Latest / Heartwise / HW 2026-09-17 Chronic Pain Part 2 - Michael Bell

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HW 2026-09-17 Chronic Pain Part 2 - Michael Bell · Heartwise

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  Speaker 1: This is HeartWise, offering practical tips and time-proven guidelines to
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  Speaker 1: make your life healthier, happier, and more fulfilling. Today you'll
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  Speaker 1: learn simple Bible-based principles for building and maintaining optimum mental
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  Speaker 1: and physical health, all while deepening your relationship with your Creator.
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  Speaker 1: Here's your HeartWise host, Dr. James Markham.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to HeartWise. And last time we were talking about
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  Speaker 2: chronic pain and all the devastation. We just merely touched
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  Speaker 2: the subject. But I thought we'd need to at least
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  Speaker 2: talk about that chronic pain, answer your questions, at least
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  Speaker 2: a few more programs so we can understand the magnitude
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  Speaker 2: of the problem, which affects about 50 million people. And
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  Speaker 2: it also affects the economy because people can't work and
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  Speaker 2: people keep coming to the doctor and get all sorts
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  Speaker 2: of treatments that sometimes don't address the problem. And unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: there's many people out there that are suffering and we
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  Speaker 2: want to try to give them some hope and some encouragement.
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  Speaker 2: I'm joined today with Michael Bell. Michael, thanks for helping
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  Speaker 2: us out here on this questions today.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thanks for having me with you.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you probably never had chronic pain, have you?
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  Speaker 3: I have not had chronic pain yet. I'm only 31,
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  Speaker 3: so God willing, I won't have any of that for
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  Speaker 3: quite a while.
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  Speaker 2: You know, chronic pain, pain that goes on for more
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  Speaker 2: than three months, that hasn't responded to treatment, hasn't gotten better.
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  Speaker 2: And unfortunately, it affects a lot of people, both the
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  Speaker 2: physical pain as well as the mental pain that comes
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  Speaker 2: with it. So we've collected a bunch of questions that
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  Speaker 2: come into our website, heartwiseministries.org, and we found out that
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  Speaker 2: if one person has this question, probably five people have
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  Speaker 2: this question. And the more we can learn, the more
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  Speaker 2: we can work in getting our bodies to improve. And,
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  Speaker 2: of course, I want to point everyone to the master
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  Speaker 2: physician of pain, and that's our Heavenly Father who can
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  Speaker 2: both help our physical and mental pain, help lead us
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  Speaker 2: to the type of healing that we need. And we
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  Speaker 2: want everyone in any treatment plan to plug into that,
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  Speaker 2: the great physician right away. And, Michael, I tell somebody
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  Speaker 2: in the office the other day, it wouldn't be great
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  Speaker 2: if you could go to the doctor and he'd listen
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  Speaker 2: to you and never interrupt you, You could talk as
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  Speaker 2: long as you want. You know, he would give you
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  Speaker 2: the best advice that there was with very little side effects.
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  Speaker 2: Then you could go out and have the same problem again,
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  Speaker 2: and then you could run to the office, no forms,
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  Speaker 2: and you'd go back in and talk to him tomorrow,
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  Speaker 2: and he could sort of help work with you again,
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  Speaker 2: and he'd never get tired of seeing you. He'd never
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  Speaker 2: get frustrated with you. He'd always help you out. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's the kind of great physician that we have, and
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  Speaker 2: people that have chronic pain, I think that's a very
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  Speaker 2: important part of the treatment regimen. Yep.
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  Speaker 3: Last time, Dr. Markham, we went over what chronic pain is,
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  Speaker 3: some of the diagnosis, and also some of the treatments
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  Speaker 3: for chronic pain. Where we didn't get to go is
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  Speaker 3: into some of the natural remedies for chronic pain. And
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  Speaker 3: I'd like to pick up right there this week. I'm
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  Speaker 3: sure there's a lot of listeners who would like to
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  Speaker 3: know if there's any way or any natural remedies that
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  Speaker 3: are out there so they don't have to take that
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  Speaker 3: extra pill of Or can maybe cut back a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we want everyone to listen to the advice
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  Speaker 3: of their doctor. But what other things can help relieve
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  Speaker 3: some of these issues?
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  Speaker 2: Now, getting back to chronic pain, we've talked about it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the brain's involved in chronic pain. Of course.
