zheng Z, Xue CL. Pain research in complementary and alternative medicine in Australia: a critical review. J Altern Complement Med. 2012;19:81–91. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

4.Zhang AL, Parker SJ, Smit DV, Taylor DM, Xue CCL. Acupuncture and standard emergency department care for pain and/or nausea and its impact on emergency care delivery: a feasibility study. Acupunct Med. 2014;32:250–256. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Lets Talk About Pain, Pain Medication, Dependency, Detox & Withdrawal Symptoms

Posted on February 5, 2018September 2, 2019 by Andrew Orr

Previously I have done a post on over the counter pain medicines and how that as of February 2018, that some of these codeine based pain medicines, will now no longer be available over the counter in Australia. I know that in other parts of the world, these medications are not available over the counter anyway and in some countries even paracetamol is not available as readily as it is here in Australia.

The post surely did get people talking and it surely highlighted some very important points. It also highlighted how many people are in pain daily and something that I have known for a long time.

I actually know that pain and people with pain conditions, aren’t managed very well. It also highlighted that many people are self managing pain conditions and that many do not realise that they in fact dependent on medications, alcohol and other drugs.

Many also do not realise that the pain and symptoms they are experiencing daily, may in fact be withdrawal and dependence symptoms from their medications and substances they are using, including alcohol, and may have nothing to do with their condition at all. It is a very complex issue and there needs to be more education around this very sensitive issue.

Now, before we get started and before anyone tries to bring the personal/emotional side of things into this, I need to be very clear on this and set some boundaries up front. I need everyone to listen to this, so it is clear and that what I am about to say is coming from personal experience, clinical experience and someone who cares and is just trying to help with the right advice and right education around this issues.

So before we start I need to get a few things straight

I have lived with a painful condition and have used pain medication and been dependent on pain medications. I have also withdrawn off pain medications
I have loved ones who have pain conditions, who suffer daily and have also used pain medications to get through their day. Also know many of these have learned to manage and overcome their disease and pain too.
People in pain, need help to get out of pain and pain medications are one way of doing this
Many people who are in pain are actually dependent on pain medications and are completely unaware that they are dependent
It is completely OK to take pain medication when someone is in pain. It just needs to be monitored a little better than it has been in the past.
Please take the personal out of this and just sit back and listen
I am not here to judge, or attack anyone
This post is purely from heart, from caring and also about helping people with education so that they can get help if they need to
The first part of any change and getting help is admitting you have an issue, or a problem, in the first place.
The is no guilt, shame, or anything wrong with admitting you have a problem, or a dependency
For the sake of this post I am going to used the word “Dependency”, rather than the words “Abuse” or “Addict”
Perception is reality and sometimes ones perception is not reality, or based on all the facts
Not all pain is from the withdrawal of medications either, but some of it could be.
We are here to support people and care for people, not attack them. Anyone found attacking another on any posts surrounding this subject, will be deleted.
Lastly, to get help, you need to see a qualified healthcare practitioner and you should only ever rely on information from a qualified health expert, not from your friends, your support groups, or anyone without a proper qualification in things to do with medical, medicines, or health conditions.

Right, now we have set the boundaries and we are clear, we can move forward and I can start explaining about pain, pain medications, pain pathways and also withdrawal symptoms

Before I start, I need everyone to open, his or her, minds a bit and think of how you feel when you have had some alcohol. Let’s not forget that alcohol is a drug and it can make you feel good initially and then not so good if you have a few glasses, or more. You can also become dependent on it too, and yes, it can be abused.

So, say you have a few glasses of alcohol, how do you feel while you are consuming it and shortly after?

This is for the average person, but most people would feel a little warm and tingling and feel quite good wouldn’t they?

But, even with a few glasses, would you necessarily wake up OK the next morning?

Some people might wake up semi OK, some might feel a little less than OK?

For some, a few are nothing because they are used to having way more. Some of these people may in fact be dependent and actually have an alcohol dependency.

So, say you have more than a few glasses of alcohol, how might you feel the next morning?

More than likely you may feel a little dusty, or for some, you may in fact have what we all know to be a hangover… is that correct?

You might feel really tired, irritable, nauseas, sore, have a headache, or a really bad head that feels like it might explode, and all the senses are just a little on hyper-drive and you would feel a little off??

Now that we are clear that alcohol can give you a hangover and make you a bit sick and that alcohol is in fact a drug, let me ask you this?

If alcohol is a drug and it can give you a hangover, even after one night of taking it, and taking just a few glasses of it, then why would not a medication, that can produce all the initial effects of alcohol, then not cause you a “Hangover Effect” the next day as well????

Just have a think about that for one second and let it really sink in.

Hmmmm, what are you thinking now?

Well, I am sure this is where we get some people going “But, but, but!”

Well there are no “But’s”. This is the hard but honest truth. Any drug, being prescription, over the counter, off the street and illegal, can cause you a withdrawal and hangover effect. Also, the longer you take those drugs, the more you take them etc, the more you need to take and the more dependent you become on them.

This doesn’t mean I don’t get why people take these medications. I do get it and I get all the reasons behind it too. This is just to explain everything logically and properly to people so that they also get that they may not be managed properly and that they may also be dependent on medications, which are actually in the long term, making all their symptoms worse, or actually causing the ones they have now.

Just so people don’t forget, please go back to points 1 and point 2 in the ground rules I set before. I have lived with pain and I have loved ones who are in pain and yes, I have taken pain medications and so have my loved ones.

Ok, so we are now all on the same page and are clear here, yes, many of the medications that people are taking daily, or periodically, or once off, or chugging down by the packet load, or are actually causing them rebound symptoms and withdrawal symptoms, when those drugs wear off.

We also need to recognise that some people are only taking medications every so often, when they need them too and this is more for people who are medication daily, or frequently. But even still, people do need to be away of rebound symptoms from taking medications, even periodically.

When we talk about “withdrawal” and “rebound symptoms”, let’s all go back to the alcohol story. We know that the hangover symptoms occur because of a rebound and withdrawal affect from the alcohol messing with the symptom, causing dehydration, causing inflammation and then causing all manner of symptoms from nausea, headaches, tiredness and even muscle and joint pain. The same goes for when you take any pain medications, especially those that are opiates, or contain codeine, or convert to morphine in the body.

Are we all getting this yet??

Right, then lets move on.

Now, the longer you take a medication the more your body gets used to it and the more that you may have to take to get that same therapeutic affect on the body and the pain that you are trying to manage. But, the more you have to take, the more dependent you become on that medication and the more worse you are going to feel when the medication wears off and tries to leave the body. Then it is going to take longer to ween off the medication, when you finally realise that you are dependent and that you need to so something about it. That is if you have that realisation, or finally admit there may be an issue.

