Pain-Free Athlete's Podcast
Are you tired of feeling pain? Are you recovering from a surgery? Do you want to learn how to stay active and pain-free? I'll share tips and strategies that can help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness, rehabilitation and pain management.
Pain-Free Athlete's Podcast
Unlocking Holistic Wellness with Dr. Njideka Olatunde
Discover the transformative power of touch and holistic healing with Dr. Njideka Olatunde, a trailblazer in the field of naturopathy and reflexology. Her journey from a childhood steeped in home remedies to becoming a social worker and ultimately a naturopathic practitioner is nothing short of inspiring. This episode explores her unique approach to managing pain and stress, emphasizing the mind-body connection and the role of reflexology as a potent tool in the healing arsenal. Dr. Olatunde's insights offer a fresh perspective on how paying attention to early signs of discomfort can serve as a preventive measure, setting the stage for a patient-practitioner partnership that empowers individuals on their wellness journeys.
Dr Olantunde's links:
Social Media Links:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/njidekanolatunde
Instagram: https://instagram.com/evolving_butterfly
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@changingliveswithtouchology
FaceBook:https://facebook.com/PainReliefwithReflexology
X (Twitter) http://twitter.com/FOHReflexology
Guest Website Links:
Website: https://www.focusonhealing.com
Podcast: https://touchologywellnessexperience.com
Book Promotion Link:
Reflexology Today: A Family Affair: A self help pain relief guide for medication and addiction free pain relief
Link: lifestyletouchology.com
Gift To Listeners:
Medication and Addiction Free Pain-Stress Relief Poster
Download link: touchologyreflexology.com
Dana’s Links:
https://www.djsfitnessevolution.com/painfreeathlete.html
Podcast Disclaimer:
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
@djsfitnessevolution
Welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain-free, then subscribe to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones, and today I am joined by Dr Njidika Alatunde Did I say that correctly? Joined by Dr Njideka Olatunde Did I say that correctly? And what a wonderful I don't know pleasure to have you here. I'm very excited, so why don't you please introduce yourself?
Speaker 2:First of all, Dan, thank you for having me. It's my pleasure. Okay, I'm Njideka Olatunde. I'm a naturopathic healthcare practitioner. I'm a pain relief educator. I'm also a reflexology master and instructor. I'm the author of Reflexology Today A Family Affair and I'm the creator of Pain Relief First Before Treatment, and we're going to talk a little bit about that today.
Speaker 1:I love it. So what brought you to this? You know work Because you have a lot of things on your resume and it's you know because a lot of times you need the meshing of a lot of different. You know knowledge bases to make you who you are. So what brought you to this?
Speaker 2:basis to make you who you are. So what brought you to this? Well, okay, let me compact it. For me it's quite an adventure.
Speaker 2:But to begin, I grew up with home remedies and growing up in the environment of home remedies. Back at that time, doctors came to visit you in their homes, in your home, and I saw as a child, I saw doctors as being healers. I said, oh, I like that, that's what I want to be when I grow up. So by the time I got to school, I had a rude awakening, because what I thought doctors were is not what you learned in school. So I immediately changed my career path and became a social worker. So I spent the majority of my career life as a social worker.
Speaker 2:But one of the things that really concerned me was the fact that everybody who was receiving social services were going to the emergency room for their doctors or for their health appointments, and I kept saying something's wrong with this picture. You know, why aren't we dealing with prevention and health care? So that kind of sparked the energy again about. Like you know, I want to go back to being a doctor and as time passed on, the forefront was alternative and complementary approaches were coming on the scene. So that kind of opened the door for me to go back to school and become a naturopathic practitioner, and during that time, one of the things that uh, really excited me was the fact that I wanted to be able to add a service to my profession.
Speaker 2:And and long story short I did what was called a vision quest, and that's a session that you do in the Native American culture. And when I did the quest, they told me that I needed to use my hands. So I thought that meant doing massage. And I went to massage school and I didn't like massage but I liked reflexology and they said this is what she should do. So I became a reflexologist and I added that to my practice and in that experience a whole arena opened up. Dealing with that was connected with reflexology. But I say that to say that that's what really sparked me to start focusing specifically on pain and understanding how to use the power of touch to relieve pain, using reflexology as the therapy that connects with pain and pain relief.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. So you know, typically, I think you know, going back to your story, you know, of course, the problem with people going to the emergency room is that nobody wants to go to the emergency room. Right by the time we get to the emergency, or the thought of going to emergency room, we've lost all hope and now like that's our last stop and, of course, depending on what culture you live in, that could be a very expensive stop as well. Most definitely. So you know, choosing to be a naturopath is an interesting you know. Would you explain what a naturopath? Because I go to a naturopath, but I would love for you to explain, like, how you approach your patients versus how me going to a regular doctor.
