Category: Pain Rehabilitation

  • Brain fog? Try humming it out.

    Brain fog? Try humming it out.

    Stimulate your vagus nerve. Try humming to refocus when you have brain fog.

  • Want To Learn To Breathe?

    Want To Learn To Breathe?

    Learning to breathe, meditate, or do biofeedback doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to cost money. It doesn’t require you to leave your house. It’s BREATHING and focusing. It’s what people did in cold medieval churches and in Tibetan monestaries. It’s what I learned to do – and got me through – labor!…

  • Programs to Treat Children in Pain

    Programs to Treat Children in Pain

    There used to be just a few dozen practices in the world that specialized in treating childhood pain. Now there are 100 in 16 countries. Check out the updated list.

  • Cyles of Five: Another Way To Disrupt Anxiety

    Cyles of Five: Another Way To Disrupt Anxiety

    Cycles of Five is a simple technique to break pain and anxiety cycles.

  • How does multi-disciplinary pain treatment work?

    How does multi-disciplinary pain treatment work?

    Understanding pain helps people understand why they feel the way they do. It can be part of a multi-disciplinary approach to treating chronic pain. Here, I talk about the bio-psycho-social model of pain, focusing on different parts of the pain process and how they can be modified. I gave this talk on May 17, 2021…

  • Chronically Ill Teen? Fighting the Dread

    Chronically Ill Teen? Fighting the Dread

    I remember that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every Sunday afternoon. Sunday at 3:00 was youth orchestra. When my son first developed migraine disease, attacks came like clockwork. Every Sunday around 2:30, he’d begin to yawn. Then the auras would start. I’d see him start wincing from light and then, just as…

  • Pain Is In Your Head. It’s Still Real.

    Pain Is In Your Head. It’s Still Real.

    Pain is invisible. That means any time, any place, someone can just kick you in the stomach by telling you that your pain is ‘all in your head’. That’s why it is so important for the people we love to believe us when we describe what we feel and it’s why we so value medical…

  • Overwhelmed By Socializing?

    Overwhelmed By Socializing?

    Two weeks post-vaccine, it’s been liberating getting out of the house. Even walks in the woods seem freer, less worried about folks strolling by mask-less and much too close. I am excited about chatting with folks at the dog park – still socially distanced and faces obscured. It felt ridiculously friendly to have a face-to-masked…

  • Keeping What’s Good About This Crazy Year

    Keeping What’s Good About This Crazy Year

    This year of COVID has been a year of loss. Loved ones. First dates and coffee with old friends. Shared worship. Beach parties. From the profound to the trivial. For many who live with complex illnesses or who struggle to get out of the house and make it to school or work, it’s also been…

  • How Do Doctors Build Trust?

    How Do Doctors Build Trust?

    Doctors, patients, and caregivers all bring something different to the table. All contribute to healing. The patient has the lived experience. It is their body. Their life. It is their decision what they decide to do and take from the relationship in the hope of moving forward. The caregiver brings support. Often – especially when…

  • Tyramine In Tiny Bites

    Tyramine In Tiny Bites

    I’m a professor and admit to being a bit long winded. I was asked to pull together information on tyramine into small bites so it was easier to read and digest. So here we go! And if you want the long version, please read It Tyramine Intolerance Triggering Your Brain Fog, Headaches, and Vomiting? Living…

  • Living With a Low Tyramine Diet: Shopping & Cooking

    Living With a Low Tyramine Diet: Shopping & Cooking

    What is tyramine? Basics Tyrosine is one of the ‘big twenty” amino acids used to build proteins in animals, plants, bacteria and effectively all living organisms. Tyramine is a natural break-down product of the amino acid tyrosine.  There are 3 main ways high tyramine foods get into our diet. Some foods, like soy beans, snow peas,…

  • Is Tyramine Intolerance Triggering Your Brain Fog Headaches & Vomiting?

    Is Tyramine Intolerance Triggering Your Brain Fog Headaches & Vomiting?

    Tyramine is a naturally occurring amino acid present in many common foods. Cheese, sausage, lentils, snow peas, and soy. Deli meats, sauerkraut, nuts, wine, and beer. Yogurt and Cheetos. All have high levels of tyramine. Because tyramine occurs when proteins age, virtually ALL leftovers are high in tyramine. For example, I might cook fresh chicken…

  • Sleep: The Final Fronteir

    Sleep: The Final Fronteir

  • What’s This About Gluten?

    What’s This About Gluten?

    It was my cousin who was laughing on Facebook. “They’ve taken this whole fad way too far! Now they’re selling gluten-free dog food! Idiots!”   Admittedly it looks ridiculous. As far as I know, dogs do not get celiac disease. But the people feeding dogs that handle the dog food do. I should know. Allergies,…

  • We’re on Spotify!

    We’re on Spotify!

    Are you a fan of podcasts? Would you rather listen to the 1step2life blog than read? We will be podcasting many of our essays. Follow us on Breaker, Google Podcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify, and Anchor (RSS). We will be adding new content as it comes out and slowly recording our catalog.

  • Can Stoicism Make You A Happier Parent?

    Can Stoicism Make You A Happier Parent?

    Confession time I feel guilty. Why? Because there are times I feel I’m failing at my most important job: being a mom. My son hurts all the time – and I can’t protect him. He is having a hard time transitioning gracefully to adulthood. He struggled to make it through high school – it’s tough…

  • Acute Pain Protects Chronic Pain Harms

    Acute Pain Protects Chronic Pain Harms

    It’s hard to believe that pain is ever good. But it is. A friend developed a condition where she was able to move her lower body, but couldn’t feel pain and had no sensation. The biggest danger she faced was injuring herself because her warning system – pain – didn’t work. Chronic pain, on the…

  • Are migraines caused by an echo in the brain?

    Are migraines caused by an echo in the brain?

    Many types of pain – including migraines, amplified regional pain syndrome, and fibromyalgia – are caused by a failure of the nervous system. A negative spiral Acute pain protects us from tissue damage – we pull back from flames because we feel pain. Unfortunately, this healthy system can backfire. Many chronic pain conditions are caused…

  • Learning Biofeedback Doesn‘t Have to Be Hard

    Learning Biofeedback Doesn‘t Have to Be Hard

    Biofeedback is a set of techniques that allow you to exert conscious control over what are normally involuntary biological functions. For example, consciously slowing your breathing and heart rate are common forms of biofeedback. With more practice, you can learn to increase circulation in your hands and warm them up. You can become more conscious…

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