August 10, 2024 • 5 mins
New research has revealed chronic pain and declining mental health are interconnected.
People who suffer from chronic pain are at heighted risk from suffering from mental health issues, including depression and anxiety.
Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains further.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSB joining me now to talk wellness.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Aaron O'Hara ATWRETH joins me. Good morning, Good morning. You
talking about an interesting one today about the relationship between
chronic pain and anxiety and depression.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, these go quite commonly hand in hand, and it's
interesting when you look at the research. Actually about fifty
to sixty percent of patients that are seeking help for
depression have reported at least one type of pain symptom,
So it is a really common one that goes together.
And it can be sometimes for some people the chronic
pain that then leads to anxiety and depression or even
(00:47):
just depression, or it can be the depression that is
actually creating physical painfulness of just life in general, that
actually makes the body physically pain as well.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's interesting because I totally understand. I would imagine if
you've got chronic pain and just getting through life on
a day to day basis was difficult. I can I
really understand how that would lead to anxiety depression.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And it can be day to day or it can
even be like for some people it's actually a physic
medical condition like fibromyalga or iritable bowel syndrome, or lower
back pain, chronic lower back pain, so be headaches, migrones, those,
nerve pain, but also sports injuries as well, which is
a really hard one. And watching the Olympics obviously, you
(01:29):
know injuries happen all the time, and those athletes when
they get a major injury that might come with pain
as well, it can commonly lead them down that pathway
of depression because they can't do what they love to do,
and that can be a really really hard one to
recover from, not just the injury itself, but actually the
mental side of recovery as well.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so how does the brain work and all this?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, so the brain pathways. It's interesting that the pathway
for pain in the pathway for depression is actually quite
similar and the sense the somato century cortex interacts with
the a mingadilla and the hypothalamus gland and that also
links into emotions, so that pain actually creates that emotional response,
(02:16):
but also when we do have that low mood, we've
got that emotional response as well, So it can link
to the brain pathways as well as neurotransmitters. So serotonin
which I always think of serotonin as our sort of
happy hormone, is one that can also be in the
pain pathways, but also not every Knyfron is another one
that's involved in sickaling pathways for anxiety and depression, but
(02:39):
also in pain as well. So since they share similar pathways,
they can actually lead to you know, there's that incidence
together because they're on the same pathways. And chronic pain, like,
it's just a hard one to really manage day to day,
and some people live with pain every day of their
life and they're every day getting up going Okay, I've
got to get through this, and that's we're having support
(03:00):
around you is super important, and there's really good clinical
research around doing cognitive behave your therapy. So actually learning
how to manage the chronic pain can be a really
helpful thing, having the right tools rather than feeling victimized
by your pain, but instead having some ways of managing
through the pain, because it won't just suddenly disappear when
it comes to chronic pain. Also, our relaxation techniques, so
(03:25):
things like my favorites like meditation, relaxation techniques, yoga, mindfulness,
so learning how to relax when there is a lot
of pain, because our natural tendency when we do experience
pain in the body is to be really tense. So
learning how to kind of relax and learn how to
manage the pain as well as exercise is really interesting
(03:45):
research more around anxiety and depression rather than chronic pain itself,
but actually using exercise as a tool to help to
regulate mood as well as alleviate the anxiety. So it
depends on what kind of pain you've got whether you
can do much exercises.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So if somebody is suffering from chronic plain at the
moment and maybe a bit of anxiety depress, what do
they do? I mean, if they go to their doctrin
and go look, how do I deal with this? Who
should they talk to?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, going to your doctor is a good place because
obviously seeking why is their pain in the first place,
and then you might want to go down more pathways,
whether it's seeing a psychologist or whether you're looking at
other medications. So sometimes medications are appropriate for managing the pain,
even the like so of your antidepressant anti anxiety medication
can actually help to reduce pain in some instances and
(04:34):
that's where you really need to seek proper medical advice
around that. Other things that I would do as a
naturopath is more looking at reducing inflammation. Nature opthy is
not very good at pain management. It's probably the weakest area.
There's nothing that works like panadol for instant pain relief,
and it's more around how we manage the inflammation and
reducing that inflammatory path phase in the body, and that
(04:56):
might be using things like good old favorite turmeric or
cucumin has been a really high dose. One of my
other favorites is Boswalia, which is also known as frankincense,
and they are really good anti inflammatories, so they're going
to reduce the inflammation, not particularly we just reduce the pain. Also,
maybe are looking at CBD oil, which you'd have to
(05:18):
go and see proper clinic around getting CBD oil. Really
good for pain management plans as well. But also you're
looking at calming herbs because if we're calmer, we're actually
going to be able to manage the pain as well
a lot better. So it might be using things like
herbs like lavender, lemon, balm, camera mile, getting to start
with teas, maybe move intertinctionres or some tablets, but actually
(05:39):
using those to really calm the nervous system. If you
are going to use herbs, though, always seek some advice
with the nature Path so you can make sure you
got no interactions with medications.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live Ton Use Talks. They'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSB joining me now to talk wellness.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Aaron O'Hara ATWRETH joins me. Good morning, Good morning. You
talking about an interesting one today about the relationship between
chronic pain and anxiety and depression.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, these go quite commonly hand in hand, and it's
interesting when you look at the research. Actually about fifty
to sixty percent of patients that are seeking help for
depression have reported at least one type of pain symptom,
So it is a really common one that goes together.