Speaker 2:Okay, a naturopath is one that focuses on what we call the mind-body connection to wellness. We see the whole body, from head to toe, as it relates to pain, stress and wellness. So, like it's more of what I would say, when we go back, we talk about preventive approach. It's about the patient and the practitioner connecting as one as it relates to what's going on and what may have caused a particular health problem or crisis that our patient or clients are going through, and what we look at. We look at using natural alternatives, we look at using the things. I guess, to put it in short, what we do is assist the body in the healing process.
Speaker 2:The body has the mechanisms to heal itself and all we do is assist it, and I say that to say that one of the things that, when I work with my patients, slash clients is I focus on the connection between pain and stress, and you can't dismiss it, because one of the things that most of us don't understand is, when we're in pain, it didn't happen overnight, it was a process that was coming, and usually at the first sign of pain okay, it's not this bad, I won't pay any attention to it, but that's a warning sign that the body is telling you that something is wrong and you need to start paying attention to it. And when you don't pay attention to it, the body then says okay, I'm going to put you down so that you now will take care of it. But at that point things have gotten out of source.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're out of control.
Speaker 2:And when that happens, you've made it a little difficult for yourself, and so that's where a naturopath is looking at how do we get back to where you were before the pain, so that we can do a process that's going to take you step by step to return you back to your natural state, and that's where it comes in to be a naturopathic practitioner, naturopathic practitioner, see, and I like that because a lot of times when you go to a medical doctor, um, you know, for whatever service you have, they just address the immediate thing.
Speaker 1:That's, you know, right in front of you. And you know, for me, like I've had I've had been gifted enough to have health benefits for a long time but I've paid out of pocket for my naturopath because of the fact that, one, he knows me and two, the fact is that he doesn't just go oh, you have a pain in your toe, let's deal with that. He looks at my whole body and you know, as a chronic pain sufferer, you know, like you said, there were, there were all kinds of flags for me, you know from being a little girl, you know just always, you know, started off with like a migraine every once in a while. And you know, when I look back at periods of times like horrible stress, like when I first moved to California, I was super stressed out about money and then I got this job that was very stressful. I was a package carrier and there was a time limit for everything and I ended up with like a severe blowout of IBS and I was so sick and I wasn't absorbing any nutrients at all and I was just dropping weight like nobody's business.
Speaker 1:And of course I'm going. Well, I got to work, you know, because I got to pay the bills and I'm just like, I'm just gonna ignore this. It's like and it's really hard to ignore, like when you have to go to bathroom every hour and you know those kinds of things, but it's like, you know, there's some people like myself who are extremely stubborn and really want to put those signals in our back pocket and not acknowledge them. And then, of course, we run out of time. And then, you know, fast forward, you know, a few years back, where I went a year and a half with migraines.
Speaker 2:You know, eventually it's like we're going to put you down hard so that you have a rude understanding of what's going on. You know, one of the things that's a real major problem with us is that we don't want to connect pain with stress. We don't want to connect pain with stress, and it's been. You know, the medical profession says like close to 95% of all illnesses is a result of stress. Right, but the problem is we don't understand what that really means, and when I'm working with my patients, I'm focused. When a patient comes to me and we'll look at it from a standpoint, I'm going to give you two scenarios. The first one is when a person comes to see a doctor. They're coming to see a doctor because they are in pain, point blank. They're not going to see a doctor for no other reason, outside of I'm in pain.
