Becoming Pain-Free: Author Shayna Melissa Stockman On How to Alleviate Chronic Pain
An interview with Maria Angelova
Mindset mastery-You must first believe to achieve, take consistent action, and just never quit.
So many people suffer from chronic pain. Often people believe that they have tried everything, and that there is no real hope for them to live pain-free. What are some things these individuals can do, to help reduce or even eliminate their pain? In this interview series, called “Becoming Pain-Free: How to Alleviate Chronic Pain” we are talking to medical professionals, pain management specialists and authors who can share their insights and strategies about how to alleviate chronic pain. As a part of this series we had the pleasure of interviewing Shayna Melissa Stockman RN, BC-ANP, PNP.
Shayna Melissa Stockman, RN, BC-ANP, PNP, a Nationally Board-Certified Nurse Practitioner (NP), is an inspirational health expert combining over 30 years of nursing/medical experience with naturopathic techniques and the latest biohacking strategies. She suffered auto-immune disorders, severe pain, and heart failure, yet helped heal herself holistically, without medications, and then her doctors became her clients!
Now known as The World Wellness Expert ™ and a #1 International Best-Selling Author, she fuses a proactive mix of functional, holistic, and integrative approaches with gene activation to attack the root cause for truly synergistic results that have changed thousands of lives. ShaynaMelissa.com
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Sure! I was raised by my grandma who grew up poor with her divorced mother during the prior pandemic yet still graduated high school 2 years early.
Even though her husband was a pharmacist, she chose healthy, more natural alternatives instead of medications. My grandmother truly led by example, not verbalizing, but showing me through demonstrations.
I watched her eat low salt foods and later discovered that salt raises blood pressure, and she was avoiding a need for blood pressure medication. I realized that she ate bananas regularly for their anti-diuretic effects and to replenish potassium that controlled her heart. That helped her avoid needing a diuretic, a potassium pill, or another pill for her heart. Her blood pressure remained normal without medications. She was truly an intuitive holistic healer. (I’m not saying what helped her works for everyone but may work when we attack the root cause of the problem.)
She always attacked the root cause to stop the problem and that usually helped her avoid needing medications. Nowadays we call attacking the root cause functional medicine and using food for medicinal purposes naturopathy.
Her siblings all had diabetes, yet my grandmother ate healthy, stayed skinny and never developed the family trait for diabetes. She took control of her own biology in the 1970s! We can take back the power of family tendencies to alter gene expression or suppression for these tendencies like diabetes.
Nowadays, we do this a little differently and call it biohacking. When we break down that word, hacking means to take control over and bio refers to biology. So, it means taking control over your own biology i.e., genetic suppression for diabetes. She was decades ahead of her time.
Basically, in the 1970s, she raised me with holistic, naturopathic, biohacking and functional medicine techniques well before they even had a name or became popular.
I excelled at science and math, had a scholarship for nursing but hadn’t applied, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to become a nurse.
While in my first semester of college, I was involved in a horrific motor vehicle accident and met a very kind nurse that befriended me. That’s when I had my “ah-ha” moment. I thought, ‘Wow! She likes helping people and I like helping people. This nurse will never know how many lives she impacted, and how many of those lives impacted more lives. So, a mere rippling effect could become a tidal wave! I want to create, not a mere rippling effect, but massive tidal waves. I had the nursing scholarship without applying, the car accident, and met this nurse, maybe this was my calling!’ Due to budget cuts, I was still awarded the scholarship, but the payout was zero. I wrote to every politician but there was no change in the payment status.
I took out multiple student loans and worked multiple full-time jobs while going to college full time. I rode my bicycle miles to the bus, then two bus transfers later I would arrive at college. Purchasing used and outdated books was all that I could afford. Before I even graduated, I took my LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) test and passed. I also passed the RN (Registered Nurse) test the first time.
After one year as an RN, I became supervisor of the entire agency. So, I went back to college, passed advanced placement exams, and earned a Bachelor of Nursing degree. Then I graduated a semester early with my master’s in nursing, obtained an adult health NP (Nurse Practitioner) license and passed the national board certification. Then, I earned my post master’s in child health and obtained my second NP license as a child health NP. Thus, I hold four nursing licenses (LPN, RN, adult health NP and child health NP).