One of the things that I have mentioned many times before, is that sometimes the body has been in pain that long, that the body doesn’t realise that it isn’t in pain any longer, that you also need to turn that response off, because it has actually become a habit, rather than the body actually still being in pain.

The other issue is that the pain medications may in fact now be what are causing the pain, through rebound symptoms and withdrawal. This one is a bit tricky to explain to people, but in essence what we need to do is actually tell the body it isn’t in pain any longer, so that it switches off that response in the brain. To do that we need to detox an individual and then see what pain really does exist still and then manage those remaining symptoms. I will talk about proper medical detox further in the post.

Now let’s look at how pain medications, opiates and some elicit drugs work

Pain medications, Opiates and other pain relieving drugs, all change the way the brain responds to pain and they can also produce a “high” feeling by disrupting the reward and pleasure centres in the brain. This is why they can make you feel a bit stoned, or a bit light headed and why you should not drive, or operate machinery etc, while you are taking them.

They can dehydrate and constipate you too, so this is why you should only take as directed and also make sure you drink enough water, take some electrolytes and take it easy too. Let’s not forget the serious side effects of medications that can put overload on your liver and other vital organs and actually shut them down, if taken for long enough, or in a super high dose.

The central nervous system, which includes the brain, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, has opioid and pain medication receptors that receive opiate drugs and other pain medications, and these drugs bring a variety of physical and emotional effects. Your heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and body temperature are usually all lowered while pleasant feelings are increased. It can cause the opposite effect too, where some people get hyper-activated responses too.

Repeated use, or abuse, of pain medications, or an opioid drug, can actually change the way an individual’s brain chemistry works and then lead to physical and psychological dependence. The body may not feel “normal” anymore without the drug’s interaction, and withdrawal symptoms may start in between doses or when an individual stops taking the pain medication, or drug they are on.

What Are Pain Medication, Drugs and Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms?

Certain over the counter medications (such as codeine based meds), prescription painkillers, Opiates and heroin, can produce withdrawal symptoms just hours after the last dose, and the symptoms can last for a week or more. Sometimes these symptoms can be minor, but many times they can cause all manner of symptoms, which I will list below in detail.

Some symptoms can be major and unassisted withdrawal may, or may not be life-threatening. When someone doesn’t withdraw properly it can also lead to relapse and further dependence on a medication, or drug. Medications and therapy, accessed in medical detox, may make relapse less likely. I’ll talk about why it is necessary to do a proper medical detox first, before seeing practitioners outside the medical detox model.

What Are Pain Medication ad Drug Dependency Symptoms?

Pain medication and drug withdrawal symptoms can last about a week, or even longer for some, and may include:

Irritability
Agitation
Depression
Muscles aches
Insomnia
Thoughts of suicide
Anxiety
Inability to concentrate
Diarrhoea
Bowel Pain and Rectal Pressure
Severe bloating
Fluid Retention
Sweating
Body aches
Runny nose
Headaches
High blood pressure
Irregular heartbeat
Many other symptoms not mentioned here

Detox and Withdrawal Duration

Withdrawal is the collection of side effects that occur when a drug is removed from the brain and body of someone who is dependent on it, while detox is the actual removal of the drug itself.

Withdrawal symptoms can last anywhere from a couple of days to up to a week or longer. For most pain medications and prescription opiates, withdrawal symptoms take shape 8-12 hours after the last dose and it peaks in the first 72 hours. The time within the withdrawal period depends on the medication, or drug taken. This is where rebound symptoms can occur.

The first week of withdrawal is typically the worst, but some symptoms may actually last longer. Symptoms typically last up to one month, but can linger for several months. Some effects can be permanent if there is a genuine abuse of a medication. Symptoms that can last longer than one week include tiredness, muscles aches and tiredness, depression, anxiety, and trouble with sleeping.

This diagram shows the withdrawal of these medications and time frames of side effects from withdrawal after the last dose is taken.

Medical Detox

Detox may begin before withdrawal symptoms start and while the drug is still active in the body. This way the drug can be safely removed. During medical detox, individuals are monitored around the clock for 5-7 days, vital signs are continually checked, and medications may be used to control more difficult withdrawal symptoms.

If an individual is heavily dependent on pain medications, opiates, or took large amounts of the drug for a long time, or has a family or personal history of addiction, medical detox may last up to 10 days. Medical detox ensures that an individual is stable before moving on with a comprehensive substance dependence treatment and management program.

Relapse after a proper detox can increase the risk for a potentially life-threatening overdose since the brain and body may not be used to the same amount of drugs that was used before. Each year around 30,000 people worldwide die each year as the result of a prescription pain reliever overdose.

Each year around 500,000 people worldwide seek emergency department treatment for a reaction to the abuse, or dependency of pain medications or drugs to help with pain. By decreasing pain medication side effects and dependency on these medications as drugs, an individual may be less prone to seek out these same pain medications and drugs again after detox. Medical detox can help sustain abstinence and potentially prevent a tragic, relapse-related consequence.

While there are non-medical forms of detox, I wouldn’t recommend someone doing these until a proper medical detox is done. Proper support and around the clock care is needed in the initial stages of a proper detox and this really cannot be provided out in private practice, or by complementary medicine practitioners during this initial stage.

I am all for people seeing natural medicine practitioners and using natural medicines but this needs to be done after the initial medical detox. That first phase needs 24-hour care, medicines, psychological care and so many things that would be really hard to find out in a non-medical environment. There are some specialised centres that use a multimodality approach, using medical science and complementary medicines, but these are few and not always cheap to access either.

Sure, after the initial medical side of things, go your hardest and you should be seeking natural alternatives to pain medications and looking and diet and lifestyle choices to help deal with pain. You should also be seeking alternatives to pain medications and seeking therapies that can help manage your pain, such as acupuncture, herbal medicines, pilates, yoga, counselling etc.

All these things are important for ongoing care and helping deal with disease states and ongoing pain. But if you have reached the point where you are dependent on a medication, or drug, you are going to need lots of help and you will need help with proper detox first. Please, do not think that those packet over the counter detoxes from a chemist etc, are a proper detox. They are just a herbal laxative that cleans out your bowel. Always speak to a qualified professional to get proper advice about detox and microbiome restore.

Having lived with pain and having actually properly detoxed off meds years ago, it wasn’t until I was off all meds and things managed properly while detoxing, that I realised that some of my daily pain, was actually withdrawal effect of my pain meds. I don’t think many people realise that this happens and all the nausea and migraines and headaches and increased pain, is actually withdrawal.

Only once pain is managed well, a proper medical detox done and then a plan put in place, do people realise how much the meds were actually part of their daily struggle and it was all withdrawal. Then you can use proper pain management strategies and alternatives for pain and also preventative strategies too.

