Kara: All right, welcome back to more of the American Dream. Again, we are talking to authors and people who you can learn from, and Adam Heller is certainly no different. He is a mind/body pain relief expert. Did I get that right?

Adam: You got it perfectly.

Kara: I love that. And this topic is something that not a lot of people, I think, are familiar with, but it’s something that is prevalent, it’s something that should be known. So talk a little bit about what mind/body pain relief entails.

Adam: Well, it’s getting more known every day, because people are dying. 175 a day are dying from pain drug overdoses, and we hear this opioid crisis all over the place. And the number of people dying is the equivalent to a 9/11 every two and a half weeks.

Kara: Oh my gosh.

Adam: And the reason they’re dying is, people are suffering pain. This pain is real, but people are, the old pain management, medical pain management is killing people with their symptom treatment. Pain management just means managing symptoms, it doesn’t eliminate the cause.

Kara: A lot of people, when they think they have a headache, they go straight to what medicine’s going to make it better, rather than going straight to the source of why does my head hurt. Is that-

Adam: Yeah, well people, most people are looking for a pill, but they’ve been trained. Again, we have wonderful people in the medical community, great people who were trained that your bulging disc, your herniated disc, your fibromyalgia is the cause of pain, but they’re really symptoms. So the treatments are surgery, which is dangerous and has about a 20% success rate. Drugs, which is getting people addicted and killing people. But the real cause, almost always of pain, actually originates in the brain, with stress and tension and emotion. So everybody knows that that exacerbates pain, but what they don’t know is it’s the cause of about 97% of chronic pain. It’s –

Kara: 97% of chronic pain is caused by stress. That is huge, and I know a lot of people … Do you feel like a lot of people don’t know the stress that they’re under and that’s why it’s causing it, maybe? If they don’t understand?

Adam: Most people are unaware of their emotions. They’re completely checked out, just trying to manage their day and cope and do all that stuff. I think most people also are aware that there’s stress and anxiety, and they want to do something about it, but they don’t have the tools. The pills don’t do it. All these techniques are like toxic lipstick. If you put lipstick on, it looks beautiful for a few minutes. After a few bites of food, you’ve got your old lips back. And that’s what happens with all these pain management techniques. And the drugs, they don’t help anybody get better, they just cover it up for a little while.

Kara: That makes sense, and why would somebody want to turn to that, instead of the traditional pain management? What’s the benefit?

Adam: Because it’s their belief. Their belief is, and they have been told by their trusted doctors, wonderful people, that the disc causes pain. The bulging, herniated, the spinal stenosis, all these things. So they believe that and even when they come to me at the beginning … I get a call one day from a guy who says, “CEO at Mayo …” Doesn’t say. CEO at Mayo Clinic, they have more than one CEO. He says, “You say you have a 97% success rate, and it sounds like quackery.” And I say, “Yeah, but it is what it is.” And there’s a pause, and he said, “Well, I was getting three migraines a week, and I didn’t even do your program. I just read your book and I never got another headache.”

Kara: See now, I want to touch on your book too, because I know a lot of people can benefit from this, so it’s Zero Pain Now, that’s what it’s called?

Adam: Zero Pain Now.

Kara: Okay, and so if you read this, you get to … Tell me what you’re gonna feel when you’re reading the book. What are you gonna understand a little bit more?

Adam: Well, you’re gonna … There’s really three steps to pain relief. Permanent pain relief. Understand what causes pain, what doesn’t and then a process to get rid of it, that’s proven and safe. That’s what comes out. Better than … I’m in a café the other day, in Laguna Beach where I live. Guy comes up and he says, “I’ve been in pain for two decades. Six Vicodin a day on schedule, Advil and opioids. Nothing can help me. I read your book four days ago, I am completely off drugs and completely pain free.”

Kara: That is a wonderful story. Somebody who so strongly believed in those drugs, and then got addicted, and then read your book and became …

Adam: Four days.

Kara: Wow.

Adam: And those are the stories we get all the time. So it’s a process that works, and people … I’m only here to help people. I’m not a healer.

Kara: Right.

Adam: I just point people in the direction, so that they can heal themselves and get rid of the pain and forget about me and go on with their lives, be happy.

Kara: So do you believe in the motto mind over matter?

Adam: I do, but this isn’t really mind over matter. In this particular case, it just originates there, but then there are actual physical changes, and blood vessels constrict and there’s a little less blood flow, and the pain is very real. So yes, mind over matter can get you through the day and do a lot of things, but it takes a little bit more to eliminate pain.

Kara: Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense. And I feel like you’ve connected it perfectly. Is there anything you’d want to leave us with, as a final thought?

Adam: The final thought is, you have a 97 … No matter who you are, no matter who’s watching this, that’s suffering this chronic pain and it’s devastating and debilitating and so life limiting, that there is hope for you and information and understanding is the fix. It’s not the surgery, it’s not the drugs. You don’t have to hang upside down. It’s simple and you can do it yourself, if you just get a little information.

Kara: And if you start with this book, you feel like you’re gonna be on a good start to understanding?

Adam: What I always tell people is, if you read the book you will either see yourself in the book or you won’t. And almost everybody does, and you’ll just know that everything you’ve been doing has been wrong, it’s not your fault and all of a sudden, now you’ve got an option.

Kara: Sure. Well Adam, this has been so interesting, and I know a lot of people are going to benefit from it as well, so thank you so much for being with us.

Adam: Thank you so much for having me. It’s a treat.