I know pain. I know the aching, throbbing, arthritic kind. I’m familiar with the bruised and burning, torn muscles variety. I know the shooting, knifing, excruciating pain of migraines, nerve damage, and body injuries. Whatever pain’s expression, I’m familiar with its work. I suffered a severe car accident that left me with a partially-severed spinal cord. The emergency room physician told me I was this close to being quadriplegic. If that was not enough, I later experienced the unbearable agony of a broken back.

I felt constant and severe pain for many years. It nearly destroyed my life. My pain was so debilitating that I found it almost impossible to work, perform normal day-to-day functions, or have much of a life. I tried everything to which I was introduced but nothing worked well or lasted long. Pain medications should have been a welcome respite, but even prescription narcotics offered no noticeable relief. And since they were highly addictive and replete with terrible side effects, I stopped using them within a week of receiving the prescription, over twenty years ago.

On one particular occasion, I had been indoors, alone in the darkness of my bedroom, away from all light and noise, suffering with a migraine for nearly a week. This was a common occurrence and had made up a significant part of my life for the past several years. On this day, like many others, I was desperate for the pain to end and feeling despondent that it would never be over. Eventually, I balanced my desire to race toward a solution with my need to step gingerly to avoid exacerbating the pain and headed downstairs. I wanted to look up possible emergency services. It was nearly six o’clock on a Saturday evening. My husband exclaimed, “Nothing will be open.”

Tears running down my eyes, I knew he was right. But I needed help. I found an emergency hotline answered by a compassionate doctor, who after asking me a series of questions, advised me to come straight to his clinic. This doctor of chiropractic spent two hours running tests and X-rays, conducting manual mobility and spinal cord assessments, and showing me the various problems in my spinal cord, nerves, and more, which were contributing to my pain. The doctor didn’t stop there. He explained various natural remedies, treatments, and exercises I could do to alleviate the pain. And he asked my husband if he would be willing to assist, which of course, he was. So, this compassionate doctor, who I am fortunate to now call a dear friend, Dr. Robert Laquerre, taught my husband additional ways to help me relieve pain. 

I left Dr. Rob’s clinic feeling lighter, a significant reduction in pain, and a sense of freedom I hadn’t known in years. I could barely hold myself together as we went back to the car. The moment I sat down, I began sobbing—this time with tears of joy. I was overwhelmed with relief that the pain had finally dissipated. Perhaps, even greater than the elimination of the pain, I felt empowered that I finally had some solutions to help me deal with the pain whenever it might return, which, given the severity of the causes of my pain, it did indeed.

But, for the first time, I had some effective pain management options, and now that I had periods without pain, or with much less pain, I was able to look deeper into the remedies Dr. Rob suggested. As I continuously improved, I was able to spend greater amounts of time trying to discover other natural remedies that might help me.

Motivated by my progress and hoping to permanently end the excruciating pain that had become my life for so many years, I spent hours and hours reading up on proven natural pain killers. Before meeting Dr. Rob and starting my research, I believed that nothing in nature could be as potent as drugs, but my desperation forced me to give natural options a fair chance. And did my experiences and research prove me wrong: I discovered that many of the most powerful anti-pain remedies are found in nature in the form of herbs, essential oils, and nutrients.

The problem with most natural options, however, is that they rarely come with adequate instructions on their effective use. I don’t think the manufacturers intend to leave people in the dark on the best ways to use their products, but most producers of natural medicines are limited in the claims or guidance they can give customers due to legal restrictions placed upon them by regulatory authorities.

I began using my body as a laboratory, experimenting with a wide variety of natural options, varied doses, and an assortment of regimens. After countless hours, months, and even years of experimentation, I found the best natural medicines to alleviate the pain that plagued me. I still get pain when I overdo certain things that aggravate the spinal cord nerve endings or the area where I broke my back, but I am now armed with knowledge and natural remedies to mitigate the pain that once ruled my life. I also have a rewarding career as an author and manage a stunning Victorian-era orchard on my acreage. Where once my time was spent in agony and darkness, my life is now filled with joy and light.

This article is an excerpt from my new book, PAIN ERASERS: The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Safe, Drug-Free Relief, available in bookstores everywhere or online. Copyright Michelle Schoffro Cook.

I am happy to share with you the culmination of my more than twenty-five years of research, personal experimentation, and clinical experience in this book. Pain Erasers: A Natural Doctor’s Guide to Safe, Drug-Free Remedies showcases the proven natural pain erasers backed by science and personal experience, rather than theory, ad copy, or complex bodywork regimes. It is my hope and belief that the information contained within these pages, along with the correct use of the remedies I share, will transform your life as it has mine.

In Pain Erasers:

• You’ll find simple ways to free your life from pain and determine which remedies will work best for you.
• You’ll learn the best essential oils, herbs, nutrients, and other natural remedies for joint pain, nerve pain, soft tissue pain, muscle pain, headaches, migraines, arthritis, fibromyalgia, neuralgia, and many other types of pain disorders.

• You’ll discover the exciting research that shows just how effective these natural pain killers can be.
• You’ll understand the best way to take each remedy to yield results. No medicine works if it is not properly taken, yet that is exactly what most people do when it comes to natural remedies. They take them in the incorrect form, at an insufficient dosage, and too infrequently to yield results. I will teach you how to maximize each remedy’s healing properties and share my pain protocols that get great results. I should know: they’ve worked for me and the thousands of patients I worked with over the years.

This article is an excerpt from my new book, PAIN ERASERS: The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Safe, Drug-Free Relief, available in bookstores everywhere or online. Copyright Michelle Schoffro Cook.