I hope this has given you all a better insight into pain, pain medications and withdrawal symptoms and if you aren’t being managed properly for your pain and pain condition, then you need to talk to your healthcare professional about this. Everyone’s pain and pain symptoms are going to be different, even if they have the same disease state, or inflammatory condition. This is why individual treatment plans are much more effective than a treating the masses approach.

I’ll do a separate post of some alternative to pain medications and drugs shortly, as it is whole post in itself. I will be collaborating with integrative medicine practitioner and mindfulness expert Rosa Bunn on this topic.

In the meantime have a read of my post about me knowing what it is like to live with pain

https://drandreworr.com.au/knowing-all-too-well-what-it-is-like-to-live-with-pain/

I have written quite a few articles on pain and pain management and I urge you all to have a read of them all, so that it gives you some understanding of where I am coming from and also some helpful pain management strategies

Take care and if you do need help and assistance with pain and pain management you can always come and see me and book in a proper consultation and I can help you and point you in the right direction too.

Sometimes we all need a little help in the right direction and sometimes the first step is admitting you have a problem in the first place. Oh, yes, I also get that many of you have been missed and dismissed also and this is why you are where you are now.

Telling it how it is and keeping it real. I get it and I understand.

Regards

Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate

Acne Can Be a Major Sign That You Have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)

Posted on January 30, 2018September 2, 2019 by Andrew Orr

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common reproductive/endocrine disorder — and most common cause of infertility — affecting 9 -18% of women around the world. One of the major signs that you may have PCOS is acne on the face, or other parts of your body. Many women will have this one symptom overlooked and then have a major reproductive/endocrine disorder overlooked as well.

Despite the prevalence of this chronic condition, one-third of women diagnosed with PCOS saw at least three health professionals over the course of two years before receiving a diagnosis, according to a study from the University of Pennsylvania.

Polycystic Ovaries (PCO) is a characterised by multiple cystic growths on the ovaries. In large it is an endocrine and hormonal disorder, but it has potential to cause gynaecological and reproductive issues and these issues can be varied. Women with PCOS may not have cystic formation and just have symptoms that are part of the syndrome only (eg-acne, irregular cycle). PCO and PCOS really are two different conditions, but now they are both put under the one title of PCOS and this actually isn’t correct.

Some women only have the cysts (PCO), while others have no cysts but have the syndrome (PCOS). Some have both. The one thing that they all have in common is that they all have insulin resistance. The other thing we know is that there is usually a family member with the same condition whom has passed the condition on genetically. Often the family member passing on the genetic traits, doesn’t even know that have the condition in the first place.

Recent studies have shown that there are “major gaps” in education and support for women with these conditions (PCO and PCOS). We see the same thing with other gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis and Adenomyosis and why these conditions can take up to a decade to be diagnosed properly

As a Reproductive Medicine and Women’s Health practitioner I see these same issues with so many women waiting years to get a proper diagnosis and they have seen multiple healthcare professionals in both the medical and complementary medicine profession. It also creates confusion and anxiety for women who just want an answer to their condition and are not being diagnosed properly and also getting conflicting advice and treatment in the interim.

The signs and symptoms of PCOS are very clear and easily diagnosed, but many healthcare professionals end up focussing on one symptom, while overlooking the bigger picture and then these poor women get their condition missed.

Acne is one of the major signs of having PCOS and many women have his overlooked, or unaware that they may have a condition that could affect their fertility later on.

If a woman presents with Acne, irregular periods etc, I know there is a very good chance that she could have, or actually has PCOS.

The problem for these women, as explained before is that healthcare providers and placing too much emphasis on only one of these symptoms, which is usually the Acne, or just that the cycle is irregular. Then women are then put on the Pill and these symptoms are masked for years, until they try and have a child and have difficulty doing so.

The other issue is that the acne is often the focus, due to vanity reasons, and this is also why the many of the treatments for the acne are not working, because they are failing to treat the root cause of the issue. It just becomes one big vicious circle that goes round and round until someone finally diagnoses the actual cause properly.

Women with PCOS also have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, metabolic syndrome and anxiety and depression, and studies have shown that the longer it takes for the condition to be diagnosed, the longer the patients condition begins to affect both their physical, emotional and reproductive health

The most common signs of PCOS are:

Absent, Irregular and Inconsistent menstrual periods,
Acne
Excess hair growth (some women can have hair loss too)
Central obesity

But many women with PCOS are of normal body weight and can actually be underweight too. It can affect women of any shape, weight or size. Some women with PCOS have regular menstrual cycles and can be fairly asymptomatic (meaning no symptoms) too

Just like endometriosis, women with PCOS are often missed and dismissed and the impact this has can be significant psychologically and also significant on their future fertility. There needs to be better health professional resources and international dissemination to improve diagnosis, education, management and reproductive and health outcomes.

I am always saying to healthcare professionals (medical and complementary medicine) that if you don’t know how to do your job properly, you don’t know how to diagnose conditions like PCOS or Endometriosis properly, or it is out of your scope of practice, get out of the way and refer these women onto people who are trained to diagnose and manage these conditions properly.

Lets, help put and end to PCOS and also put an end to Endometriosis and other inflammatory gynaecological conditions as well. Let’s break the silence and help women get the diagnosis and care they need. Early intervention and treatment is crucial for any disease state and let’s help women get this care sooner.

Take care

Regards

Andrew Orr

-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate

-No Stone Left Unturned

-The Women’s Health Experts

Calling Out The BS Misinformation About Fat Loss

Posted on January 3, 2018September 2, 2019 by Andrew Orr

The reason I am writing this post is that I have had many people contact me about losing weight and getting healthy for their New Year’s resolution. It is that time after all.

But, I have also had some people close to me tell me they have diabetes and other health issues that could significant impact their health and shorten their lives. All of these people have completely preventable diseases and would not be there if their diet and lifestyle was in better shape.

It is that time of year again and it seems to be when most people tend to throw out the healthy habits and adopt some not so healthy ones. Many convince themselves that it is “OK” because it is just for a little while, but the truth is that this altered state of perception often leads into weeks and possibly months of overindulgence and bad eating habits. Then New Year’s Eve comes and people go on the roller coaster guilt trip of needing to be healthy to bring in the New Year.

While it may be OK to eat a few unhealthy things for the day of Christmas, having it every day over the festive season could turn into a nasty habit that could have long term implications on one’s health. Add in some alcohol everyday and all those bad carbs and the weight (namely fat) can pile on very quickly indeed. This could be especially true if excess fat is stored and the exercise stops and next thing you know that you have a years worth of fat to try and get rid of. Worse still, some people are eating like this every day and not exercising and putting on more inflammatory fat and not realising they are a ticking time bomb. These people then have a lifetime of fat to get rid of and that is not going to be an overnight fix by any means.