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  Speaker 2: So we want to help the mind work better. We've
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  Speaker 2: also talked about inflammation because that's when the nerve is
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  Speaker 2: disrupted from whatever causes its inflammation. It can't heal without
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  Speaker 2: settling down the inflammation. So those are very important things.
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  Speaker 2: And the way I think about it, Michael, is anything
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  Speaker 2: that causes stress on the body can create inflammation. So
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  Speaker 2: anything that can relieve stress can ultimately help chronic pain.
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  Speaker 3: So you're telling me that having, you know, this is
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  Speaker 3: just a random example, just a child crying in the background.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: If that stresses me out, that can cause physical pain
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  Speaker 3: on my body?
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  Speaker 2: Yes. Well, it can make the pain worse because whenever
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  Speaker 2: your body is stressed from whatever you turn on adrenaline.
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  Speaker 2: You also make inflammatory mediators because the normal response to
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  Speaker 2: a body when it's under stress, if we were fighting,
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  Speaker 2: if you were fighting with somebody and you got hurt,
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  Speaker 2: the body would try to fix that hurt. And they
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  Speaker 2: would do it by making inflammatory proteins. You might swell up,
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  Speaker 2: but the body would come there and try to repair that. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that process can happen for many other ways. The stress
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  Speaker 2: of a crying child, The stress of not drinking enough water,
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  Speaker 2: the stress of not getting enough rest, the stress of
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  Speaker 2: carrying extra weight, the mental stress that comes with worry,
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  Speaker 2: the stress that might come by watching too much television
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  Speaker 2: or bombarding ourself with mental things, the stress from not
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  Speaker 2: having a balance in the life, the stress from having
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  Speaker 2: a bad relationship. All of these things cause stress, and
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  Speaker 2: it might make chronic pain even worse. So one of
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  Speaker 2: the treatments is to try to find out what the
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  Speaker 2: chronic stressors are. Well, some of the ones I've seen
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  Speaker 2: that will help people is water. A lot of people
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  Speaker 2: don't drink enough water. We know water helps with inflammation.
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  Speaker 2: Both the water we drink inside as well as hydrotherapy,
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  Speaker 2: that can all help with inflammation. That's a natural way
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  Speaker 2: that might help people with chronic pain. We've already mentioned rest.
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  Speaker 2: How many people actually get enough rest every night? Not
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  Speaker 2: only a weekly rest, but a nightly rest. And also
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  Speaker 2: if a part's hurting, it only makes sense if a
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  Speaker 2: part is hurting, you quit using that part. But how
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  Speaker 2: many people have you seen that they're hurt and they
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  Speaker 2: keep using the part? Or an athlete, they hurt their
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  Speaker 2: hamstring and they keep playing on it. Well, it only
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  Speaker 2: makes sense it's going to get worse. I've seen athletes
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  Speaker 2: that have concussions and they have pain in their head. Well,
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  Speaker 2: guess what they keep doing? They keep playing. That doesn't
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  Speaker 2: make a lot of sense. So one of the natural
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  Speaker 2: remedies for chronic pain, both in the treatment and prevention
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  Speaker 2: of it, is adequate rest.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, that makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Music. Music can help treat chronic pain. Music helps
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  Speaker 2: relax you. Laughing can treat chronic pain. You make endorphins.
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  Speaker 2: And these endorphins are natural painkillers. Exercise, when appropriate, can
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  Speaker 2: help make endorphins. Having good relationships can make endorphins. There
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  Speaker 2: are certain foods which trigger inflammation. You know, we think
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  Speaker 2: of saturated foods, lots of fats, lots of meats. That
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  Speaker 2: could actually make chronic pain worse because saturated fats trigger inflammation.
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  Speaker 2: Carrying extra fat on your body triggers inflammation. That can
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  Speaker 2: make chronic pain worse. There's also tons of healthy foods
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  Speaker 2: that we might talk about during this program that also
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  Speaker 2: can make chronic pain better. So these are just a
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  Speaker 2: few of the natural things. But what I try to
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  Speaker 2: think of is stressors on a system can also help
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  Speaker 2: the pain. And sometimes I've seen one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that help chronic pain the best is rest. Not only
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  Speaker 2: physical rest, but mental rest. Some people just never have
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  Speaker 2: that mental rest that they need.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. Now that we've talked about some of the natural
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  Speaker 3: remedies and some of the things, I'd like to get
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  Speaker 3: back to a couple more questions that we've gotten from
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  Speaker 3: the website, and that's at heartwiseministries.org. We have the first
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  Speaker 3: question here that comes in. Someone says, I have chronic
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  Speaker 3: pain in my back. The underlying problems cannot be addressed.
