The Pain Relief Solution: The Pain Free Formula with Stacey Roberts. Listen in as I interview Stacey Roberts author of the new book The Pain Free Formula. If you have pain and most people with autoimmune issues do, then you need to listen to this interview and check out her book. You can really find the pain relief solution that will work for you and live pain free without drugs and meditations or even natural pain relief solutions.
Imagine a healthcare journey where your unique story is the heart of the treatment plan. That’s the approach Stacey Roberts, PT, MSN, RN, takes as she blends a rich tapestry of expertise in functional medicine, physical therapy, nursing, and complimentary medicine to craft strategies that are as unique as you are.With Stacey, you’re not just another appointment on the calendar; you’re a partner in a dance toward optimal health, where she utilizes high-tech treatments like Softwave therapy, evidence-based testing and treatment programs combining the most up-to-date strategies and timeless holistic practices. Since 1990, she’s been the compass guiding patients through the landscapes of pain reduction, improved vitality, weight loss, hormone optimization, and addressing gut health issues.
Venturing from the academic halls of Marquette University to the sunny shores of Australia, and then back to the Milwaukee area, Stacey has created sanctuaries of healing. Her telehealth services, launched in 2009, mean your path to wellness knows no boundaries. This visionary approach to health saw her thrive as the owner of a wellness clinic overseas dedicated to the intricacies of women’s health and hormones, and the complex symphony of fertility. Upon moving back to the Milwaukee from Australia she combined her knowledge physical therapy techniques, and complimentary therapies to address all aspects of living your best and healthiest life.
Say goodbye to cookie-cutter care plans; with Stacey, each solution is an example precision healthcare, tailored to you.
Stacey’s library of knowledge extends beyond her clinical prowess. She’s a published author, a mentor to over a hundred medical professionals, and a former associate clinical professor. Her upcoming book, “The Pain-Free Formula,” is poised to be a beacon for those seeking solace from pain without surgery or drugs.
With a story that includes features on World News Now, Oprah, and numerous Australian media, Stacey’s expertise isn’t just recognized—it’s celebrated.
So if you’re ready for a healthcare experience that listens deeply, cares genuinely, and adapts innovatively, let Stacey Roberts and the professionals at New You Health and Wellness be your guide. It’s time to discover the ‘new you’—healthy, happy, and holistically healed.
Stacey Roberts PT, RN, MSN
30+ years of experience helping patients achieve their health goals.
Author of The Pain Free Formula: A Holistic Approach to Finally Getting Rid of Joint Pain Without Surgery, Drugs, or Injections. (Release Spring 2024).
Musculoskeletal Specialist
Pelvic and Sexual Health PT
Functional Medicine Specialist
Featured on ABC NEWS: “New You Health and Wellness at the Forefront of Chronic Pain Research and Relief”
Check out her website here: https://newyouhealthandwellness.com/
Transcript
AnnaLaura Brown: Hello, this is Anna Laura Brown, host of the Autoimmune Rehab podcast, where we talk about how to actually thrive and heal your autoimmune Rather than just covering up with pills and changing your diet and hoping you’ll feel better one day, we feature solo episodes on helpful topics and interviews with guests who have actually walked in your shoes with autoimmune disorders who have years of experience in helping people to thrive and that not just survive with autoimmune challenges. I’m a health coach who started this podcast because I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in 2018 and wanted to inspire hope and transform health for people with autoimmune challenges.
AnnaLaura Brown: keep listening. Let’s get you the help and hope you really need. This is the Autoimmune Rehab podcast, and today I am super excited to welcome Stacy Roberts to the podcast. Stacy actually has a book coming out in March that is all about how to live painf free. She’s a physical therapist. She has a nursing background, all kinds of other things. welcome to Autoimmune Rehab. Stacy, why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and what brings you on to the podcast today?
Stacey Roberts: for having me. I’m really excited to be on your podcast today. a little bit about my background and just want to also congratulate your listeners for taking the time to listen to help their own health and kind of take charge of their own health. And a little bit about my background is, as you said, I’ve been a physical therapist for over 34 years. I have a practice in Wawaossa, Wisconsin, which is near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And we help people with, muscle and joint pain. and we try to do it as natural as possible and helping patients avoid surgery, injections or medications to help with pain. I also increased my spo scope of practice and went back to nursing school so that I’m close to being a nurse practitioner. Just have to finish my clinicals when I can find some time. and I did that so that as I was treating patients over the years I found that there are hormone related issues that can cause joint pain.
