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- In today's 'Innovation In Medicine,"
we're talking about a proactive
and mindful approach to chronic pain management.
And I'm here today with Doctor Atchison.
And, Doctor, I think a good place to start is talking
about what this approach entails.
- It's using a lot of different tools for people
to try and help themselves gain control of their pain:
have physical therapy, occupational therapy,
clinical psychology, relaxation biofeedback therapist.
And we combine the tools that they have to help people.
- So how do the psychological and relaxation components
actually have an affect on the physical pain?
- Looking at what's called functional MRIs of the brain
we know that chronic pain actually
causes atrophy of some parts of the brain.
There are certain areas that don't connect
to each other and talk like they used to.
Ultimately, what we feel in pain
is what makes it to the brain.
So, if we can change the brain,
then the idea is can we go back
and change how their chronic pain is,
either progressing or being perceived.
- Why is this such an important innovation in medicine?
- The idea becomes, before you take your pill
you need to do this stretch, this relaxation,
this breathing technique, or what we think
is working for them, and see if you get a response.
And, then, remarkably when they feel the response
they don't feel the need to take the pills.
Their ability to take some of those tools home
and start to use them is really the key
to what we would call self-management for pain.
So they feel like they can control it
rather than have to rely on a doctor or a pill
or something else to help with their pain.
- That control is something Brad Waldmann knows a lot about.
He struggled with pain for years that slowly got worse.
- My hands and my feet were getting numb slowly but surely.
I felt electrical shocks in my extremities all the time.
- After visiting multiple doctors
he was diagnosed with cervical stenosis.
- Cervical stenosis, that's when the canal
is narrowing in around the spinal cord.
- Basically, my vertebrae were growing
inward and crushing my spinal cord.
- Brad had surgery to relieve the pressure, but the damage
that had been done left him with ongoing pain.
That meant medication to help him manage.
- I didn't want to be on medication all the time.
It was making me dizzy, I had cognitive problems.
- The desire for control brought him
to the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab Program.
- It made a lot of sense to understand the problem first,
learn about how to correct it,
learn about how to manage it.
They concentrated heavily on my arms.
Through training you learn to adjust your body posture.
- I think that the important part is
that we have a tool and techniques that help people
who haven't responded to anything else.
- Brad learned how to respond
to his pain and keep it in check.
- What I've learned to manage it,
and I've learned not to tense my muscles up,
and if I think it's gonna be something severe
I'll generally start putting myself
into a meditation state, and as you relax
and get into that state your tension
diminishes almost to the point of zero.
It's amazing.
- Those tools helped Brad slowly get back
to where he wasn't always focused on his pain.
- I'm doing very well, I'm actually
off all the medication I was once on.
I'm managing the pain just by my daily activities
and by the use of my mind, essentially.
It really attacks the entire problem top to bottom.
It was a life-changing event for me.