I have migraines, how do I cure them?
Attending not only to what hurts him but where and how he lives, what he eats, what relationships he has, how suffering affects him; this is medical anthropology.
A global view of the patient.
It was described in Germany in the middle of the last century. This is where integrative medicine and holistic medicine are born.
What have you learned about pain?
When we talk about stress we talk about suffering, it is the cause of 80% or 90% of the pathologies seen in consultations.
Psychological suffering?
Human suffering in the sense of destruction of the essence of oneself or of one's immediate environment, which sometimes triggers pain, other times irritable bowel, tinnitus, itching, cystitis, and a long et cetera.
How does medical anthropology remedy it?
With treatments that are not just pharmacological, and for this it is essential to know neuroscience.
Can you give me an example?
We know that exercise increases the production of endorphins, lowering the level of stress and anxiety. At the last international pain congress, it became clear that kinesitherapy, exercise therapy, is essential for the recovery of a patient with chronic pain.
What else do we know?
That red meat is stressful, and pasta and rice, relaxing. You need to sleep well, and for that reason, it's better not to watch violent series or movies before going to bed.
Do they affect the sound?
We stick with the last thing we saw or read, and this can disturb sleep.
Can the level of suffering be measured?
Yes, I have spent years studying and publishing about markers of suffering in saliva and blood, such as cortisol, testosterone or alpha-a-milase, and what their levels tell us.
Why did it go beyond the organ?
Because he saw that most rheumatic patients he treated had a component of emotional suffering behind them.
Is there a common suffering?
Loneliness, heartbreak and catastrophism are the cause of many illnesses. Quoting Baselga, most cancers have a sufferer behind them.
What can we do in a time when discouragement reigns?
Change this trend. It seems that we like to live in everything goes wrong, when the reality is quite different. Now the negative records are taken. We need good news, which there is, and optimistic thoughts to be healthy.
I understand.
Patients call me to ask me if something new has come out, "a pill of happiness". This pill is exercise, relaxation, good nutrition, good sleep, pleasant relationships.
Sometimes, not even that.
Health is influenced by the entire biosphere. We have already seen that the health of animals affects ours, we must aspire to universal health.
Do we continue to alleviate suffering?
I will give you two exciting concepts to overcome suffering: one is the illusion, which is the first thing that disappears in people who suffer, to have illusion again for simple things. Today there are techniques and devices for this.
Appliances?
Transcranial stimulators that are more sophisticated every day and that act on more specific points in the brain, where we know that the ability to think about the future, to activate illusion, lies.
And the other concept?
Gratitude for what you have done, for what you have and for how you are; although self-esteem is not always up to par, it is something to train that alleviates suffering.
What other methods do you use?
Hypnosis, which is a type of psychotherapy, is helpful with particularly traumatic biographies. The patient is awake, but very relaxed and sensitive to the phrasing that the professional tells him, trying to modify the suffering that is engraved in his brain.
It works?
Yes, in fact a new type of pain has been described which is called nociplastic and is linked to emotion. The WHO recognizes that fibromyalgia, for example, is a nociplastic pain, linked to a strong emotion: a conflicted child, a divorce, a difficult work relationship, a death...
What other diseases does this type of pain include?
Chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, anorexia. These are diseases linked to culture, there are none in Africa.
What is the best thing we can do for ourselves?
What Voltaire said: "I have decided to be happy because it is good for my health", and this implies trying to have a positive idea and putting a filter on the prevailing catastrophism.