So many people always try to convince themselves that a little bit of this, or that, won’t hurt. That is absolute rubbish. Yes, a little bit of this and that won’t hurt if you have reached your optimum weight, got rid of all the bad fat around your body, and reached your health goals. Sure. But if you are already overweight, have excess tummy fat etc, yes, that little bit just set you back big time. Excess fat= inflammation.

Excess fat is also estrogenic and part of the reason obesity also unbalances hormones, causes inflammation in all the cells, decreases fertility, but also puts you at increased risk of many of the cancers we get as humans. We will talk about that in later posts.

Before you start making excuses and trying to plead your fat loss case, you might want to stop for a second and actually listen to some cold hard facts and from a qualified healthcare professional, not your next door neighbour pushing the next multi-level marketed shake diet scam. You need to put down your degrees in Dr Google and tell Dr Google to stick his fat loss advice misinformation where the sun doesn’t shine.

Excess fat and a sedentary lifestyle is going to cut your life short and also lessen your quality of life and increase your risks for other diseases that could cut your life even shorter. It is time to cut the BS (Bullshit) and tell it how it is.

On a daily basis I hear every excuse to why someone hasn’t been able to lose weight, or get their life back on track etc. I have heard it all. Even many of my fertility patients just don’t get that their current fat status is hindering their chances of healthy eggs, health sperm, and healthy embryos and having a healthy baby.

I have heard every excuse from “I go to the gym 2 hours per day and still can’t lose weight”, “But my diet is great and I still can’t lose weight”, “I’ve tried everything and seen everyone and still can’t lose weight” and so many other excuses.

Each time I hear the excuses start, the BS meter starts to go off and I feel the need to call people on their story they are living in. Sure, I get it is hard. Sure, I get the excuses. Sure I get it and understand the story being told to me. But seriously, nobody is going to do this for you.

People just need to take ownership and just admit that they are 100% responsible for their own body and now just need to take on the advice and just do it. You cannot keep blaming someone or something and keep shifting the focus off the one things holding you back, which is your self.

If someone is eating correctly (I mean eating a proper diet, not the one you have been conditioned to believe is healthy by clever marketing for big corporation), then you will burn fat and lose weight. You can’t out train a bad diet and you can’t lose fat if you are getting bad advice.

You won’t lose fat if you aren’t being honest with yourself and having chocolate, treats, biscuits, and drinking alcohol and all the other bad carbs along the way. One biscuit here and one piece of chocolate there, adds up to a crap load of sugar and fat storage in a week. Let’s not forget how alcohol is full of sugar and bad carbs and stores fat too.

Nine times out of ten it isn’t the diet that isn’t working for someone, it is the person not working and not doing things properly. Once that is sorted and proper adjustments made, plus moving the body at the same time, people will always lose that fat. They do when I am helping them.

The other big issue I see is people’s perceptions of what a good healthy diet consists of, or what they have been conditioned to believe is healthy. While this may not necessarily be their fault, once they have been told and don’t do anything about it, then there isn’t anyone to blame but self.

We also have the big issues in this country, and other parts of the world, with all of the unqualified wannabe health coaches (and bloody Dr Google) out there pushing the latest fad and not knowing what the hell they are doing and pushing it onto the unsuspecting masses who lap up the latest quick fix craze. We have also had years of indoctrination by cereal and bad food companies getting us to believe their sales pitch lies to boost their profits and keep us all sick.

Let me tell you one thing. There is no quick fix when it comes to fat loss. There is no magic pill, or magic shake, or magic supplement that is going to melt fat away overnight. People need to get that through their brains and start to be real about their expectations versus the reality of weight/fat loss.

It is called eating well, exercising and changing lifestyles, reconditioning the thought processes and learning to live life and love it at the same time. No shake, or quick fix fad, is ever going to replace a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle.

Those shake diets and quick fix fads only last a short time and while you are doing this and then once you stop, you rebound back to where you are. Don’t get me started on how those shakes etc are full of fillers, full of sugars and lack beneficial real nutrients and live enzymes. They aren’t real foods and they will never be real foods and we shouldn’t need to use them. OMG don’t get me started on what many people think are real foods.

One of the biggest issues with people not being able to lose fat is that their gut flora, or what we now call the Microbiome, is just not balanced and healthy and full of healthy bacteria. You can take multiple supplements and shakes and do copious amounts of exercise, but if your gut flora and Microbiome isn’t balanced and right, then nothing is going to work. If the Microbiome is balanced and healthy, then the rest of the body, the immune system and the mind will be healthy too.

Recolonising the Microbiome and balancing the gut flora is something I always start with when people are wanting to get healthy, and or lose fat. It is an absolute must to be able to reduce inflammation, get the digestion working properly, restoring the immune system, restoring optimum brain function, restore fertility and getting the body burning fat properly. Without getting the gut function working properly, nothing else will function properly either

You are all probably wondering why I use the word fat loss, instead of weight loss. That is because weight loss is not the goal to a healthy body. Fat loss is the goal. It is very easy to make someone lose weight, but the problem with most weight loss systems is that they make you lose muscle and body mass, not burn fat. So people lose the weight on the scales and the fat is left behind and then they rebound. It also leaves you a lighter person full of bad fat and full of inflammation that is still causing you to be unhealthy and have an increased risk of disease. You just become a fat skinny person and that isn’t good either.

We need to redefine the model of thinking around weight loss and start to re-educate people that we need fat loss to help the body become healthy. We also need to have a healthy Microbiome and healthy digestive system to achieve optimum health too. So no matter what your disease state is, your health goal is, or what you need to achieve to get your body back into optimum shape, gut health and a healthy Microbiome should be first and foremost.

Whether you want to lose fat, or recover from a disease state, or have a baby, fat loss and a healthy Microbiome are the integral key that you need to use to unlock your health and New Years goal. If you want to do fat loss properly, then book into a properly trained healthcare professional like myself, or a nutritionist and get your life and health back on track this New Year.

I know sometimes this may sound a little harsh, but it is from a place of caring and a place of wanting to give people the facts. We all need a wakeup call every now and then and sometimes there is no other way to do it but say it how it is. It is time to call people on their BS misinformation and excuses and let’s get the facts out there about what it takes to be healthy and what it takes to lose fat properly too.

Take care and here’s to good health this year

Andrew Orr

-Women’s & Men’s Health Advocate

-No Stone Left Unturned

Blue Berries Help To Fight Cervical Cancer & Enhance Medical Treatments

Posted on January 2, 2018August 28, 2019 by Andrew Orr

Researchers have shown that combining blueberry extract with radiation may be the next treatment in the war against cervical cancer. Plus, Blueberry extract also offered normal cell protection from the radiation at the same time

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among women and the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death, accounting for nearly 300,000 deaths annually. In developing nations, it is often the most common cause of cancer-related death among women and a leading cause of death overall.

