How To End Chronic Arthritis Pain Without Dangerous Drugs | Dr. Kevin Tracey

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

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1:18So if someone's had carotid arthritis for years and it only seems like it's getting worse, is that a soul healing or is that a vagus nerve healing and total body healing? You know, and it sounds like no drugs can really heal something like this. Maybe they can help some people sometimes, but it doesn't seem like there's a drug that can help reverse arthritis or certain conditions. So let's talk about, again, rheumatoid arthritis, which is one type of arthritis, and what we know and what we don't know. We know that rheumatoid arthritis is a very common condition. It affects up to perhaps 1 % of the population or 1.5 % of the population worldwide.

2:04It's very common. It tends to affect younger people, more women than men, and it's not sort of like the old football injury, my knee gets sore when it rains. This is a serious illness that affects all the joints. And many of these patients can't pick up a pencil, can't ride their bike, can't sometimes button their shirt. And we also know that we have powerful drugs that have treated very well many, many of these patients. These drugs go by the names of DMARDs for disease-modifying antiremetic drugs or biologics, which are typically antibodies. antibodies you see them advertised on the nightly news you see them advertised on on all the sports on tv these are very powerful drugs they work because not because they cure inflammation but because they suppress the immune system but do you want to suppress your immune system you don't want to suppress it too much yeah if you suppress your immune system too much you leave yourself open to secondary infections even to cancer.

3:08So many of these drugs that are... What's the side effects of those then? Many of these drugs, the side effects have the most serious label that the FDA can give, which is called a black box warning. And many patients, even though, let's be clear, millions of patients have benefited from these drugs. Millions of patients have benefited from these drugs. But many patients, despite the benefit, don't want to take them. Many of them have to be injected, so they're invasive. Many of them cost, between$30 ,000 and$100 ,000 annually. Oh, my goodness. Many, if not all of them, have dangerous side effects, and so people are reasonably concerned.

3:46There's no guarantees for healing, and it's like you have to stay on these things forever, it sounds like. Not only is there no guarantees, but in most studies, these drugs are effective about half the time. So despite the fact they're invasive, have side effects, and are expensive, they work half the time. They may not work, yeah. So what's the point of all this? The point is, yes, some people are benefited, they don't need anything, and that's wonderful. But a lot of people want other options. And what this vagus nerve stimulation, which by the time this airs, may be approved by the FDA in the United States.

4:22If not, hopefully it'll be approved in the coming months after this airs. what that will allow is patients who have tried these other therapies but as you said are not getting better in their body or their mind that they now will have an option of having an implant the implant will be put in it's about the size of a fish oil pill it'll be put in through about a one inch or one and a half inch incision in the neck by a neurosurgeon right about the level of your Adam's apple, down deep where you feel the pulse in your neck. You won't be able to see it and it will operate for about one minute a day.

5:05Wow. And many of the patients, I've met many of them, many of the patients sleep through the therapy at 4 30 in the morning or something like that. Other patients told me that it's like a little alarm clock for them but when it goes off they smile because they realize immediately their hands don't hurt anymore. Really? Yeah. So it's a little chip that they implant on the side left side right that's where the pulse is right yeah here on the left side next to the pulse and you've had over 200 and some people already go through this in the last year so i exactly so the the company's called setpoint medical it's not far from here in valencia and they completed a clinical trial um last year uh they reported the results These are people that were having extreme pains for years.

5:54All of these people were out of options. They tried the drugs. They've meditated for years. They've prayed. They've done everything they can, and they're just feeling pain. Yep, pain, stiffness, swelling. And many of them had symptoms in their mind of either anxiety, depression, sleep disorder, cognitive abnormalities. And what the results showed is not only did a significant percentage, a statistically significant percentage of the patients with the implant have improved pain and swelling in their joints, many of them also had improved quality of life. Less anxiety, less pain, better sleep, less depression.

6:45Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple podcast right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

7:35Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.