How to eliminate your chronic pains.

Have you ever had a chronic injury which has lasted more than 2-3 months?

And wondered why it was not gone for a long time?

I personally had a pain in my feet for four years in the left side and two years in the right side. In those four years, I always had a strong pain in daily life. And it became my normal life and could not imagine my life without that pain anymore. I was disappointed and wondered if I kept having those pains until I died.

Also, as a runner I saw some runners who had injuries for a long time. I personally know two talented runners who had always pains and never made success because of the pains.

One runner already ran 3000m under 9 minutes when he was 14 years old. And he entered into our high school in the same year I became a high school student. He already ran 3000m 8:48 3 months after becoming a high school student. Fortunately, he could not participate in the Japanese championship because we had a faster runner who ran 8:44. Me? I ran only 9:17. 6 runners in my high school ran faster than I ran in the race.

However, I got more successful as a runner than he did. It is not because I was more talented than he was but he suffered from a knee injury in the whole his life. He could not take part in any races in the last two years out of only three years of his high school life. He had even an operation, but it did not help him at all.

And then he became an university student, only after several months training, he ran 10000m 30:02. We former his teammates were so surprised, but he got the same pain again and could not run anymore in the rest of his university life.

Another one was also my former team mate in my high school. Many Japanese representatives in athletics come from our high school. So, the coaches watched many Japanese champions, Japanese high school recode holder, even future Japanese recode holder. And, according to the coach, he would qualify for the Olympics and World Championships in the future and I agreed with the coach 100%.

But he has been suffering from his pain in the whole his career and could not make it as a runner anymore. Now, he is a good coach though because he knows someone’s physical pain and mental pain.

But anyway, for me this phenomenon is so strange because all skeletal muscle cells are reborn every 2-3 months. How can those injuries last so long?

Imagine, you sell your car and buy a new one every 2-3 months and your car is always broken. How is it possible?

First of all, getting an injury itself is strange to me. Running itself does not hurt you normally. If you get a punch in your face, it is normal that it hurts you somehow. And if Muhammed Ali keeps punching you, it hurts so much and sooner or later you black out.

While normal running does not hurt your legs. Yes, if you run at a hard effort, you feel hard. But you do not get a pain in your leg. Also, one day I run 60km a day and get no injury and another day I get an injury with only 10km easy run. How is it possible?

I did not understand why those phenomena happen. But I kept studying and studying because I wanted to cure the pains in both my feet. I was eager to go back to a normal life.

What is our life?

Running injuries or other over-use injuries like baseball elbow, tennis elbow, golf elbow, jumper’s knee, etc are very often expressed as metal fatigue. Metal fatigue is a phenomenon that metal is broken down by repeating use. For example, you bend a metal fence only once, then nothing will happen. Bending it twice, three times, four times, still nothing will happen. But if you bend it a million times, finally the fence gets broken. That is metal fatigue. This phenomenon is called metal fatigue.

But actually, this kind of phenomenon is not only for metal but also for everything. Take running shoes for an example, we run with a pair of new shoes, then nothing happens. The pair of shoes still look like new shoes. However, if you run with the same pair of shoes over 1000km, at least a part of shoe would be broken down.

Every molecule and atom in this universe go into simplicity from complexity, in other words, everything in this universe goes into disorder from order. We die one day because our bodies are also going into disorder from order, in other words, going into simplicity from complexity. This phenomenon is called the law of increasing entropy.

All molecules and atoms in our bodies are working in a complex way right now to fight against the law of increasing entropy. From micro sight of view, many materials in our bodies are catabolized now, in other words, many materials in our bodies are going into disorder. While many materials are synthesized, in other words, many materials in our bodies are going into order. In this way, we look like always same and maintain our bodies against the law of increasing entropy until the day we die.

However, here is the problem.

How our body rebuilds all materials in the right way?

I mean, when I create something in order from disorder, we need a recipe, program, information, memory, knowledge or something like that. One letter of the alphabet is completely simplicity. And if you order alphabets randomly, it has no meaning. It is just a list of alphabets.

However, we have a kind of knowledge, so we can order alphabets in order to make meaningful sentences like I am doing now. This is absolutely complexity. No animal except human being can do this.

