Dr. Alexander Mauskop

I tell them we have to set realistic expectations.

I may not be able to eliminate all of your headaches, but the goal is improve your functioning and enjoyment of your life.

And then we keep trying and trying and trying.

And one other interesting fact that, depending on the study, 40 to 60% of people who have chronic pain or headaches have a history of traumatic event in their life, whether it's childhood abuse or bad accident or serious illness.

And that traumatic experience...

makes your brain hypersensitive.

And that's a predisposing factor to chronification of pain of any kind, back pain.

You buy into that?

Well, patients often ask me, they buy into it.

Proof is in the pudding.

That means if you feel better from thermotherapy, and many people do, and drugs like beta blockers help traumatic experience as well.

They slow your heart rate down.

PTSD, beta blocks can be helpful, antidepressants, therapy, psychedelics are coming hopefully soon through the FDA approval process.

All these things reset your brain.

So there's no question about the fact that when you have a traumatic experience, I actually have a two-question screening questionnaire in my intake form.

Have you had a traumatic experience like an accident, illness, childhood abuse?

And if yes,

Do you try not to think about it?

And the second question is, when you think about it, does it upset you?

So if you answer yes to those two, it means you're always living in this state of alertness, hypervigilance, we call it, or state of fight or flight.