Pain Management without Opiates

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

We need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

I'm gonna speak very frankly with you about a subject today. And the reason why I'm gonna speak on this subject is because over the weekend, lost what was probably the the eighth person in my life to what was a drug overdose. I say probably because we've got to wait until the toxicology reports come back and the autopsy is finished in order to have a special conclusion on it. But the fact is that we have a problem in this country. People die every single day from opioid overdoses.

And a lot of times if you've never experienced something like this, you tend to feel like the person was weak. You tend to feel like the person was somehow demented or somehow wanted to be in the situation that they were in. And I think if you look deep inside of yourself, you'll figure out something. Pain is not easy for anyone to deal with. Yeah.

There's certain types of pain you can shrug off. There's certain types of pain that you could still function with. But when you're dealing with chronic pain, when you're dealing with debilitating pain, pain that makes you not want to get out of bed in the morning, that type of pain is something that could even wear down the strongest person into a nub or a shadow of what they used to be. Here's the thing, people aren't very educated about prescription medications. You go to your doctor, you seek treatment, you get a prescription, that prescription lasts you a certain amount of time.

Many times, the prescription contains more pills than you actually need to get through the situation. Those pills are there in your house waiting, waiting for you to take more. And it's a fact that most opiate addictions in this country today, whether people are taking pills or they're taking heroin, they start with prescription medications. And that all starts with an injury. Those pills, well, once your insurance stops covering them and you still have the addiction, they could run anywhere between 5 and $10 a pill on the street.

And so there's a lucrative trade surrounding them. And the price doesn't make a difference. People will still pay. And when they can't afford it, they'll do certain things. They'll buy heroin off the street, which is much cheaper, but also much dirtier.

And so they'll inject things into their body that contain toxins and contain all types of different things you wouldn't want in your bloodstream. They'll take poppy seeds off of the shelves at stores, and they'll make homemade opium. They'll do things that could potentially lead to an overdose because these cheaper methods, they they're hard to measure. You never know when you're getting enough to get a good high to take the pain away. Why am I talking about this?

Well, I'm talking about this to all of you because I know something about human beings. I know that nobody grows up wanting to be a junkie. I know that nobody grows up wanting to die at the hands of a drug addiction that they could not control. I'm talking to all of you about this because even though you might think it could never happen to you, every single one of you are at risk of this. Now it's not the way of the show to talk about something without delivering an actual solution.

That's what we do here. This is the Warrior Soul podcast. So today, I'm gonna talk about three different ways of managing pain that do not involve opiates. The purpose of this, of course, is to deliver some natural solutions to you, safe solutions, things that don't involve the potential for overdose or death. The thing is, you have to remember that I'm not a doctor.

And this shouldn't be considered medical advice. I'm just telling you what I would do in a situation where I face chronic pain. And I'm telling you what I have done in situations where I was in immense pain. So before you take any of these measures, consult your medical professional. But also, make sure that you know enough to advocate for yourself.

Make sure that you know enough about the medications your doctor wants to prescribe to you. Make sure that you're researching them. Make sure that you understand what happens when you do take an opiate, and make sure that you have measures in place to ensure that you can come off of them safely and come off of them forever once your period of use of them is over should your doctor prescribe you such medications. So we'll start by considering the situations in which people find themselves getting prescribed opiates. It's usually due to some sort of catastrophic injury or a surgery or some type of trauma that's done to the body.

Now, you can't control whether or not you're gonna get injured. Right? Well, you can. You can do that by smarter training practices. You could do that by, you know, being careful.

But a lot of people still end up injured. And the thing you have to remember about injury is that what sets in after an injury occurs is is something called inflammation. We have two types of inflammation that happen. We have acute inflammation. That's the inflammation that sets in directly as the result of an injury.

Right? So you break an arm, there's inflammation that sets in there. And the purpose of acute inflammation is to help the body to begin to heal. And it's extremely painful, you feel it. And then there's another type of inflammation that's called chronic inflammation.

And that can cause pain too, but a lot of times you can't feel it as much. And so a lot of people, even after their injuries and the acute inflammation is done, they still fake face chronic inflammation. And chronic inflammation doesn't just cause pain, it can cause different types of diseases like autoimmune disease and heart disease and brain disease and a whole host of other factors. Now the key to fighting inflammation, right inflammation is what's going to cause the massive amounts of pain in the long term, right? The key to fighting inflammation is setting your body up to be able to fight inflammation.