I’ll give you another example, yesterday I published my first product in English ’12 weeks training program for half marathon sub 90 minutes’. In the process, I mistakenly deleted all data. The product was already completed. But I mistakenly deleted it once. So, I rewrote it again immediately. I deleted the data in my laptop, but the information was still in my memory. So that was no problem.

If you have the information in your mind, then you can rebuild it easily. Then where is the information which is necessary to rebuild materials in our bodies?

Can you guess where it is?

You heard the name of warehouse at least once in your life.

Yes! That’s right!

DNA.

DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.

All molecules and atoms are reborn based on DNA. So, we basically look like us all the time. 98% of our genes change in one year. However, I always look like I am. I have never been a white man. I have never been a black man and I have never been a woman in my life.

It‘s because of my DNA.

However, in some cases our cells are not reborn based on the information of DNA.

The first case is that you get stressed too much. Whether it is mental stress or physical stress, it turns into oxidative stress in our bodies. There are many kinds of stress. Alcohol, poor diet, air pollution, training, work, arguing with your spouse etc. The point is no matter which kind of stress you got, it turns into oxidative stress in your body.

And if you get oxidative stress, your cells stop regenerating. And there is nothing bad if it is not too much. For example, when you are training, you get oxidative stress too much and then your body stops regenerating damaged cells. But once your training finishes and you go into relaxing mode, then regenerating process starts again. When regeneration works the best time is sleeping time.

That’s why sleeping is one of the most important things for human beings. And remember, growing yourself is adapting stimulus. And adapting stimulus process is giving you a certain stress and your cells regenerate (reborn) after that. So, the most time you grow yourself is when you are sleeping. Literally, you get stronger mentally and physically, more skilled person and smarter when you are sleeping.

Anyway, if the total amount of stress is not too much, you recover from it without any problems.

However, if the total amount of stress, namely oxidative stress is too much, your cells get more broken down than regenerating them. As time goes by, you have more and more damaged cells in your body. And that is an injury.

Secondly, if you get too much oxidative stress, your mitochondria get damaged and do not work properly anymore. Mitochondria are organs which produce biological energy which is necessary for regenerating cells.

It sounds a little bit funny, but the truth is that we need energy for recovery. A car does not require energy for maintenance. But our bodies need energy for recovery. And that energy comes from mitochondria. We produce energy with oxygen, glycogen and fatty acids. And mitochondria produce energy by using oxygen, glycogen and fatty acids.

Glycogen comes from carbohydrates like pasta, rice, breads etc and fatty acids come from fat and carbohydrates. Oxygen comes from, of course, everywhere in the air unless you do not live in the ocean.

Not only us, almost all lives on the earth (ground) produce energy by mitochondria. In the sea, there are many lives which produce energy without mitochondria. But it is said that animals developed so much by landing on the ground and started producing energy by using oxygen.

Dinosaurs, mammoths, elephants, giant lizards became them by producing tons of energy in mitochondria. And some animals including our ancestors developed intelligence by producing tons of energy in mitochondria. Even big animals and intelligent animals in the sea, like whales, dolphins, killer whales produce energy by using oxygen in mitochondria.

By the way, producing energy with oxygen is called aerobic metabolism and producing energy without oxygen is called anaerobic metabolism. Aerobic metabolism is much more efficient than anaerobic metabolism.

Let’s go back to the story about chronic injuries. If mitochondria do not work well anymore because of too much and/or too strong oxidative stress, mitochondria cannot produce enough energy for recovery in other words, regenerating new healthy cells. That’s why over-use injuries can happen and they do not heal for a long time.

Thirdly, too much and/or too strong oxidative stress damage your DNA. Then the regenerating system goes crazy. Your cells are reborn based on the information in your DNA. So, if your DNA is damaged, something unusual happens. Usually, cells die and get catabolized into small pieces of cells which are called apoptotic vesicles. And immune cells like white cells eat them and clean them up. This is the normal process of cells’ dying.

While if the DNA get damaged by too much and/or too strong oxidative stress, your cells die like explosion. That is called necrosis. Once necrosis happens, our immune cells cannot clean them up. So, that area cannot get cleaned.

Imagine, there is a tall building, and you explode it. After that, there is so much debris and you need to rebuild the building there. Of course, you cannot rebuild the building properly because so much debris is still there. The same thing happens in our bodies. That’s why cells are not rebuilt in the right way.

