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Books! Educational Videos! Documentaries!

Here's a place where you can review books, educational dvds and documentaries that relate to ACE concepts or trauma-informed practices. "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." ~ Nelson Mandela

Inflammation! Who knew???

I found this book through a side door.  I have been looking for information to suppress inflammation,since my knees have been hurting more and less for twenty years.   During an exam, my doctor said I had considerable crepitus (clicking and popping when flexing the knee joints).  I asked him if he could prescribe an anti-inflammatory regimen or medicine?  He asked me what the problem was and I described the continuing knee pain.  His response was to take ibuprofen as needed.
I wanted to stop/prevent/suppress the inflammation altogether and he wanted to treat the symptoms.  True, it was a non steroidal anti-inflammatory an NSAID, unfortunately we had just been concerned with my liver function tests being off due to using ibuprofen...  Sigh!!!

I started searching for whatever anti-inflammatory practices I could find.
I found numerous items that were anti-inflammatory through a book, "The Gene Smart Diet" by Floyd Chilton. After reading it and getting some help through implementing what I could, I continued looking for other ways to take care of inflammation and found that many places talk about their supplement's antioxidant properties, not their anti-inflammatory properties.

I have put together a few items and have suppressed the inflammation as long as I remember to keep drinking this and eating that.
I keep looking for info and references on anti-inflammatories and in the search found this book.

This brings me to "Childhood Disrupted" by Nakazawa.
Wow!!!
Our biography can influence our biology through a process known as epigenetics.  This resonates with me and several of my friends.  My ACEs score is 6 to 8 depending on how I interpret the questions.  My main abuse (emotional, sexual, extreme neglect, emotional incest, etc) occurred between the ages of 6-16, I had some good fatherly influence early on.  I had a strong sense of who had the problems when bad things were happening and didn't internalize most of the negative self talk.  I still had plenty of problems with relationships, authority figures, self reliance, being more successful than others in my family and inflammation issues.

The above is necessarily a bare bones description.

I eagerly read Nakazawa's book and am in the process of learning to implement the strategies she writes about to reset the brain pathways that were misaligned during the abusive periods in my life.

Does anyone have any data on what works the best?

Many times we can get 80% of the improvement with just 20% of our effort. I would like to focus first on the most promising intervention and go from there.
So far it looks like Mindful Meditation is my first stop.  I found an app (it is wonderful to live in this age isn't it?) Headspace that will give me 10 days free to try it out.
Does anyone have any clinically verified interventions and how useful they are?
I'll also try any anecdotal suggestions as well, when many people find something helpful research later verifies what others were doing...
Thanks

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I just realized that I did not give any info on what I'm doing to reduce inflammation.

And thinking about it, I may need to write it up offline and post it when I've got it put together.
I think I'll put it in timeline format, summarizing for space and reading efficiency.
Follow up will have further details if anyone wants to read them.
Fortunately the dietary interventions are tasty!
The supplements are readily available at any local mega-mart.
I don't sell any of them, so no profit to me.
I'll be back with more info...
By the way thanks for the input so far!

I'm glad you found Donna Nakazawa's book useful.  I'll copy your note to send her.  Another good book is "Scared Sick" by Karr-Morse.  You can check it out on Amazon.  Of course, the book I'm waiting for is the one Jane Stevens is writing on the ACE Study and the long-term effects of childhood adversity.  Not only has she become impressively knowledgeable but Jane is a superbly engaging writer.  

 

There is not yet enough information on the comparative effectiveness of various treatment approaches to draw  any firmly based conclusions, so what various people write in about can be helpful in understanding the possibilities.  One that is not often mentioned is medical hypnosis, if you can find a competent hypnotherapist.  Go to the web site of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis to learn more.  It is commonly effective, both for emotional and physical symptoms, and is so with small numbers of visits, thus being affordable to most people.

 

Good luck!

 

 

I use TRE® to release the trauma of my past. I have found it the best tool I have ever used, far better than talk therapy (for neurologiacal reasons at least), visualizations, tapping, meditation, art, breathing, yoga, yawning, EMDR, and so on. One, I have this tool. I don't need an appointment to get release. Two, I get release, not relief. The other tools give relief. Three, I don't need talk or think about the past events to practice TRE. Four, it's natural. No devices no meds, it's simply activating the body's mechanism for releasing stress and trauma which we evolved to have over the last couple hundred thousand years.

I also am working on probiotics, but introduced that a few years after learning TRE, so I know what has worked for me.

Thank you for posting Bill. I too have knee pain and arthritis and have been looking to reduce inflammation. Before I tell you what I have done, I want you to know about an interview I recently did about Childhood Disrupted with Donna. You can check out my web site at http://www.nurserona.com/. I will post the interview there after it airs on KPFA.org on Nov. 23rd. I have known about the ACEs work for many years now, and find it essential for healing. 

I recently was able to get Kaiser to support weekly acupuncture treatments. In the past I was going once a month, but not finding enough relief. Now I go weekly, and also using Wu Yang pain relieving medicated plaster on the sides of my knees.  I have less pain and less frequent need to ice them. Of course everyone is different, so acupuncture might help or might not help you.

I did a three month diet based on the work of Dr. Gerard Mullin, The Gut Balance Revolution: I thought it would jump start me on an anti-inflammatory diet. Hard to know for sure, but I think it has helped.I've gone off of sugar (except for dark chocolate) and I have reduced carbohydrates (much less fruit and hardly any bread or rice).  I am over weight, so that is my current work in the healing process of my knees. I have made a new commitment to mindful eating —not using food to dampen my emotions. I am looking into (Platelet Rich Plasma) PRP, which some people I know have found helpful for knee arthritis. It's expensive, so I need more info before I decide. And, I continue to do the work of expanding my understanding of what my body needs, knowing that I didn't get what I needed when I was young. I have become much more compassionate towards myself, and I have slowed down so that my stress is the lowest it has ever been. I also walk in the water every morning for 45 minutes, which helps my knees a great deal. Please let us know if you find other things that are of benefit to you. 

I appreciate your post.

Rona

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