After years as a nurse, I experienced:
-muscular pain i.e., back pain from working 16 hours per day on hard floors as well as muscular pain from a dislocated jaw
-nerve pain called trigeminal neuralgia, radiculopathy and peripheral neuropathy of unknown etiology, and probable RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy), now known as Complex Regional Pain. I declined the biopsy to confirm RSD because it can worsen the condition and wouldn’t change the treatment nor outcome.
-joint and bone pain from fractured skull bones and dislocated jaw as well as pain from autoimmune disorders
I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Tired of going to the doctors, “Try this. Try that” like I was a guinea pig or some experiment. When the medications didn’t work, they would increase the dose, and when that didn’t help, they would add another drug. When the medications caused side effects, they’d add another drug or two to control the adverse reactions from the other medications. When they didn’t know what to do, they either sent me for more tests, repeated the same tests, or referred me to another specialist.
When the specialists didn’t know what to do to help me feel better, they left me feeling hopeless and helpless. The meds either made me wired, tired, or nauseous. And, when I declined the medications because of adverse reactions, the doctors would want me to “try” a similar drug or they would get upset. And the cycle repeated.
The doctors only treat symptoms, not root causes!
My healthcare providers weren’t getting me healthy.
I knew there had to be a better way!! After years of research, I discovered ways to attack the root causes. That helped me feel better and thus be happier! Once I attacked the root causes, my symptoms including pain went away. Without the symptoms, I didn’t need medications for symptoms that were no longer present.
Without the prescription medications, I no longer had adverse medication reactions, interactions, or dependencies. My energy level, weight, blood pressure and sugars returned to normal, I was fully functional and happy!!
My doctors and specialists were so impressed with my results and those of our mutual patients that they are now MY clients!! I want to empower millions more who feel hopeless to re-energize, feel better and be happier, often without medications.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I had a friend that had lost contact, reconnected, told me she was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer and that they told her to go into hospice to basically die. Even with chemo, her tumors were still enlarging.
While in one of my live zoom classes, she had a seizure. I immediately ended the meeting, and dialed 911 but they didn’t know her out-of-state police station phone number. I had to google search, then add the area code from her phone number to dial her local police station. I was able to get on the phone with the chief who sent the EMTs to her house. She was home alone. After her seizure, they were ready to leave her home alone. I figured if they don’t know the cause of her seizure and they leave her, she can have another seizure. I insisted they at least look for the cause, check her sugars and monitor her since she’s home alone.
The chief called me the next day and thanked me. He told me that because I was so insistent, they stayed, witnessed her have another seizure and rushed her to the hospital. He said, “You saved her life!!!”
I wanted her to make a truly informed decision about all of her healthcare options. So, I began to empower her with knowledge about all options, including healthier and newer technologies. I taught her about the root causes of her problems and the power of activating her body’s genetic pathways (genes composed of DNA) to attack the root causes. After she made a truly informed decision, I showed her how to activate her own DNA and she began to do so.
As a diabetic on insulin, her sugars significantly improved (decreased). Therefore, she was able to dramatically decrease her insulin use, and she even stopped having seizures! Shortly after her husband began activating his genes, he no longer required any insulin. (Unlike medications for diabetes, this sugar lowering effect seen with diabetes does not occur with those who have normal sugar levels,)
After several months, she said, “The doctors said my cancer is all gone!!“ She then said even her oncologists were amazed with her test results! Although individual results may vary, I’ve had many other clients get similar results.
Hundreds of dis-eases and dis-orders are linked to free radical damage, oxidative stress, inflammation, mitochondrial malfunction, mitochondrial decline and toxin accumulation causing cellular toxicity. I believe those are the root causes of most of our health problems. Activating genes can rev up production of our own good defenses like super potent antioxidants (i.e., SuperOxide Dismutase, glutathione and catalase), reduce the free radical damage (also known as oxidative stress), increase production of mitochondria and aid to detoxify our body. When we attack these root causes by activating their genes, their test results are significantly improved, less medications are required, and they feel so much better!
There are thousands of scientific studies about these techniques on our government’s website called pub med central. If you go to the PubMed Central website and enter any of the root causes with any of her problems, you will see thousands of validated scientific studies.
The main message here is that if your healthcare provider (even your specialists) or their recommendations don’t get you healthy, consider another healthcare provider and/or all of your options, especially gene activation!
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One mistake I made was that I worked too much i.e., 16 hours per day Friday-Sunday, 48 hours just at one of my multiple jobs while attending college full time and taking care of my grandmother.
An important lesson I learned was that I would have worked less, played more, and spent more time with treasured loved ones while I was still able.