Another problem of necrosis is, when necrosis occurs, it attacks cells around the necrosis cell. So, other cells around a necrosis cell also make necrosis. And then those necrosis cells attack other cells around the necrosis cells and cells which get attacked get hurt and make necrosis and on and on. It becomes chain reaction.

Cancer cells could increase more and more in this process.

Fourth, when your muscles do not recover well, your muscle gets tight. And tight muscle prohibits blood flow. Oxygen is carried out by hemoglobin in blood. So once blood flow is prohibited, oxygen does not flow enough. Then mitochondria cannot produce energy because of lack of oxygen. Then normal cells become abnormal cells. A character of abnormal cells is giving up aerobic metabolism and produces energy by only anerobic energy.

However, anerobic metabolism is so much less efficient than aerobic metabolism. So, there is not enough energy for recovery and necrosis very often occurs. This is the reason why your injuries do not heal for a long time and running injuries occur.

If it is really same with metal fatigue, the more you run, the more injuries you get. However, it’s not like that. Some people run 250km a week regularly and no injury at all. And some people get injured only with 50km a week running. This is the big difference between running injuries and metal fatigue or shoe consumption.

How can we heal chronic pain?

Now, we already know the mechanism of chronic pain. So, we can deal with it.

First of all, we need to reduce the total load, in other words, stress. I’m not talking about training, but alcohol, poor diet, short sleep, etc.

In terms of training, definitely you should reduce the total amount of training. I’m not saying you should stop running. But if your running style changes, stop running. You would get bad mechanics, and it could cause another pain.

If you do not run, it is OK to do other exercises like stationary biking, in-line skating, swimming, core exercises etc. The closer the motion is to running, the better. However, the closer the motion is to running, the more risks it puts extra stress on the pain area. So, you should choose the right one carefully.

I personally prefer stationary bike. It is easy to use and does not put extra stress on a pain area. Especially if it is not hard. Swimming is good. But I’m not good at swimming. So, I cannot increase my heart rate because of my bad mechanic as a swimmer. In-line skating too. I’m not a good skater, so before my heart rate increases enough, I trip and am forced to stop. Also, I have high risks of getting another injury by tripping if I do in-line skating. While using a stationary bike is so easy.

If you do not have any extra options of aerobic training, do core exercises. It is better than nothing and it could prevent your injuries in the future. Because if your core is stabilized during running, it improves your running economy.

And you need to soften your muscles by massage. Again, in most cases, running injuries occur because of lack of blood flow (it is called ischemia) because of tight muscles. So, you need to soften your tight muscles. There are many kinds of massages, but it should be hard or moderate intensity, in other words that massage gives you a pain somehow.

Sometimes very strong massage like it gets you scream helps you out so much. But it is difficult to do it by yourself. You need an experienced therapist. If you massage your muscles  by yourself, you do it with moderate intensity by using some tools, like a form roller, a soft ball, a tennis ball or just your thumb fingers.

If you do a strong massage by therapist, once a week to once every a few days is good frequency. While if you do it with moderate intensity, high frequency is always the best. One time 2-5 minutes is enough. However, I recommend you do it 3-6 times a day (not a week). High frequent moderate massage always beats once a day 30 minutes massage.

However, consistency is also important. So, find out which frequency and timing is the best fit for your daily schedule.

Another important thing is that you need to massage not only pain area but also other places, especially above area. For example, I had injuries inner side of both of my knees. Then I softened my hamstrings, adductor muscles and gluteus and then the pains were gone. The reason why is so simple. My hamstrings, adductor muscles and gluteus muscles were too tight and inhibited the blood flow. The blood flow did not go to knees enough, that means that oxygen did not go to knees enough, mitochondria in my knees could not produce enough energy and that’s why cells were not regenerated properly and also necrosis occurred.

So, by massaging adductor muscles, hamstrings and gluteus, I healed pains in my knees. By the way, at this time I asked a therapist who gives his patients so strong massage. I was screaming so much, haha. Also, I did massage those muscles by myself too. The combination worked well.

LLLT (Low Level Laser Therapy)

Also, I highly recommend you LLLT. LLLT stands for Low Level Laser therapy. What does exactly low level laser mean?

Well, first of all, what is the light?

Everybody knows what the light is, right?

However, some of you get surprised if I say ‘The sunlight, what your laptop emits, what an atomic bomb emits and far-infrared machine emits, all are electromagnetic waves’.

