Living with chronic pain is a miserable state of existence for many Americans. Unfortunately, many who suffer with chronic pain must rely on over the counter pain medication which can lead to kidney, liver or stomach disease or worse yet begin to utilize prescription pain-killers which may carry a high risk of addiction. The increased use of prescription pain-killers in the Unites States has caused thousands to become addicted to these drugs and many of these people then turn to illegal drug use.

Most chronic pain originates from an imbalance in the body. The two most common sources of imbalance are loss of structural integrity and chronic inflammation.  Naperville Integrated Wellness offers solutions to these problems.

Structural Integrity:  often overlooked is the fact that poor structural balance in the body leads to pain. Low back pain, neck pain, headaches, hip, knee, shoulder and even jaw pain are usually due to poor structural balance. You will notice that all of these body regions involve one or more joints. A joint is a location where bones meet and permit movement of the body. Your elbow for example in a simple joint that allows you to bend your arm. Structural stability of a joint depends on proper muscle function and balance.

Muscle balance: the muscles of your body attach to bones and provide movement and stability to these bones and the joints they form. When the muscles in the back are balanced (not too tight, not too loose and not out of balance with other muscles that attach to the bones) the joints of the back are permitted to move properly AND are provided with stability. As you can see, muscles not only provide the movement of a joint, they also provide stability. Chronic muscle imbalances put stress on joints which leads to inflammation, pain, nerve pain, bugling discs, and arthritis.

Bowen Therapy: this new form of therapy restores balance to the muscles of the body, thus restoring proper movement and stability to joints and structure. The muscles themselves are the target of therapy. The therapist first assesses the patient to determine the exact structural imbalance that has occurred and which muscles are involved. Once the “key” muscles have been identified, they are treated using Bowen Therapy. In this sense, “key” refers to the muscles that are putting stress on joints and structure. Bowen Therapy is effective because it addresses the “receptors” found inside the muscles.

Muscle Receptors: we have established that muscles control joint movement and stability, but what controls the muscles? The nervous system does. The link between the muscles and the nervous system are receptors. They are called receptors because they “receive” information from the muscle and relay this information to the nerves. If receptors are not providing accurate and reliable information about the muscle, then the nervous system cannot properly control that muscle; the brain and nerves are not aware of what the muscles is doing! This results in dysfunctional muscle control, poor joint control and pain. Bowen therapy addresses and stimulates receptors, thus restoring normal muscle control and proper joint movement and stability. Once this occurs, the SOURCE of pain has been addressed and the body is able to heal and recover.

Chronic Inflammation: besides inflammation due to structural imbalance, many people suffer from chronic inflammation and this is another source of chronic pain. This inflammation is due to chemical imbalances in the body which often results from foods in the diet that trigger the immune system. Regular intake of these foods puts stress on the immune system and the immune system itself if the source of inflammation. In addition to diet, lack of essential nutrients inhibit the body’s ability to suppress inflammation in the body. These are the main sources of chronic inflammation, but there are other sources as well that have to do with other chemical imbalances in the body.

Chronic Pain Solution: the solution to chronic pain lies in identifying the SOURCE of the pain. The solution for chronic pain will not be found in a pain-killer. Pain medication only covers up the problem, it does not correct the problem and only permits the underlying dysfunction to continue; leading to further damage to the body.  Functional and Integrative medicine specializes in isolating the underlying cause of health problems and restoring normal / healthy function to the body once more. For more information about Bowen Therapy or Functional Medicine go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com