By Forest Tennant, PNN Columnist

The greatest research breakthrough in recent years that will provide much hope for persons with intractable pain syndrome (IPS) has been the discovery of the “inflammatory cascades” inside the central nervous system (CNS). Now that this is known, there are specific measures to take to reduce or halt this process.

Most persons with IPS have two inflammatory cascades, one in the brain and the other in the lower spinal canal. They are called cascades because one area of inflammation can ignite another in a continuous chain reaction and spread.

Excess electric currents enter the brain from a bodily site of damage or diseases. In response to tissue injury, inflammation initially begins around receptors and spreads to other parts of the brain, just like the inflammation that causes cellulitis on the skin.

Inflammation in the lower spinal canal usually starts in a protruding intervertebral disc or due to a puncture, infection or injury to the dura-arachnoid covering of the spinal canal.

Once inflammation starts in either the brain or inside the spinal canal, it may not ever cease or burn-out. It may even silently continue to spread and damage CNS tissue with progressive pain and disability.

How to Control Inflammation

While pain relief is always the first thing on the mind of an afflicted person, measures to control and suppress the inflammatory cascade are essential. Normal anti-inflammatory agents don’t usually enter the brain or spinal canal in adequate amounts to be very helpful. You must use multiple agents that cross the blood brain barrier.

Every person with IPS must be on a daily program that include three measures to control the cascades of CNS inflammation or your condition will likely deteriorate. This can be done through diet, vitamins and supplements that help prevent inflammation; medications that reduce inflammation; and movements that help keep spinal fluid flowing.

Review the three measures listed here with your family and medical practitioners. Select the nutrients, medications and exercises to develop a program that best fits you.

You must continue daily cascade control for as long as you have pain. Opioids and other analgesics, by themselves, do not control the inflammatory cascades. Without a cascade control program, you can expect that your pain relievers will diminish in effectiveness and may totally stop working.

Forest Tennant is retired from clinical practice but continues his research on intractable pain and arachnoiditis. This column is adapted from newsletters recently issued by the IPS Research and Education Project of the Tennant Foundation. Readers interested in subscribing to the newsletter can sign up by clicking here.

The Tennant Foundation gives financial support to Pain News Network and sponsors PNN’s Patient Resources section.