At least in Japan, many people think that electromagnetic wave is bad for our bodies and of course, radio wave is so bad for our bodies while the sunlight is good for our bodies and if we don’t get sun enough, we get sick. Yeah, I think in your country in the South-east Asia, there is no problem of lack of sunlight at all though.

Anyway, all of them are the same electromagnetic wave. The only difference is the wavelength.

The magnetic wave which your smart phone emits is approximately 15 cm wavelength light and your TV (If you have a TV) emits about 3m wavelength light.

Radio wave is 10nm to 0.001nm. 1nm is 0.000000001 m. And those are invisible as you know.

The light we can see is approximately from 400nm to 750nm.

And the shorter the wavelength is, the higher energy it has physically. In Low Level Laser Therapy, about 600-1000nm wavelength is used. So, comparing radio waves, it has low energy. That’s why it is called Low Level Laser Therapy.

Then the next question is what the laser is?

I already knew the word ‘laser’ when I was 5 years old kid. But I didn’t know what it was until I became 22 years old. Laser means that only same wavelength light emits from a machine. This status is also called coherent. Coherent means that all light wavelengths are same.

Usually, 650nm and 850nm wavelength are used for LLLT. The machine which I invented emits 650nm, 850nm and 940nm to address as many tissues as possible. So LLLT is a therapy which uses low level laser. That’s why it is called Low Level Laser Therapy.

Sometimes it is called cold laser therapy because some people feel that the laser is cold. But I never felt that the laser was cold.

Also, often it is called red light therapy because 650nm wavelength light looks red. While 850nm and 940nm wavelength light are invisible. We human beings cannot see it. Although I heard that a snake was able to see the light. This wavelength light is called near-infrared light because it is near red light, but infra red light. Infra means under in Latin. I don’t know if it is above or under, but surely outside of red light.

Anyway, the most important thing is, what will happen if your body gets low level laser?

This is the most important thing.

It works on your cytochrome C oxidase in your mitochondria. It is said that there are 37 trillion cells in your body. The number is different according to researchers. But the number is from 37 trillion to 100 trillion, again depending on researchers. And every cell has approximately 100 to 1000 mitochondria. Can you guess how many mitochondria you have?

Of course, I can calculate it, but I don’t know what the next order of trillion in English.

Anyway, you have astronomical numbers (I would like to say it is biological numbers though) of mitochondria in your body. And there is cytochrome C oxidase in a mitochondrion. Cytochrome C oxidase works for getting chemical actions in mitochondria go smoothly. If cytochrome C oxidase does not work well, your mitochondria cannot produce energy well anymore. So, the natural healing power diminishes so much and necrosis occurs if it is too much.

If cytochrome C oxidase gets 600-1000nm wavelength light, it works better. Your mitochondria in your bodies produce more energy and by that phenomenon the natural healing power in your body increases. So, the injury gets healed quickly.

If possible, I want to send you my machine from Japan. But it requires shipping cost and maybe custom. So, I recommend you go to aliexpress.com or Alibaba.com. You can find cheap machines on these sites. I warn you that these cheap machines get broken very quickly.

However, it is good to see how it works for the first time. But also, I recommend you pay more than 100 US dollar or around 100 US dollars. If a machine is cheaper than that, very often it doesn’t work as well as sellers say. For example, a seller said that there were 4 power options, but only 1 or 2 power options worked and other 2 power options were already broken when it arrived at my house.

Another example is that a seller says ‘The machine has 650nm and 850nm wavelenghs’. But, the machine emits only 650nm. This very often happens.

If you want real good one, I recommend you pay around 1000 US dollars at least. Some good machines are approximately 3000-5000 US dollars. My machine is about 1000 US dollars, in the current currency rate, it is approximately 800 US dollars. If Japanese economy goes up, the currency rate changes, and it will get higher than that.

Anyway, even if you cannot afford to pay for a LLLT machine, don’t worry about it at all. Because you can fix your injury by very often moderate intensity massage with a form roller, soft ball, tennis ball, baseball and/or your thumb fingers.

Thank you for reading and I hope it will help you!

PS

Some of you might be confused in the checkout process of '12 weeks training program for half marathon under 90 minutes' because some sentences were written in Japanese which is my mother language. I'm sorry for that. I already set the website language into English. Please click here and make the checkout process if you want to run half marathon under 90 minutes.