And that starts with diet. That starts with the food you put into your body. And so you really want to make sure that above everything, on a chronic basis, you are eating foods that are going to help to rid your body of this type of inflammation should an injury ever occur. You want to make sure that you're consuming foods that are high both in antioxidants and omega-three fatty acids regularly. Both help to fight inflammation and then reduce the risk of inflammation related diseases.

So I'm talking about foods with antioxidants like berries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries are great, avocados are great, Dark green leafy vegetables are great. Sweet potatoes, broccoli, walnuts. Walnuts are fantastic, and so is dark chocolate. When we're talking about omega three fatty acids, we're talking about oily fish, like salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. If you're a if you're a vegan and you don't want to consume fish, you could also get algal oil, You know, algal DHA and EPA is really beneficial for vegans because it doesn't require an extra step for absorption.

You see, when you're to get your omega threes from a plant source like flaxseed oil, Well, flaxseed oil, it's missing certain components that allow your body to utilize those omega threes readily. It's less bioavailable. But algal oil is fantastic, because it's highly bioavailable and your body can use both that EPA and that DHA that's in the omega threes to to help your body to fight inflammation. Additionally, when you're consuming meats or dairy products, you want to make sure that you're consuming grass fed products. And that's because if you're consuming just plain old dairy that's corn fed, a lot of times it contains omega six fatty acids.

And I'll get into what that means in a second, but know for the moment that grass fed meats and and dairy products, they contain a higher ratio of omega threes. And those will help you to fight inflammation. So what's the problem with omega sixes? We need omega sixes to survive, right? And there's two types of fatty acids that two types of main fatty acids, there's more than that, but two types of main fatty acids that humans need to survive.

Those are omega threes and omega six fatty acids. Omega threes reduce inflammation, omega six is raise inflammation. And the reason why you need omega six fatty acid is because you also need certain types of inflammation in your body. Like I said before, inflammation helps you to heal, and your body really can't function without it. The problem is that too many of us consume foods that that raise our inflammatory levels, and so the ratio of omega six to omega three fatty acids is is way out of whack.

And the fact is that most of the food we consume in our diets is actually very high in omega six. I mentioned the corn fed meats and the dairy products, but a lot of the foods you find on the shelves here in American supermarkets, they're loaded with omega six fatty acids. Those types of fatty acids are found in things like corn, nut and seed oils, and hydrogenated oils. And so whenever you're picking up something that's packaged, generally something that's from the middle aisles in the supermarket, it's generally loaded with omega six. So what you wanna try to avoid are any foods that that come in those middle aisles.

I'm talking about, you know, your granola bars, your your fig newtons, your your all all those different packaged foods that we consider ready snacks. Those crackers, the the, you know, the the the salty carb loaded snacks that you find. And this is not saying anything against carbs, just saying that we eat too much of this stuff. And because we eat so much of this stuff, when we face injury, when we face a situation where inflammation can go unchecked, it tends to go unchecked and it tends to get worse because of the way we eat. So, like I said, try to avoid eating corn fed meats, corn fed dairy, try to avoid eating prepackaged foods that are loaded with different types of oils.

You look for those oils that you can't pronounce. You know, try to avoid eating anything that's loaded with a seed oil. And to break this down as simply as possible, just try to eat lots of fruits, lots of vegetables, try to eat grass fed meats, try to eat oily fish, and just try to eat stuff that doesn't have load of ingredients in it. And that will set you up much better to deal with pain, to deal with inflammation, and also set you up to avoiding chronic disease. So the first aspect of this is diet.

Now, one of the things I realized about a lot of you who listen to this show is that a lot of you are actively serving the United States military, and that means a lot of you are dealing with things like chow halls and field time and eating lots of MREs. And one thing I can tell you is that the chow hall food and the MREs, they're loaded with a lot of that inflammatory omega six fatty acid, and they're probably very low in any source of omega threes or anything that could help you to fight that inflammation. And if you're in that situation, you're not likely to be able to change your diet. Right? You can't avoid the chow hall food.

You can't avoid the MREs. So you've got to deal with what you've got in front of you right now. And that means that for those of you out there who can't get this stuff in your diet, more fruits, more vegetables, you are going to have to deal with supplementing some of these things that can help you to fight inflammation. So the second thing I want to talk about today are different types of anti inflammatory supplements that you can take to help you deal better with the aches and pains you get out in the field, and should you, God forbid, deal with a catastrophic injury, these will help you to recover, to heal, and to deal with the pain involved with it. So I'm talking about anti inflammatory supplements like curcumin, fish oil, vitamin d, and and magnesium.

