CRPS is associated with imbalance and malfunction of the autonomic nervous system resulting in disability, impairment, chronic pain, and functional loss. CRPS is a chronic disease that often worsens over time. The disease may remain localized, spread slowly over years, or progress rapidly like a wildfire out of control.
Except for the lucky few, most CRPS patients may go many months or even years before they are correctly diagnosed with CRPS. If caught early, before brain, nerve and tissue changes set in, it is much easier to treat CRPS. For this reason, it is a true tragedy that some patients have to fight so hard to obtain a proper diagnosis. Although there is no one single definitive test for CRPS, there are a few things doctors look for when diagnosing this condition, and tests that help them to do so. If a patient is lucky, they will cross paths with a doctor well trained in the diagnosis and treatment of CRPS (most often a neurologist or anesthesiologist).
If a physician, or physical therapist is not familiar with spotting and/or treating CRPS patients then serious problems and setbacks can sometimes result. CRPS is one of those diseases where doing the wrong thing is often worse than doing nothing. The first year after the symptoms of CRPS first present themselves is like a golden window, as it is much easier to beat CRPS into remission during this period.
After time goes by, certain physiological and anatomical changes make it a bit more challenging to beat the monster.
Helpful resources:
Although I am known to be a big proponent of treating the cause rather than the symptom, and I try to teach my patients a mindset that allows them to investigate and examine the root cause of their symptoms, CRPS has been humbling for me as a doctor. What I mean by this is that even the bravest patient cannot typically survive the sky high pain levels that characterize CRPS without some kind of intervention or help from the outside.
However, one can sit down, or one can get back up. These are your choices. Keep fighting, be your own best advocate.
When we think of inflammation, we think typically think of injuries, such as and inflamed ankle or an infection, sometimes as innocent as a pimple. We all know the signs of infection; heat, redness, and swelling. Chronic inflammation is quite a different animal, however. It is silent, for the most part, which is why it has been called “the hidden disease”. It can wreak havoc on your internal organs and it can lead to serious health conditions, such as arthritis, cancer, and CRPS.
Chronic inflammation starts with the immune system. In small doses, inflammation is crucial for your health: It helps heal injury and infection. When you get an infection, like a cold, break a bone, or suffer any other sickness or injury, your immune system recognizes that your body is in danger and sends an army of inflammatory cells to fight foreign invaders. These cells rush to the site of injury or infection and release powerful chemicals to attack invading bugs.
When harmful unwanted invaders are healed or killed, your inflammatory cells retreat, causing your immune system to calm down again and the inflammation to subside. However, the inflammatory cells don’t always retreat. Sometimes they keep attacking, turning on your own body. This results in your immune system remaining in a state of constant stimulation, resulting in a chronic destructive inflammation. Your body was not designed to accommodate this type of faulty immune activity, and eventually, the army of white blood cells will start damaging the body from the inside.
When this happens, the immune system becomes misguided and is sent out on an unnecessary mission. The white blood cells are sent out to attack, but there is no enemy target. Those misguided white blood cells still mobilize just like they would if you were actually under the weather or suffering from an infection, but because there’s no infection for them to attack, they end up just hanging around, often for years. You want your immune system to work like a focused sniper attack on viruses, bacteria, or cancer. But when you have chronic inflammation, your immune system works more like a sustained shotgun blast, damaging everything in its path. This may also cause damage to cells that your body needs on a daily basis to fight off diseases like cancer, leaving the body vulnerable.
Key Takeaways about Chronic Inflammation & CRPS:
At Spero Clinic, we use a system called Quantum Neurology, developed by Dr. George Gonzalez, DC. This system was designed to rehabilitate every aspect of the Nervous System. His work was based upon the premise that if the body suffers from a chronic injury, the brain will eventually start ‘ignoring’ this injury. The reason for this is that the injury will act as an ‘energy vampire’, robbing the rest of the body of energy on a daily basis in order to rush the stolen energy to the sight of the chronic injury, much like a slow ‘energy leak’.
As you know, energy cannot be created or destroyed. However, it can be transferred. Now, let’s pretend that we can put a monetary value on energy, and your body is allowed $100 in order to survive every day. Every function will require some money. For example, walking may require $5 per leg, digestion $3, etc.
If you have a chronic injury (such as CRPS) the body will start to ignore it, or else the injury will rob all the other functions and body parts of their share of this $100. This will cause the body to function at less than optimum. This is a necessary function, but it does not encourage healing of chronic injuries when we need it.
When you take a painkiller, the body will have to rob its other functions and parts of valuable energy to devote to eliminating the painkiller. As a result, the body stops paying attention to the injury (like a whimpering baby), in order to pay attention to the screaming baby, the toxic chemical that is the painkiller. As a result, you no longer feel the pain, and this brings relief. In much the same way, injuries that are being ignored because they result in “energy leaking” are not being worked on, they are being ignored. When you suffer from CRPS, this is not a good thing, obviously. The monster that is CRPS is being treated by the body as a whimpering baby, instead of a screaming one.
In order to heal ‘glitches’ in the nervous system, we must first ‘show’ the brain (or remind it) that the nervous system is injured, and then assist the brain in healing the injury. We use this system to very gently heal the abnormal sensory nerves (causing you to be in pain when exposed to heat, cold, deep pressure, pain, light pressure, vibration, and circumferential pressure, such as tight clothes). This is not the same as the physical therapy sensory rehabilitation that most CRPS patients are used to, that focuses on continuing to expose the sensory nerves to a specific sensory stimulation, hoping to cause a ‘numbing down’ effect after a while, almost like a callous. Instead, our system consists of the premise that the injury is pointed out to the brain, and then gently assisted in fixing the ‘glitch’, often instantly, although re-injury may quickly happen in the beginning. The nervous system has to build up stamina and strength, at which point the corrections become permanent. In other words, this system “toughens” up your nervous system. It is like giving a soldier armor to wear, and is very important if we send your body out into a world where it could potentially be re-injured.
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