In later years, I prioritize my job over my own health and life. I worked through arrhythmias, broken bones, and even heart failure! We can’t get replacement parts that easily and should all reprioritize our health first over any job.
When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
When the doctors can’t make people better, they go to the specialists but that’s often the last stop. After many go to the specialists, they are still getting worse and give up hope.
I’m empowering these patients with hope, motivation, inspiration, and transformation! I provide the knowledge so they can make truly informed decisions that include all options, including newer cutting-edge science like DNA (gene) activation. When they use healthier options that attack the root cause, they’re symptoms usually resolve. When they don’t have symptoms, they usually don’t need medications to treat the symptoms. Thus, they don’t swallow prescription medications that often contain carcinogens, create dependencies, abuse, adverse reactions, interactions, and lethal overdoses. These healthier options are preventing dependencies, lethal interactions, and overdoses that cause deaths! Essentially, I’m saving more lives.
Since this knowledge is new and not taught in medical schools, I’m educating the healthcare professionals so they can offer their patients these healthier options. Each healthcare professional can truly impact thousands of more lives.
Many healthcare providers put themselves last and then don’t take good care of themselves. Now, I’m the healthcare provider to the healthcare providers. Each healthcare provider, that I keep healthy longer, will ensure to provide healthcare to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
I’ve never ever seen a medication get rid of 100% of the nerve pain! I had nerve pain and don’t anymore.
I’ve had clients that HAD stage 4 metastatic cancer and are in full remission! It was a true transformation and life changer.
I not only increase life span, but health span!
Each healthcare provider I educate will impact thousands of lives. Since I’m educating a lot of healthcare providers, my mere rippling effect is creating tidal waves!
I now have clients in other states, countries and even continents.
(*Individual results may vary.)
Let’s jump to the main focus of this series. For the benefit of our readers, can you please tell us why you are an authority on the subject of chronic pain?
Well, I’ve been a Registered Nurse and a nationally board-certified Nurse Practitioner for 3 decades, treated thousands of patients for pain over 30 years and had suffered several types of pain myself, including chronic pain. I had nerve pain called trigeminal neuralgia, radiculopathy from herniated discs, carpal tunnel, peripheral neuropathy, and probably RSD, also called chronic regional pain. I also suffered bone pain from broken skull bones and ribs, joint pain from a dislocated jaw, muscle pain, and pain from autoimmune disorders. I’ve had pain from tears in my cartilage, ligaments, and tendons in both my upper and lower extremities.
After 30+ years in nursing, I knew I didn’t want narcotics that can cause dependencies, drug interactions, adverse reactions, and lethal overdoses. Instead, I wanted to get to the root cause to stop and reverse the progression.
I’m experienced with pain as the patient but also as the healthcare provider who worked in hospice and pain management. I would administer trigger point injections, control pain pumps for hospice patients, write prescriptions for pain, perform the patient’s medical clearances, and even assist the pain management doctors in the operating room.
I didn’t want to become dependent upon the medications like many do.
When I attack the root cause of pain, I can often stop the progression and even reverse it. Then the symptoms go away and there’s no need for medications that cause reactions, interactions, dependencies, and lethal overdoses.
I had trigeminal neuralgia pain, have never seen a medication eliminate pain from neuropathy nor reverse it, especially with trigeminal neuralgia. I take no medications and no longer have pain! I’ve helped heal myself holistically without medications!
My specialists were so impressed with my results and those of our mutual clients, that those doctors are now my clients too!
These same doctors refer their patients in pain to me!
I am now known as The World Wellness Expert TM
Can you please share with us a few of the most common causes of chronic pain?
Of course. I will mention the more common causes of chronic pain first. To clarify, chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than six months.
The most common cause of pain is inflammation. Oxidative stress (OS) accumulates in our bodies faster than we can eliminate it. This OS accumulation causes inflammation and inflammation causes pain.
Injuries from not being warmed up, stretched, or strengthened creates not only sprains and strains, but tears. Some of these back and shoulder injuries are from lifting too much weight or not using correct body mechanics. The tears I see are usually in the shoulders (rotator cuff) or knees (ACL,PCL, meniscus). Some choose not to have a surgical repair and others that have repairs are often left with chronic residual pain.
Excess weight causes more pressure on knee joints, knee pain and recurring back pains. Then the pain makes it harder to exercise and the person can gain even more weight. The vicious cycle can be broken by swimming or riding a bicycle.