So let me go through each of these quickly. I'll try not to wear your ear off with the science or anything like that, but just briefly discuss what each of them does. Curcumin is a concentrated form of curcuminoids. Curcuminoids, like I said, I'm I'm just using big words right now. I don't wanna wear your ear off with the science, but basically, curcuminoids are a compound that's highly anti inflammatory.

They've been shown to have so many benefits for the human body, and they're found in a root called turmeric. Turmeric looks a lot like ginger. You can find it in the supermarket, but the curcuminoids in there, they're they're not in a concentrated form. When you get a curcumin supplement, they are very, very concentrated. And basically, the thing about curcumin is that, like I said, it's it's extremely anti inflammatory, but it's only absorbable via fat.

Right? So it's fat soluble. And that means that it's got to be combined with a couple of things in order to obtain absorption. So when you're looking for a curcumin supplement, you want to make sure that it's got black pepper extract or piperine in it. If it doesn't, you just simply take some black pepper with it, and that will help with actually making it more absorbable by 10 times.

So really, it will really, really help you, as far as fighting inflammation and even dealing with pain. Now, one thing you could also take curcumin for is is for headaches, and that is something that I definitely recommend overtaking nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs. And the reason is because a lot of times if you're chronically using NSAIDs, it could absolutely destroy your digestive tract. And while NSAIDs are okay to use in the short term, someone like me, I can't take NSAIDs because I have an autoimmune disease, ulcerative colitis. Because I have that autoimmune disease, if I take an NSAID, it'll cause different types of internal bleeding and could really cause an ulcerative colitis flare up.

So I actually use a curcumin supplement to deal with headaches to deal with aches and pains and things like that. The next thing you want to make sure you're taking is a triglyceride based omega three fatty acid supplement. Now this could be a fish oil or it could be an algal oil depending on what your preference is as far as what you're taking. The reason why you want it to be triglyceride form is so that it is bioavailable. Right?

And I mentioned this before, a lot of plant sources of omega threes are not very bioavailable. They have to go through an extra step in your body in order to turn into the main two fatty acids that you're going to be using to fight inflammation, EPA and DHA. EPA is really great for fighting body inflammation, and DHA is great for helping to fight brain inflammation. The thing you also want to make sure of when you're looking for an omega three fatty acid is that the fish oil has been cold pressed. You don't want to get one of these fish oils that's been heat processed or anything like that because what can happen is the fatty acids can become damaged, and then those can become very anti or become very inflammatory in your body, and it could actually do the opposite of what you were taking it in the first place for.

So make sure you're getting a cold pressed triglyceride based omega three fatty acid. And the brand that I like the most, and I have no association with them at all, is Nordic Naturals. I take five thousand milligrams a day of Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega. And I found that it really helps me not only to deal with body pain, but also helps me with maintaining a lot of mental energy. And I did that off of the advice of doctor Michael Lewis, the author of When Brains Collide, who we've had as a past guest on the podcast.

And doctor Lewis has helped a lot of people overcome traumatic brain injuries and concussions and things like that through the use of omega-three supplements. So definitely want to make sure you're getting an omega-three supplement. It's another thing that could help you not only to deal with pain, but also if you were, for example, to get a traumatic brain injury, it could help you with a faster recovery and less damage from that type of injury. The next supplement I want to talk about is vitamin D, and vitamin D is extremely important for fighting inflammation. It also is responsible for so many reactions around the human body.

If you don't get enough vitamin D, it could actually slow your body's ability to heal. It could also lead to things like depression and lethargic behavior. One thing about vitamin D though is if you're supplementing with it heavily without vitamin K2, it could actually lead to drawing calcium into your bloodstream, and that could lead to calcification in your blood vessels, something you really don't want to happen. So to avoid that kind of damage, you really want to make sure that you're taking a vitamin d, vitamin k two combo. And that's something that I take.

I generally take around thirty five IU per pound of body weight, and that tends to help me out quite a bit as far as both energy, staying in a really great mood, and fighting inflammation. And the last main supplement I want to talk about today is magnesium. Magnesium is responsible for hundreds of reactions around the human body. It also helps you to go to sleep, and also helps your brain to do the reactions that it needs to do in order to get to sleep. I tend to take about five hundred milligrams of magnesium before bedtime.