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  Speaker 3: What are some options for people like me?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and lower back pain is probably the most common
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  Speaker 2: cause of chronic pain that we see. They can't address
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  Speaker 2: the underlying problems, and I assume that that might be
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  Speaker 2: a nerve that's entrapped, or they might have had several
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  Speaker 2: surgeries on the back, They might have scar tissue around
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  Speaker 2: nerves that won't get better. What are some options? Well,
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  Speaker 2: the first thing I would start with is try to
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  Speaker 2: look at your life and eliminate as much stress on
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  Speaker 2: the system as you can, just like we talked about.
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  Speaker 2: These things all will help your body deal with inflammation better.
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  Speaker 2: Some people do need the treatment of modern medicine. These
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  Speaker 2: people might need injections with epidurals, which inject steroids or
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  Speaker 2: pain medicines. that might give relief on an area for
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  Speaker 2: two or three months, maybe less, maybe more.
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  Speaker 3: Now, I wanna try to bring something out here. When
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  Speaker 3: you say relief, are we solving?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: Because I know a lot of times, you think about it,
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  Speaker 3: you go to the doctor, you get a pain medicine,
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  Speaker 3: And I feel like I'm solving the problem, but that's
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  Speaker 3: really not what's happening, is it?
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  Speaker 2: In this case, no. In some cases, yes. Because in
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  Speaker 2: this case, remember, he says the problem cannot be fixed.
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  Speaker 2: So we assume that there's a problem that cannot be fixed.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm assuming something like several back surgeries and scar tissues,
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  Speaker 2: it's just going to bother him forever. But other people,
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  Speaker 2: for instance, they get an epidural, which is a steroid,
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  Speaker 2: And it lets the nerve, the inflammation, settle down. They rest.
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  Speaker 2: So guess what? The nerve heals on its own. Oh, okay.
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  Speaker 2: And their pain goes away.
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  Speaker 3: All right.
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  Speaker 2: So sometimes when you can calm down inflammation... that will
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  Speaker 2: help the body heal itself.
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  Speaker 3: And that goes along with rest.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Once you do that, then you rest and you're like
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  Speaker 3: a body.
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  Speaker 2: All these things that help, the body heals itself. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you don't actually do it, but all these things do.
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  Speaker 2: But we're assuming in this gentleman, he's got pain that,
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  Speaker 2: and some people have pain that just won't get better
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  Speaker 2: no matter what's done. So I'm serving, he's had maybe
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  Speaker 2: a surgery, scar tissue around that nerve. Well, these are
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  Speaker 2: the people that might need chronic steroid injections or pain
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  Speaker 2: medicines every month. They also might need, this is a
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  Speaker 2: person that might need a narcotic or they might need
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  Speaker 2: an anti-inflammatory. Of course, they want to do all the
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  Speaker 2: other things that we talked about, avoiding stress, try to
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  Speaker 2: eat a plant-based diet, which helps with inflammation. There are
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  Speaker 2: also specific foods that we can help talk about that
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  Speaker 2: helps with inflammation. But more than that, also the brain.
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  Speaker 2: The brain is a very powerful tool. I've learned to,
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  Speaker 2: when I've had pain, and you've heard other people, you
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  Speaker 2: can actually retrain your brain to help block some of
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  Speaker 2: these pain pathways after a while. And your brain can
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  Speaker 2: actually turn off certain pain pathways if you go through
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  Speaker 2: certain things about retraining your brain. Now, this is a
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  Speaker 2: whole topic. It's called biofeedback, but it's a very other important,
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  Speaker 2: and there's many professionals that do that.
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  Speaker 3: Is that where we get to saying mind over matter?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is. And that does work for some people.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: And boy, there's so much to talk about. Stay with us.
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  Speaker 2: I'm back with Michael Bell after this break. You're listening
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  Speaker 2: to HeartWise. I'm Dr. James Markham. We're going to be
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: right back.