Back pain is also caused by spine misalignment, herniated or bulging discs, standing all day, or working on hard floors (nurses at hospitals or mechanics). These often create muscular spasms and sometimes chronic neuropathic pain.
Certain professionals and athletes that do repetitive actions (i.e., texting, typing, cutting hair, playing golf or tennis), overuse and inflame a specific joint. The repetitive motion can cause carpal tunnel and tendinitis (tennis or golfer’s elbow). If the overuse continues, it creates joint and nerve pain, even after surgical repair. People are under the misconception that surgery will eradicate all of their pain. Often that desired outcome is not the actual outcome. After six months, the acute pain is relabeled as chronic pain.
Autoimmune disorders like lupus, psoriatic and rheumatoid arthritis often create chronic debilitating pain.
Many disorders (especially ones that are considered rare) often have high oxidative and fewer mitochondria or mitochondrial malfunction. What seems to help the most is when we rev up our body’s own production of antioxidants and mitochondria. We do this by activating our genes (comprised of DNA).
Chronic nerve pain is often caused by diabetes, medications, herniated or bulging discs, B12 deficiency, and overuse i.e., carpal tunnel.
I less often see chronic pains from tick-borne borne illnesses (i.e., Lyme), hemochromatosis (too much iron), rhabdomyolysis from statins (cholesterol medications), joint replacements (too big or a person has nickel allergy). After I dislocated my jaw from an airbag deployment, the surgeon wanted to replace my joint with a titanium joint. I knew no metal is pure, investigated it and found that the titanium joint replacements contain nickel. I’m highly contagious to nickel so declined the joint replacement.
Cancer will affect 1 in 2 women and 1 in 3 men in the USA. Even though these patients may have chronic pain (longer than 6 months), I don’t see the patients often with pain from metastatic cancer. That’s because I emphasize prevention over treatment, attacking the root cause instead of just treating the symptoms and helping them go into remission.
There are many different types of pain that people struggle with. Which specific form of pain would you like to focus on in this interview? Why that one?
I would like to focus on neuropathy (nerve pain) because it seems to be the most severe, debilitating and the most resilient to medications.
I have suffered from several types of pain (muscle, joints, ligaments, tendons, bone and nerve). Nerve pain was the most excruciating and debilitating. Based upon my personal experience, 30 years as an RN and three decades as a Nationally Board-Certified NP, medications seemed to help nerve pain the least. Even with medications, I had never seen nerve pain decrease to the point where it didn’t affect the person’s ability to fully function.
I had also never seen medications cure this type of pain. That’s because the medications only treat the symptoms and do not attack the root cause.
I like to attack the root cause because this will often, not only stop progression, but reverse it too!
Here is the main question of our interview. Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey toward becoming pain-free? Please give an example or story for each.
1 . Mindset mastery-You must first believe to achieve, take consistent action, and just never quit.
I knew of the self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if you think you will fail a test, then you won’t study, and your thoughts (of failing) will dictate your actions (of not trying) that lead to your outcome (failure). To change the outcome, sometimes we only need to change the thoughts that dictate the actions!
In 1993, when I had first become an RN, my grandma (that had raised me) could no longer walk. I literally carried her into the doctor’s office. He offered no solution nor hope for her to ever walk again. This was unacceptable to me. I knew if I get to the root cause, I can stop the progression, reverse it and the symptoms would then resolve. I decided that she would live with me, and I would take care of her like she had taken care of me.
After that appointment, she now looked up to me, partly because osteoporosis caused her height to shrink, and partly because I was a Nurse. She asked, “Do you think I’ll ever walk again?” I thought about her root cause and knew I had to first give her hope. I rapidly replied, “Yes! Yes, you will walk again!” Her eyes immediately lit up.
So, as I thought ‘believe to achieve,’ I provided her with hope. Then we took consistent action steps to stretch and strengthen. Mind you, this was 1993. Back then, we didn’t send patients to physical therapy nor have a computer or mobile phone to google search exercises. I made up stretching and strengthening exercises specifically for her with what we had at home. We would do these exercises together every day.
First, I helped her regain sitting balance as well as stretched her stiff knees and ankles. Then we strengthened her legs and arms so she could lift herself up from a seated position. We started walking with a walker, then just a cane. Eventually she walked without a walker, cane or even an assist!!
2 . Attack the root cause to stop progression and reverse it!
