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SuperKev
USA
7 Posts |
 Posted - 07/08/2012 : 17:32:01
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Hi, all. new poster, longtime lurker. Sorry for the case history, but I could use some advice!
I am a great example of the power of Dr. Sarno's work in fighting TMS. In 1991 in the last year of college i had Achilles tendonitis for 5 months -- without cause, rhyme or reason. i was debilitated. My stepmother, a social worker, gave me one of Dr. Sarno's books. I read it in three hours. The next day i was running on the beach, and my ankles never hurt again. Years later for the first time i started to get back pain during a time of work stress. After a couple days, I re-read Sarno and, boom... no more back pain ever again. Then I started getting sinus infections. Had them for 10 years until I made the connection and then decided to forgo antibiotics and fight it. Over the past 4 years I have had only two sinus infections (after having 4 or 5 a year for 1 years). From time to time I get a mystery pain, and i can fight it off quickly.
OK, so here is the thing. For about a year i have had low level big toe pain in both feet -- nothing debilitating, and nothing I thought about as tms because it was so low level. Wrote it off to bad shoes, age (I am 42) and lots of walking. I also wondered if it could be gout related, but it never hurt that much. My doc in routine exam mentioned my high uric acid level -- i think he may have put the suggestion of gout in my head much like a dr years ago put the suggestion of sinus infections in my head before I ever had one
Three weeks ago, during an argument between my daughter and wife (a high stress recurring event), bam -- acute toe pain. Took three days but i fought it off. Pain free. It was really hard to do though, and it was really painful. Brought me back to my achilles tendonitis days.
Then a few days ago, also during a fight between my daughter and wife and before a family vacation I didn't want to take, it happened again. OUCH! I have been limping and in great pain for three almost 4 days. It is very gout-like from what I understand of gout -- my toe is red, tender, swollen, on fire. Seems like a very un-tms kind of a problem... BUT the recurrence and timing, and also the long term gestation period (as if my brain was testing out the strategy to see if it would work as a distraction)makes me think this is classic tms. I have been fighting like mad to convince my brain to let it go and to stop distracting me from my unresolved issues -- which usually works. The pain has improved but i am used to instant, easy relief after I figure out something is tms. I have read foot pain is particularly tenacious. however, I have also read that inflammation and tender spots, and gouty like symptoms are not TMS. So i am at a crossroads -- I either need to say, well this is gout and get it treated and give in to that for good, or keep fighting my brain on this one and stick to my guns.
Any of your thoughts would be vastly appreciated. Do these symptoms sound so un-tms like i should get treated for gout, or keep doing the tms thing -- since I have always had it easy fighting back against tms symptoms, maybe my brain is getting craftier and it is now a harder nut to crack.
Thank you!
Kevin, Brooklyn. |
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Bugbear
United Kingdom
152 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2012 : 02:07:32
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Hi Kevin
Pleased to hear about your successful elimination of symptoms in the past. You sound like you experienced the "book cure" in that your symptoms disappeared with knowledge and acceptance of TMS. However there are always new symptoms cropping up to throw us off the tracks. It's usually these symptoms that are slightly more obscure or ones that may have a physical cause. It's best to check these out with a doctor to rule out anything serious.
SteveO in The Great Pain Deception has a glossary of symptoms that are considered to be TMS. One of these is gout. I have a history of gout, not personally but as suffered by my husband. He has had tests and they have shown raised levels of uric acid. My husband has experienced various forms of TMS over the years and currently. He is definitely a repressor, not interested in talking about stuff, very keen to sit on the fence or bury his head in the sand. He doesn't even want to hear about TMS. He just does not want to know, changes the subject when I bring it up or makes fun of me.
