Roadmap to a solution

What are the clues? Over 90% of people who have died of COVID-19 have some other chronic medical condition(s) (1). The common perception is that in this scenario, the body simply gets overwhelmed. The pre-existing situation is unsolvable and the outcome is inevitable. This idea could not be farther from the truth.

All these chronic conditions are associated with elevated inflammatory markers from the body responding to threats. A major aspect of this response is the immune system. Mental threats are more problematic than physical threats in that you cannot escape disturbing thoughts and emotions and repressing them is even worse. Therefore, every human being is exposed to some level of elevated stress hormones and inflammation. Many people have learned to process threat in way that causes little damage. However, many, if not most of us, have not been taught these skills and therefore are  exposed to elevated levels of inflammatory cells. It is the essence of chronic disease.

The following chronic diseases are all connected to sustained inflammatory and metabolic destruction of tissues: cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune disorders, obesity, adult-onset diabetes, anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and bipolar disorder. It is all the same process with different clinical manifestations and many people suffer from multiple different ones.

Plan A–Lowering Inflammation Lengthens Life

This document, Plan A, presents 12 categories of interventions that will lower your levels of inflammation. If most severe cases of COVID are connected with chronic medical conditions, then address them. By starting with lower levels of inflammation, there is a better chance of staying below the critical threshold where the inflammatory process spins out of control, there is diffuse damage to many different organs, and your lungs fill up with fluid. There are now multiple professionals advocating a similar approach. One group looked at it from using preventative medications, but it can be achieved with these other means.

Getting and being happy is a learned skill and it is well-documented that those who learn it live longer with a better quality of life. Dealing with COVID-19 requires the same approach as dealing with chronic disease–lower threat and inflammation and create safety. Obviously, it all occurs at a much faster rate with COVID.

Join us in this grass roots movement

Please circulate Plan A to as many of your friends, family, and colleagues as possible and also encourage them to pass it along to their circles. This plan was assembled by a group of physicians and scientists who feel strongly that this approach will have an impact in lowering the severity of this deadly disease. It also represents a template for the future of healthcare moving from an illness to a wellness model. It boils down to means of creating safety instead of being at the mercy of threats. Most chronic mental and physical disease is preventable and some if it even reversible. This booklet represents a major effort to change both the trajectory of COVID–19 pandemic and also the manner in which we approach health care and chronic disease.

There is another aspect of all of this to consider. Inherent in this approach is each person taking full responsibility for his or her role in their health. It is easy to look at others or society for solutions when they truly exist only in each one of us. It is possible with a collective effort of taking personal responsibility for every aspect of our lives, we can change the course of this relentless pandemic, the nature of health care, and create societal changes that will enhance the quality of our lives and those of future generations. We each have to take action, as the burden of chronic disease is crushing us. (2)

Seeing such clear relationship between chronic stress and disease, both in my clinics and in the literature is what finally persuaded me to quit my practice. The DOC Journey is the most recent evolution of the healing process. It has been inspiring and energizing to continue to see people without hope consistently connect to their own capacity to heal.

Plan A – Lowering Inflammation, Lengthening Life

References:

1.   Williamson EL, et al. OpenSafely: factors associated with COVID-19 death in 17 million patients. Nature (2020); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2521-4.
2. O’Neill Hayes, Tara and Serena Gillian. Chronic disease in the United States: A worsening health and economic crisis. Americanactionforum.org; September 10th, 2020.

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A group of professionals who have had a lot of success treating chronic pain came together looking to deepen our knowledge of why our approaches were effective. Every chronic disease state has an inflammatory component that causes progressive tissue destruction and creates physical symptoms. It is similar to the COVID problem, only the COVID-19 problems occur much faster. “Plan B” is the result of this workgroup’s efforts and it is continuing to evolve.

Overview of the approach

• Optimizes the body’s readiness to fight off the virus. Every variable is considered.
• Recruits the body’s natural defenses – all of them.
  • With viral infection, the primary defense is the immune system modulated by the autonomic nervous system.
    • The sympathetic nervous system response is critical for the “fight” phase of warding off the virus.
    • The best way to modulate the overactive inflammatory response is by recruiting the parasympathetic nervous system.
  • Reinforces these defenses – respecting the fight, flight, freeze, or faint phase of the autonomic nervous system.
  • Utilizes major interventions when all else has failed.
    • Aggressive treatments are indicated when the body’s defenses are overwhelmed in the freeze/ faint phase. They can also be tailored to support the body’s final attempts to recover.

We are asking that this protocol be viewed as a foundation for designing clinical trials and seriously challenged. There is much work to be done regarding dosing and timing. When examining the effectiveness of novel therapies, the basics should always be addressed and documented. We are asking that this approach based on basic human physiology be proven wrong or refined and implemented.

Please contact David Hanscom at dnhanscom@gmail.com if you wish to look at the protocol.

The Workgroup

–Stephen Porges, PhD–”Distinguished University Scientist” at the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University Bloomington and professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in North Carolina. He proposed the Polyvagal Theory in the 1990’s and published his book, The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation in 2011.

–David R Clawson, MD–Physical Medicine and Rehab, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA. He has an unusual grasp of basic human physiology and cell metabolism. He has been instrumental in working with Stephen Porges in figuring out this sequence.

–David A. Hanscom, MD–Orthopedic spine surgeon, Oakland, CA. He retired from his surgical practice in 2019 to focus his efforts on bringing healing back into medicine. He has successfully treated hundreds of patients suffering from chronic pain through the concepts presented in his book, Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain. He is the organizer of the workgroup.

–Ray Bunnage–Database and Visualization Developer, U of WA Medicine, Seattle, WA. His expertise is in database development and computer programming. He has an unusual hobby of learning neuroscience and has shared his insights with a wide group of professionals. His breadth of knowledge across several disciplines has been key in integrating many of these concepts.

–Sue Carter, PhD–Appointed director in 2014 of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington IN. She is world-renowned for her work with oxytocin and vasopressin. She was the first person to identify the physiological mechanisms responsible for social monogamy. She is key in looking at the potential role of oxytocin in calming the inflammatory response of the COVID-19 ARDS. She is married to Stephen Porges.

–Les Aria, PhD–Lead pain psychologist, Kaiser Northern CA, Sacramento, CA. He enjoys treating patients in chronic pain that everyone else has given up on. His approach has been based on The Polyvagal Theory and helping patients feel safe through stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. His contributions are a result of his extensive clinical experience combined an in-depth knowledge of the autonomic nervous system and neurophysiology of chronic pain.

–Steve Lederman, MD–Cardiology.  He is recently retired and although his background on ICU patients has been valuable, his contribution has been in the role of nutrition contributing to inflammation.

–James Taylor, MD–Anesthesiologist, Pain physician, Pinehurst, NC. He is the director of Integrated Pain Solutions (IPS) in North Carolina. He has been innovative in his approach to pain and has utilized cannabinoids as one of his core treatment modalities. He is actively pursuing research to identify the best choices of CBD for solving specific aspects of chronic pain.

Corresponding author – dnhanscom@gmail.com

The post This COVID-19 Pandemic is Solvable–NOW first appeared on Back in Control.

The post This COVID-19 Pandemic is Solvable–NOW appeared first on Back in Control.