I had a new patient who came in for knee pain, was obese, had high blood pressure and diabetes. He told me they (obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes) ran in his family. But, it was his overeating, poor food choices and sedentary lifestyle that caused the obesity. His obesity caused the high blood pressure, diabetes, and knee pain. After I helped him attack the root causes (poor eating and sedentary lifestyle), he lost over 100 pounds! Then his high blood pressure, diabetes and knee pain resolved.
The root causes of hundreds of our health problems, including pain, are often oxidative stress that creates inflammation, mitochondrial malfunction and destruction of mitochondria that cause cell death. I activate my genes to produce potent antioxidants that combat oxidative stress and make more mitochondria that are required for cell life!
1 molecule of an antioxidant you take i.e., vitamin C, can only fight/neutralize 1 free radical that causes the oxidative stress and inflammation. But, 1 molecule of an antioxidant you make, can fight//neutralize up to 1 million free radicals that cause oxidative stress. So, it’s a 1:1 vs 1:1,000,000 battle. For this reason, I’d rather make them than take them.
When we activate certain genes, we can also make more mitochondria that are required for energy and cell life! I like to call this, not simple supplementation, but gene activation. Activating my genes was my biggest life changer!
3 . Attack secondary causes-If your sugars or weight are elevated, reduce them with healthier eating habits and exercise. If it comes out of the ground or has eyes, it’s better for you to eat. Anything processed, or man-made, is usually not metabolized as well. Many can lower excess weight just by switching to a low carbohydrate drink that does not contain any artificial sweeteners, like the ones I drink. Elevated sugars can cause diabetes and diabetic neuropathy (nerve pain). Even some of the medications used to control diabetes can cause neuropathy. Extra body weight places extra weight and pressure on our joints, poor posture, and back pain.
For hard floors, wear shoes/sneakers with rubber soles and use gel inserts to absorb shock. If you have small or no arches, wear shoes with supportive arches or use arch supports.
4 . Replenish your depleted Vitamin B6, B12 and collagen. A deficit of Vitamin B6 and B12 can lead to neuropathy (nerve pain). These vitamins are not in many foods that most people consume. Vitamin pills are not often absorbed as evidenced by testing my patients’ blood levels. The vitamin injections only contain B12. IVs are often expensive, painful, and not necessary when there is a readily absorbable drinkable form. I drink a methylated version of B12 that also contains B6 because it’s more absorbable and contains magnesium which helps control muscle spasms like restless legs. All my patients that complained of restless legs were able to get relief from the addition of magnesium.
I only recommend methylated vitamin B because many people have a gene mutation called MTHFR and can only absorb vitamins in the methylated form. Genetic testing is expensive and often not covered by insurance. So, it’s more affordable to just make sure you take a methylated B vitamin.
Collagen makes up our bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints. As we age (by age 30), our collagen levels deplete, causing bone thinning, weaker muscles, painful joints, and deeper wrinkles. Thinner bones lead to osteoporosis and painful fractures. Thinner muscles, ligaments and tendons cause painful sprains, strains, and tears. Since powder collagens don’t get absorbed to even work, we need to replenish depleted collagen with liquid. A great side effect of liquid collagen is less pronounced cellulite and wrinkles!
I started liquid collagen for my heart, the largest muscle. Then my cardiac MRI showed dramatic improvement. The only thing I had done differently was ingest liquid collagen. Now my cardiologist and his family also take the activators and liquid collagen!
5 . To avoid future injuries, sprains, strains, and tears, exercise to stretch and strengthen (as directed by your healthcare professional). Which is more likely to tear-a thin piece of paper or thick cardboard? When you build up (thicken) your muscles, tendons and ligaments from exercise, they are less likely to tear than if they were thin. If a tree branch is flexible, will it easily break? If you stretch to become flexible, you won’t sprain, strain or tear as easily.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
ACTIVATION with Ellen DeGeneres! It’s not simple supplementation, but ACTIVATION of DNA in our genes! Activate your genes to produce potent antioxidants that combat oxidative stress (inflammation), detoxify so that your toxins don’t cause toxicity, and make more mitochondria that are required for cell LIFE!
Since Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most beloved funny well-knowns, and thus, one of the most influential to the masses, she would be my ideal “dream person” to collaborate with on this project.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
While you visit ShaynaMelissa.com, submit your email address for newsletters, click the contact tab to follow me everywhere and subscribe to my YouTube channel. They can also click the schedule tab for a video or phone consultation.
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