I always wondered about gout. I still don't know, Kevin. Just read art's post on seeing a physician. Some would say that just about everything under the sun is TMS. You have to come to your own conclusions. My husband says gout is painful and there is an obvious swelling and redness in the toe. When there are visual signs, it is harder to ignore. Let's see what others have to say... |
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SuperKev
USA
7 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2012 : 08:16:38
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Thanks, bugbear! i started reading SteveO's book, which i discovered from being on these forums. For my own sense of well being i was glad to see gout was listed in his appendix, as you say. But frankly, reflecting on my wide variety of symptoms over the years, it does seem like almost anything, in the absence of a verifiable injury, might be tms, and with my history, likely is. StevO's book (I am half way through) has been helpful in ways my repeated readings of Sarno has not -- forcing myself to walk on my aching toe and teaching myself how to walk on it as if I was not in pain has already made a difference. This morning my half mile walk to and from the subway -- which i was dreading -- was hard but ultimately very satisfying. i figured out i was clenching my toe, and by the end was walking normally -- in discomfort, but still... three days ago i couldn't even put my foot on the ground without yelping! Anyway, thanks for the response!
Kevin |
Edited by - SuperKev on 07/09/2012 08:17:32 |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2012 : 09:14:40
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Try a "Search" above and you'll find two pages of threads with the word "gout" in them hi-lited in yellow. Reading them may give you the confidence to believe it may be of TMS origins.
G'luck
==================================================
DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
==================================================
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." Author Unknown
"Happy People Are Happy Putters." Frank Nobilo, Golf Analyst
"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." Mark Twain and Balto
"The hot-dog is the noblest of dogs; it feeds the hand that bites it." Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter
======================================================
TMS PRACTITIONERS:
John Sarno, MD
400 E 34th St, New York, NY 10016
(212) 263-6035
Here's the TMS practitioners list from the TMS Help Forum:
http://www.tmshelp.com/links.htm
Here's a list of TMS practitioners from the TMS Wiki:
http://tmswiki.org/ppd/Find_a_TMS_Doctor_or_Therapist
Here's a map of TMS practitioners from the old Tarpit Yoga site, (click on the map by state for listings).:
http://www.tarpityoga.com/2007_08_01_archive.html |
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SteveO
USA
272 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2012 : 12:06:57
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Every disease has a psychological component. But how can you separate the biology from the person?
Gouty arthritis is a good example. When I mention gout in my book it was because I've known people, and have had people write to me, that they ate no high purine foods, they've never had alcohol, had normal uric acid levels, and yet they developed gout. They were all Type T (TMSers) highly perfectionistic worrying warriors who were under extreme relationship stress and/or college finals. The same is true for kidney stones. I've known about a dozen people who've had the dreaded stone attack that looks oh so fun. All of them were in the middle of divorce and one was in the middle of finals in college. Our emotions alter matter affecting our biochemistry.
Gout and kidney stones have a relationship and it's obvious they are real, and they are painful, and that they almost always occur during emotional upheaval. But you can't ignore the biology/disease process. I think this ties into another current thread about not everything is TMS and that we should see the doctor sometimes. Well, everything is TMS. But you still may have to see a doctor. Some things may be beyond our ability to handle through mindbody healing. We may need some help to stabilize the biology because we alone can't.
Blood disorders, cancers, hernias, gout, etc., all have psychological components to them. But do we have the tools to heal ourselves? Tennis Tom said it nicely, "you don't start proselytizing Sarno, to a surgical team, on a gurney, at midnight.." Well said Tom, that was a literary overhead smash.
If you use the gout example you can see how strong emotions can magnify a biology that may already be unbalanced, and vice versa. And gout is not called the King of Diseases for no reason. It is one of the most painful conditions ever known. You can't separate the emotions from the biology, or TMS from the person. If you drink alcohol in extreme, and you don't eat well, and you don't exercise or hydrate, you run the high risk of gout. But it appears that only those anxious Type T's get the disorder. I know raging alcoholics who drink all day and night, who eat high purine foods who rarely worry, and they never get gout, and probably never will.