Speaker 2:Now, if you go to a store and you want to buy something and you know exactly what it is you want to buy, you want that product or that service to be there when you want it, because that's what you came to buy. So the same concept when I relate to my patient clients is that you're coming to me for one thing, and one thing only, and that's to relieve pain, not to say, which is what happens in allopathic medicine. Okay, we got to do some tests to find out what's going on, but in the meantime, while we're waiting to schedule the test, here's a prescription that you take that supposedly is to relieve the pain, but guess what? I don't even know what's causing the pain. So how can I give you something to relieve a pain that I don't know what it is? And the way that you find out what the pain is is the number one thing that a patient wants and never receives, and that starts with an L, and it's called listening. So when patients come to me, the first thing I'm going to do is listen.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about this pain, and, as they're talking about the pain, what I'm seeing is the stress factor that contributed to the pain. So now I know what it is we need to address. We've got to look at that, because the stress factor is related to something that happened outside of your body that you brought inside the body, and when you brought it inside the body, it found a area in the body that's weak and it went straight to that area as a means of trying to release what's known as a stress which is not the normal channels of elimination for the body. And that's the basics of connecting pain and stress together, because if you can catch it early on, you have a better chance of not letting it get to the chronic state. Usually, when it's gotten chronic, that means you've been in pain for a long time and, guess what? You've forgotten what it even feels like not to be in pain. That is correct, that is correct, and that's the problem, and that's why.
Speaker 2:and then, all of a sudden, now you've accepted oh, this chronic pain is a part of my life. I must live with it forever. No, that's not true.
Speaker 1:Well, and sometimes that gets reinforced. Like I had a doctor when I came. He was a neurologist and he was the head of the National Headache Foundation. So I was like, oh, this is. I'm so lucky that this man is in my town, you know, this is so cool. And he said to me well, you know, you're just a migrainer. And I was like, well, what does that mean? And he said well, you know, if I miss lunch, I'm just going to be hungry. He goes, you miss lunch, you're going to get a migraine. He's like that's just the way it is. You better learn how to live with it. And I was like, wait, what you know? Because I think at the time I was probably about 25 years old. So I was really super insulted because I thought you know, up to this point, chronic condition that I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life, that's so sad it was very sad and I was so mad.
Speaker 2:That's extremely sad and if you think about that and I can relate to you because as a child I suffered with migraines all the time throughout my childhood and see the thing about migraines which people don't understand that builds up what's called pain tolerance, because when I had the migraines I never took any. I never took anything from. I just go get in a dark room and lay down and tell it would pass over, but in the course of that it gave me a high pain tolerance you learn how to suffer and suffer, and that was the case.
Speaker 2:But the contributing factor was, as you say, there was stress going on in my environment that contributed to the migraine as I was growing up and I leave this to share with you. One of the major problems that people have today is what's known as hypertension, and hypertension is a genetic, it's a part of your genes, it's a DNA. I mean, that's the, but you can turn it around. Now the fact that I grew up with migraine headaches. One day I got a headache and it stayed for three days consistently. It would not go away.
Speaker 2:So my family said well, you better go to the doctor and find out what's going on. Okay, so I go to the doctor and the doctor said you made it in a nick of time. You were on the verge of a stroke. And the doctor said you made it in a nick of time. You were on the verge of a stroke. Now, when I heard that antennas went off for me, because I knew that the genetic link to hypertension was in my family. But I also knew that the members of my family with hypertension were on medication that they had to be on for the rest of their life. So here in my mind, I said, no, that can't happen to me.
Speaker 1:I was in my twenties.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting here saying, no, that can't happen to me. I can't be on medication for the rest of my life. So what I did is I decided to take charge of my own existence. Now, this is not anything I advise for my clients or anybody to do, but what I did at that particular time. I immediately stopped eating meat. I just cold turkey stopped it. Now the problem with that is meat puts fuel into your body system is meat puts fuel into your body system. So, which meant that when I did that, I cut off the heat line to my body and I became a severe anemic. So now I got to address this problem.
Speaker 1:Which you're more likely to get as a female too.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so with that I'm putting the whole thing together. But I was doing my own self-research back at that time and back then we did not have Google and all of that. All I had was two books One was called Back to Eden by Jethro Cross and Cooking with Mother Nature by Dick Gregory. Those two books is what I use to put my health regimen in place.
Speaker 2:I say that to say it's important that you understand and pay attention to your body, get to know your body. And the reason why I did that is because when you talk about hypertension, why I did that is because when you talk about hypertension, that means the whole family is eating alike. So if we're all eating alike, that meant that in order for me to get to that state of my pressure is sky high. It meant that I triggered the hypertension gene to activate which I needed to not trigger the gene so that my blood pressure could stay in a normal range. It's basic, it's little things like that. If we understand how to connect with our body and give our body the means to heal itself, with practitioners who believe in doing integrative approaches, and you, as the patient, also must work with your practitioner. It's not a one-way street. It's you and the practitioner working together to get you back to normalness so that you can have optimum health and wellness.