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  Speaker 1: In his book, The Ultimate Prescription, now available from Tyndale
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: House Publishers, Cardiologist Dr. James Markham writes, I was reading
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: a recent poll of men who were asked who they
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: thought was the most influential male in the world today.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Number one on the list was Don Draper, a character
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: on a television series. He's not even a real person.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Number two was Usain Bolt, an Olympic athlete who many
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: believe defines the true spirit of competition. And President Barack
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Obama slipped in as number three. This is just another
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: example of how the media has the power to create
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: an influential character market him as an ideal to the world,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and affect the minds of a large segment of the population.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: That same media is doing the same thing when it
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: comes to telling us how to build and maintain optimum health.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Markham's book, The Ultimate Prescription, is available from Amazon.com and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: wherever quality books are sold. To learn more about health
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: from a biblical perspective, visit heartwiseministries.org. I'd like to take
• 11:43
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• 11:45
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• 11:50
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• 11:53
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• 11:57
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• 12:00
  Speaker 1: every moment of each and every day. If you're like me,
• 12:03
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• 12:06
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• 12:09
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• 12:12
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• 12:16
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• 12:21
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• 12:24
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• 12:28
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• 12:33
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• 12:36
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• 12:40
  Speaker 1: That's heartwiseministries.org.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Welcome back. I'm Dr. James Mark with Michael Bell. We've
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  Speaker 2: been discussing chronic pain and answering your questions that have
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: come into our website at heartwiseministries.org. You can follow our
• 12:59
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• 13:02
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• 13:04
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• 13:07
  Speaker 2: television and radio ministry. Michael, we were talking about this
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  Speaker 2: chronic pain, and it's a pretty big problem.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely is. During the break, Dr. Markham, we
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  Speaker 3: were talking a little bit about some of the foods involved.
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  Speaker 3: that can help with this. A lot of our listeners
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  Speaker 3: are going to want to know about this. So why
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  Speaker 3: don't you share with us?
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  Speaker 2: Now, we talked about foods, framework of inflammation, things that
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  Speaker 2: cause inflammation hurt. For instance, if I kept hitting you
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  Speaker 2: over and over, that would cause inflammation that would make
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  Speaker 2: pain worse. We talked about the stress that make pain worse.
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  Speaker 2: But there are certain foods that we talked about that
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of saturated fats, that make things worse.
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  Speaker 2: Lots of sugar would make things worse. But there are
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  Speaker 2: also some foods that are very beneficial. And I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to throw herbs in with that, and I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: throw some out there.
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  Speaker 3: And some of these are topical, right?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: That you're going to give us. I think about a sunburn.
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  Speaker 3: One of the first things I think about is going
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  Speaker 3: and getting aloe vera plant.
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  Speaker 2: Aloe vera, right.
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  Speaker 3: Now, you wouldn't eat it because it wouldn't do anything, right?
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  Speaker 2: Aloe vera helps that. There's another product that's in a
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  Speaker 2: lot of ingredients called capsaicin, And that's from chili peppers.
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  Speaker 2: And that can be rubbed on some people with chronic pain.
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  Speaker 2: And that actually can help the nerves that are the
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  Speaker 2: ones that are damaged because they're inflamed. There's another chemical
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  Speaker 2: that seems to help chronic pain called malic acid. And
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  Speaker 2: this helps chronic pain. And certain foods that have that
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  Speaker 2: would be like a buckwheat. If you like buckwheat, pineapples
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  Speaker 2: have malic acid. And also, pineapples have another chemical that
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  Speaker 2: seems to help chronic pain called bromelain. So people that
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  Speaker 2: have chronic pain might benefit from eating pineapples. Wild yams.
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  Speaker 2: Wild yams have a very big, some chemicals in it
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  Speaker 2: that seems to help inflammation as well. We know that
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  Speaker 2: supplements like turmeric, people sometimes cook with turmeric. Some people
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  Speaker 2: can buy that in health food store. Turmeric seems to
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  Speaker 2: help with inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils seem
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  Speaker 2: to help with inflammation. Another chemical that helps with inflammation
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  Speaker 2: is called anodynes, and that's spelled A-N-O-D-Y-N-E-S. And some people
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  Speaker 2: can buy that in over-the-counter supplements or herbs, but you
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  Speaker 2: can get that in foods like yams, peppermint, ginger. They
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  Speaker 2: all have this substance naturally, and they've pulled this substance
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  Speaker 2: out and concentrated it, and now they put it in
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  Speaker 2: different projects that help with chronic pain. We know that
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  Speaker 2: people that have inadequate vitamin D, that can make chronic
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  Speaker 2: pain worse. There's an herb out there called devil's claw that, again,
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  Speaker 2: helps with inflammation. So there's lots of... And most of
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  Speaker 2: the fruits and vegetables, the fresh stuff, does have anti-inflammatory processes.