One of the most common treatments for cervical cancer is radiation. While radiation therapy destroys cancer cells, it also destroys nearby healthy cells. University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers studied in vitro human cancer cells to show that combining blueberry extract with radiation can increase the treatment’s effectiveness.

When Radiation therapy is needed it uses high-energy X-rays and other particles such as gamma rays to destroy cancer cells. For some cancers, such as late-stage cervical cancer, radiation is a good treatment option. However, collateral damage to healthy cells always occurs. Because of the damage to healthy cells researchers studied blueberry extract to verify if it could be used as a radiosensitizer.

Radiosensitizers are non-toxic chemicals that make cancer cells more responsive to radiation therapy. In a previous studies research has shown that resveratrol, a compound in red grapes, could be used as a radiosensitizer for treating prostate cancer. It is also know that Blueberries also contain resveratrol. In addition to resveratrol, blueberries also contain flavonoids, which are chemicals that may have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.

The researchers used human cervical cancer cell lines to mimic clinical treatment. The cell lines were divided into four groups that included a control group, a group that received only radiation, a group that received only blueberry extract, and a group that received both radiation and the extract.

Researcher found that on its own, radiation decreased cancer cells by approximately 20 percent. Interestingly, the cell group that received only blueberry extract had a 25 percent decrease in cancer. However, the biggest decline in cancer cells occurred when the radiation was combined with the blueberry extract. There was a 70 percent decrease in cancer cells in the group the blueberry and radiation group.

The other interesting observation was that the blueberry extract also reduced the abnormal explosion of cell growth, which is what cancer is. While the blueberry extract inhibits the birth of cancer cells it also tricks the cancer cells into dying. So the extract inhibits the borth and promotes the death of cancer cells.

Blueberries are an amazing food source with antioxidant properties and many health benefits. They are also found all over the world and it is great to see this super food doing a super job of boosting the effectiveness of existing medical therapies to save women’s lives around world.

Regards

Dr Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

Natural Killer Cells Nourish & Promote the Growth of The Fetus

Posted on December 28, 2017August 31, 2020 by Andrew Orr

A study published in the journal Immunity shows that part of the uterine Natural Killer cell population helps to optimize maternal nourishment of the fetus at early stages of development, not hinder it.

These Natural Killer Cells have actually been shown to secrete growth promoting factors that can also reverse impaired fetal growth and help prevent miscarriage, not cause it.

For many year now I have had people contact me and trying to kill the killer cells, or treat high natural killer cells, or wipe out these cells that they are being told is causing them to miscarry, or not be able to hold an embryo.

For those same amount of years I always said that Natural Killer Cells are meant to be there and the reason they are there is because of inflammation and are doing their job. Now finally, what I have been saying has been proven to be true and now we have an explanation of what these immune cells actually do and the mechanism behind it. They don’t harm the embryo at all. They are there to protect it, nourish it and help it grow.

Natural killer cells are among the most abundant immune cells in the uterus during the first trimester of pregnancy, but their numbers decline substantially after the placenta forms. Up until recently many in the fertility profession have led people to believe that Natural Killer Cells are the cause of all their issues and these new findings may have them eating their words.

Not only have women been offered hormones, steroids and the likes that have never been proven to do they say they do, but they not only have major side effects, but could actually be trying to regulate the very thing that is meant to help a pregnancy.

The results of these new findings not only reveal new properties of natural killer cells during early pregnancy, but also point to approaches for therapeutic administration of natural killer cells in order to reverse restricted nourishment within the uterine environment

Acting as our bodies’ frontline defense system, natural killer cells guard against tumors and launch attacks against infections. This is something that I have been trying to explain for years. If natural killer cells are in high amounts, they are there for a reason and that reason needs to be treated, not the high killer cells.

There has been much research on how Uterine natural killer cells promote immune balance and the growth of blood vessels in the placenta, having a positive impact on birth weight as well as fetal growth. But until now, it was not clear which subset of natural killer cells in the uterus are responsible for promoting fetal growth, or whether these cells help to optimize fetal nourishment at early developmental stages.

In the new study it was discovered that a specific subset of natural killer cells in the human uterine lining secretes growth-promoting factors, which are involved in wide-ranging developmental processes. This subset of cells made up a smaller proportion of natural killer cells in the uterine lining of patients who experienced recurrent spontaneous miscarriage and reduced implantation (42%) compared to healthy females (81%). These findings suggest that insufficient secretion of growth-promoting factors by a specific subset of natural killer cells may be responsible for restricted fetal development in humans.

The studies also showed that a deficiency in this subset of natural killer cells resulted in severe fetal growth restriction and defective development of the fetal skeletal system. The studies also showed that the transfer of uterine natural killer cells reversed fetal growth impairments.

For the purpose of promoting fetal growth in humans, it may be possible to transfer natural killer cells via intravenous infusion or the administration of a vaginal suppository to mothers, avoiding the need for invasive procedures. Moreover, uterus-like natural killer cells are a much safer alternative to many of the methods used in immunotherapy and safer that steroids, or other immunosuppressant’s.

Obviously more study is needed, but these findings are about to turn part of the fertility profession upside down and make it re-evaluate itself.

I’ve always said it isn’t the natural killer cells killing off embryos and always said it was from inflammation and inflammatory gynaecological conditions that weren’t being treated.

We now know that stress uterine cells are also a big part of the issue too. I always say treat the cause to treat the symptoms and now we know that Natural Killer cells aren’t part of the cause, they are actually there to help.

If you are having troubles not conceiving, my fertility program may be able to assist you. If you would like to find out more, please call my friendly staff and they will be able to explain more to you.

Take care

Regards

Dr Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate

-The International Fertility Experts

Knowing All Too Well What It Is Like To Live With Pain

Posted on December 23, 2017June 19, 2018 by Andrew Orr

I often get asked how I know so much about pain and living with disease state and pain on a day to day basis. While I am a man and cannot truly understand what it is like to have a gynaecological condition and the associated symptoms, I can understand how pain can affect ones daily life and how hard it is to manage a chronic disease state.

You see, I too have a chronic disease state that was missed and dismissed for many years. It causes me pain when the disease grows back and the inflammation gets bad. It has required me to have multiple surgeries, because it was missed for so long. Even though surgery helps, it isn’t a cure and the disease can grow back and then start causing pain and associated symptoms again. Sounds a lot like endometriosis doesn’t it?

