Make Pain a Thing of the Past – Alternatives – Physician Partners of America

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks Pain From Sports Injuries And Best Treatment Therapies

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Cyndi: When you’re active and involved in sports, injuries can happen at any time. But that doesn’t mean you have to live with pain. Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group is back to tell us what they can do to help. Welcome back, Dr. Gari.

Dr. Rudy: Thank you very much.

Cyndi: Let’s talk about some of the common sports injuries that you see at the office.

Dr. Rudy: Sure. Common sports injuries are usually former athletes. We’ve had a lot of professional athletes as well.

Cyndi: We know they get injured a lot.

Dr. Rudy: A lot.

Cyndi: And they wanna get better fast. They don’t wanna be out for a long time.

Dr. Rudy: Yes, yes. You know, your body wasn’t meant to be taking that kind of abuse and punishment on a regular basis, and that tends to affect the joints, your muscles, some of the nerves. So it’s just a lot of chronic pain that can be endured from that.

Cyndi: Sure. Well, let’s just say I’m out there and I get injured. At what point do I have to stop icing it at home and come see you?

Dr. Rudy: Sure. So, you know, any time that your pain lasts longer than what it should…if it’s, you know, more than a typical bruise and that sort of stuff, like, you know how long it should last. If it lasts longer, you should come in and see someone like myself so that we can make sure that nothing more than a typical bruise has occurred.

Cyndi: Well, I’m a golfer and I know that I’ve had my share of aches and pains. What are some of the types of pain that you see in golfers that come see you.

Dr. Rudy: We see a lot of repetitive motion in golfers. So if you think about the action of the golfer, there’s a lot of lower back. So your lower back wasn’t meant to twist so much, so we see a lot of low back problems, joint problems and lots of low backache.

Cyndi: And how can you help somebody with that?

Dr. Rudy: Well, you know, we’ve talked before about inflammation, and it’s the same thing. So that constant abuse and that twisting causes inflammation of your joints, your spine and so forth. We can go in with techniques that do not involve surgery to reduce the inflammation of your lower back, which will help significantly and help you get your life back.

Cyndi: Is there anything we can do at home ourselves to prevent the pain?

Dr. Rudy: Sure. One thing you can do is, number one, make sure that you always use proper technique whenever you do any sort of exercise.

Cyndi: Easy for you to say.

Dr. Rudy: That’s true. And just take care of yourself, you know, regular exercises, core exercises.

Cyndi: Core. That’s so important. We you have to think about…

Dr. Rudy: Core is very important.

Cyndi: And when you say core exercises, it’s more than just getting on the ground and doing sit-ups, right?

Dr. Rudy: That’s correct.

Cyndi: What should we be doing to strengthen our core?

Dr. Rudy: Well, anything, like, for example, one of the things you can do is you can get on the horse. And that’s one of the most effective way to strengthen your core, is when you’re almost, like, very flat, that causes your entire core muscles to contract. Try doing that for 20, 30 seconds and then try to go up to about one, two minutes if you can.

Cyndi: So let’s say this method is not working, we’re still in a lot of pain. What’s the next step? What’s the consultation like when we come and see you?

Dr. Rudy: The next step is you wanna come in and see a physician like myself, because we’re gonna take a very thorough history and physical examination. And depending on what that shows, do some imaging studies, maybe an MRI, an X-ray, find out what’s going on. You might have something that’s a lot more that’s going on there that is gonna need some intervention.

Cyndi: Right. And it might not mean a whole lot of physical therapy. It might be a quick fix but it might be something that you have to do.

Dr. Rudy: That’s right. That’s correct.

Cyndi: Okay. Good stuff, Dr. Gari. If you want relief from back pain or any kind of pain, or you’ve had that tweak and you just can’t get rid of it, you can make same-day appointments at Florida Pain Relief Group. Be sure to visit their website. It is floridapainreliefgroup.com, or give them a call today at 844-KICK-PAIN. “Daytime” will be right back.

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Discusses Prescription Drug Alternatives

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Host: As many of you know, prescription drugs can help mask pain and it’s just for the now, but they are never the answer for fixing the problem long term. Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group wants to help us with an alternative. Welcome back Dr. Gari, nice to see you.

Dr. Gari: Nice seeing you.

Host: Now, when you work in the field of pain relief you must see a lot of people on an everyday basis coming in who have been on many, many prescription drugs for a very long time, because they’re in such pain. What do you say to these people when they come into your office?

Dr. Gari: Well, the first thing we tell them is this is not the only option. There’s a lot of things that we can do for you, and medications, especially prescription medications that can have some significant side effects, we have to make sure, number one, is it the right medication that you’re taking? So one of the first things that we do is we perform a test called pharmacogenomics. Pharmacogenomics is using your own genetic makeup to make sure that that medication that you have is the right medication for you. So we may adjust it, and what we’re looking for is something that’s going to reduce the side effects, but give you better pain relief. Now, it’s a several step process. The other thing we’re going to do is we’re going to diagnose you. We’re going to figure out exactly what’s wrong with you, because the medications are often treating the symptoms. So we want to get right to the source, you know, what is it that’s causing that pain? And there’s a lot of things that we can do for that.

Host: Okay, so you’re looking at, in terms of side effects, I mean, addiction is one of the most obvious side effects. So, what kind of pain relief management can you offer people who are in so much pain and on drugs?

Dr. Gari: Okay, so the first thing that we need to differentiate is drug addiction and drug dependence. Okay, so let me give an example. Drug addiction, when a patient is addicted to drugs like opioids, or narcotics as they call them, when we give them medication like an opioid, the level of function decreases. When a patient is dependent on their medication and we give an opioid, the level of function increases. So here’s an analogy. Let’s just say they have high blood pressure. You are dependent on your high blood pressure medication. So what we know for a fact is that if you are in serious pain, and you’re taking medication for that pain, the risk of addiction is actually quite minimal. So we have to separate those, so that sometimes we have patients that have both. They have problems with pain, and they also may have a problem with addiction, and we treat both of them.

Host: What other potential harmful effects are there for people on certain prescription drugs, and how do you help them?

Dr. Gari: Okay, certainly for…well the main thing is a lot of patients unfortunately have a lot of psychosocial problems because…

Host: Psychosocial?

Dr. Gari: Psychosocial, meaning that, you know, it’s not just them, it’s the entire family that’s involved. So I talk to the family.

Host: So co-dependence, etc.

Dr. Gari: Yes, and sometimes the family doesn’t understand what’s going on. So we go over what’s causing the pain, what medication are we taking? Can we change some of the medication, something that might work better for you? Can we perform certain procedures that’s going to lower your dependence on these medications?

Host: And perhaps save their lives?

Dr. Gari: Yes, yes, absolutely, and some of the biggest gratification is we have these patients that come in, they’re depressed. Their families don’t understand. We talk to the family, tell them what’s going on, we help them out, and we like to give them their life back.

Host: Boy, that’s…and you know, giving somebody their life back after they’ve been on so many mind-altering drugs for so long must be the greatest gift in the world.

Dr. Gari: There’s nothing more gratifying to me than doing just that.

Host: Well, keep up the good work Dr. Gari, and Florida Pain Relief Group even schedules same day appointments, so be sure to visit their website, floridapainreliefgroup.com, or give a call 844-KICK-PAIN, and we’ll be right back with more Daytime right after this.

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