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  Speaker 2: So sometimes just getting back to a healthy diet can
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  Speaker 2: help inflammation. Now, if you think about it, when we
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  Speaker 2: put foods and substances that might have lots of chemicals
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  Speaker 2: in our bodies... Our body sees that as a foreign agent,
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  Speaker 2: and it's not used to seeing that. So when it's
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  Speaker 2: not used to seeing that, guess what? The body attacks itself.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of chronic pain in the digestive tract literally
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  Speaker 2: comes from the body attacking itself, and it has chronic inflammation.
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  Speaker 2: So conditions like irritable bowel syndrome and some of these
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  Speaker 2: other conditions can all be caused by the body attacking
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  Speaker 2: itself and chronic inflammation in the bowels. So those are
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  Speaker 2: just a few of the many foods out there, and
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  Speaker 2: most of them don't have lots of chemicals. These are
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  Speaker 2: natural substances. Sometimes you can put it topically, and it
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  Speaker 2: gets to where the nerve's at. That's specifically useful in neuropathies,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the capsations, the aloe vera, that's neuropathy, and
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  Speaker 2: sometimes we take it systemically, and then it goes out
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  Speaker 2: to the nerves.
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  Speaker 3: All right. We've talked about some of the foods now.
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  Speaker 3: Let's talk about some of the medications.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And maybe we should talk about a pain management clinic
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  Speaker 3: right now also because that's where a lot of people
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  Speaker 3: would go. How do you know if you need to
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  Speaker 3: go to just see a doctor or if you might
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  Speaker 3: need to go to a pain management clinic and what
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  Speaker 3: might some of the things that they prescribe be?
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  Speaker 2: Right. Well, pain management now is turned into a subspecialty
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: of medicine because there's so many people doing it. And
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: most people get to a pain clinic after they've seen
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: their primary care or internist. They've looked at all the
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: different causes that we've talked about. And they say, listen,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: we can't find anything that we can fix with a
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: procedure or this. We don't know what's causing your chronic pain.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: And now I'm going to refer you to a specialist
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: in this. So they refer you to a specialist in
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: chronic pain. And now This is an important point. A
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: good specialist will talk about the things we've talked about.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: You know, they'll look at the big picture. They won't
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: jump to just treatment of the symptoms. In fact, they
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: really won't jump to a narcotic until they've tried everything
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: else because narcotics are probably the most dangerous treatment that
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: we have for them because it really doesn't fix the
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: problems a lot of times. And some people can get
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: addicted to narcotics. And you hear that all the time
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: about people taking too much narcotics, having to take more
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: and more. So you want a pain clinic that has
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: a balanced approach, that will look at the big picture,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: that will try some of these other things, that will
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: work with the patient on diet or try to fix
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: an underlying problem if it hasn't been diagnosed or work
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: on physical therapy or TENS or hydrotherapy or injections, things
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: that are less dangerous. But they also will eventually get,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: if they need to, they'll get to medications like narcotics.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: They'll give those. They'll also give anti-inflammatory medicines. Many of
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: them are on the market now. Some of the ones
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: we see frequently are things like Naproxen. We used to
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: have Celebrex and Vioxx is now off the market. But
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: there's lots of ones like Voltaren. Unfortunately, a lot of
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: the anti-inflammatories come with an increased risk of bleeding. So
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: you have to be careful with those. One that we
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: can get over the counter is one like Advil. You know,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that's an anti-inflammatory medicine. So they use that type of medicines.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they use, since remember we talked about chronic pain
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: actually involving the mind. Sometimes they'll use certain antidepressants like Elavil,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: and sometimes those type of medicines deal with chronic pain
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: as well. But I think in looking at the big picture,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: you want to look at all the other ways to
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: deal with it, whether it be biofeedback or water or
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: the things you can do first so you don't have
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: to resort to a riskier treatment for chronic pain that
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: sometimes just deals with the symptoms.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: Okay. Let's say that I'm... I have a lot of
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: pain and it's consuming my life, so I have to
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: go get a narcotic. I have to get some sort
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: of medicine. Are there things aside from pills that I
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: can take that a pain management clinic might give me,
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: like let's say a patch? What is that and how
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: does that work?