So what's the difference? It's that added element of powerful emotional undertones. That spike of distress that triggers a biologic event.
Should we see a physician for our health problems? Yes, of course, and maybe for sure. If we are responsible people, who own the lives we've been given, we should be good custodians of our lives. My big problem with modern medicine has been that they are now purposefully trying to get us to worry, creating problems, skewing our beliefs so much that the problems are popping up where they would never have existed by getting us to focus on the biology alone.
They are planting seeds of disasters because there's big money in keeping people in fear, where no fear is warranted. I think this was also addressed nicely by Ace in the other thread. That blood clots have a psychological component, but you had better be careful with them, they could kill you.
I went into this in my book using the heart attack as an example. Heart attacks are emotional/TMS events. Cholesterol is just the new scare tactic. Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, said that many people have only small blockage and severe chest pain while others have lots of blockage and no chest pain. The medical icons Rosenman and Friedman have said that cholesterol did not cause heart attacks it was just an indicator that might predict one. The cause of heart attacks is stress, high cholesterol only makes the problem worse, or easier in which to manifest. We also know from Robert Sapolsky, the Heritage Genius Award Winner that cholesterol is largely due to stress and is a "social scale" problem.
We can't separate the biology from the person. Andrew Weil spends a lot of time on diet for good reason. Extreme dietary deficiency causes problems. So there is gout, and then there is gout. TMS gout appears suddenly mimicking the "other gout" that is combined with stress, dehydration, and high uric acid levels. They both have a psychological component to them. One needs rest and time to heal and one needs TMS healing and aggressive physical activity...as the yin chases the yang..
The difference in the confusion lies in how far you take this term TMS. Some people use it strictly as the tension myositis syndrome, and therefore they see everything as narrowly defined, and so things fall into mindbody healing or "real problems."
I see TMS as The Mindbody Syndrome that includes quantum mechanics and the concept that we can alter matter through our perception and beliefs. That's why I opened my book with Bruce Lipton's quote, "You're not controlled by genes, you're actually controlled by perceptions of the environment--perceptions being beliefs." It's also why I wrote about Swami Rama who was invited to the famous Menninger Institute to show how he could raise the temperature by 10 degrees in parts of his body, and stop his heartbeat on command, and spin a knitting needle from across the room while wearing a face mask and a straightjacket. When asked how he could do these things he said, "All of the body is in the mind, but not all of the mind is in the body." Many believe, as Rama, that body is just a projection of mind. There is so much more than we can see, and we are far more powerful than we think we are. We've just been limited by our perceptions of ourselves.
How did a question on gout get to this point? It's a good example of how one person can see it as a real disease and another can see it as just an extension of the larger picture, and both would be right. If you look at TMS as the mindbody syndrome, where we alone control our destiny, then everything is TMS. If you see it as the narrowly defined term, then some things are in your control and some aren't--limiting your own self potential. There's no right or wrong, just a different perspective. After reading about, and living through, some miraculous stories on healing I see a larger picture of life and health. But I don't begrudge or belittle anyone who chooses to view life and health in a different light. I do know that I'm healthier and happier than I've ever been in my life though.
To each his and her own. I will try to handle all of my health challenges on my own, if I get into trouble I will seek outside help. I won't necessarily go to a doctor/clinician though, I may head straight for a psychiatrist to dig deeper into why I have decided to give myself such a symptom/distraction. Georg Grodeck impressed me more than anyone I studied. He would say to a patient who fell down the steps and came to him with a broken arm, "why did you want to fall and break your arm so that you could come to see me?" He could see in his patients that they needed to lean on him and often needed painkillers when they were involved in these sole accidents (the larger questions that are more difficult to answer are when others are involved, called "competing interests").
Arnold Hutschnecker, MD, in his book, The Will To Live, had noted back in the 1950s that people who die have unconsciously decided to do so. And when I called the Swami Rama institute and asked them how Rama had died they told me, "Steve he decided to go and so he dropped his earthly body."
