Daily Aches and Pains?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

So many of our Depke Wellness clients begin their journey living with varied levels of aches and pains. While for some, this may seem manageable, to others this is truly excruciating and life altering. Regardless of what level you may find yourself in, their is hope for escaping these aches and pains.

To understand how to alleviate pain it is most important to understand its origination which is inflammation. You see, inflammation will lead to a production of a neurotransmitter called bradykinin and this neurotransmitter leads to pain hypersensitivity. So "getting" this deeply is the understanding that the inflammation is the problem and not the pain itself, right?

Not so fast...

Actually the deeper issue here is the triggers for inflammation and the feedback loops for chronic inflammatory states. We'll look at the main triggers first.

• Food sensitivity - Whether this is a gluten sensitivity, cross reactive sensitivity or most often both, the first response of a food sensitivity is to lead to inflammation in the gut. Over time, when we continue to consume these foods, the inflammation becomes chronic and systemic.
• Standard American diet (SAD) - A diet high in sugar and processed foods, which easily break down into sugar, is another major trigger for inflammation.
• Chronic infection - When we are living with chronic infection we are living with chronic inflammation as the bodies protective response. It is essential to recognize these infections and address accordingly.
• Chronic stress - This is the one area that most do not understand as an inflammatory trigger but honestly, I see this all the time with our clients. This is why it is so important to learn healthy way of perceiving and dealing with our stressors.
• Obesity - An increase in fat cells and eventual obesity is an inflammatory trigger. The conundrum with this is that inflammation is not only caused by obesity but also leads to obesity.

Recognizing which triggers are influencing your chronic inflammation and addressing these properly is an important first step in addressing your aches and pains.

I did say "important first step" but there is more. We also have to understand that one you are living with chronic inflammation, there are feedback loops the continue this inflammatory state even after you recognize and eliminate your triggers. Once you have developed chronic inflammation, the inflammation itself potentially creates four different feedback loops as described below.

Feedback loop one:

• —  Increase in fat cell production
• —  Insulin resistance
• —  Insulin surges
• —  More inflammation

The PAIN of Inflammation Program

Feedback loop two:

• —  Tight junction breakdown
• —  Leaky gut—  
•   Immune activation
• —  More inflammation

Feedback loop three:

• —  Suppression of cytochrome P450
• —  Hepatic (liver) biotransformation
• —  Activated liver end products
• —  Add environmental triggers
• —  More inflammation

Feedback loop four:

• —  Immune cell activation
• —  Cytokine release
• —  Self-amplifying loop
• —  More inflammation

I know that between the triggers and feedback loops, it may seem daunting to reduce or eliminate your pain, but I see this all the time with our clients. Here are some testimonials that I can share of clients that have either worked with us in the office or have completed online anti-inflammatory programs.

“Here is a list of things that have improved or disappeared while doing this program. My blood pressure is more regulated, I've only had one migraine (which I used to have almost daily), my aches and pains are much more improved, I can go to sleep at a decent hour, stay asleep throughout the night, and wake up an hour before my alarm goes off, I am no longer incontinent of urine, and my fatigue has all but vanished."

- Dara

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Glen Depke's program has been a big turning point for me. It allowed me to finally get a sense of control over my health. In the program, I learned about the gut-brain connection, the absolute importance of having a nutritionally sound diet and what makes a diet nutritionally sound. Virtually all of my "less than healthy conditions" that I identified at the beginning of the program, simply disappeared or greatly diminished. The group dynamics really helped as well as the webinars and blog site. I've been able to carry forward most of the healthy practices since the program ended. I highly recommend this program to anyone who is interested in excellent health and living life to the fullest." 

- Katherine

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"I was one of the fortunate ones that got to participate in Glen Depke's program. Glen had previously done the program and had reported amazing results! I was excited when he decided to do the program again and invite those of us who were interested. Years of self- medicating my adrenal fatigue with sugar and caffeine were going to be a challenge to break away from. At this point...I really felt my life depended on it.

The diet restrictions involved in the program are do-able!! The supplements become a routine. The first few days I did experience some mild withdrawal symptoms from the caffeine. But, after that I felt great!!

My favorite part of the program was the 24/7 blog we had access to. Here we could share our triumphs and mishaps. Ask any questions we may have. Share recipe ideas. I'm such a creature of habit it was nice to read about others more adventurous in trying new things. If I needed encouragement someone was always there to offer a word of advice. If someone else was struggling, I could provide support. We could offer motivation to those who needed it and share, together, as we all made amazing progress throughout the program. Glen was ever present with his knowledge, advice, insight, positive attitude and guidance. The weekly information webinars were educational and helped to keep us focused and motivated throughout the program.

By the end of the 6 weeks I couldn't believe the changes that I had experienced! I lost 12 lbs! My acid reflux was gone! I was able to wean off all hormone supplements and sleep aides! With the improvement of my sleep...my energy level increased. And most important to me, the joint and back pain I had been experiencing was gone!!