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, a good pain management clinic will do all
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: the things we've talked about. Then if they still can't
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: relieve your pain, remember, pain in itself is bad because
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: it can create a lot of downhill problems. Chronic pain
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: leads to high blood pressure, can trigger heart attacks. So
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: you don't want this chronic pain. So you always have
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: to balance which is riskier. Having the chronic pain, not
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: sleeping good at night, risk of heart attacks, immune system,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: or taking the medicine.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: It's a balancing.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Right. And sometimes it's worth taking the medicine. So they'll say, well, listen,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: which medicine would be the most effective? Sometimes they start
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: with anti-inflammatories. Sometimes they talk with medicines like Elevil that
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: will help the brain and deal with pain. Then sometimes
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: they'll say, well, listen, you do need to have a narcotic.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they'll say, well, a safer one might be a
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: pain patch where you absorb the medicine slowly. Some people
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: will say, well, you have to take the pills. And
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: usually in the pain clinics, they're very careful about not
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: giving you too much medications and you have to sign
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: a contract because unfortunately these medicines are addictive. These medicines
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: can cause respiratory dysfunction. They can also slow down your bowels.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: There's lots of side effects to pain medicines. And unfortunately,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: one of the biggest ones is dependence. That means you
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: need more and more usually to get the job done.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: So if you do have chronic pain, you want to
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: take as little of the pain medicine as you can
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: to deal with the symptoms. And then also you want
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: to do all these other things in addition to lower
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: the amount of pain medicines that you actually need. So
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: let's say if you drink enough water, get enough rest,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: eat the right diet, lose some weight, your pain comes
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: down to a six, but you can bring it down
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: to a two with the pain medicines. So if you
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: can do that, that's much better than having a six
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: requiring more medicines to balance that out. So even if
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: you do have to take chronic pain medicines, if you
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: can't fix the underlying problem, you want to do everything
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: else you can to limit the stress on the body,
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: both the mental and physical stress you might have, so
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: you don't have these pain receptors crying out for more
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: and more medicines. And you have to be real smart
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: knowing that all these medicines have side effects and being
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: alert to those. And sometimes it's better to have a
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: little pain than to be zonked. You don't think good
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: when you're taking too much pain medicines, especially of the
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: narcotic variety.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Now, something that I've always wondered about, Dr. Markham, and
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: you hear about this all over throughout the news, people
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: going to a pain clinic or to a doctor and
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: getting prescriptions and then going to another doctor and getting prescriptions.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Is there some way that different doctors know that you're
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: abusing the system?
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, yes. And that's a big problem now because
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of people are selling these medicines, making money
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: off them. A lot of people take them just for
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: the pure joy. Yeah, I've always wondered.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: We all.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: But right now, they're really tightening up. And the pharmacies
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: are reporting this to a bureau. The doctors are being
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: tracked a lot more about doing this. But there's still
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: what we call pill mills out there where they're giving
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: medicines inappropriately. And that's why we have to talk about this.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: And sometimes the patients get hooked. And it's not really
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: their fault. But the medical professionals give more and more
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: pain medicines. So their body cries out for it. And
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: if you're one of those that might think that they're
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: addicted to pain medicines, get help. There's places you can
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: go to sort of detox off that. There's people that
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: will help you. And if you're getting more pain medicines
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: that you need and you want to break the cycle,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: find a really good pain clinic, a really good pain
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: doctor that can work with you, that can get at
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: the cause. And also, as we said at the beginning,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: we want to get them into a relationship with a
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: great physician because the great physicians can do things that
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: we cannot do. So I want to encourage everyone to
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: ask God to give you a hand, help you to
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: find the right people to help you. And we at
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: HeartWise will be praying for you and hoping... hoping that
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: you will not have to suffer for pain. And even
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: we all know that someday there won't be any more
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: pain and suffering. That only comes from the healing power
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: of God. So we want to thank you for joining
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: us today. I'm Dr. Jim Mark with Michael Bell. You
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: can go to our website. That's heartwiseministries.org. And we hope
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: if you're out there having chronic pain that you can
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: find some type of relief. God bless, and we'll be
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: with you next time.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us today on HeartWise. If you'd
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: like more information on how to build and maintain optimum physical, mental,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and spiritual health, log on to heartwiseministries.org. HeartWise is a
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: listener-supported program and your partnership with us would be greatly appreciated.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Once again, our web address is heartwiseministries.org.