9
What Really Causes Pain?
Imagine this is your average day: you wake up in the morning after a great night's
sleep. You feel refreshed, alert, and ready for your day. You walk with a bounce in
your step, and your body feels light and vibrant. You smile. People mention how great
you look and notice your boundless energy. The demands of your day don't over-
whelm you, and stress rolls off your shoulders. It's effortless to connect with and be
generous to your loved ones—and even to strangers. You sit, stand, and move in a
relaxed way. You are not nagged by thoughts about how your body feels. You live in
the present moment and easily say yes to new experiences.
Is this what your average day feels like? If you have pain, your answer is probably
no. Maybe you don't call it pain. Maybe you call it discomfort, tension, or something
that doesn't feel quite right. Being pain-free is a necessary component of good health.
It's much easier to live a good life when you feel good. You may attribute how you feel
to your lifestyle, age, or genetics. But now it's time to look at the whole picture.
I am here to tell you that you can live pain-free.
I don't want you to have to waste another day or dollar on trying to figure out why
you have pain or discomfort. I'm going to teach you how to sense it, address it, and
eliminate it. The solution is simple. I am going to share a new way of looking at the
body's design and teach you how to use that information so you never have to look for
another pain solution again. Even if you feel you have the right diet, water, supple-
ments, exercise routine, meditation practice, mattress, massage therapist, and
integrative or holistic doctors—you haven't tried this yet. I've got the secret to pain-
free living, and it's within you.

10
T H E M E LT METHOD
For all of the billions of dollars spent on trying to eliminate pain and discomfort, you
would think that the mystery of pain would have been solved by now. But the statistics
show otherwise. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that pain affects more
Americans than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer do combined. It is the most
common reason individuals seek medical care, costing Americans more than $100
billion each year. According to the American Pain Society, pain is the second leading
cause of medically related work absenteeism, resulting in more than 50 million lost
workdays each year. The NIH also reports that one in three Americans suffers from
some type of chronic or lasting pain, and approximately two-thirds have been living
with this pain for more than five years. That means that more than 100 million people
in the United States are living with chronic pain—and, based on my practice and
experience, I believe that this estimate is low.
Pain affects your quality of life on every level. One in three Americans loses more
than twenty hours of sleep each month because of pain, according to the National
Sleep Foundation. It's not surprising that pain and discomfort can cause anxiety,
worry, and mood swings. Ask your coworkers, friends, or family whether they have
chronic pain. You'll probably be amazed by the number of people you know who
spend a lot of time and energy worrying about, managing, or trying to ignore pain. I've
found that many people who make investments of time, energy, and money to do all
the “right,” healthy things still experience daily pain and discomfort.
You Can Live Without Pain
Living a pain-free life is an amazing feeling. Ironically, it is hard to truly appreciate how
great it feels to be pain-free unless you've experienced an ongoing ache, pain, or
discomfort. I know about enduring pain firsthand. Over a decade ago, I was at the
height of success in my career as an international fitness presenter and instructor and
seemed to be in perfect health. Yet I had debilitating pain in my right foot. I had a
master's degree in exercise science, multiple fitness certifications, advanced training
in neuromuscular therapy, and experience as a research intern in kinesiology at New
York–Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. I thought I knew everything there was
to know about the human body and about how to stay fit, healthy, and active. Yet I
couldn't get relief or answers from anyone, including New York City doctors.
I was only in my twenties. My fitness career was threatened, and my quality of life
was in decline. I continually asked myself, my peers, and my teachers, “Why is this

11
WHAT R E A L LY C A U S E S PA I N ?
happening? What is causing all this pain? Is my body failing me?” My search for
understanding and my quest to heal my own pain led me to an unexpected answer:
My body wasn't failing me; it was desperately trying to get my attention. I did not
recognize what I now know to be easily recognizable signs. I knew so much about
the human body, yet the solution to my pain had nothing to do with what I knew.
Ultimately, I found therapies that helped heal my pain, yet the methods were
unexplainable scientifically. I needed to understand what was creating the positive
changes in my body, so the search for the true cause of pain continued. I stumbled
upon research that was just starting to answer my questions. It was a revelation to
me. My questions had answers, and the answers were based on new science. It was
as if I had cracked an egg I had been tapping for years. The discoveries and insights
that led to the resolution of my pain also changed my career and led me to a new,
overriding question:
How do I live a healthy, active, pain-free lifestyle for my whole life?