Stacey Roberts: there’s gut related issues that can cause joint pain. there’s so many different things that we deal with on a regular basis that we don’t know could potentially be affecting our pain. And instead of just covering up with medications and kind of putting band-aids on it at times and not that medications don’t help somewhat, us to be functional, but if we really want to get rid of that pain and be as active for as long as possible, we have to look at other options. We do a therapy called softwave therapy here which has been incredible for localized inflammation and I kind of utilize that to help with the patient to find out is this a localized issue that’s just inflammation in your knee or…
Stacey Roberts: is this a systemic issue that we can decrease the localizing inflammation but then the same pain keeps coming back and that usually tells me as all about autoimmune issues right so that’s a systemic type situation that we’ve got to look at other areas to address the underlying
Stacey Roberts: really the root cause of the issue in order to get longl lasting pain relief.
AnnaLaura Brown: Absolutely.
AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah, addressing the root cause is absolutely a must. And it just never ceases to amaze me how many people just don’t even consider addressing the root cause or asking even the question I have pain in this area. Why? You sure?
Stacey Roberts: Yeah, We’re kind of conditioned to just take this pill, do this, and then, magically the pain goes away. But then what happens when it keeps coming back? So that’s when it becomes a little bit more thoughtprovoking and as a clinician utilizing my clinical reasoning to be able to go okay what else could be contributing to this I look past back at my patients in the past where I thought maybe they’re just not doing their exercises or maybe they’re just not doing this. maybe it was some other issue that we didn’t uncover until now.
Stacey Roberts: So that’s what I try to do in the painfree formula is help people seek other potential reasons for their pain.
AnnaLaura Brown: That’s awesome.
AnnaLaura Brown: That’s amazing. Yeah. And I have to say just a pitch for anybody that’s not familiar with the soft wave, it’s actually really amazing. I have done it…
Stacey Roberts: Got it.
AnnaLaura Brown: because I did stem cells in Mexico. There’s actually a whole episode that if anybody that’s interested in stem cells that hasn’t listened to it called I went to Mexico for stem cells and my orthopedic that does the stem cells he actually practices and does surgery here in Utah but then also does stem cells with a clinic in Mexico made me go to a physical therapist that had softwave after my stem cells because what it does is it helps drive them in and helps make them more effective in that area and for me it was the knees but
Stacey Roberts: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, Softwave I was completely skeptical about it. I didn’t think it would work at all.
Stacey Roberts: a friend of mine kind of dragged me along to a session to see if it was anything that she wanted to continue to pursue. And I was absolutely Still very skeptical. So, I had to find the research and now I help support other clinicians that have Softwave in their clinic. I help them develop protocols for it. we’ve really just expanded the scope of the use of it. And I’m so excited that you’ve had treatment with it…
00:05:00
Stacey Roberts: because if you haven’t had it, you kind of don’t get it. but it’s worked better than anything that I’ve seen in 34 years. So, it’s really an integral part of my practice.
AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah, for sure.
AnnaLaura Brown: Absolutely. And my orthopedic is a big fan of recommending that everybody that does stem cells does the softwave after. And he actually also has people do it after PRP or…
Stacey Roberts: What? Yeah,…
AnnaLaura Brown: plasma injections as well, too. So, it’s like
Stacey Roberts: it just enhances the ability of the body to, get those stem cells in the area and the anti-inflammatory effects of it. It really accelerates it.
Stacey Roberts: research supports that when you combine those two, whether it’s stem cells and softwave or PRP and softwave, research shows that it accelerates and significantly helps the procedure work better. So, that’s fantastic. You bet. Yeah, I wish more would, but yeah, we do have some Absolutely.
AnnaLaura Brown: do more standardized care. I realized the more I talked to people that I was super fortunate to have had the orthopedic that I had because he’s super innovative and …
Stacey Roberts: That’s fantastic.
