As
@Cariad says above, the TV programme dealt with other things as well as treating chronic pain, i.e. type 2 diabetes and depression (tackling them without pills or medical procedures).
EDIT: Apologies for the length of this summary — I took notes as I watched, and although I deleted the original intending to re‑post a précis, I couldn't quite bring myself to trim it down.
Chronic Pain Section
I thought the part where the chronic pain patient (who had
back pain plus widespread pain) was being talked through a relaxation exercise might be open to misinterpretation by people not knowing anything about PRT, as they might be confused into thinking it's a form of hypnotherapy, because the coach working alongside Georgie Oldfield who was leading the exercise, of which they only showed a couple of quick glimpses, smiles at the end of the session and is heard saying to him (the patient) something like, "you didn't want to out of that, did you?" (My guess though was that it would have involved 'somatic tracking', but there was no mention of that.)
The interview with Georgie Oldfield was just a few sentences where she described chronic pain essentially as being like a "malfunction" in the brain that can be overcome; she also mentioned neuroplasticity. We were told that she is an experienced physiotherapist, which would I guess give credence to her credentials to be talking about pain, but at the same time I'm also guessing that viewers might think that, as well as some kind of relaxation therapy, PRT involves physiotherapy.
With Howard Schubiner, Dr Chatterjee interviews him over video link in which he (Schubiner) described the Boulder research project. He said that they’d just got the figures in for a 5-year update of how the PRT cohort of the experiment were faring now and he was pleased to be able to say that the majority of them had kept the improvement or were keeping pain free.
Dr C said that he’d come up with his own breathing practice for chronic pain to calm the nervous system down... he sat outside on a garden bench and said to take an in breath for a count of 3, hold for a count of 4, out breath for a count of 5, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. He advised that it would also help improve our immune system, amongst other benefits.
The young woman (Fiona) featured (who had complex regional pain syndrome or maybe
fibromyalgia or
myofascial pain syndrome; they didn’t label it) who is now pain free from doing PRT said that she had been very sceptical about it; she thought she was going to be told that her pain wasn’t real. She said that despite not believing it would work, it worked anyway. (I loved that she said that because I’m always saying to people on the forums, as indeed do others, that all you need to do to start off with is to get going with doing "the work" and kind of "suspend your disbelief", whereas so many people want to be absolutely convinced before they will entertain doing mind/body work.)
Anyway, Fiona was asked by Dr C how long it took her to feel better and she said that she started to feel better in the first week, but it wasn’t discussed as to how long it took for her to get fully better and completely pain free. (Whilst it might encourage chronic pain patients to try PRT which is great of course, at the same time the "feeling better in the first week" might perhaps place people’s expectations too high, maybe?)
The focus too was on the brain’s reaction to an initial injury being to create pain to protect us from further injury to try to stop us from doing what we’re doing that caused the injury, and from there the brain continuing to create pain despite that injury having healed; there was no mention of chronic pain appearing for no apparent other (triggering) reason, e.g. fear, but then this was only a short section of a programme covering other conditions, so there was no time for getting into the nitty gritty of all that. As
@Cariad has already advised, there was no mention of Dr Sarno or TMS. 'Stress' being involved was mentioned a few times though.
At the end of the programme Dr C said that Fiona did three PRT "exercises" at home to get better but then didn’t say what they were! The whole vibe pointed to that the "exercises" would likely be calming for the brain/mind, but using the word "exercises" might I think lead to people thinking that they would be (or might include) physical exercises like physiotherapy (especially as he said this whilst he and Fiona were getting into a big rowing boat with her rowing the oars to demonstrate how fantastic she feels now and that she is definitely pain free).
No mention was made of exactly how people could go about getting PRT, unfortunately. (I don’t remember, but I don’t think that SIRPA was mentioned at all in the short section with Georgie; leastways, it passed me by if it was mentioned.)
I have given some criticism of the programme ’tis true, but I nevertheless think it’s wonderful that Dr C has tried to start the ball rolling in the UK. He came across as being very personable and earnest. We had a very popular medical doctor/TV presenter who used to do these kinds of programmes called Dr Michael Moseley about what patients can do to help themselves without medication, but sadly he passed away in dramatically tragic circumstances a little while ago and so there’s definitely a gap in the market for Dr C. I hope he gets commissioned to do more programmes like this.
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Depression Section
The ice baths that
@Cariad mentions were featured in connection with the depression section of the programme.
In that section Dr C said that 1 in 5 people in the UK are taking an antidepressant! (I knew it was high, but not that high!) He interviewed someone who had done research into SSRIs who said that most people with depression don’t have a "chemical imbalance" (are not lacking in serotonin) in their brain. They are not clinically depressed and that it was the drug companies that convinced patients and doctors alike into believing that depression was all about a chemical imbalance.
She said that the problem with antidepressants is that they might stop you feeling depressed to a certain extent, but they also dull one’s other emotions... joy etc. Dr C discussed how a side effect of these drugs can be suicidal thoughts.
The "depression" part of the programme focussed on a guy, in his mid 30s now, who had been on antidepressants on and off for 10 years and didn’t feel great on them. So he took things into his own hands and started going out for daily walks along the tow path of his local canal, started doing up classic cars on his driveway, took ice baths, did breath work etc., and now is feeling fine (and also now has a very successful business restoring classic cars and selling them... from little acorns mighty oaks do grow!).
Dr C said that taking ice baths (or for practicalities, taking a warm shower and then finishing off with a few seconds or so of cold water) helps with depression because it shows the brain that you can deal with difficult circumstances. (I would caution against cold therapy unless cleared by one's doctor as, for instance, my husband has a heart condition where such extremes would not be advantageous.)
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Type 2 Diabetes Section
Personally, I thought the section of the programme dealing with type 2 diabetes was the best of all actually. I know it’s off topic for these forums but mentioning it might help someone in passing, so I'll describe it.
It featured how one GP in Liverpool, England, Dr David Unwin, is putting his patients with type 2 diabetes into remission by encouraging them to reduce their carbohydrate intake (to include very importantly cutting out ultra processed foods altogether), eating more protein and taking exercise. His patients also do 'intermittent fasting', i.e. what food they eat they eat within a 12-hour window; they eat nothing in the other 12-hour period.
Dr C explained that when you eat your last meal of the day, it takes around 4 hours for the gut to digest it, then after that digestion has occurred, overnight the liver orchestrates the burning of body fat for energy, which means that Dr Unwin’s patients lose a load of excess body fat because this period of fat burgubg is extended by 'intermittent fasting'. The losing of body fat is crucial because it’s the fat that causes insulin resistance and from there people often go on to becoming diabetic with type 2 diabetes.
Evidently, type 2 diabetes in the UK is on an incredible rise, even affecting patients as young as 12 years old. The treatment prescribed for it on the NHS is a drug called metformin, which causes gut issues to include
stomach pain and diarrhoea in a lot of people. (My late mother experienced this when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in her 40s and had to instead be put on insulin injections.)
Dr Unwin’s local doctor’s practice has saved a load of money (so far, a total of circa £370,000, I think it was) in not having to prescribe metformin to all of his patients with type 2 diabetes. Dr C (and presumably Dr U) hope that this approach will be rolled out across the UK’s National Health Service with all GPs promoting it. Not only would it be marvellous for patients, but it would save the NHS millions of £s on metaformin and other medications and treatments that are prescribed for other conditions related to obesity.
Okay, so that’s "the tale of the old iron pot" as my grandmother used to say!
