Most of us are carrying pain we’ve stopped noticing. The morning stiffness, the tight shoulders, the low back that flares up after a long drive. We normalize it, we blame it on age or old injuries, and we manage it with whatever’s in the medicine cabinet. What most people never learn is that you can get rid of pain naturally, without ever opening that cabinet.
And it matters more than you think. When you’re hurting, you’re not fully present at the dinner table. You’re not at your best at work. Your body is spending energy on discomfort that should be going toward your life. It’s no accident that one in five doctor visits in this country is for pain alone.
In the latest episode of the Health Made Simple Show, Dr. Bart shares what 30 years of clinical practice have taught him: roughly half of the pain most people carry can be eliminated with four habits that cost nothing. Here’s a look at each one.
1. Clean up your diet
Dr. Bart discovered this almost by accident. After running his annual cleanse for more than 15 years, he kept hearing the same thing from participants: “Doc, I changed my diet for 10 days and half my pain is gone.” They weren’t cleaning up their eating to fix pain. It was the side effect.
The mechanism is simple. Foods like bread, pasta, crackers, pastries, and sugar drive inflammation, and inflammation keeps your pain signals high and alert. Remove them, build your meals around quality protein and whole foods, and your body finally gets what it needs to heal.
So why don’t people do it? In Dr. Bart’s experience, it isn’t a lack of information. It’s that these foods are our small daily pleasures, the dopamine push at the end of a hard day. The fear of losing that comfort keeps people stuck. But as he puts it, you’re not losing out. You’re trading a small window of feeling good for a big one.
If you’d like help identifying which foods are working against your body, you can learn more about Dr. Bart’s nutritional consultations at Balance Health Studio.
2. De-escalate your nervous system
Most of us are living in a sympathetic state, the fight-or-flight mode that helps us grind through work, kids, and life. That mode is useful. The problem is the inability to swing the pendulum back. When your nervous system never shuts off, your muscles stay wound up, blood flow to your tissues suffers, and inflammation builds.
The fix Dr. Bart teaches is free and takes less than a minute: a 3-second inhale through the nose into the chest and belly, a 1-second pause, and a slow 6-second exhale. The magic is in the exhale. That’s what shifts you from fight or flight into rest and digest. The catch is that you may need to do it 10 to 20 times a day, not once. He even recommends breathing before eating to set your body up for better digestion.
3. Prioritize sleep
You heal when you sleep. Hormone balance, tissue repair, regeneration, all of it happens while you’re resting. Dr. Bart’s simple framework for staying in rhythm with nature: go to bed with the dark, get up with the light, and always eat in the light.
4. Keep moving
When something hurts, the instinct is to stop using it. But your joints and tissues need blood, oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to heal, and movement is what delivers them. That doesn’t mean heavy squats on an injured back. It means if you can walk, walk. A better moving body heals faster.
The trap that keeps people from getting rid of pain naturally
Woven through all four habits is a mindset Dr. Bart calls absolutism: “I tried the breathing, it didn’t work. I gave up gluten for a week, nothing changed.” All-or-nothing thinking causes people to quit before their body has a chance to respond, and it usually signals a deeper issue, which is that we’ve lost the ability to listen to our bodies and notice the small victories. Your body never lies. Pain is a signal, and it will keep signaling until you give your body what it’s asking for.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to get rid of pain naturally with diet changes?
In Dr. Bart’s experience, many people notice a meaningful difference within 10 days of removing inflammatory foods, which is the length of his annual cleanse. For lasting results, he recommends committing to a whole food diet for at least 21 to 30 days and paying attention to the small improvements along the way, like less afternoon fatigue and clearer thinking.
What is the 3-1-6 breathing method?
It’s a simple pattern for calming your nervous system: inhale through the nose for 3 seconds into the chest and belly, pause for 1 second, then exhale slowly for 6 seconds. The extended exhale is what shifts your body out of fight or flight and into rest and digest. Practice it several times throughout the day, not just once.
Should I keep exercising if I’m in pain?
Movement delivers the blood, oxygen, and nutrients your tissues need to heal, so complete rest is often the opposite of what your body is asking for. The key is choosing movement that matches your situation. If running hurts, walk. If walking hurts, try a stationary bike. This is general guidance from the episode, so listen to your body and work with your practitioner on anything acute.
Listen to the full episode in the player at the top of this page. Ready for a personalized, root-cause approach to your health? Schedule a consultation at https://healthmadesimpleshow.com/schedule.