Speaker 1:It's funny, I was meditating last night and I use this app and they always have like a little quote before you get into the meditation, and the quote was from Hippocrates. Is that how you say? It Said the natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well, and I thought that is kismet, since you know, I was having this conversation with you because one of the things that we talked about was this idea of you know, you and the practitioner working together, because I think we do give a lot of authority to the white coat and to the system and sometimes that takes the power away from us, and you have a different approach and I would love for you to share that.
Speaker 2:First, I'm going to share for your listeners to understand that you've got to stop treating your doctor as if they are an automobile mechanic. And I say that because when you take your car to be repaired you have to tell the mechanic what's going on. Now for a mechanic, that helps him in terms of repairing your automobile. But your body cannot operate like and expect the doctor to automatically know what's going on with the lower back, because what we don't realize is the pain in the lower back is not the corporate to your health problem, it's just that it's trying to find its way to release itself and if it's in the wrong area you're going to be in pain, because that's not the way for it to release itself from whatever is the contributor to the health problem. So what I deal with my clients in terms of we look at first, I listen to you, you tell me what's going on in your life and then we start putting together the program. But before I even get to the treatment, I got to do the one thing you want relieve the pain first. And I use reflexology and, for those who may not know, reflexology is the art and science of working specific nerve ending points that are found on the hands, feet and ears to relieve stress and pain in the body. So I use that as the pain relief therapy first, now that you're no longer feeling the pain, now we can look at putting the treatment in place.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is there's no one therapy that can heal it all. It's got to be an integrative approach of various therapies related to your specific health problem and needs, and so that's the way I look at, based upon because I've talked to you and you've told me about the stress. I know what the stress factor is. And so now what alternative therapies can I integrate into your healing experience that's going to assist the body in relieving the stress pain connection, and that may include you may need a cleansing.
Speaker 2:So now we got to look at you may have to go to a hypocalonic therapist in terms of doing a colon cleanse or a body detox, or you may be missing some important vitamins and minerals. So now we got to look at a nutritionist who can, from a natural perspective, who can advise you on what healthy foods you can eat that will contribute to putting back the nutrients that you're needing. Or you may just need exercise program. The bones, the muscles they need strengthening. It's very basic things that you look at. That's dealing with the whole body from head to toe.
Speaker 1:That is fantastic. So I see you and then you know we create this program, am I? Is this like a chiropractic approach where I keep coming back to you and you know whatever or what is, what is your plan that you have? Sorry to the chiropractors that may be listening, but, uh, I've been to too many that are like you need to come three times a week for the next, you know, six weeks, and I'm like damn, I can't afford that. So like, is that your? How, how do you?
Speaker 2:treat what I, what I, initially, when we're dealing with reflexology, I would say initially five sessions, five reflexology sessions. But that's also being integrated with the other recommendations as well, because the number one thing, which is how I do a little differently, in those five sessions I am teaching you how to do the reflexology techniques. So whatever pain is happening to you, you now are able to do the same things that I was doing to you yourself. So it's virtual. That's the reason. Then we talk about looking at the whole picture.
Speaker 2:I would say it would be good to work your treatment. Give yourself at least, I would say, a three month period. And the reason why I say that is because you want to institute this as a way of life for you. So now we're moving into prevention. A word nobody talks about preventive approaches to health and wellness. Because, which means you come back, say, maybe once a month for a maintenance overall review, that kind of thing, a month for a maintenance overall review, that kind of thing. But you're in charge because now you have a self-help program in place to assist you and your body in maintaining, because the goal is to maintain optimum health and wellness.
Speaker 2:That is fantastic and if you think about it from another side. That is economically beneficial to you. It moves you out of the financial drain that goes along with you staying in pain and stress, and that's another way that we have to look at it, in terms of the number one contributor to all health problems that nobody wants to talk about is financial stress. Oh for sure.
