Tag Archive for chronic pain

Dr. Oz Explains 3 M’s for Pain Relief

dr-oz

 

Dr. Oz cleverly created a list of important 3 M’s to follow in order to relieve your chronic pain. Chronic pain may be caused by mechanical or medical conditions. While medical conditions (e.g., disease, hormonal problems) may offer straightforward diagnoses, mechanical conditions (such as adhesions) can be difficult to diagnose and treat, causing frustration for patients and their physicians.

Dr. Oz’s Round Up

Medications

These are not harmful themselves, however overuse is when they become a hazard. The only thing that distinguishes a drug from poison is the dose.

  • Vitamin D- Skip taking your vitamin and soak up some natural rays.
  • Acetyl L-Carnitine- Can be found over-the-counter.Helps with nerve pain.

Movement

  • Wear a speedometer and track your steps. Aim for 10,000 steps a day. Start low at first and gradually increase.
  • Do the pelvic tilt. 5-10 times for 5 seconds each.

Meals

  • Avoid processed foods including sugar, refined flours, soda and alcohol. These are pro inflammatory (increase inflammation).
  • Aim to eat anti-inflammatory foods such as fish (salmon, halibut, etc.) beans and even add Turmeric.

Can you think of anything Dr. Oz and his team left off of the list? Share your suggestions below!

Watch Dr. Oz’s Pain Relief Tips —>>>


Meet the Therapists – Belinda Wurn, PT

Belinda Wurn

What is your name?
Belinda Wurn

How long have you been a physical therapist (or PTA/LMT)?
36 years

How long have you been practicing the Wurn Technique?
22 years

How did you first become interested in this work?
I was trying to figure out how to get myself out of the chronic pain I was experiencing after 40 external radiation treatments and 2 internal radium implants for cervical cancer in 1984.

Belinda Wurn, PT treating a patient in Gainesville, FL

Where did you grow up?
Jacksonville, Florida. I lived in the Arlington area, and went to the beach (30 minutes away) every free minute I had!

What’s your favorite food?
Seared fois gras or else good pizza

Where did you receive your education?
The University of Florida (go Gators!)

What is your philosophy on continuing education?
From 1988 until 1999, I took 4 to 6 courses a year. There was so much knowledge out there about different myofascial and visceral manipulation techniques, I wanted to learn it all. I think continuing education is extremely valuable. The techniques I use now are not ones I learned in PT school. You get the basics there, but in order to develop your work into an art- it is vital to keep up with the latest techniques that are developed over time.

Belinda with her two beautiful golden retrievers

What conditions do you have experience treating?
Chronic and complex pain, women’s health issues (pain with intercourse, painful periods, endometriosis, urinary incontinence, sexual dysfunction), bowel obstructions, post-surgical adhesions, headaches, facial and jaw pain, tailbone pain, abdominal, pelvic, back or neck pain

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?
France and Italy, Africa on safari

What is your favorite part about treating patients?
Hearing from them at the end of the week and seeing on their faces that they feel so much better, and I have helped give them back their active lifestyle.

What one word describes you best?
Caring

What drives you every day?
Helping to relieve my patient’s pain. Coming home to the lake and playing with my 2 beautiful Golden Retrievers!

Meet the Therapists – Larry Wurn, LMT

What is your name?
Larry Wurn

How long have you been a therapist?
Since 1989, so 22 years

Larry with his beautiful bride, Belinda on their wedding day.

How long have you been practicing the Wurn Technique?
My wife Belinda and I began developing it in 1989. We then incorporated Clear Passage in 1995.

How did you first become interested in this work?
It began when my wife developed debilitating adhesions, after surgery and massive doses of radiation therapy.

Where did you grow up?
Jacksonville, Florida, then moved to San Francisco in 1969. I became Guest Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 1972, coordinating large, multi-museum shows throughout the San Fransisco Bay area for the next three years.

What’s your favorite food?
I love Indian and Thai food, and anything with lots of garlic!

Where did you receive your education?
University of North Carolina, then transferred to San Francisco State University during a very exciting time in the early 70’s. That was when our campus became a center of protest of the Viet Nam War. I can still remember police on horseback herding students into or away from certain buildings – while I was just trying to get to class.

What is your philosophy on continuing education?
Continuing education is vitally important. You never stop learning. I learn every day from study, from my co-workers, and from my patients.

What conditions do you have experience treating?
My main focus centers around the adhesions that form wherever the body heals. I have extensive experience treating chronic pain, bowel obstruction, female infertility, endometriosis, intercourse and menstrual pain, TMJ, chronic head and neck pain, low back and post-surgical pain.

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?
Anywhere exotic – where there is no fax machine, phone service or Internet! My favorite is being “away from it all.” For that reason, I love to scuba dive – to just be one of the fish!

What is your favorite part about treating patients?
I love giving people back their lives, and helping make their dreams come true.

