The holistic approach to treatment of pain arising from an injury focuses on 1) relieving pain and inflammation without harming the body and 2) promoting the body’s healing response so that the area of injury is healed as quickly and completely as possible. Let’s look at these two strategies in detail so that you understand what might be your best approach to healing a chronic pain problem.

1) Relieving pain and inflammation without harming the body.

There are a number of effective ways to relieve pain and inflammation. Some of the treatments used in the clinic that relieve pain are chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, cold laser therapy, massage, ice and hot packs and electrical muscle stimulation. Natural anti-inflammatory herbs can work as well as pain relieving drugs and don’t have the dangerous side effects that many drugs do. Different combinations of herbs can be used to target different types of pain or sources of pain. Pain sources could be from an injury, due to degenerative arthritis in a joint, from an auto-immune condition such as rheumatoid arthritis, from a non-inflammatory condition such as fibromyalgia, or due to nerve pain. Each of these will respond better to certain herbs and nutrients.

2) Promoting the body’s healing response.

The same remedies which alleviate pain and inflammation also support the body’s healing response. But in this day and age of stress and fast food, many people benefit from additional strategies to promote the body’s overall healing response. In my 24 years in clinical practice (1986 to present) I have seen a deterioration in people’s healing response–how well their bodies are able to heal injuries. When someone has suffered an injury, as in an automobile accident, the body’s healing response is called into action. When there is a poor healing response the injuries heal slowly and pain is prolonged. When there is an optimal healing response the injuries heal more quickly and the pain disappears more quickly.

The key components of promoting the body’s healing response (circa 2010) are:

1. Optimal nutrition (healthy diet with ideal levels of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, omega-3 fats)

2. Detoxification (tissue cleansing to relieve the toxic burden in our food and environment)

3. Stress management (many people are unaware of their stress and its impact on their health).

4. Healthy sleep (often associated with high levels of stress, less than optimal sleep dramatically cripples the body’s ability to heal itself).

If you are suffering from pain due to an car accident please visit http://mncaraccidentlawyer.net for more information on the unique nature of car accident injuries. The site is devoted to directing you to the appropriate legal and medical / holistic help so that you experience the easiest and quickest recovery possible.

Dr. Harlan Mittag is a chiropractor in St. Louis Park and Minneapolis, MN and owner of Mittag Holistic Chiropractic. He is a chiropractor, nutritionist and acupuncturist who specializes in the treatment of natural pain and natural pain remedies. A graduate of Stanford University and Northwestern College of Chiropractic, he has had a clinical practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the past 25 years.

Why get the flu vaccination? Well it’s obvious stupid. It prevents the flu, and even if you get the flu it’ll keep you from dying from it. And a lot of people die from the flu every winter. Right? Well, no. Let me explain. But before I do (for the people who aren’t going to take the time to read all this) consider the following facts before you get your vaccination.

• Only 39% of health providers get the flu vaccination.
• According to the Center For Disease Control, there are only 200-400 influenza related deaths each year (in the entire United States).
• “It’s time to be more open about the flu vaccine and its lack of protection for the elderly“, according to Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at a national conference in April, 2010. Osterholm went on to say that he “Supports attempts to create a new, effective vaccine.”
• About 90 percent of flu deaths during flu season from 1976 to 2007 occurred in people over age 65.

So let me think this through clearly. According to the Center For Disease Control (the government agency in charge of reporting disease statistics) only 200-400 influenza related deaths occur each year in the United States. Then Michael Osterholm, a nationally recognized epidemiologist, says its time to admit (be more open) about the fact that the flu vaccine doesn’t protect the elderly. And in addition most of the 200-400 flu death’s each year occur in the elderly. What is going on? And besides, why aren’t more than 39% of health care workers getting the flu vaccine each year?

Why the hysteria over the flu each winter when there are so few deaths from the flu each year? I have only pieced together bits of the story, but it reads as well as a detective novel.

The media commonly reports that there are about 36,000 deaths each year due to the flu. Yet the CDC estimates that actual deaths from the flu are about 200-400 yearly. The CDC also says that it’s somewhat meaningless to give a yearly average. That’s because the numbers can change dramatically year to year. Where does the 36,000 deaths figure come from? In reporting the cause of death doctors have a variety of choices. One choice is “influenza AND pneumonia”. That is patients who die from influenza are lumped in with patients who die from pneumonia. While influenza may result in pneumonia, there are many deaths due to pneumonia that have nothing to do with the flu. And you guessed it, the total number of deaths reported from “influenza and pneumonia” is about 36,000 per year. This distinction would take too much air time in our world of fast news and sound bites, so the media errantly reports 36,000 flu deaths each year. That would be far scarier than the 200-400 annual deaths estimated by the CDC.

The population of the United States in 2009 was estimated at 307,006,550 according to the US Census. In 2007 there were 2,423,712 reported deaths in the United States. If the number of flu deaths that year were at the high end of the CDC’s estimate or 400 flu deaths that year, that would made 0.0165% of the death’s that year due to the flu.

A colleague of mine, another chiropractor (who I don’t know personally) has thoroughly researched vaccines and the flu.  Nikolai Alenov II, D.C. has written a brilliant report entitled “The Flu Shot Debate — 2010-2011″.  You can get the full report by clicking here.

I’ve written an ebook entitled “Boost Your Immunity For Swine Flu And More”.  It shows you how to boost your immune system function generally and specifically for swine flu.  To get the ebook click here.