While I don’t have endometriosis, I do have a disease that is very much like endometriosis and just this week I have had my 7^th surgery for this disease.

My disease state grows in my sinus cavities and it can cause such excruciating pain in my head and make me feel really unwell. It’s really hard to use your brain to shut off pain, when the actual pain is in your head and it feels like my head is going to explode. If the disease gets out of control too much, it could cause extreme pressure and actually cave the bones around the sinuses inwards, so it can be dangerous. I wish someone had listened to me and helped me earlier on so that I wouldn’t have to have been going through the surgery again.

But, I have learned to find the right team to help me. I have learned to manage pain levels using a multimodality treatment approach. I have learned that diet and lifestyle choices can help me manage my disease state. This is why when I talk to all of you, I understand what you all go through and why I am so passionate about telling you all the facts and helping you get the right help and intervention. They always say that to truly understand pain, you have to experience it yourself. Unfortunately I know all to well how pain can affect the whole body, not just where the pain is orginating from.

While I know first hand how bad pain can affect ones life, I have also learnt that the disease does not define me. I am not the disease and I have made a conscious decision to be proactive with my health and not live and breath the disease.

While it is good to be educated and proactive about your health, it isn’t good to live in your disease and let it overcome you and rule your life either. It is about getting up each day, making healthy choices, pushing yourself to move forward and remember that it is all about small steps forward, not matter what is going on.

I found the more I focussed on my disease, the worse things became and I got caught up in the pain cycle and the disease took over and it just made things too hard on both a physical and emotional level. Sure, there are days when you will have a bad day and that is ok. I know I had days where I had to take painkillers and just get on with it and nobody would ever have known how much pain I was in. Sure, there are going to be days when it doesn’t seem fair and that nobody can truly understand what it is like for you. The main thing is to not live in the ‘poor me’ syndrome and not let the disease define you. It is about overcoming the disease and being you again. It is about finding your team to help you. It is about finding that support you need and not buying into the diagnosis and living in the disease.

The more positive you are, the happier you are, the quicker you will heal and the treatments will work better too. Whatever you need to do, you just need to go and do it. If that means seeing a counsellor, seeing a pain specialist, seeing a gynaecologist, seeing a nutritionist, getting some acupuncture, seeing a physiotherapist, seeing a chiropractor/osteopath, taking pain killers, taking herbal medicines, or whomever and what you need that can help you, then you need to do it.

I also know all too well how hard it can be to get started, but when you get started and you keep going and you find the right team of people to help you, that is when you get the results. Never underestimate the power of positivity and never think that all is lost and get lost in your disease state and symptoms. Even if you make two steps forward and then one step back, you are still moving forward. Try and do something you love each day and try and find joy and positivity in your day. It is so important.

Lastly, never ever just take one opinion and always get multiple opinions about what you are experiencing. This is why I offer a multimodality approach for people and offer a multitude of services like a one stop shop. It is why my motto is “No Stone Left Unturned” because I dont want to see anyone be missed and dismissed. The reason I do a multimodality approach and use and integrative medicine approach, is so I can help people as much as possible on my own and then only have to refer for things like surgery and some other specialty areas that I do not do.

Please remember that pain, no matter where it presents in the body, is a sign of inflammation and a sign that something isn’t right. It is a sign that something needs to be investigated and managed and is you are being missed and dismissed constantly, then you need to find another healthcare practitioner, or a team of healthcare people that can help you moving forward and get some sort of normalcy back in your life. If you can’t find the right person, or team, then book in and see me instead. I’ll make sure “No Stone is Left Unturned” and I also understand what it is like to live with pain. You wont be missed and dismissed at my clinic. Don’t forget that I can do online consultations for people that live interstate, aren’t local, or live overseas. I can be your eyes and ears and be your guide and coordinator too. I understand pain.

Take care

Regards

Dr Andrew Orr

Women’s and Mens Health Advocate

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Period Pain IS NOT Normal

Early Intervention & Early Management Is Vital For Gynaecological Conditions & Menstrual Issues

Posted on December 22, 2017June 19, 2018 by Andrew Orr

By now many of you would know my stance on Period Pain not being normal and that the sooner you get the cause treated and managed the better one is going to be in their day to day life.

Unfortunately not everyone knows that Period Pain is not normal and neither are some of the other symptoms women get each month with the onset of their menstrual cycle. Having heavy bleeding, bleeding in between cycles, menstrual cramps, severe pain, irritable bowel like symptoms, dark clotting, ovulation pain, bowel and bladder pain and urgency etc, are all not normal symptoms that a woman should endure with her cycle. Getting these symptoms at any time of your cycle is not normal either.

Early intervention and early management is the key to any disease state in the body and this definitely applies to menstrual issues and gynaecological disorders. Once a disease is expressed into the body, it can be very hard to treat, especially if it is left a long time and then inflammation spreads to other parts of the body, or in close proximity to where the initial disease was first expressed.

One of the reasons that prompted me to do this post was after a young woman, now in her 30’s, had contacted me and thanked me for helping her back when she was in high school. Since then I have known all of her family well and helped with maintaining their health. At the time she was about 14 years old and showed all the signs and symptoms of endometriosis. She was in so much pain each month, when her cycle came, and she was often curled up on the floor with nausea and vomiting from the pain. Everyone, including GP’s etc, had told her this is normal and that she needed to get used to it. They also told her that she is too young to have endometriosis, or any major gynaecological condition.

That is so bad. Please, please know that period pain IS NOT normal and that teenagers are not too young to have endometriosis. To be honest, they are now finding endometriosis in young girls under 10 years old. Many gynaecological issues can start very early on in a woman’s life, especially if there are hereditary factors involved. Gynaecological and menstrual issues can be passed from generation to generation, so if mum, or your grandmother, or someone in your family tree had menstrual issues, or a gynaecological condition, there is a good chance that you may inherit this as well.

The long and short of it all was that her mother was also getting frustrated at everyone not helping and somehow ended up finding out about me and ended up in my clinic. From there I got her into one of the advanced trained laparoscopic surgeons I work closely with as soon as possible and this is where stage 4 endometriosis was found and excised properly. Without coming to see me, this poor girl would never have found the cause of her menstrual pain and associated symptoms. I then did all her management of her disease moving forward. The main thing that this young girl and her mother were worried about was how this was affecting her education and daily life, but how this could also affect her future fertility.

The one thing I know is that the sooner there is intervention and treatment, the better the prognosis for a woman’s future fertility is. The one thing I do know is that endometriosis doesn’t always cause infertility, but it can make it harder to fall pregnant, if it isn’t managed early enough. The longer you leave a disease in the body untreated, the worse it gets, and then the symptoms get worse and the worse the future outcomes may be.

