Roughly one in five Americans suffers from chronic, unresolved pain, making this a central issue for both traditional and natural health practitioners to address. With that being said, it’s essential to distinguish between the different paradigms that traditional medicine employs to both diagnose and treat chronic pain versus natural health. After this, we’ll investigate one potentially interesting natural product solution: DLPA.
Traditional medicine: pain is seen as a disorder of the brain or the nerves themselves – if we can locate the source of the pain, we can administer certain medications or therapies to numb or “stop” the pain (meaning, block the pain at its source). As long as the pain is minimized, there is typically little to no concern for what might be causing the pain or what other body systems, inflammatory cytokines, or hormones might be involved. A common solution is to offer patients a variety of opioid medications, which work by binding to and activating the opioid receptors in our brains – this is an example of directly “hijacking” the pain network, but doing nothing to understand why that network is behaving in the way that it is. Furthermore, traditional opioid medications come with a variety of serious side effects, including GI upset, brain fog, potential risk for addiction, and many others. After stopping any of these medications after long-term use, patients will often experience withdrawal symptoms, since their bodies and brains need to reregulate and work to recycle and manufacture new endorphins and other neurotransmitters.
Natural health: most natural health practitioners view pain as a brain disorder and recognize that this symptom is never an isolated issue – many different functional hormones, inflammatory pathways, organs, and bodily systems may contribute to or be affected by chronic pain in the body. Additionally, a seasoned natural health practitioner understands that pain is a *signal* and this signal is the body’s way of telling us to “pay closer attention”– this means that simply turning off the alarm (through the use of opioid medications) isn’t doing anything fundamental for the body other than offering short term relief from the patient’s symptoms. Instead, holistic practitioners choose to work strategically to track down other potential culprits that may be activating the body’s alarm systems (food sensitivities, celiac disease, latent infections, chronic inflammation, or physical/mental/or emotional trauma), and eventually work to resolve those “signal-triggers.”
In the meantime, patients desperately need access to safe and effective relief from their pain that not only aligns with their body’s natural biological principles, but also doesn’t leave their brain in a neurochemical deficit with unwanted risks for addiction and side effects. Allow me to explain why this natural amino acid (DLPA) is both a safe and clinically effective alternative.
DLPA is simply the mirror image of two amino acids put together (d-phenylalanine and l-phenylalanine), one of which is an essential amino acid that needs to be obtained through exogenous means (plants, animals, etc.) and can be consumed and manufactured safely in a capsule-filled supplement. In biochemistry, most compounds that start with d- have little to no biological benefit in the body; however, in the case of this particular molecule, the d-phenylalanine does most of the heavy lifting. When painkilling neurotransmitters in the brain (endorphins) are activated, the brain gives them a limited amount of time to remain active – after a certain amount of use, specific enzymes are released to break down these endorphins, so we can readjust back to our normal state of homeostasis. However, DLPA works to break down and eliminate the body’s natural enzymes that recycle endorphins, which means that we get to keep more of our endorphins in use for a longer period of time. This function highlights an important distinction between traditional opioid medications – instead of directly binding to neurotransmitters themselves, DLPA functions downstream from the source, leaves opioid receptors alone, and allows for a more gentle negotiation with our neuroregulatory system. Furthermore, side effects from DLPA are almost nonexistent compared to most opioid medications and pose almost no risk of psychological addiction, making this a viable alternative for most patients to try.
Several reputable studies have determined that it is perfectly safe to administer DLPA to patients while they are still taking traditional opioid medications – meaning there is almost no harm in trying this natural alternative.
At Bespoke Wellness, our favorite natural pain relief product that contains clinically effective doses of DLPA is Curaphen Extra Strength from Euromedica. Even on its own, DLPA can be a powerful tool for pain management; however, the additional natural anti-inflammatory compounds in this product, like sustainably-manufactured curcumin, boswellia, and nattokinase, all work together to synergistically reduce inflammation and eliminate pain from other critical pathways in the body outside of the brain.
Please click the link below to check out this excellent product through my dispensary – all new sign ups will receive our regular year round discount of 10% and free shipping over $50:
