Are you suffering from a lack of sleep, chronic pain, or other issues that keep you from living your best life? Although we want our bodies to run like beautifully, well-oiled machines, daily life takes a toll despite our heartfelt efforts. As a clinical psychologist, I’ve found that sleep and pain issues are common in nearly every age group – and they often start as early as adolescence. And the older you get, the more likely it is that you’ll suffer from one issue or another that calls out for medical attention. Yet, in many cases, it’s difficult to get more than a routine exam and a prescription before you’re sent on your way. Is it possible to heal your body–to really get to the root of pain and sleep issues – so that you can feel truly alive? To help you live your best life, Dr. Fawad Mian, a renowned, board-certified neurologist who specializes in neurophysiology and sleep medicine offers us powerful tips and tools!

Topics discussed include physical pain, chronic pain, medicine, prescriptions, healthy living, regenerative medicine, healthcare, surgery, neurology, functional medicine, psychological health, somatic issues, psychosomatic pain, alcohol use, healthy diet, cannabis use, sugar, sleep issues, insomnia, PRP therapy, PRP injections, and healing.

SPECIAL NOTE: No expert in this (or any episode) is offering medical or psychological direction; the content is purely informational in nature. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider before undertaking any new regimen or procedure.

Please note that this episode may contain sensitive material; listener discretion is advised.

Emergency Assistance Note: If you or someone you know needs immediate support, please call your emergency services. In the US, 24/7 help is available by calling “911” or “988” (Suicide and Crisis Hotline). Support/informational links are in the show notes.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: No expert in this (or any episode) is offering medical or psychological direction; the content is purely informational in nature. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider before undertaking any new regimen or procedure.

https://www.nami.org/support-education/nami-helpline/

Books by Dr. Carla Manly:

Joy from Fear: https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Fear-Carla-Marie-Manly/dp/1641701218

Date Smart: https://www.amazon.com/Date-Smart-Transform-Relationships-Fearlessly/dp/1641704675

Aging Joyfully: https://www.amazon.com/Aging-Joyfully-Optimal-Relationships-Fulfillment/dp/1641701412

The Joy of Imperfect Love: https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Imperfect-Love-Creating-Relationships/dp/1641709057

Oracle decks by Dr. Carla Manly:

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1757477615/imperfect-love-reflection-oracle-cards

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Imperfect-Love-Reflection-Oracle-Cards/dp/B0D1Z5M4YK

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Discover How to Live Your Best, Pain-Free Life with Expert Dr. Fawad Mian

How to Free Yourself from Chronic Pain

Are you suffering from a lack of sleep, chronic pain, or other issues that keep you from living your best life? Although we want our bodies to run like beautifully well-oiled machines, daily life takes a toll despite our heartfelt efforts. As a clinical psychologist, I found that sleep and pain issues are common in nearly every age group, and they often start as early as adolescence. The older you get, the more likely it is that you’ll suffer from one issue or another that calls out for medical attention.

In many cases, it’s difficult to get more than a routine exam and a prescription before you’re sent on your way. Is it possible to heal your body to get to the root of pain and sleep issues so that you can feel truly alive again? To help you live your best life, Dr. Fawad Mian, a renowned board-certified neurologist who specializes in neurophysiology and sleep medicine, offers us powerful tips and tools.

We’ll focus on this listener’s real-life question. “I’ve been suffering from sleep issues and increasing pain in my joints. I’m only 41, and I’m not ready to feel old. I can’t figure out the source of my issues. My doctor recommended that I see a psychologist. Do you have any suggestions? As background, I’m a male. I used to run triathlons. I stopped a few years back, and I work in tech.” With that issue as the focus of this episode, I’m Dr. Carla Marie Manly. This is Imperfect Love.

I’m joined by a tremendous special guest, Dr. Fawad Mian, who will guide us into the world of healing. Hello, Dr. Mian. How are you?

Good. How are you?

I am super. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you for allowing me to be on the show.