Would I recommend this program...HECK YES!!! No matter where you are with your health and weight...you will benefit. This program was definitely much more than I had hoped it could be!!! Thank you Glen for putting this wonderful program together for us!" - Kit 


I can even share my personal experience. When I was 17 years old I hurt my knee playing football. Over the next 30 years, I had developed severe degeneration in my medial knee joint and moderate degeneration in the rest of my knee. With this degeneration and accompanying inflammation, I would feel chronic pain and discomfort with even the smallest use of my right knee. I was seriously resigned to the "fact" that I would have to live with this knee pain for the rest of my life. Shockingly though, when I focused on my own chronic inflammation, triggers and feedback loops, my knee pain was all but eliminated. Understand that nothing changed in my knee functionally except for the reduction in inflammation.

So in the end recognize that if you live with daily aches and pains, there is hope for you.

If you would like to learn more about "The PAIN of Inflammation" program, visit this link.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post these below and we will address these personally for you.

Aches, Pain, Stiffness, Why?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

You may know of someone that suffers from one of more of these challenges.

• Do you find regular joint pain a part of your daily life?
• Are regular body aches beginning to annoy you regularly?
• Is your body stiff when you wake in the morning or after sitting for some time?

If any of these are a challenge for you, it is likely that you are suffering from chronic inflammation. If this is your challenge, I do not have to tell you how this affects your daily life, your mood, your health and your happiness. The unfortunate reality is that most with chronic inflammation live with daily aches, pain or stiffness. For those that do not recognize this expression, look at this question.

Did you also know that chronic inflammation is a key component at the core of basically every chronic illness?

With this said, I don't want you to get the impression that inflammation itself is the problem. The true problem are the triggers for this inflammation and the ongoing feed back loops that continue this chronic inflammatory state.

We can first look at the triggers.

• Mental/emotional stress
• Gluten and other cross reactive food intolerance
• Infection
• Obesity
• Chemotherapy
• Addiction

The primary triggers that we see with clients on a regular basis are the first three that are in bold, stress, food intolerance and infection. Obviously a major aspect of eliminating your inflammation is tied directly into reducing or eliminating your triggers, but that's not all. Once chronic inflammation has been your "friend" for a longer period, you can potentially develop one or more of the following feed back loops that continue this inflammation. These feed back loops are listed below. 

• Understand that chronic inflammation will often inhibit phase I and phase II liver detoxification pathways. This occurs due to the fact that the NF-kB state can create a suppression of cytochrome P450. This suppression leads to a compound hepatic biotransformation, thus activating hepatic end products. It helps to understand that biotransformation is the process of rendering fat-soluble compounds to water soluble compounds so they can be excreted via the urine, feces and sweat. Hormones, toxins and drugs undergo hepatic transformation by phase I and phase II pathways in the liver and are eventually eliminated by a phase III pathway. A significant key though to this biotransformation, phase I, phase II and phase III pathways is the initial release of cytochrome P450. As noted above, chronic inflammation suppresses this cytochrome P450 thus inhibiting the entire liver clearance pathways. When this occurs, further inflammation is initiated and round and round you go. Simply put, the chronic inflammatory state leads to a multiple challenges within the liver, thus leading to more inflammation.  
• Chronic inflammation can also cause and increase in fat cell production. This increase in fat cells leads to insulin surges which in turn leads to insulin resistance. And guess what this leads to? If you said more inflammation you are right on.
•  Another challenge created by chronic inflammation is the creation of leaky gut. Leaky gut occurs when the tight junctures, or openings, in your small intestines that allow your macro-nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and and co-enzymes, actually become enlarged. When this occurs, whole food substances will be allowed through these tight junctures and lead initially to an autoimmune reaction. As this autoimmune reaction continues this can lead to a true TH-17 response AKA, tissue destruction and your guessed it, more inflammation.
• Last but not least, when you are living with chronic inflammation, your body may respond by raising cytokine production. Cytokines are proteins secreted by immune cells that act on other cells to coordinate appropriate immune responses. When these cytokines are responding to chronic inflammation, this often leads to autoimmune disease and more inflammation.

So based on what I am saying, it may sound hopeless and I hear you. Thankfully though, it is not hopeless. I know this personally, because I lived with chronic inflammation for decades before I finally overcame this issue. My inflammation was due to an initial injury followed by years of consuming intolerant foods and life's stressors. Here's my story for your education.

During this video, I mention the "More Than Just Weight Loss" program. During the six week span of this program, my knee pain was actually eliminated because for the first time in decades, I was able to eliminate my chronic inflammatory state. This too can be you.

Follow the link below to get more information on your potential of walking away from aches, pain and stiffness.

More Than Just Weight Loss