The Root Cause of IC Pain and 3 Things You Can Do

  As you know the bladder and/or pelvic pain of IC can be unbearable and there is not much for it except pain medications  But the issue is what is the root cause of the pain  You may find the answer from your matter science doctor if a workup is done(and I would suggest that you have this done) in order to rule out other causes of your pain  But typically the workup is negative and from the Western perspective there is no root cause

From an energy science point of view there is no pain with the Vata energy pattern  Vata is the energy pattern of movement in the energy science model  It is responsible for movement of nerve impulses, blood, bowel contents, and of course the movement of the other two energy patterns of Pitta and Kapha

Different types of pain from an energy perspective

From the energy science point of view there is Vata, Pitta, and Kapha pain or combinations   But keep in mind that the Vata energy pattern is always present if pain is present  Vata pain is moving, shifting, shooting, throbbing, and pulsating pain  Pitta pain is burning, sharp, sucking and pulling whereas Kapha pain is dull and static without movement of the pain

For example after eating or a bowel movement you may have crampy colicky pain  Vata pain

Or you may experience a burning sensation in the bladder, urethra, or vagina  Pitta pain

The identification of the type of pain can be helpful in defining the root cause of the pain

Why Is The Pain Pattern Important?

As I mentioned earlier the energy science discipline seeks the root cause of all disease  As you can see the root cause of disease is typically the physiologic Vata energy  You may have the Pitta or Kapha energy pattern associated with it but Vata is the carrier so Vata is the culprit but may be overshadowed by Pitta where the predominant pain in that situation may be more burning, irritation, sharpness  So Pitta may be primary and Vata then becoming secondary

But if Vata carries Pitta from the GI tract to the pelvis to produce the symptoms of bladder, urethral, and vaginal pain, targeted therapies to calm Vata may be part of the puzzle

But what provoked Vata to begin with?  What lifestyle behavioral pattern is instigating this energy pattern to be provoked and cause the symptoms that you’re having?

What Lifestyle Behaviors Can Provoke IC

Anyone with IC has a clear idea of triggering activities that will produce a flare or at least a worsening of daily symptoms

Anxiety, “the nerves”, bowel irritability from something that was recently eaten, gas in the small intestine, and constipation are just a few of the many symptoms that you can experience that are related to the increased Vata energy pattern

If bowel pain is an associated symptom of your IC, chances are that the Vata energy pattern is at work to produce this complex of symptomsAnd here are some things that you can do

1  Journal about your pain and see if you can pin down what was done regarding lifestyle choices that could have brought the pain on

2  Bowel rest by just a simple 24 hour juice fast can be helpful to calm the bowel

3  If there is a lot of emotional turmoil set up a consistent regimen of focusing on your breath for 5 minutes morning and evening  You can try doing this when lying in bed just before you get up in morning and when resting before going off to sleep at night

To Health as a Skill         Love and blessings Dr Bill

The Association of IC and Fibromyalgia

It is estimated that many people with fibromyalgia(FM) have an IC like symptom complex in mild form as well only to exacerbate as the years progress

As a matter of fact that’s why IC is now looked upon as a syndrome of diseases rather than an isolated disease of the urinary bladder   The energy science due to its way of looking at disease doesn’t create disease labels but sees all problems in the body as imbalances of qualities and hence with such a system of healing leaves clustering of disease labels as the way to understand how to treat

So if the imbalance is just Vata and Pitta in the urinary tract it’s just IC(if Vata is predominant you will experience frequency and urgency but not burning pain labeled as overactive bladder OAB)   But as you will see if you see Vata and Pitta both affect the muscles of the body along with ama then FM can coexist with the IC symptoms

Fibromyalgia is rheumatoid arthritis(RA) like pain that doesn’t involve the joints   All of the complaints are related to the muscular and connective tissue system with the accompanying aches and pains   The commonality between RA and FM is ama

Tongue Monitoring and Ama

The bodily systems are fully exposed on the tongue  By scraping the tongue in the am and checking it out you get a snapshot of how the body is   If you’ve been traveling and you have had cracks and crevices on the tongue these become more prominent   If there have been several days of heavy eating the tongue will show more coating due to the digestive strength being weakened    It’s a very good way to monitor your health on a day to day basis

So if you see a brownish, yellowish, or white coating on the tongue it implies that there is undigested material in the GI tract that needs to be digested   This material is called ama and is a significant contributor to chronic disease   If you have a coated tongue the first step in recovering your health is to clear ama from the GI tract which I’ll spend some time with you in the future

The Creation of FM

Once the qualities of Vata become excessive in the colon where Vata primarily localizes Vata due to its mobile quality carries this toxic residue of undigested material through the lymphatics and blood to the muscular tissue    This produces irregular temperatures due to this ama in the blood stream(it’s like the fever experienced with overeating)   Vata localizes with its ama load in certain Vata predisposed areas of the body, namely the shoulder and pelvic girdles