Speaker 1:I can't argue with that, being a teacher, and you know it's because it does. And there have been times where I had to choose, like, do I eat, you know, this week? Or you know, not eat the best things for me because the you know, the low nutrition foods are a lot cheaper, just so that I can go and get a treatment. I mean, thank goodness, like I said, I don't have to do that now, I don't have to make that choice, but I know a lot of people do have to make that choice and that's that's unfortunate, that our society is kind of set up that way. You have events coming up and all kinds of good stuff, so would you like to share what you're up to, because you know you're, you're a?
Speaker 2:mover and a groover. So well, one of the things that I will let your listeners know that I am planning to do what's called a pain relief workshop. That will be coming up, and so I invite your listeners to get on the list so that they can know about it. I'm going to do an intro in teaching you some basic techniques that you could start using as a self-help tool in terms of relieving pain.
Speaker 2:It's important that when I wrote my book Reflexology Today A Family Affair, it was wrote for the purpose of at least one member in a household should know some basic reflexology techniques to relieve pain and stress. And that's what this workshop is going to be about. It's going to be about showing you how you can take back control of being in pain with just using your hands, and every one of us do not know this, but we all have done reflexology and it's a part of us. It's a connection and that's an upcoming event. And the best way to be able to reach me is to go to my website, focusonhealingcom, and you'll find all the information about what's going on. And you'll find all the information about what's going on.
Speaker 2:And then I also say for social media connect with me on LinkedIn, on my LinkedIn site, because that way we can do one-on-ones in terms of if you have any questions that you may want to know about, in terms of how can I kind of jumpstart my pain relief process. I'm available for that as well. And I guess the last thing I can say that I want to share with you in the African tradition, when you come visit someone's home for the first time you bring a gift and have a gift for your listeners that I am giving to them. It is the Power of Touch Relieving Pain Medication-Free poster that I will be sharing with your listeners, with various pain relief techniques, and all they do is they go to touchologypainreliefcom.
Speaker 1:Fantastic and I'll have all those links in our show notes. And you know, because it's important, and I've talked about it because you know, even though my approach is a little bit different than yours, what I have found out is that the idea of interrupting, you know the stressors, or you know the creating, that what I've said is like creating the space between the sensation and the response, and touch is a wonderful way of doing that and that's why you know a lot of reflexology, or a lot of the vagus. Nerve theory and reflexology are very intertwined and I do use that especially because when I do feel a twinge of pain, there is that panic that has become an automated response, which I'm not, you know, I'm working on it, right, and then you know it's because this stuff never goes away.
Speaker 2:You know, it's a process and we're talking about changing our way of life. That's what the whole thing is. And, like I said earlier, remember we don't talk about prevention. I mean, nobody even thinks about that. We always talk about, like you know well, when are we going to reduce the insurance rates and all of this kind of stuff. The bottom line is, if you're into prevention, you don't need that. That's the way you take back control of your health. Instead of putting the money there, put it back into an overall lifestyle that's of vitality and abundance. That's where you want to be.
Speaker 1:For sure, and we have separated ourselves so much from our bodies. And again that idea from our bodies, and again that idea. You know, I was listening to an audio book and they were talking about, you know, the easiest way to comfort somebody because a lot of times as parents we want to like throw money at stuff or take away their pain but the easiest way to comfort somebody is by a hug. And you know, the touch is a powerful thing and I think we've gotten away from it because of devices and distance and all those things. And so I think, coming back to ourselves is a good way for us to kind of, you know, create our own self-healing.
Speaker 2:and, again, you know, give us, um, some power exactly, and the thing that we have to understand is that touch is not necessarily it, it's not only physical, touch is mental, it's emotional, it's spiritual and, to give you an example, one of the most powerful, there are two words that's extremely powerful, that touches all cultures, all ages, all people, and that's the word thank you. That's a powerful touch when you can say thank you to someone and when someone can say thank you back to you. Look at that energy exchange or just give somebody a smile. That's a touch that is powerful. Those simple things like that is what heals, that's what brings about healing and that's a part of us as a people.
Speaker 1:That is fantastic. Well, dr Alitundi, thank you so much for your message and we appreciate having you here. And yeah, is there anything that you'd like to kind of wrap up with? Send off the listeners.
Speaker 2:The one thing I would share with your list is to remember that they are in control and that to understand that health is wealth and wealth is health. It's your birthright to have both, using the power of touch because it heals.
Speaker 1:all that is fantastic. Thank you so much again.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