The power is in the belief. We can move matter and so logically can alter it. Watch a good actor cry at will producing tears. Watch the Dr. Sarno interview where he starts talking about how he sometimes loses his voice when he thinks about his vocal chords, and while he's saying it, he loses his voice.
It all begins with a single thought, so be careful with your thought particles, use them wisely,
Steve Ozanich
The Great Pain Deception
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LuvtoSew
USA
327 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2012 : 16:55:17
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HI,
I have body work done a few months ago, and this lady twisted my big toes and they have hurt ever sense, eveytime I have body work done they hurt me, a new pain somewhere else. I'm tired but no more body workers for me, they have caused me more pain that I started with.
So I'm just going to buy a Bood and go from there. I have an ok diet, not overweight, don't eat sugar, never had my uric acid tested, female pushing 60 and well how tmj led me to full body pain from one body worker to another, so I don't even think I'll get an xray, till I read the book. |
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jegol71
USA
78 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2012 : 03:02:43
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I find this topic very interesting, as I four months ago, before flying to move my deceased Father's stuff out of storage and gain closure, I had a gout attack that left me bed-ridden for a month and a half, which I had written off as TMS, as we grow trained and eager to do.
But the limping was the difference from the other bouts of TMS, even though it was jumpstarted or maybe completely governed by my emotions. I know this to be true, as I am having the makings of another attack in the Achilles area on the opposite foot, and the signs started during the phone conversation from Hell with the mother of my child, whose life I am trying to be a part of. It devastated me, and I began feeling the pain that night, and then limping the following day. If the pain continues to amplify, I have no qualms about getting a steroid shot and a dose pack to help me through this incredibly trying time in my life, when I am trying to do the ultimate thing to heal myself by being there for my child despite profound resistance from her mother and family.
I know gout is correlated with iron stores, hence why many women do not get gout until after menopause, when they are no longer monthly donors. I had very high iron (measured by the iron storage protein ferritin), so I began to give blood. Part of iron excess seems to come from the inflammatory response of chronic stress, and with that phone call last night, the stress was kicked up a notch. So while I still may have high circulating iron (and uric acid seems to act as an antioxidant defense in iron's presence), I ultimately see it as something that will never return once my life is actualized in the presence of my child and the love to be shared between us.
Medically, treating iron excess can surely help gout, plus you will be a good citizen. But as Balto no longer experiences gout per an exchange on here, and you're seeing yours come on after stress, it makes perfect sense to examine medical factors that may ultimately be medical because of stress patterns, like binge eating causing insulin resistance due to excess sugar intake. DIOS, or dysmetabolic iron overload syndrome, is a condition where high iron comes on due to these dietary choices, and the iron in turn affects the metabolism, etc.
Gout is a horrible diagnosis to have with Internet, because of the disgusting pictures that come with late-stage tophi. So if the mind takes you there in assuming that that will be you, take comfort in knowing that your heightened emotional awareness will probably guarantee that you will never fall into the state of those images, because as a TMS student, you work on yourself, and at the end of the day, our healing comes from that treatment. |
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LuvtoSew
USA
327 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2012 : 10:27:53
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Well older women after memopause are more prone to gout due to lower estrogen which they say affects the uric acid release from the kidneys. the thing with gout is it may affect other joints and people dont even know it. The medical stuff has not done alot with gout, as they say uric acid is stored in muscular tissues, so when starting meds the main thing is it may get worst for awhile.
Personally stress, anger, all that works on the body and changes body chemistry so its so hard to know.
Being one from the medical profession its sure hard to get my mind away from physical , ugh so drilled into the head.
I know nothing worst that stress, and we'd be surprised how we can be under stress and not even know it as we are so used to being under stress, as well of course anger, some may have it from childhood , but I think many of us have passive agressive personalites (like me , pleasing and then complain) that affect us. |
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Help - new poster -- toe pain