AnnaLaura Brown: but Cool. So, if somebody’s listening to this and they’re thinking, okay, I’ve got joint pain, I’ve got pain, this and that and that kind of thing.
AnnaLaura Brown: What would you say would be the very first thing somebody should do to try to figure out why they have that pain?
Stacey Roberts: So if you have so the people that come to see me basically have usually gone through the gamut of okay physical therapy hasn’t worked or…
Stacey Roberts: because now unfortunately physical therapy especially in the larger chains it’s just basically here are some exercises and go sit on that mat and go do them or do the exercise at home. we’ve really lost the ability of doing hands-on work for physical therapy that I came out with in 1990 is not the same as, what’s a lot of people think physical therapy is today. So, number one, if you haven’t had physical therapy, go to a physical therapist that uses manual skills to work with the muscle and the tissue and the fascia around the area that is irritated and then work on exercises.
Stacey Roberts: And if that doesn’t work, then we got to start thinking about, is there localized inflammation that we just need to calm down in that area. And that’s where softwave comes in. So patients will call up my clinic and I have them come in for a trial of softwave. The softwave is so great to be able to take care of the localized inflammatory process. What it does is helps that inflammatory process move into an anti-inflammatory stage and then the body can do the rest by healing the tissue. So it helps to modulate inflammation that then decreases the pain. If the patient has a significant response in that session where many times the pain is 50 to 100% better in the session during the session and then before they walk out of the session. That’s how we know that they’re going to do really well with softwave. Then they come back for softwave therapy and functional exercise and manual therapy.
Stacey Roberts: So we want to do all those things together in order to get the person moving better more efficiently as we’re decreasing the pain and decreasing the inflammation. Now if you come to me and it’s the second or third treatment and you’re still going it’s better but not significantly better. That’s when I start thinking about other options. And let’s say it’s a parameopausal female who’s all of a sudden pain is popping up in all different joints because joint pain is a really common system for symptom in parmenopause actually more common than hot flashes. then what I would say is let’s look at your hormone levels. Okay, see if the hormones might be contributing to it and also we talk about if they have any digestive issues and if they have digestive issues we start thinking about is there an issue with gut health but also we look at food sensitivities because you don’t need to have gut issues in order to have food sensitivities but food sensitivities can create something called a leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability. So that can cause more inflammation in the system and some of that can settle in the joints.
Stacey Roberts: there’s a bacteria called lipopolysaccharides that can settle in the joints when you have leaky gut. So it’s fine if that lipopolysaccharides in your gut. But if it kind of leaks into the system, it can settle in those joints and actually contribute to the deterioration and degeneration of those joints. And softwave actually and shock wave have been shown to decrease LPS in the area by upregulating something called tolike receptor 3. so then we is this localized inflammation? If it’s not, we look at the hormones, we look at the gut health, we look at food sensitivities and we also talk about stress because mind body is that relationship and the gut brain axis is real as well too. So we want to maximize our overall health by managing our stress levels as well as those other things we’ve talked about.
AnnaLaura Brown: So that autoimmune goes into the whole gut health and the joint pain and all that’s all interconnected. Didn’t
Stacey Roberts: big time.
Stacey Roberts: And you can do testing too and hormones too, So thyroid hormone as you know with Hashimoto’s, right? the thyroid hormone can be affected the thyroid itself and simple things to do to decrease the inflammation in research in regards to Hashimoto’s gluten gluten can be a trigger for some people not for everybody but for some so kind of rebuilding the gut to decrease the inflammation can help decrease those antibodies right but also can help with joint health too and a lot of people don’t equate the two but I talk about in my book a friend of mine who had
00:10:00
Stacey Roberts: constant muscle and joint pain in her shoulders and her neck. And I said, “You need to get your antibodies tested.” because she said, ” my doctor said my thyroid is normal. Quit telling me to go back and get tested.” I’m like, “I understand that, but you need these antibodies tested because your other levels can be normal.” And what happens is they just wait till your thyroid fails and then they do the testing for these antibodies.
Stacey Roberts: So, she got the test done for the antibodies, and sure enough, they were elevated. So, she had Hashimoto’s like yourself and…
AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah. Yeah.