Dr. Fawad Mian And His Battle With Chronic Pain

Thank you for joining us. Before we launch into this very interesting question, that’s not that uncommon, could you tell our audience a little bit about what makes you you?

That’s a lot to pack in there. For me, it’s somebody who’s suffered through chronic pain and chronic injuries. I had to solve my issues. That’s what led me to the areas of regenerative medicine. That’s what helped get me through, along with functional medicine. That was very helpful for me. My background is neurology and sleep, as well as prevention. I was able to combine both of those and try to help myself get through my issues. It’s a unique perspective that many doctors don’t have because many may not go through the things that we treat.

I applaud you for sharing that with us because it’s really important. Book knowledge and clinical knowledge, and in your case, all of those years of training, have a lot of value. Experiencing something personally adds another layer. Do you mind my asking what your chronic pain issues were?

There were a lot of things. One of the first things I had was a shoulder injury when I was lifting some weights. I had to go through conventional treatment, which was seeing the orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon saw me and was like, “Maybe we can get a surgery out of you. Maybe there’s a tear in there.” That’s one of the first things he said to me. I did the imaging, the MRIs, and the X-rays. They found a lot of arthritis in the joint. They did some steroid injections. That gave me temporary relief. It didn’t fix my problems. I couldn’t sleep on my shoulder. I couldn’t reach above my head.

It was hard to do physical activities that I enjoyed doing. The only thing that the doctor could offer me was essentially chopping off part of my shoulder. It sounds pretty gruesome, but that was the choice he gave me. I had to start looking into other realms of treatment. At the same time, I started to have some foot and ankle issues. They popped up out of nowhere. I had bad plantar fasciitis. Achilles tendinosis is the proper term. After going through the treatments for that with some injections and some other modalities of treatment and orthotics, once again, I got to the surgeon saying, “Maybe we’ve got to chop out some more bone.” I have multiple doctors telling me to chop out parts of my body that I was born with.

Having gone through surgeries and seeing that you’re not going to be the same after the surgery, regardless of what you do, it’s not something that I chose to do. I started looking into other alternative treatments. I stumbled on something many years ago when there were a few resources called prolotherapy. The idea behind that was to stimulate healing by using your body’s power to do that through different injections. I started learning more about platelet-rich plasma, PRP, and autologous stem cell therapy for myself. I had to do a lot of rounds of PRP and prolotherapy to help overcome my foot and ankle issues. I was walking around with shoes that were uncomfortable, which would make my problems worse.

Orthotics were expensive. It was hard to walk anywhere. Going up and down the stairs was an adventure. I didn’t want to keep living my life like that. I started doing these injections. Even as bad as it got through some steroid injections, I overcame it with the PRP after several rounds. I don’t have that issue. I can run on the treadmill. I don’t have to wear Frankenstein shoes or anything like that. With my shoulder, that’s also something that I treated myself with prolotherapy and some PRP. I had to undo what the steroids did to my shoulder at the time. If you look at it anatomically, you’ll see that the steroids start eating bone and cartilage away. It’s toxic if you put it into that joint.

I’m in the realm of where I come from, and my colleagues are anti-doing things like that. We know that in the long run, you’re going to end up chewing up the joints, which may lead to surgery. Surgery is not the be-all, end-all of everything. Just because you have a surgery doesn’t mean that you’re going to be fine. I started implementing functional medicine, looking at things that we eat, consume, and get exposed to. All of that I found was important as well because it’s not just the injections themselves. It’s your lifestyle. How you live your life makes a huge difference in terms of how you feel.

The Effects Of PRP And Steroids

Let me slow it down because you’ve given us so much terrific information already. For the audience, we are not dispensing medical advice. Dr. Mian is here to help guide us. We want you to reach out to your physician. If that physician happens to be Dr. Mian, fabulous for you. I hope you can access him. His information will be in the show notes. That little disclaimer is to protect us and keep everybody safe. Let’s go back to some of the things you said. I’m familiar with PRP only because my husband loves motocross and racing. They’re always talking about getting the guys back on track. They use PRP. Could you talk about what PRP is? That’s one piece. Give us some foundational terms.

I’d like a little more information on the other piece if you don’t mind. I steer clear of anything cortisone-based because of how it can be so damaging. It’s one of our most common underlying medications. You could explain a little bit about that and any research that’s in your hip pocket on that. Part three, I want to make sure we give enough for this listener who wrote in. Because I’m a very mind, body, and spirit person, I am fascinated when you brought up diet. If we’re able to weave in some of the diet and touch upon sleep along the way, that’s a top order. Back in your court.

To the first question, PRP is called platelet-rich plasma. The idea behind this was born out of dental work back in the ’90s. That was trying to help heal tissue in the gums, essentially. In the realm of musculoskeletal medicine, which is what I’m referring to, we draw a certain amount of blood. We’ll use a centrifuge to spin that blood down to concentrate the platelets, which contain a lot of growth factors. We’ll use image guidance to inject it back into the areas of damage that we visualize. A lot of times, it’ll be an ultrasound. For some other folks, that might also be a fluoroscopy machine.

What that means is we’re taking your body’s natural healing abilities and its cells to try to help heal yourself. It will help with the tissues healing and getting better, versus putting in something toxic. It segues us to the third question. Even though steroids are very potent anti-inflammatory medications, the problem with all of this is that they’re used in such large quantities and dosages that they cause physical damage to you. I didn’t think much of it until I saw it on my own body to see what happened to it.

Even looking at some scientific studies, they talk about epidural injections for the spine. There’s a reason why they limit it to three a year. It’s not just because of insurance, to a certain extent. They extrapolated the data because with each injection of steroid that you get in there, there’s a 25% increased risk of vertebral fracture or spine fracture. It can be quite noxious. For those folks who are getting the steroid injections into their knees, they’re accelerating the destructive damage to their knee. That will eventually lead to a knee replacement, too. It’s not something we want to be injecting into joints in general.

If I hear you right, putting in steroids has a short-term gain. The gain is temporary pain relief. Long term, it’s eroding your body’s natural protective systems. Did I get that right?

Yes. You’re going to get that instant gratification, maybe for a little bit. It is very short-lived, even for a lot of people. In the long run, it’s going to do you more damage. Whereas with these regenerative treatments, you’re not going to get that instant gratification. It takes time to get better by doing these things. Ultimately, you feel better. Your tissues are better. Your joints are better. You do much better in the long run than pumping in these steroids repeatedly.

That makes sense because with the PRP, you’re taking out your blood. You’re spinning it. You’re harvesting the platelets. You’re injecting platelets back into the area that needs them. The tissues are going to grow, form, and heal around that area. That will take time, which needs patience and maybe some rest while this is happening. How many treatments are needed for someone who has a shoulder issue?

Honestly, it depends because normally, when we see somebody, we look at their total medical history. We do a physical examination. We may do some additional imaging. For example, an MRI of the shoulder. Depending on how the person examines, what their physical status is, and what the imaging shows, we put that all together to determine how many treatments one would get. On average, someone may get between one and three treatments. I’ve been able to do treatments where I got somebody 90% better in one treatment.

This is to give you an example of somebody we had who did a lot of physical labor, essentially. He needs to be able to utilize his arms and shoulders to do his work. If you looked at the imaging on this individual’s shoulder in the way examined, it would look like he would need surgery. We kept him out of surgery. He was much better. He was able to perform his work. This is one real-life example. It can vary from person to person. On average, it is somewhere between one and three times, depending on where they’re at with everything.

Finding The Roots Of Chronic Pain

When we think about the person who wrote in, it sounds like they were a triathlete, high-functioning. I’ve had physicians refer people to me for phantom pain or when they can’t find something on an image. I don’t know how rigorous this person’s life was, but triathletes are often pretty tough on their bodies. Even if they’re taking care of them well, it’s not an easy sport. What are your thoughts on something like that for someone who was having chronic pain, but they can’t find the root of it? Is regenerative medicine helpful in cases like that?

Yes, and also functional medicine to a certain extent. I want to know if this individual has pain throughout their entire body. Is it limited to a couple of different parts? That would be helpful to know. If there are those areas of damage, those can be treated with regenerative treatments, such as PRP, stem cells, or prolotherapy. The other thing you’d probably also want to know is this person’s functional movement status. How are they moving? If there’s dysfunctional movement, that’s going to lead to dysfunctional joints. That’s one thing.

The second thing is what the person is consuming. This doesn’t mean that you’re eating a Burger King or McDonald’s all the time, which I doubt a triathlete would be doing. It could also be common things that we consume, like a multigrain bread, if they’re eating something that’s wheat-based. Gluten certainty can cause inflammation of the body, and the joints can be one part of it. Another thing could be this. Is the person insulin resistant? Are their blood sugars creeping up? That actually will attack the joints, too. It’s not your eyes, your nerves, your kidneys, your heart, or your brain. It’s also your joints, which are often overlooked. There can be many other things in the diet that could be looked at, too. Sometimes, doing some specific food sensitivity testing may be helpful for that.

The other thing that also probably would be helpful is to determine what the individual is taking medication-wise for what issues. As much as medications do help us with different things, sometimes, there are ones that do harm others, too. We want to take a look at that. For our gentleman who asked this question, we need to take a much deeper dive into what’s going on over there. Seeing a functional medicine specialist might be one of the first things that they would want to do to see what is happening that is causing this.

This is another thing I didn’t throw out there, outside of food sensitivity testing. Are there any toxins the individual is being exposed to? That often also gets overlooked, as well as a person getting exposed to other things like mold and all of that. That’s also an overlooked thing. It’s a lot to look at. A functional movement person would be a good person to start off with to get more to the root cause if there’s chronic body inflammation. This could also be supplemented with the sense of having the regenerative treatments to try to help the areas that are injured from the activities that the individual was doing.

What I’m hearing from you is so different from what many of my clients say about the kind of treatment they get. I’m not saying all medicine or providers aren’t fabulous. I am saying that with a ten-minute office visit, physicians are often interested in only a few tests or a very limited exam. Getting the treatment you’re talking about is a whole-body approach. This includes functional medicine, a regenerative therapy, and the tests for toxins. Getting a physician to order those tests is extremely difficult in many cases.

I don’t know the backstory. It seems as if they were told this is psychological. I’m not saying that’s the case. I’ve worked with people who suffer from chronic pain. They’ll say, “I can find some roots to it, some unresolved trauma, and this and that. We can diminish some of the physical pain.” Sometimes, physical pain is physical pain. What would you say if somebody is running up against a wall in getting assistance from the medical community in their area?

Number one, you’ve got to do the best you can with what you have in terms of what’s around there. Maybe it might also be worth trying to seek out a functional medicine provider to start off with, even though it’s off the beaten path. For some people, that can pay huge dividends. That would be the very first thing I would do, especially if you feel like you’ve gone through several doctors and all are telling you the same thing, that it’s all in your head. Sometimes, there are psychosomatic things to it as well. You want to make sure that you’re not missing anything. You’re leaving no stone unturned before you say something like that.

Could you define functional medicine, and what would you recommend that somebody look out for as they’re finding this provider who will look at how they’re moving and look at all of these important pieces? Your definition, please, and your suggestions.

Functional medicine is trying to get to the root cause of things. There are a lot of deeper dives, a lot of digging, and a lot more physiology-based stuff. It sounds a little bit more like nerdy science to the audience. We dive into those things a lot more. It is more so than you ever would if you were having a traditional office visit. By doing so, we’re able to look at many different things that would be helpful to the individual in terms of overcoming their issues when the traditional medical model fails them ultimately.

Thank you for that explanation, because it’s important the way you say it. Sometimes, the medical system does fail us. Often, when we’re hurting the most, we don’t feel like we can advocate for ourselves or do that heavy lifting of finding the right person. For many people, finances often shut the door. They don’t have the money to do PRP injections. If I understand the system as it is right now, those are generally not something you’re going to find in your traditional doctor’s office, that you’re going to go in, and that’s going to be covered for you.

The insurance companies deem whatever it is that they feel is acceptable, although it may not be acceptable to us. With the way that the whole paradigm is set up, we’re forced to do whatever is in there. It limits our options, unfortunately. Sometimes, we try to do the workarounds the best we can with that. There are also plenty of doctors who may not have the time or the ability to do the workarounds for people. They could be overwhelmed by how the system is affecting them, creating difficulties, and making things where a patient becomes a number, and not so much a person.

Exploring Different Diet Issues

I hear you on that. That’s very true and unfortunate. Let’s pivot to more of the diet issues that you might see that are common. I’m wondering what you see with issues like alcohol, perhaps cannabis use, and anything that could be a red flag for somebody. We are also pivoting into sleep issues.

Some of my unpopular opinions are on alcohol. Usually, nobody likes me when I say this. Alcohol is a toxin. We do know that it does cause damage to the brain because there are even diseases that are named after it. Alcohol can also break down your nerves, cause damage there, and lead to chronic pain. There’s neuropathy that is derived from that. If you have dysfunctional nerves, you’re also interfering with the joints or muscles. You could start having problems with that.

In terms of things like cannabis, that tends to be a little bit more in the neurological realm. This is not so much regenerative medicine or functional medicine, but more neurology-based. Even though some people may be trying to use it to calm their anxieties and their fears, people will have seizures or cognitive issues taking this, especially when they’re combining it with other things. I would tread very lightly in terms of utilizing these things without a good reason and without the supervision that one would need.

Thank you for your honest answer. To emphasize your point on alcohol, this is not to shame or blame anybody out there. I remember when I was doing research for my first book, Joy from Fear. At the time, the research showed up to 2 to 3 drinks a day, depending on your gender. As my book was heading to print, out came this beautiful research that was not funded by anyone who had a food or beverage interest. It was saying no alcohol, regardless of how old you are. Men can tolerate a tiny bit, but women, please stop using it. It is a very unpopular approach, but unpopular doesn’t mean it’s not true, and it is.

How Sugar Contributes To Inflammation

I’m with you on that. The more people can abstain from chronic alcohol use, daily alcohol use, the better. Thank you for pointing that out. Thank you for the discussion on cannabis, especially with THC being so much higher. We don’t want to think that gummies and all the forms that they come in make it any less of a possible form of hardship for the body, mind, or spirit. Enough is said there. What are your thoughts on refined sugars possibly contributing to inflammation?

A long time ago, I went to a conference. The speaker said, “Sugar is the devil.” Added sugar, in particular, causes a lot of problems. We’re talking about insulin resistance that segues into chronic inflammation of the body. You can feel it. This is my body’s ability to tolerate. It would make me feel dizzy and lightheaded and have brain fog almost essentially by having extra sugar that I don’t need. I’ve cut out a lot of sugar in my diet. It’s minimal at this point.

If you’re talking about something like this, you’re talking about chronic pain. Sugar is something that will eventually lead to significant chronic pain from all the chronic inflammation that’s occurring, as amongst other medical issues that one can start developing. Even then, in terms of neurology, they talk about type three diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, and packing that together. We know that the glycosylation, the destruction of neurons, and overwhelming the cells with excess sugar cause cognitive issues and damage.

It’s something that I would say everybody should try to restrain from as much as possible. If you go out and want to get something to eat or drink, you go to some of these places, like a mall. You look at all of the beverages and the food that have all this excess sugar. Look at the bubble teas and things like that. It looks nice, but it’s a lot of sugar that’s packed in there. You go to certain coffee shops, which I will not name. We all know they’re there. We’ve been to them. It’s a lot of sugar in those drinks. It’s something that can also lead to obesity. It’s going to tax your joints by having that. Trying to minimize that is important for a lot of people. It takes a lot of restraint and willpower to do that.

Delving Into Different Sleep Issues

I’m thinking of the listener’s question. They’re a triathlete. I’ve known many athletes who slam energy drinks, the adrenaline spiking ones, the sugar bars, and the protein bars. If you stop and take a look at those labels, sometimes, you’re ingesting massive amounts of sugar, disguised as a natural or healthy drink or protein bar. Thank you for calling attention to how we want to be aware of where sugar sneaks in. Fruits are great. They are a wonderful way to get some natural sugar, but without all of the additives. Thank you. Let’s pivot to sleep.

Is a person having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep? That’s a big distinction to make because it makes me think of different things. Even outside of some of the stuff that we’re talking about, are there intrinsic sleep issues that are also occurring? I give you one example, say restless legs or periodic limb movements. That’s the uncomfortable feeling that people have in their legs and feet. If we’re talking about chronic pain, chronic back issues, or chronic neuropathic issues, I would say, “Has any of that been looked into at all? Did somebody look at your back? Did anybody run a nerve study? Did anybody do any blood work to say there is a nutrient deficiency, say, B12?” That’s something that should always be looked at.

In terms of getting to sleep, you’ve got to look at what medications you’re utilizing. What things are you consuming prior to this? What are you even doing before you’re trying to get to sleep? More often than not, you’ll see that a lot of people may not have the best habits in the world prior to going to sleep in general. As technology is advancing, that’s gotten progressively worse. I will give you one quick example. This is more on the insomnia realm. Back in New Jersey, where I’m at, there was a superstorm, Sandy, that was around a long time ago.

I had plenty of patients at the time who said, “I cannot fall asleep. It’s impossible for me to fall asleep. I’ve done everything.” When the power was gone for a week and the sun would set at 7:00 or 8:00, guess who went to sleep? Several people did without an issue. Do you think about how powerful these computer screens, these TVs, our to-do list, our email, and all of that are? That is a huge impact. It’s not like we’re intentionally trying to do this to ourselves. It’s more of we get caught in the flow of everyday life and think that this is an acceptable way of being.

For those of us who are a little bit older, and I remember the ’80s and the ’90s, we didn’t have any of this stuff. It was less of an issue back then than it is now because there was nothing to look at. You had a computer, but nobody stayed on the computer until late at that time. That’s very different. Another sleep issue is how well a person consolidates their sleep. The elephant in the room is always going to be sleep apnea for people. I would say, “Have you ever had a sleep study looking for sleep apnea?” If you haven’t, maybe your sleep is not being consolidated.

As you breathe in, say you did have sleep apnea, what happens is the airway closes up. Maybe one can remember drinking out of a Capri-Sun or a juice box when they were younger. You may have kids who have done that. When they get close to the end, there’s so much negative pressure. The airway collapses like that. If that’s repeatedly happening, then blood pressure is rising, heart rate is rising, and there’s decreased oxygenation to the brain. Over time, you’re physiologically changing everything. 1) You’re increasing a chronic inflammation. 2) Not getting that sleep consolidation is going to make everything hurt. Nothing feels good at that time. You can’t think straight. You can’t remember where your keys are.

That would be a key thing that I would do for anybody who’s had some chronic sleep issues. Flipping things around in terms of chronic pain, if there are specific injuries that one has, whether it’s their back, their shoulder, their knees, and they’re in extreme pain, then it’s going to be hard for them to get to rest. If there are any injuries, those should be looked at, evaluated, and examined to see if those areas need to be treated. It doesn’t always necessarily have to be even a regenerative treatment per se.

Sometimes, it’s common things, like physical therapy. Acupuncture sometimes gets overlooked, but it can do a pretty good job for some people. It can even be the supplements that one takes. Before taking any supplement, you should talk to your doctor or someone who can supervise what you’re doing. In a very common approach, and this may not apply to everybody, depending on where they’re at, things that can help with chronic pain are things like magnesium, fish oil, or turmeric. They are common things that can be utilized. Please talk to your doctor, provider, and whoever you’re seeing before starting any of these to make sure it’s appropriate for you and you don’t have any contraindications to utilizing these supplements.

Episode Wrap- Up And Closing Words

That was incredibly helpful. To do a recap and affirm, you’ve said so many wonderful things, but we often forget that our bodies are not machines. We don’t just shut them off like we shut off a computer or turn off a light. If you’re having trouble going to sleep, it’s so important to focus on sleep hygiene. These are things like turning off the TV earlier, not watching terrible news shows or sensationalized news, anything that’s keeping your phone away from your bed, and doing all of these things one, two, or three hours before bedtime.

For thousands of years, humans have been used to going to sleep when the sun goes down and waking up when the sun rises. That’s why it dovetails perfectly with what you were saying, that you noticed when there were power outages. People get into their regular patterns of sleep because there is no power and no devices to keep them up past when their body would naturally shut off. Most of our bodies do need seven, eight, or nine hours of sleep, especially when people are younger adolescents. Thank you for highlighting that.

I also love the piece about sleep hygiene. You get used to a ritual. For me, I brush. I floss. I do my stretching. I have my whole little routine that helps my body, mind, and spirit. I do my little meditation. Everything winds down. Sleep apnea tests are ones that doctors usually are willing to do because they’re fairly easy. Thank you for highlighting that and the associated risks if you don’t have sleep apnea diagnosed. You’re well-versed in all of the side effects. Thank you for outlining those.

You highlighted that if you have chronic pain, it may be part of the whole cycle. If you’re not sleeping, you feel foggy, you hurt more, and then you don’t sleep well. It’s a vicious cycle. You have given us so much information. Dr. Mian, do you have any other pieces that you think our readers should know about this topic, or something you want to share?

Nothing special, but if you’re not getting anywhere to where you need to be, try to dig a little deeper. Wherever you are in the country, try to find somebody who can help you. Look outside of the box. It’s easier to get out of that box more often than not than it ever was before. There are more resources that are available. I would encourage anybody who is not getting to where they need to be, in terms of their sleep and their pain, to try to look for somebody in your area who could help you.

Thank you. You have been such a fabulous guest. I so appreciate you, your wisdom, your time, and your energy. What a gift. Thank you, Dr. Mian. I’m so grateful.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you to our readers. It’s so wonderful to be able to do these journeys with you. It’s Dr. Fawad Mian. You’ll be able to find him online very easily. Thanks again.

Thank you so much. I enjoyed this talk with you.

I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. I’m truly grateful. I’m sure you’ve helped so many people, not only in your private practice and your clinical work, but also through shows like this. This one reaches people around the world. Thank you so much for spreading such good, upbeat, positive, and helpful information.

Thank you.

Thank you, and this is Imperfect Love.

Important Links

• Dr. Fawad Mian on LinkedIn
• Joy from Fear
• ProloHealing
• Advocare NeuroWellness MD
• Mission | Pain Relief & Regenerative Therapies | Advocare NeuroWellness MD | Denville, NJ
• Current Status and Advancements in Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy – PMC
• NAMI HelpLine
• Dr. Carla Manly’s Website
• Dr. Carla Manly on Instagram
• Dr. Carla Manly on Twitter
• Dr. Carla Manly on Facebook
• Dr. Carla Manly on LinkedIn
• Dr. Carla Manly on YouTube
• Dr. Carla Manly on TikTok

About Dr. Fawad Mian

Dr. Fawad Mian has many years of experience treating patients with a wide range of neurological , functional, men’s health E.D., and sleep disorders which include headaches, seizures, memory complaints, sleep apnea, dizziness, and many others.

Dr. Mian also provides revolutionary treatments in the battle against pain, including platelet rich plasma, prolotherapy, and stem cells for the treatment of neck, back, shoulder, and knee pain. He began his career as a neurologist and felt that there were additional ways to help his patients. On his journey, he discovered regenerative medicine and functional medicines, which have become an integral part of his approach. Dr. Mian holds a medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine.

He completed his neurological residency at New York School of Medicine. He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology, and Sleep Medicine. His office is located in Denville, NJ and services Northern New Jersey.