Larry treating a patient at Clear Passage's National Headquarters in Gainesville, FL

What do you hear patients say most often after receiving treatment?
“I don’t want to leave; I wish I lived here.”

What one word describes you best?
Inspired.

What drives you every day?
There are people suffering with physical needs that have found no relief, or whose conditions have worsened, using traditional medicine – drugs or surgery. Some have debilitating pain, some have life-threatening conditions; many have been told “there is nothing that can be done for you” or “it’s all in your head” when it is clear to us that they have very real, tangible problems. In most cases, these are conditions that we can reverse.

I love it that we are so often able to give people back pain-free lives and hope using a non-invasive therapy that is based on compassion, and grounded in science.

I love it that to be successful, we must deeply listen to our patients, ask them what they are feeling, and even what they feel needs to happen in their bodies for them to reach their goals. Thus, we empower each patient to help create and direct her/his own cure. Working together with patients to achieve a great result is exciting, powerful and humbling. I am truly blessed to be able to work with people in need, and to help them find a new life, and achieve their goals.

Have a question or comment for Larry? Post a reply below.

Meet the Therapists – Kathy Hess, PT

Kathy is an accomplished equestrian

What is your name?

Kathy Hess

How long have you been a physical therapist?

31 years

How long have you been practicing the Wurn Technique?

I have been certified in the Wurn Technique for six months, but I have been doing most of the hands-on techniques for over 15 yrs.

Which Clear Passage clinic location do you work at?

I am the clinic director for the Northern Virginia location.

How did you first become interested in this work?

I felt like I was missing something with my treatments. I started taking Myofascial Release classes, then became interested in treating women’s health issues. I then started taking additional classes in this area.

Kathy with her family

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the Philadelphia area, specifically Norristown, PA.

What’s your favorite food?

Potato chips

Where did you receive your education?

Univerisity of Pittsburgh

What is your philosophy on continuing education?

I believe it is very important to expand your knowledge base.   I take about 2-3 continuing education classes every year.

What conditions do you have experience in treating?

I have treated patients with chronic pain, adhesions, women’s health issues, orthopedic issues, neurological issues, and amputees.

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?

My favorite location is Sedona, Arizonia. Going camping anywhere is great to me. I love being outside in the fresh air.

What is your favorite part about treating patients?

Kathy treating a Clear Passage patient

I enjoy helping patients get there life back without pain or limitations

What do you hear patients say most often after receiving treatment?

“I can’t believe I am feeling better.”

What three words describes you best?

Intense, Motivated, and Caring

What drives you every day?

Knowing that I can help people

Have a question or comment for Kathy? Post a reply below.

Video: Reclaiming Life After Surgery and Bowel Obstruction

This place is saving lives.

I thought, you know, I do have a chance at a quality of life again, and I know that these people have saved my life.

I thought it was very important that I share some of the things that I have gone through in my life that are directly related to many surgeries that I have had that have caused me to have bowel obstructions and many, many surgeries.


At the age of 38, I entered the hospital and was given a 20 percent chance to live in the emergency room. Immediately, I was taken upstairs to the intensive care unit. My mother and my wife sat next to my bed and watched me for 69 days hoping and praying that I would eventually heal.

They were told that the best thing they could do was that I would at best be in a wheel chair and at best I would have brain damage. After the 69 days, I came out of a coma. I was very miserable and weighed about 100 pounds. At that point I looked at myself, at all the tubes, and wondered, how am I going to get through this.

I finally got out of the hospital and little did I know how important physical therapy would become in my life.

One day, I’m sitting on the sofa with my wife and start experiencing some severe pain. She suggested that we go to the hospital so we go to the hospital. They had diagnosed me with a bowel obstruction. I had no idea what a bowel obstruction was or that I could get a bowel obstruction from my first surgery. They repaired the bowel obstruction, and what I mean by repair is they remove nine inches of what they call a twisted bowel and I remained in the hospital for 32 days.

The most annerving thing I ever heard was, “There’s nothing we can do about this, you’re probably going to get another bowel obstruction, and we will see you again.” I was flored at that point and very confused, very hurt. I did not know what I was going to do.

I started my search. I did not know where to start, I did not know what I was doing, and didn’t really know what a bowel obstruction was. Later I found out that actually it is the adhesion that actually closes off the bowel which could cause a partial and sometimes even a complete obstruction. There’s nothing they can do about these adhesions, which once again, was very upsetting.

I started first by looking on the internet. I searched for weeks looking for something. By the grace of God, I clicked on a site that speaks about an incredible system that has been developed by Larry and Belinda Wurn. This process is actually called the Wurn Technique.

You do not have to go through the painful process of the NG tube and the healing and the pain that goes along with that. There is someone out there that can put you in a situation where it will not happen again. This technology is out there, this technique is out here.

This place is saving lives. There’s no other way I can put it. They are saving lives. That is why I am sitting right here, right now, telling my story.