Lucky for this young lady is that she did have early intervention and management and she has proudly messaged me to tell me that she has had her 3^rd child and that she puts it all down to me helping her when she was younger. I have many women message me and tell me much the same thing. It is so important not to leave these things just because you are being told it is normal. What the hell is normal about being in so much pain that you feel like you could die?

All too often I see women having gynaecological conditions, like endometriosis, missed and dismissed and that the longer that the disease has been dismissed, the harder it is going to be to treat. That is a sad fact for many women and some will have to endure repeated surgeries due to being missed and dismissed and have a life of issues, if their issue isn’t managed properly either. Many have not seen the right healthcare professionals, or the right surgeon either.

I have discussed in many of my previous posts. Please have a read of my previous posts about this subject and the seeing the right team of people. This is why it is so important to have early intervention and also see a proper advanced trained laparoscopic surgeon who specialises in the excision of disease states like endometriosis. Then there needs to be proper management and treatments and lifestyle changes administered to help with suppression of the disease state, helping with inflammation and improving quality of day to day life.

There needs to be a multimodality/team like approach to the management of women with gynaecological issues, as there is no one single fixes all approach, with any medicine. While surgery may be a necessary part of the overall management of disease states such as endometriosis, it isn’t the saviour that many perceive it to be. Surgery does not sure endometriosis and there is no cure for the disease at present time. Once you have it, it is there for good.

Surgery is a necessary but small part of the overall picture that needs to combine many other treatments and modalities to give the best outcome for a woman overall. Once the surgery is done you need to look at managing and suppressing the disease and this is done by lifestyle changes, dietary changes, acupuncture, physio, herbal medicines, hormone therapies, pilates, yoga, pelvic floor and core exercises and many other modalities depending on one’s individual symptoms.

When I treat women with gynaecological conditions, or menstrual issues, I make sure they all get an individualised, person centred, caring approach tailored to how they are presenting rather than a one treatment for all approach that many seem to get. You won’t get the results you need that way because we are all individuals with different needs and different symptoms overall.

Lastly, please remember that period pain and menstrual irregularities are not normal and that the earlier you get onto it and get it treated and managed, the better your future outcomes will be.

Regards

Dr Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Period Pain IS NOT Normal

Stop Telling Women That Period Pain is Normal

Posted on December 12, 2017August 26, 2019 by Andrew Orr

After seeing my 10th case of misdiagnosed Endometriosis this week, and goodness knows what else, I can say that I am well and truly over it and about to scream.

I am about to scream if I hear that one more woman, young or old, is told by their healthcare professional, GP, specialist, best friend, mother, facebook buddy etc, that period pain is normal.

Period pain IS NOT normal. It is far from normal and we all need to stop telling our daughters, sisters and women of this world that it is.

I think that anyone that says that need to come and work with me for a day and see the ramifications of women believing that period pain is normal, just because their doctor, healthcare professional, friend, or mother told them that it is.

I think I should post up some rather gruesome pics of women’s reproductive organs stuck together, their insides bleeding, and their pelvis completely obliterated. Yes, obliterated. That was the words that one of the surgeons used today to explain the insides of a woman that had been told that there is nothing wrong, just suck it up, scans haven’t found anything and just go on the pill and btw, period pain is normal.

No it bloody well isn’t (sorry for swearing but time for diplomacy is over). Women need a voice and need to be heard. Some of these poor women may not be able to have children, or have a healthy sex life, or be able to feel the pleasure of wonderful sex without pain, or ever hold their own baby, because they have been told to suck it up and be told that period pain is normal.

Period pain IS NOT normal and the sooner we get everyone to know this important fact the better. Sure, a little bit of discomfort can be normal. By that I mean just a tiny bit of pressure and basically knowing your period is about to come. But pain…. That is not normal. If you, your friend, your daughter, your sister, your wife, or any other woman you know, has to have days off work, days of school, is laying on the floor in pain, taking pain killers to get through the day, or beginning of their period, then that IS NOT normal.

Please get them to get a referral and see a good specialist who will listen to them and not dismiss them and may miss a gynaecological issue that could affect them for the rest of their lives. No… scans and blood test etc, do not always find the cause of period pain. Have a read on my other posts about this.

If you cant find someone that will listen and help, then book in a consult with me and I will assist you in getting you properly investigated and properly managed moving forward

My motto is “No Stone Left Unturned”and my other motto is “Period pain IS NOT normal”. If you are in pain with your menses, or even any any other time during your cycle, or having pain with sex, or pain with ovulation, pain with bowel movements, pain for no known reason at all, then you need to get something done about it.

I think if I hear one more poor woman get told that Period Pain is normal, I am going to start sending those people gruesome pics of all the insides of women who have been told that period pain is normal, only to find out that it isn’t and all the reasons why.

Sorry for the rant, but our daughters, our sisters, our wives, our female partners and women all over this world deserve better.

Regards

Dr Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Period Pain IS NOT Normal

-The Endometriosis Experts

Getting a handle on pain with proper pain management

Posted on December 5, 2017August 25, 2019 by Andrew Orr

One of the things that I see not managed very well is pain. I think much of this comes around a perception that we should be able to manage pain with over the counter medications and some of it is also not really knowing what to do, if what we are doing for ourselves, or are currently doing, isn’t working. Some of it is also that healthcare practitioners aren’t managing it well either.

Now, before I start talking about pain, and so that people understand where I am coming from, I need for people to know one thing. Everyone’s pain levels are different and everyone’s cause of pain is different too.

I also know what it is like to live with pain daily and manage a chronic condition that causes pain and affects one’s life. So I understand pain and understand it well and I sympathise with anyone who is in pain. So I just ask for people to take the personal out of this, just listen and hear what I am going to say.

Again I have lived with chronic and acute pain daily and I know what it is like and I have loved ones who have to manage it daily as well. So what I am about to talk about is coming from a place of caring, wanting to help and also knowing how to manage pain on a clinical level as a healthcare professional.

Every day I see people posting in closed groups asking for help with pain and things they can do to manage pain. It breaks my heart hearing what some people put up with, or if I see they aren’t being told the right thing, or being clinically managed properly.

Often I see people putting up with pain because they fear going to the hospital, seeing their specialist, seeing someone else, or that they should be able to handle it themselves.

No matter what, constant and acute pain is not good for the body and it also means that there is something wrong and it needs to be attended to. The longer pain is there, the more damage it does to your body on a cellular level. Long term pain causes cellular death and disrupts nerve pathways, pain pathways and emotional pathways to the brain too. This is why proper pain management is so important.

The thing is, pain needs to be managed, just like any other health issue, and if it isn’t managed, or managed well, then it can really affect ones physical and emotional wellbeing. I know people will say that long term medication isn’t good, and it isn’t, but long term unmanaged pain can be far more detrimental than any long term medication. It truly is a catch 22 situation.

