323 | Overcoming Chronic Pain with Ashleigh Di Lello

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Optimal Body Podcast. I'm Doc Jen.

[00:00:09] And I'm Dr. Dom. And we are doctors of physical therapy, bringing you the body tips and physical

[00:00:13] therapy pearls of wisdom to help you begin to understand your body, relieve your pains

[00:00:17] and restrictions, and answer your questions.

[00:00:19] Along with expert guests, our goal of the Optimal Body Podcast is really to help you

[00:00:24] discover what optimal means within your own body. Are they super sore? Are they stiff? What shoes have you been wearing? Especially during the summer, if we're wearing a lot of flip-flops or we're just sticking our feet in shoes that are super restricted, we could be impeding our foot health, which could lead to plantar fasciitis, bunions, foot pain, and a lot of other things down the road. How we treat our feet is so crucial

[00:01:42] and it matters what we put our foot in.

[00:01:44] Even the flip-flops, they make your foot work a lot

[00:01:47] so that you have to crunch your toes And so understanding and hearing your own journey and where you are now and where you've come from and how you're helping other people is really fascinating. So thank you so much for being here. And I just wanna dive right in because I know your journey started when you were young, 13 years old.

[00:03:00] So can you tell us a little bit of what happened then?

[00:04:06] tests hoping that we'd get a positive result just so that I knew what we were facing so we could come up with some action plan. So the best that doctors could tell me is that I was fighting a

[00:04:11] rare viral infection that was shutting my body down. I got to down to like 90 pounds, lost a lot

[00:04:19] of my hair. My skin was yellow from my liver doctor and deciding right then and there that I didn't just accept that this was it, that this was it for my body and my life and that what I was facing, we couldn't do anything about. And I just looked at him and said, I don't accept this.

[00:05:41] And that became the beginning of a very three electrolytes can help in our body.

[00:07:03] If you haven't tried element, it's so delicious.

[00:08:04] You just said, don't your health back after six years. What were some of the things that you

[00:08:12] really feel like you went to to start, like you said, support your health and all different aspects and start to build back from that? Yeah. And what's interesting to note is that

[00:08:18] that was 27 years ago. So the knowledge and information and homeopathic medicine and really altered how I ate. Food literally became life and death to me. This food either helps my immune system or it takes from my immune system. And so everything I put in my mouth was from that intention of helping my body support

[00:09:41] itself.

[00:09:42] And so quick question, sorry to interrupt you.

[00:09:44] During the two and a half years in the Western approach and talking to me about food, right? It was, well, we don't know what it is other than some rare viral infection. And so we can't treat it. And so this is it. You know, nobody talked to me about, well, let's give your immune system support. So it can, you know, do what it was also designed to do, which is to fight, you know, infections.

[00:11:00] I mean, it's so insane to even think of being a young girl

[00:11:05] and saying something else needs to change 16 what happened? Yeah. Yeah. And before I dive into that, I want to say the other crucial aspect that happened that was planting the seeds to my work in the brain in life now. And that was the power of my mind. And that again, wasn't something someone was, so people were talking to me about. But I remember when they told me I needed to accept that I was

[00:12:20] dying. I had this feeling inside that if I expected to go just like my first one on the other hip, but this one completely failed.

[00:13:43] And it launched my entire body into chronic pain. And I was eating an anti-inflammatory diet. I mean, anything you can think of. And they're telling me, well, sometimes in surgeries, the nervous system can flip a switch

[00:15:00] into pain.

[00:15:01] So this is what happened to you.

[00:15:04] You're a chronic pain patient now. There's nothing left to try. And that's really when, again, my greatest desperation met my greatest determination. And barring from those roots of what I'd gone through when I was younger, I thought, well, if my nervous system can flip a switch into pain, I'm gonna figure out how to flip it back.

[00:16:21] Because what can go one way can go back the other way.

[00:16:24] So that's what dove. I love the fringe, yes. Yeah, we for sure live on the fringe. So maybe I was just seeking it out, but was there, once you started digging more into this processing

[00:17:40] how pain is perceived in the brain,

[00:17:44] what type of information was out there?

[00:17:46] And did you start into all of his research. And of course that led me to other people and other studies. And that's at least the blessing of this age of information

[00:19:02] is that I could access it, you know?