And it can be sometimes for some people the chronic
pain that then leads to anxiety and depression or even
(00:47):
just depression, or it can be the depression that is
actually creating physical painfulness of just life in general, that
actually makes the body physically pain as well.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's interesting because I totally understand. I would imagine if
you've got chronic pain and just getting through life on
a day to day basis was difficult. I can I
really understand how that would lead to anxiety depression.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And it can be day to day or it can
even be like for some people it's actually a physic
medical condition like fibromyalga or iritable bowel syndrome, or lower
back pain, chronic lower back pain, so be headaches, migrones, those,
nerve pain, but also sports injuries as well, which is
a really hard one. And watching the Olympics obviously, you
(01:29):
know injuries happen all the time, and those athletes when
they get a major injury that might come with pain
as well, it can commonly lead them down that pathway
of depression because they can't do what they love to do,
and that can be a really really hard one to
recover from, not just the injury itself, but actually the
mental side of recovery as well.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so how does the brain work and all this?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, so the brain pathways. It's interesting that the pathway
for pain in the pathway for depression is actually quite
similar and the sense the somato century cortex interacts with
the a mingadilla and the hypothalamus gland and that also
links into emotions, so that pain actually creates that emotional response,
(02:16):
but also when we do have that low mood, we've
got that emotional response as well, So it can link
to the brain pathways as well as neurotransmitters. So serotonin
which I always think of serotonin as our sort of
happy hormone, is one that can also be in the
pain pathways, but also not every Knyfron is another one
that's involved in sickaling pathways for anxiety and depression, but
(02:39):
also in pain as well. So since they share similar pathways,
they can actually lead to you know, there's that incidence
together because they're on the same pathways. And chronic pain, like,
it's just a hard one to really manage day to day,
and some people live with pain every day of their
life and they're every day getting up going Okay, I've
got to get through this, and that's we're having support
(03:00):
around you is super important, and there's really good clinical
research around doing cognitive behave your therapy. So actually learning
how to manage the chronic pain can be a really
helpful thing, having the right tools rather than feeling victimized
by your pain, but instead having some ways of managing
through the pain, because it won't just suddenly disappear when
it comes to chronic pain. Also, our relaxation techniques, so
(03:25):
things like my favorites like meditation, relaxation techniques, yoga, mindfulness,
so learning how to relax when there is a lot
of pain, because our natural tendency when we do experience
pain in the body is to be really tense. So
learning how to kind of relax and learn how to
manage the pain as well as exercise is really interesting
(03:45):
research more around anxiety and depression rather than chronic pain itself,
but actually using exercise as a tool to help to
regulate mood as well as alleviate the anxiety. So it
depends on what kind of pain you've got whether you
can do much exercises.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So if somebody is suffering from chronic plain at the
moment and maybe a bit of anxiety depress, what do
they do? I mean, if they go to their doctrin
and go look, how do I deal with this? Who
should they talk to?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, going to your doctor is a good place because
obviously seeking why is their pain in the first place,
and then you might want to go down more pathways,
whether it's seeing a psychologist or whether you're looking at
other medications. So sometimes medications are appropriate for managing the pain,
even the like so of your antidepressant anti anxiety medication
can actually help to reduce pain in some instances and
(04:34):
that's where you really need to seek proper medical advice
around that. Other things that I would do as a
naturopath is more looking at reducing inflammation. Nature opthy is
not very good at pain management. It's probably the weakest area.
There's nothing that works like panadol for instant pain relief,
and it's more around how we manage the inflammation and
reducing that inflammatory path phase in the body, and that
(04:56):
might be using things like good old favorite turmeric or
cucumin has been a really high dose. One of my
other favorites is Boswalia, which is also known as frankincense,
and they are really good anti inflammatories, so they're going
to reduce the inflammation, not particularly we just reduce the pain. Also,
maybe are looking at CBD oil, which you'd have to
(05:18):
go and see proper clinic around getting CBD oil. Really
good for pain management plans as well. But also you're
looking at calming herbs because if we're calmer, we're actually
going to be able to manage the pain as well
a lot better. So it might be using things like
herbs like lavender, lemon, balm, camera mile, getting to start
with teas, maybe move intertinctionres or some tablets, but actually
(05:39):
using those to really calm the nervous system. If you
are going to use herbs, though, always seek some advice
with the nature Path so you can make sure you
got no interactions with medications.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live Ton Use Talks. They'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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