Christian Psychiatrist Describes How to Heal Pain the Natural Way: 'The Renewing of Your Mind'

[00:00:01]More than one in five Americans suffer with this condition, mostly in the form of back pain. Doctors often order an MRI for these patients, and if it shows issues such as spinal stenosis, degenerative, or herniated discs, surgery tends to be the recommendation.

[00:00:20]Psychiatrist Daniel Amen, however, saw a glaring consistency in these scans.

[00:00:26]>> 80% of people my age, I'm 70, uh have abnormal back MRIs who have no pain at all. And when I read that, uh because you know, whenever it's your neck, it's your knee, it's your back, you go get an MRI, they're always abnormal.

[00:00:47]>> To understand why people with abnormal MRIs can be pain-free, Dr. Amen examined where it all takes place.

[00:00:56]>> Most people don't know that pain is ultimately processed and lives in your brain.

[00:01:05]>> Dr. Amen discovered despite a body's imperfection, healthy brains can develop workarounds.

[00:01:12]>> Your body is meant, you know, as we age, to sort of create routes around the pain and heal. So, if you get that one idea in your mind, God created my body to heal, that helps.

[00:01:33]>> In his book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain, Dr. Amen details his program for natural healing that he recommends patients try before going under the knife.

[00:01:46]>> Surgery and um the care like I'm talking about were compared to each other, equally effective, but surgery had 21 times the number of side effects.

[00:02:00]>> One possible side effect is of particular concern to psychiatrists like Amen.

[00:02:06]>> General anesthesia is not good for your brain. Children who have general anesthesia have a higher incidence of learning problems. Adults who have general anesthesia have a higher incidence of memory problems.

[00:02:21]>> One of the first steps in Dr. Amen's protocol involves dealing with psychological issues. That can include repressed emotions, which often trigger pain or make it worse. Turns out depression and physical pain activate the same areas of the brain and travel along the same neural pathways.

[00:02:43]>> Why does Cymbalta, it's a good antidepressant, well, why does it decrease back pain or neck pain? Because it's decreasing that part not in your back or your neck, but it's decreasing those pain circuits in your brain.

[00:03:03]>> And those people who are depressed or anxious tend to have thoughts that intensify pain.

[00:03:10]>> And now we smear the pain with fear, with darkness, uh, with horror. And so we begin to imagine, uh, this pain is going to get out of control. This will always be with me. I will age badly. I won't be able to work.

[00:03:30]I won't be able to make love. I won't be able, uh, to do, play with my children.

[00:03:35]>> Those negative thoughts tend to push people to temporarily numb the pain, making it worse in the long run.

[00:03:43]>> Which then leads to harmful habits, whether it's opiates or alcohol or marijuana, uh, or sugar.

[00:03:53]And that just uh puts you into this quagmire or the doom loop that just feeds itself.

[00:04:01]>> The good news is this type of thinking and the actions that follow can be reversed by addressing underlying feelings such as grief.

[00:04:11]>> Because repressed emotions, particularly anger, drives muscle tension and pain.

[00:04:21]And learning and there I spend a lot of time in the book talking about, well, how do you know if you have repressed rage and how do you get it out?

[00:04:30]>> Amen also points to how God's word teaches us how to reverse wrong thinking.

[00:04:36]>> Philippians 4:8, think of whatever is true, right, good, lovely, worthy of praise. Let your mind dwell on these things. We have to train our brain because so many people it just defaults to negativity. And that's clearly not good for you and is going to accelerate the pain.

[00:05:00]>> Supplements like SAM-e or saffron can also help calm the emotions. From a biological perspective, it's also important to take better care of the brain itself. That involves getting enough sleep, which can help the repair process, exercise to improve blood flow, and avoiding processed foods and drinks.

[00:05:24]Dr. Amen recounts his own relief came after giving up diet soda.

[00:05:29]>> Recognize the triggers. And for me, aspartame is a trigger for pain. And so, I broke up with it.

[00:05:39]>> While millions of Americans can't obtain relief from surgery, pills, or injections, there is another, more natural way by optimizing and balancing the brain where pain is processed.

[00:05:54]Laurie Johnson, CBN News.