Introduction and Question- Food/Nerves

[Brad Jones]

Hello,

My name is Brad Jones, I have been following you all for a couple of years and am just now jumping into the action. Over the years I have learned so much here and really changed the way that I think and work. I am a Rolfer and have been trying, with limited success, to get my colleauges to shift to a more ectodermal approach and realize how little the change we produce really has to do with fascia. It is a tough fight. Diane Jacobs has been a huge help to me with many back channel emails, I really appreciate her

Now for my question:
I'm working with a woman who has been diagnosed with neuralgic myatrophy. Things really went south for her after she received a PRP injection for a sub-scap tear. She has noticed a marked improvement in her pain levels after eating a meal or a snack. These periods of relief can last for 6-8 hours- sometimes just an hour.

I'm looking for more information about how food/digestion could impact pain levels. Any thoughts or information would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
Brad Jones
Bellingham, WA

[Diane]

Hi Brad,
Welcome to SS! (I thought you might never show up here).
Harriet Hall's advice about food was pretty simple -

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly leaves.

Todd Hargrove posted this video, TEDxIowaCity - Dr. Terry Wahls - Minding Your Mitochondria, a TEDx talk by a woman (MD) with MS, who changed her diet, credits that with helping her body. Have you seen it? It has much the same dietary advice as HH has.

We don't have any real venue for discussing diet here at SS..
On a related note:
1. I heard Neil deGrasse Tyson say (in this rather long conversation he had with Stephen Colbert) that there are more microorganisms living in one inch of lower human colon than all the people that have ever lived
2. Carl Zimmer wonders how the new microbiomethics boundaries will be drawn.

[Bas Asselbergs]

Hi Brad. Welcome here.

How does the woman feel after simply chewing something - like gum?
I am just fishing here, but I seem to recall a patient whose (radicular) symptoms changed every time she chewed.
I expect that there is sufficient motion and activity in the anterior and lateral neck muscles to alter neural irritation.

So, who knows? Maybe it is nutrition, maybe it is the neuromotor activity.

[nari]

Welcome, Brad.

Chewing gum is probably classed as a pleasant rhythmical activity, as is eating food, so downregulation is a probable reason. But I don't really know...

Nari

[Diane]

There might be something going on mechanically as Bas alluded to.. which made me leap over to thinking about the insular cortex, with its big job of mapping everything "visceral", plus having a role in "pain" or at least nociceptive processing, plus its role in aversion/disgust. I don't even know where I'm going with that. Except for, it's limbic, it's old (pre-prefrontal), it's heavily upset by nociception, disgusted even, and the one on the right side of the brain maps the whole body. Plus it processes taste.

[Richard Finn]

Hi Brad,

We just had a link posted recently to a lecture by Roy Sugarman where he mentions the need for nutrition to retrain athletes who have been injured. He does not say what good nutrition looks like but he does stress that they don't heal without it!

(http://somasimple.com/forums/showthr...t=Roy+Sugarman)

Daniel Amen's books stress the importance of particular nutrients for brain health. He even gives particular nutrients for particular areas. I particularly liked Change Your Brain Change Your Life. He has a formulation on his website. I have not used it. I don't know anyone else who has.

Richard

[smith]

Eskimos are just as fat as us in the lower 48. They have 50% less diabetes though. The long chain omega 3 fats seem to be a safe bet. May work via decreased inflamation.

[Brad Jones]

Thanks so much everyone! You have given me some things to look into

[Mark Hollis]

How quickly after eating though?

I just had a quick type in the search function under mesenteric and there are some great threads on the autonomic nervous sytem with a heap of info from Diane and others that may be worth ploughing through. So it could be the chewing action or it could be the subsequent afferent input at a more visceral level to downregulate, either way though it's great she's found some relief.

The 'chewing gum vs eating experiment' idea from Bas and Nari could be a way of differentiating!

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

[John W]

Based on the information provided, it doesn't seem to be what she's eating but that she's eating. The gum-chewing experiment may shed light on this, although you don't typically swallow regularly when you chew gum. Swallowing initiates peristalsis, which, I think, is driven parasympathetically.

[Bas Asselbergs]

Exactly, chewing gum would give us some insight whether it is the chewing-motion versus the swallowing action that triggers.