Helena Jamnik
Feb 19, 2023
Is chronic pain a symptom or a disease? Primary chronic pain is considered a disease in its own right and not just an epiphenomenon of a specific disease. And what are the underlying mechanisms of primary chronic pain? Research is far from complete, new insights are still being gained on this topic. In this paper, I will discuss the surprising link between vitamin B6, pyridoxine, and chronic pain, and speculate on whether vitamin B6 plays a role in the mechanisms of primary chronic pain.
Before I continue, I must make a revelation. The mechanisms of chronic primary pain are complex and can by ...
Recognition that ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is associated with chronic pain has increased in recent years. ADHD is generally diagnosed in children, with boys more commonly affected than girls. Chronic pain is usually an adult problem and mostly in women. At first glance, the main clinical features of ADHD (hyperactivity, inattention, impulsivity) do not have much in common with the clinical features of chronic pain (pain, inactivity, chronic fatigue, sleep problems). Mood disorders such as depression and anxiety often develop as a result of the long-term fatigue due to ADH...
Helena Jamnik
Jan 06, 2022
Movement is life and muscles make our bodies move. If there is a muscle problem that leads to less movement, it can go as far as depression. Neglecting body sensations and functional limitations due to muscle function problems (various types of pain, exercise intolerance, paresthesias, limited range of motion, spasms, dystonia, tinnitus, coordination problems, clumsiness, feeling of joint instability, etc.) leads to much confusion in clinical practice. You may have a specific problem with the ligaments and therefore joint instability, but if the problem with muscle function is not addressed, t...
Helena Jamnik
Mar 03, 2020
Part three - Mental flexibility
Mental flexibility keeps suffering at bay with any kind of health problem. Studies have shown that mental flexibility has a critical impact on disability in chronic pain patients. In my years of working with chronic pain patients, I have observed problems with the opposite of mental flexibility - a rigidity that makes efficient problem solving at the level of common daily tasks difficult. This is not a common flaw of people with chronic pain, but a result of trauma accumulated over a lifetime. Trauma tempts us to simplify in times of crisis and find a solution -...
Helena Jamnik
Feb 26, 2020
Part two - food diversity
Food is an important factor in the body's resistance. It influences more than 50% of the composition of the microbiota, trillions of tiny beasties (microorganisms) that we carry in our guts. The collective behaviour of our microbiota influences many processes in our body: production of neurotransmitters, bioavailability of nutrients, influencing the immune response, to name a few. At least since birth, each of us - as hosts to trillions of other living things - has had various life experiences that have shaped the evolving entity that is the microbiome. The relationsh...
Helena Jamnik
Jan 19, 2020
Part one - metabolic flexibility
Metabolism and energy production is a major issue in any chronic pain condition. There is no person with prolonged daily physical pain without problems with fatigue, although there are people who had fatigue before the physical pain. Healthy metabolic flexibility, which allows smooth switching between different fuel sources and adaptability to shifts in demand, allows maximum functional capacity for a given task, at the level of the brain and muscle, to name the two most critical energy users. The lack of it means a struggle to perform even basic daily tasks.
...
Helena Jamnik
Dec 31, 2019
Does intermittent fasting help with fibromyalgia for pain, fatigue, sleep problems, brain fog, etc.? If you have searched the Internet for intermittent fasting, you have probably found that the topic is controversial and leaves you in the dark about what to expect with intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting can cure as well as cause fatigue, sleep problems and brain fog.
In my clinical practice, I have met people who have tried fasting to cure the above health problems and reported conflicting experiences. It seems that fasting in general and probably intermittent fasting helps some people...
Back pain has always been a condition that other people get who come into my clinical practice. I don't. I've been trained to give other people advice on what to do and how to cope, to give explanations about "causes", to watch out for "warnings" like when to see a doctor, to pray more or less that the pain will go away in 6 weeks, not to turn it into a persistent disease, and usually to leave people at the mercy of all kinds of "best cures", "new solutions", some of which are magical, and all of which cost money.
A minority of the population who suffer from back pain develop persistent pain c...