Pain, Gates & Brain, Oh My!

As silly as this may sound, you have "Gates" in your brain. I know, I was just as surprised when I first learned about them. That's why I am so anxious to share this insightful information with you.

If you are anything like me in your suffering with Chronic Pain, you most likely 'feel' your pain more intensely during the night hours. When you are trying to go to sleep, you're trying to get completely relaxed, then all of a sudden, boom, you really start 'feeling' the pain stronger and in more areas, Yes?

The reason for that is because of the number of competing messages arriving at the "gate" is usually far less at night than it is during the day. Because of no competition many more of those pain messages get through. So what are we to do? Simple really, you have to do something that will excite the nerve center directly, something like acupressure! Acupressure is a lot like Acupuncture with the exception of the needles. Which works better for me, how about you?

The first and most difficult lesson to really grasp is that pain is natural! Don't raise your eyebrows at that statement, read on! It is the response of the body to both external (exogenous) and internal (endogenous) events, signaling us about danger or to take caution, and providing us with a survival mechanism that allows us to respond to an injury, be it a new injury or an old one.

One way to understand the mechanism of pain is to view pain as messages descending from the your brain or ascending to the extremities of your body through this massive highway of nerve fibers. Can you picture it? These nerves meet up at a "GATE" (actually a series of gates) where your spinal cord joins with your brain. Sort of like a 'bottleneck' in rush hour traffic, 'pain' messages crowd in with other messages it has gathered from your body along the journey down that massive highway. Then it sits and waits for a chance to get through, sort of like that person who sits through a green light but is more than willing to go right through the red lights. So what happens is some messages are received and others don't get through at all.

See, every experience you have in life is remembered by your brain. And that experience is attached to the emotion or feelings you had at the time of that experience. (e.g. fear, pleasure, pain, depression, loneliness, worthlessness, etc.).

So when you are confronted with a new situation, your mind attempts to make sense of it by scanning the deep recesses of every corner for similar experiences. Once it finds that experience, it also brings up the attached feelings that goes along with it.

If the attached feeling is uncomfortable or painful, your mind then looks for a way to get rid of the pain. It comes to a quick conclusion about what you should think or how you should act, then it does something really damaging for you, it 'justifies' that conclusion by pulling in evidence to support it.

Then you make a move that is based almost entirely on OLD experiences or things you had previously learned! What is so surprising is ALL of this happens in an instant, BEFORE the logical or rational part of your brain ever has a chance to "think it through".

So learning acupressure is something to be looked at as a NEW experience that can override everything, allowing you to control the opening and closing of your "gates". Wow, that possibility would allow you to be able to get into bed, lay back, get comfortable, and truly enjoy a good nights sleep. Is acupressure the answer for everybody? Probably not, but how do you know if it will work for you if you don't give it a try?

There are several options you have at your fingertips; acupressure, tapping, meditation, exercise, etc., but remember; if one doesn't work for you that doesn't mean another won't, so try and try again. I would also recommend you have someone who is familiar with your choice to help walk you through how it should be done to get the benefits to the fullest.

The secret of a better and more full-filled life is to cast out those old, dead, unhealthy thoughts. Opening those "gates" for the new, vital, nourishing, wholesome, faith based thoughts to come flying in. An intake of new thoughts will remake you and your life!

Medical science has just discovered the nasal cycle, known to yogis for thousands of years. The first mention in the western hemisphere of a lateralized periodic process was in the work by Dr. R.German rhinologist, in 1895. Dr Kayser found what resembled a periodic rhythm of nostril passage. Dr Kayser suggested that laterality of nostril dominance was part of a larger schema where one lateral side of the body was somehow innervated or de-innervated. Prior to 1895, the Aryan descendants in the Indus valley studied the nasal cycle (Hatha Yoga Pradipika, trans. 1893; Iyengar, 1988). They not only took note of the process, but also had enlarged upon Dr Kayser's theory of lateral innervation.

The doctrine of collateral activation was taken a bit farther by the ancient sages, to include arousal of the brain hemispheres. Yogic sages thought that forced lateralized breathing through one nostril, would effect a selective activation of one brain hemisphere over another. It would appear that nostril dominance originates from the brain itself.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8063547?dopt=AbstractPlus

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3449485?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

The nasal cycle is an ultradian rhythm involving alternating breathing of the left and right nostrils,. It is known to have a cycle of two to eight hours (Keuning, 1968; Shannahoff-Khalsa, 1991). The nasal cycle is controlled by sympathetic/parasympathetic innervation of the nasal mucosa. When sympathetic activity to one side dominates, the result is vaso-constriction and thus decongestion on that side, while the enhanced parasympathetic activity on the other side simultaneously results in congestion (Keuning, 1968; Stocksted, 1953). Hence while the nasal cycle is regulated by the autonomic nervous system, it in turn influences the autonomic nervous system mechanism

Researchers at Nepal Medical College in Kathmandu measured the physiological effects of alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Sodhana ). They found significant increases in peak expiratory flow rate (exhale) and pulse pressure and decreases in heart rate, respiratory rate, and diastolic blood pressure.

There is no doubt that alternate nostril breathing can be a powerful way to quickly relax the nervous system, shifting the balance from sympathetic side to the more restorative parasympathetic. By slowing the breath, lengthening the exhalation, and pausing briefly after the exhalation, all tend to shift the balance towards the parasympathetic side.

In other words regular practice of alternate nostril breathing increases parasympathetic activity.
Yoga Journal's medical Editor, Dr Timothy McCall talks about this in Part two of a three part series on "Yoga for chronic Pain"
http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2561

This is something I have been doing since first being diagnosed with RSD back in 2003. At first when I was diagnosed with full body RSD I wasn't all that thrilled about this exercise, but knew it was absolutely the best thing I could do to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system into communicating with my brain. See, what happens is one nostril works on the sympathetic nervous system and the other the parasympathetic nervous system. There is a cycle of about 3 hours or so where they switch sides so that the side that was sympathetic became parasympathetic and so on. This style of breathing is very helpful for those of us who have a disturbance of the sympathetic nervous. WHY? Because this style of breathing helps to bring about balance. In so doing, it's calming and calming reduces stress which lessens the perception of pain.

So I persevered and I continue to use this method today. I also recommend it to my Coaching Clients so they can get the benefits of how it calms and reduces pain as early as possible, but it's never too late!

If you are in need of my Coaching services or just curious about me, click link to discover why I am a Coach: "A Winning Life With RSD"