[00:19:05] And then I'm now realizing altered my brain and nervous system and realized that literally I'd been subconsciously operating in a fight or flight response for over two decades and warranted, right? You don't fight for your life for four years. And your nervous system is like, we're good now. It's like, I'm gonna keep this hyper vigilance around your body, just

[00:20:23] in case and in truthfully, it makes me realize it was probably altered. But as upset as that made me, I felt so empowered because I could do something about it. And it meant that pain was neuroplastic when it comes to chronic pain. We're not talking about acute pain where you have an injury that then heals, but this chronic perpetual pain is learned

[00:21:42] by the brain. And so if it can learn it, well, they take it as a defense. You're telling me it's all in my head. I'm telling you it's not. It's something that I'm feeling in my body. So don't you dare tell me it's in my head. So how do you, how do you approach it from someone? I, I'm hurting, you can't see it, maybe the MRI doesn't show anything. And so there is a natural defensiveness of like I'm suffering. And that's where I just make that clear distinction. Like was a clinical instructor or the lead therapist on our floor for letting the person talk too much. I'm just like, how can I treat this person well?

[00:25:40] How can I meet them where they're at or understand what I need to do for them if I don't let

[00:25:45] them tell me their story? after my little rant there, I'm just wondering a little bit more this bio emotional healing that that you have founded. Um, can you talk to us a little bit more about what that entails and different components that help people take that power back? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I just I think we could talk for hours because I would love

[00:27:04] to to dig into both of your brains and experiences makes sense because otherwise, why is it so much more prevalent amongst females. So in understanding that, it's not just what is presently happening, but what has happened throughout your whole life that your brain has a databank of. And we've got to understand you as a person to got to understand What they've gone through that might have altered their brain and nervous system and maybe they had an injury But because their system was operating in that hypersensitivity

[00:31:01] Now that stress got stuck in that injury and so I'm sure you guys have seen it where the tissues have healed

[00:32:05] The fact that if if it's turned off you can or if it's turned on the other way You can turn it flip the switch the other way and I think that's what's most powerful knowing that okay

[00:32:11] If this is flipped this way, I have the ability to flip it the other way

[00:32:15] I have the ability to unlearn something that my body has learned and

[00:32:20] That is just it's it becomes more empowering knowing that there's hope because like you said, there's so many practitioners out there

[00:33:24] infamous question, right? How long will it take to get out of my chronic pain? When do I get out of pain? Just tell me, tell me the number.

[00:33:28] I know, right? I know. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Because no one can tell you.

[00:33:33] That's why I always joke with my clients. I know you want to be out of pain yesterday.

[00:33:38] So, and I, I wish I could give you like a definitive number because clearly I've

[00:33:44] watched that road myself, right? How long, right? How long is this going to take? What does it look not go from pain every day to pain in non-existence. So I tell my clients, everyone's different. I did a story on Instagram yesterday where I was celebrating because I have a client who's had chronic pain. She's in her sixties for a long time and she's seven weeks into bi-emotional healing. It's a nine week program and she just said, my pain has been reduced by 90% for the entire

[00:35:03] last week.

[00:35:04] That's amazing. part of the body. And so it will create a pain response just so we don't do a particular movement, right? Or it will lock in place because we have such a fear around that. And so notwithstanding the deeper work, that's also such a crucial component is, is working through that fear and that protection and learning to trust our body again to support

[00:36:23] us and to heal and to know that no matter what we've gone through. And I think the teaching people the tool, like you're saying, of just flipping that script, being able to hear someone, a doctor, a physical therapist say, oh no, you shouldn't pick something up that way because you'll hurt your back. Being able to hear someone say that and say, no, thank you for your input, but kindly F off.

[00:37:42] I know that my body can do this. And I know? Because it's when we have a setback, we feel a sense of progress and then we have setback that our brain goes, alarm, alarm, alarm, C, C. Like this isn't safe. Movement isn't safe, you know? Our body isn't safe. And we let the brain go to all of those fears

[00:39:01] and uncertainties, which then again reinforces that pain,

[00:39:04] reinforces that inhibition.

[00:39:06] And so I tell my clients, we know the brain and the amygdala, that emotional part of the brain is more than apt and ready to run to fear and uncertainty. And unfortunately, we've didn't have a threat. And that's, again, why I emphasize we have to reestablish that trust and safety in the body to move again. Because if we don't, that fear will and most often does create pain. 100%. Like, you are preaching our message right now. I am loving this so much because

[00:41:44] I'm like, okay, maybe they don't get it And I, I just love what you've come up with and how you're helping people. And I want to know how people can work with you and start to experience this bio emotional healing as well.

[00:43:04] Yeah, absolutely. I think I'm grateful for that. I-on, so that's why I have that consultation first and foremost, just to make sure it's a good fit for both of us, because it doesn't work unless someone is willing to do the work, right? And to kind of flip that paradigm of,

[00:44:20] okay, it doesn't mean I might not need

[00:44:22] still a physical therapist,

[00:44:23] and I'm gonna still eat well,

[00:44:24] and I'm gonna take some supplements,

[00:44:26] but I have to do this work within myself.