Pains of FM vary   As in the bladder if just Vata is involved then clinicians label the problem as OAB   And so if just Vata is involved then the pain of FM can be variable, migrating, and excruciating    If Vata in the colon is blocked by excessive hot or Pitta then the pain will be burning and sucking, accompanied by a metallic taste in the mouth(Pitta in the blood layer), experiencing a smokey aroma, and notable irritability   If Kapha and Vata are involved the pain will be dull but will be sweet because it lets you sleep

Psychological or Mind Aspects of FM

From an energy science perspective the subconscious mind is located in the connective tissue of the body   All the tissue that connects the muscles together, attaches them to bones, and maintains form of the body is related to this connective tissue system that we call fascia   So fascia is the subconscious mind and those emotions that you don’t want to face get pushed into the fascial layer

This is why when Vata enters into the fascial layer of the body it creates instability, anxiety, and fear   This is due to the mobile quality of Vata but leaves you the owner of the body very ungrounded because the subconscious mind is ungrounded

It is not infrequent that people go into yoga poses and experience emotional releases due this very fact

But if Pitta is there with Vata not only may you experience anxiety but also anger and irritability   And if Kapha is present with Vata then you may experience inertia, lack of motivation, lethargy, and mental fatigue

Summary

So this is an overview of FM and its relationship with IC and you can see why it would be so easy for these conditions to overlap   The ama condition of FM differentiates itself from IC where there is no tissue layer for the ama to localize   In IC the ama has no place to localize and so it’s simply passed through in the urine   But it can’t do that in the bodily tissues    There’s no place for it to be removed so it has to accumulate in some tissue to which Vata has carried it

The treatment for FM and IC together doesn’t vary much more than if you were treating them as separate diseases    You first have to get rid of the ama which I will talk about in future blogs

Until next time                                                  To Health as a Skill  Love DrBill

Sesame Oil Swish and Cleansing in IC

As I’ve talked about in the past thepelvic bladder  pain of IC is related to the hot and mobile qualities being stuck in the pelvis  But why do some 60% of IC patients not go on to severe chronic symptoms?  The answer in short form is toxic load in the urinary system that prevents the qualities from naturally being released

Matter Science Skepticism

An Energy Science Explanation

Many Ways to Detoxify

Castor and Trigger Point Therapy for IC

The debilitating bladder pain of an IC(interstitial cystitis)  flare requires you to pull all stops and do everything to get comfortable  As I’ve talked about in the past chronic management is baseline work(nutrition, incompatible food combination avoidance, use of cooling herbs in cooking, CCF tea, etc)  These therapies help begin release and at times flares are an aspect of release  The treatment of flare in this setting takes the management to another level of pain management

One of the mainstays of acute treatment is the use of castor oil  As I’ve written about earlier the use of castor packs have been traditionally discussed but I’ve found that just using castor directly to the skin is as if not more effective

Another important aspect of the use of castor is to take advantage of various marma points as noted in the diagram  These points are related to not only acupuncture points but pertain to organs in the pelvis and can be likened to trigger points because they are related to internal organs that are in pain

Trigger Points(aka marma or acupuncture points)

The castor is cooling when externally applied but when taken internally it’s hot leading to diarrhea  This external affect is effective longterm  The oil can be applied directly to the area below the belly button out laterally to the flanks

A towel can be placed over the oleated skin to protect a heating pad if you want to use one

Essential oils that are cooling such as mint, rose, or sandalwood can be  applied to the bladder points(these are noted in the accompanying diagram)  The midline point is called basti(main bladder point) marma and slightly above it is CV5 acupuncture point which regulates water  CV4 is another acupuncture point is slightly below this important point and regulates the kidneys

Another point just above the pubic bone is the CV2 acupuncture point and corresponds to bhaga marma which  helps relieve pelvic pain

The other points noted are peripheral to the bladder points but do affect pelvic organ pain and it’s worthwhile to also treat these as well

Application and Self Treatment

Apply the oil directly to the skin below the belly button to the pubic bone

Apply the cooling essential oils to the points

Apply pressure to each of the points with rotation  Use the diagram beginning with basti marma as described above

Keep applying the pressure until discomfort is noted and then back off just a little  As you apply the pressure do so with some undulation or rotation whichever feels better to you

Do this for all points in the diagram  When you are out laterally you can use both hands on each left and right marma points

How Long?

The general rule is as often as you can  Usually this isn’t a problem because when you’re laid up with a flare people are usually flat on their back in pain

For more direction I would use an hour as a time interval and consider doing it twice a day in many instances

I would suggest journaling your symptoms when you’re doing trigger therapy because the changes that you experience will be subtle as you move along and you will want to be aware of these changes

All the best        Love DB