When pain gets to a point where over the counter medications aren’t working, or even some prescription medications aren’t working, then something needs to be done about it.

This either means surgical intervention, or it means that you need stronger medications and you need this in the form of proper medical management of that pain.

It may also means other therapies and treatments outside of what you are currently using and being managed with. It also requires working on the emotional pathways that may also be exacerbating pain. This is why talk therapy and working on emotions is such and important aspect of pain management. You need that multimodality approach for proper effective pain management.

Many times when I hear that people are in pain, one of the things that stops them doing anything is that they perceive that nobody is going to help them because what they themselves have tried, hasn’t worked.

I wish I could get it through to people in pain, that the best thing they can do is go and get the pain managed properly. This often means a trip to the nearest hospitals emergency department and I think this is where people then talk themselves out of it. It is always better to go and be managed properly, than sit at home still in pain. Once pain is managed properly, then you need to see someone who can help your pain, and your condition properly moving forward.

When people come to see me and then I have to refer them for surgery, one of the things I always talk about and have an action plan for is pain management. I always tell my patients to properly manage pain after surgery and even do precautionary pain management post-surgery.

I always give my patients a handout and action plan for pain management, whether they need it or not. After surgery there is often a bit of illusion state around pain, because there have been anaesthetics used and other heavy duty sedatives. So often people wake up in recovery and think the pain isn’t as bad as it is, because it is being masked from the anaesthetics.

Then they go home and don’t bother to keep up their pain meds and then the pain kicks in and then it is really hard to get back on top of it again once it starts. Once the pain cascade starts, then it is really hard to then try and get back on top of that pain yourself.

This is why it is always good to take precautionary pain medications for a few days (or longer) post-surgery and then taper them down and start using some other alternatives to manage the pain. I’ll discuss some great alternatives for pain management later on, but for now, let’s just talk about the medical and pharmaceutical options.

The basic same principles also apply to people who have flare ups with pain, or have chronic, or acute pain. It needs to be managed and it needs to be managed as soon as possible. The longer you are suffering in pain, the harder it is to treat and get under control.

Sure, try all the conservative treatments for pain such as over the counter medications, herbal medicines, acupuncture, yoga, meditation etc, but if those aren’t working well enough, or aren’t working at all, it is time for medical intervention. The same goes in reverse too. You also need to look at the emotional aspects and cause of pain too. Again, you cannot treat one without the other.

Sometimes the body has been in pain that long, that you also need to turn that response off, because it has actually become a habit, rather than the body actually still being in pain. This one is a bit tricky to explain to people, but in essence what we need to do is actually tell the body it isn’t in pain any longer, so that it switches off that response in the brain.

Getting back to acute pain, and when pain is getting out of control, this is where I need people to listen. Many times I see people posting in groups, telling their support group and that they are in pain and saying things like that they feel it would be pointless to go to the hospital, as they usually do nothing to fix their issue.

The thing is sure, emergency departments aren’t there to fix chronic conditions, but, they are there to help you get out of pain, or patch you up, and then refer you on for appropriate management if need be.

Now, before I talk about this next bit, if you are in acute pain and do not know what it is from, you need to go and get that pain looked and get it under control. You can either consult with your healthcare provider (GP etc), or go to your nearest Emergency centre.

Speaking about emergency centres and hospitals, I need to let people know that there is no shame in going to these places to get your pain under control properly.

I also need people to know that emergency centres (A&E) are not there to fix your long term issue. They are there to assess imminent danger, control pain etc and then patch you up and refer you on to other specialists in the field of what your particular issues is. That is it.

All too often people do have a perception that if they turn up to emergency department, their long term health issue is going to be fixed. That is not their job. Again they are there to assess danger, control pain, stop your dying (if that is needed), then refer you on for appropriate management.

Sometimes that means staying in hospital until you are stabilised. All too often I hear people saying that they went to emergency and they did nothing. Well, I doubt they did nothing. They would have assessed you, medicated you (if necessary) and if your condition isn’t life threatening, you would most probably be sent home. That is what they do.

This gets me back to those in pain and are trying to talk themselves out of going to hospital, because apparently, through past experience, or someone has wrongly told them, that they won’t be able to help you. This is wrong.

If you are in acute pain, you are best going to your closest emergency centre, where trained people, not our untrained internet buddies, can assess you properly and then help you with pain and stabilise you.

If all emergency do is control your acute pain and make sure you aren’t dying and are stable, then they have done their job. Controlling someone’s pain can actually stabilise the body in more ways than one. Once that pain is stabilised, then what you need to do is ask them for medications to be continued to actually help with the pain cycle.

You can also continue on with previously prescribed medications to control that pain, now that stronger medications have been administered and your pain levels have lowered. This then buys you time to see your regular healthcare provider as soon as possible and talk about a better pain management plan.

If that said provider isn’t managing you properly, then you need to get a second, or third, or tenth opinion. Look, every profession has people who are not good at their job and some healthcare professional are crap at things like pain management. So, find someone who can help you with ongoing pain management. If you can’t find someone, then message me for details of someone who can. Better still, book in a consult to see me, where I can assist you and your condition and help you get the best help, advice, care and proper health management possible.

There are now also some pain modulators (neuro-modulators) and implants that are being used to control pain too. People are also getting great results with botox and other injectables. There are many options for pain management now and as said before, it does require seeing the right people and also using a multimodality treatment approach.

This also requires working on the emotional aspect too. Yes, I am mentioning it again so people finally get that we also need to deal with the emotions, if we are to manage pain properly.

Last but not least, sometimes you need to look outside the medical model, for help with pain. Actually I believe it is essential. Sure, get your acute pain managed with medical intervention, but you may also need to look at complementary medicines for ongoing pain management, especially chronic long term pain.

No medicine has all the answers, so this is why I am very passionate about people using a multimodality approach to their health issues and especially for pain management. I always say to people that if what you were doing currently is helping, then you wouldn’t be in pain and if you are still in pain, it means you need to change something, or look at other ways to manage it. Unfortunately while modern medicine saves lives and can help us in so many ways, it doesn’t have all the answers either.

If you aren’t getting the help you need, then book in a consult with me and I will do my best to get you the help and care you deserve and should be getting. I also have a great network of trusted professionals I work with if it is outside something that I do, or if you need that team approach for your condition. I have my trusted team and that is what you may need too.

One more thing, for anyone, pain is the sign that something is wrong in the body and means it needs to be addressed. Oh and always remember, period pain is not normal either.

Take care

Regards

Dr Andrew Orr

-Women’s & Men’s Health Advocate

-No Stone Left Unturned

-The Women’s Health Experts