And again, helps me with sleep, helps with aches and pains and things like that. Just don't overtake it too much because if you do take too much magnesium at once, it could lead to diarrhea and loose bowels, and that's something that you probably don't want to happen. But around four hundred to five hundred milligrams prior to bed should really help you out. Now the last thing I want to cover here is probably going to be the most controversial, and those are alternatives. Now first things first, if you have an opiate addiction, if you're currently dealing with something that's got a grip on you, the number one thing is to get help.

The number one thing is to get help. You've got to admit that you have a problem, and you've got to admit that you've got something going on that you can't control right now. So I'm telling you for your sake, for your children's sake, for your family's sake, get out there and find somebody to help you through this. There's a lot of programs through the Veterans Administration that can help you with this. There's a lot of charity organizations that could help you through this.

But whatever it is, find something that's going to help you. But here's the thing, and this is where it's going to get a little bit controversial. What a lot of people don't understand is that even though you're going to get help, you're going to get off of these opiates, you're still going to deal with pain. Now, I like I said at the beginning of this, I'm not a doctor. I don't have a degree in pharmacology or in pharmacy or anything like that.

So take everything I say here with a grain of salt. But there are other safer alternatives out there for you that do not involve opiates. What am I talking about? Well, on this podcast, I've talked to a few different people who have brought different alternatives to the table. The first of which, and probably the safest of which is cannabis.

Now, cannabis doesn't necessarily mean that you're taking a psychoactive drug. In recent years, we've seen a lot of CBD coming out, cannabidiol. Now CBD is a non psychoactive form of cannabis that has been shown to reduce inflammation and really, really help with pain. In fact, Ted Nugent, who swore off cannabis use early in his music career, he takes CBD regularly now because Joe Rogan got him onto it. The cool part about cannabis and specifically CBD and hemp based CBD is that it's legal in all 50 states.

So you can find CBD products pretty easily. You can head on to the Internet. And all of these products, long as there's no THC in them, are going to be legal in all 50 states. So you can definitely use those. The other thing I'm going to mention is that on the show notes for this episode, which will be Warrior Soul Agoge slash podcast show notes slash pain.

I'll also include the link up on the the iTunes and the YouTube version of this episode. I'm gonna include some episodes that we've done with different types of experts on these types of compounds. So cannabis, kratom, talking about dietary measures. There's a lot of tools out there that you can use that aren't going to involve putting something into your body that could potentially cause an overdose. Now, like I said, this has been a rough year.

A lot of people are dealing with these issues, and I've lost quite a few people to this problem. I'm sick of hearing about kids growing up without parents. I'm sick of seeing so many people whose light got snuffed out too early because they were given something and started taking something that had such an effect and such a hold over them that they became different people. And if this episode even helps one or two people to avoid such an outcome, then I'm happy. Like I said, if you're dealing with an opioid addiction or if someone you know is dealing with an opioid addiction, please get out there, find help.

I'm also gonna be including different programs that could help you with this on the show notes for this episode. And I wanna thank you for listening to this. I know I might have ventured out into the weeds a bit, but hopefully, you got something out of this that could help you on your way. Before I go, I just want to mention that this podcast is brought to you by the good people at F Bomb Nutrition, an awesome company that is helping people to live better lives by giving them better food to put in their bodies. They make awesome, delicious macadamia nut butters.

They mix them up with chocolate, with sea salt, with coconut butter, really awesome stuff, and it's absolutely delicious, doesn't contain any sugar, and they they put so much work into ensuring that they're putting out a really great product. They also just came out with a new product. Those are their cheese crisps, their their low carb cheese crisps that you can eat like potato chips. Really, really great stuff. If you're looking to get your first order of f bombs, you can get 20% off by using the code Warrior Soul at checkout at www.dropanfbomb.com.

Finally, I just wanna say this. If you haven't been to this podcast before, you know, what we do here is we try to deliver actionable advice to The US military veteran community to help them to live better lives. If you're not a veteran, you know, you're still gonna be able to find great advice here on all of these episode because these pieces of advice, they apply to human beings. So if you got something out of this show, if you got something out of any episode that we put out there, please do me a favor and share these episodes out. It really helps to spread word about what we're doing here.

And if you can, pay us the highest compliment by writing us a written review on iTunes. That really, like I said, helps us to to spread the word about the show and to let other people know about this movement. I wanna thank you for listening. And as we head into this holiday week, I hope that you are cherishing your family, your friends, and the season. With that, I'll talk to you very soon.