Stacey Roberts: finally when that was treated the muscle and joint pain in her neck and shoulders went away. So, I won our bet, but we had bet if I won I’d get an outfit. If she won, she’d get a new outfit. I haven’t seen the outfit yet, but I’m happy that I’m happy that she’s feeling much better.
AnnaLaura Brown:
AnnaLaura Brown: That’s awesome. For sure. Yeah. remind us what the name of your book is then.
Stacey Roberts: It’s the pain-free formula.
Stacey Roberts: solving the puzzle of muscle and joint pain without surgery, medications or injections. it’s a great question.
AnnaLaura Brown: I love that title. That’s amazing. how did you come up with that title?
Stacey Roberts: And I was just trying think what I was trying to say to people, So that they would know, when they looked at the book, what it was about. so it would be easy. and that pain-free formula just kind of came up in my mind. And then I was thinking, what do we do? We help people, try to avoid surgery or at least be in better shape before going into surgery and have better outcomes after. We try to help people get off their medications.
Stacey Roberts: We try to help people avoid injections especially if they have things like needleophobia and don’t want to do the injections because cortisone these days has been shown to degenerate the joints instead of what they used to think of it being really innocuous and not doing anything to the joint except for helping. Now we know that cortisone continuous shots of that can actually tear down the joint. So that’s kind of putting that all together. I just came up with that title. Yeah, it’s fantastic that he says that because a lot I talked to the orthopedic doctors now and I asked them, look, you guys know that this degenerates the joint and they said, it’s still covered by insurance and it’s relatively inexpensive. So, the patients want immediate rel relief.
Stacey Roberts: some of them explain the side effects and some of them don’t. But I think it’s just so sad that it’s still even being done even being paid for by Medicare and the insurancees when they know it’s actually going to deteriorate the joint down the road.
AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah, my doctor,…
AnnaLaura Brown: my orthopedic won’t even do them anymore, It’s just not even part of his practice.
Stacey Roberts: That’s Yeah,…
AnnaLaura Brown: He just doesn’t offer them. He’s like, ” don’t do them anymore…
Stacey Roberts: good for the name of that orthopedic guy.
AnnaLaura Brown: because they’re just not good for you.” So,…
Stacey Roberts: I’ll have to have a chat with him. That’s great.
AnnaLaura Brown: yeah, I can definitely send it to you after we’re done.
AnnaLaura Brown: But it’s good. So, if somebody is thinking, okay, maybe I need to try physical therapy, but they’re not obviously in close proximity to you. should they ask or what kinds of things should they look for to find a physical therapist that can actually be helpful to them?
Stacey Roberts: Yep. …
Stacey Roberts: you want to make sure that when you call or set an appointment for physical therapy, make sure that you ask, do they do manual therapy? Basically, do they put their hands on the area? Do they work with the muscles?
Stacey Roberts: do they do more functional exercises? what kind of things besides just exercise do they do? And that manual therapy or mobilization is really important to get the joint moving and also to help with the functional exercise afterwards. And it’s a 100% bonus if the physical therapist has Softwave in their clinic. And if they go to softwave TRT.com, there’s a provider search button at the top of the page. So they can look and see what physical therapists or even chiropractors have softwave in their area or medical doctors as well too. So they could go there and get the additional Softwave in addition to physical therapy is a marriage made in heaven.
Stacey Roberts: so they want to ask that if they need any help, they can reach out to me from a teleaalth point of view. So I can coach them and help them find the things that they need as well too at info@ newwhealth andwwellness.com. They can reach out to us to get more information about telealth appointments because we can do some of the exercises and things like that. I just can’t do the hands-on and softwave via telealth, but I can help them find what they need to do. And then if they’ve been through all the physical therapy, things like that, then looking at your hormones, gut, food sensitivities, and working on managing stress, that can all be done through teleaalth if they’re interested in seeing me. Otherwise, finding a functional medicine practitioner who’s familiar with joint health as well in their area, that can help them, too.
00:15:00
AnnaLaura Brown: freed and wanting to talk to you, but they, …
Stacey Roberts: Absolutely. Yep.
Stacey Roberts: And we’ve got another PT here and we’ve got an exercise physiologist. So, we’ve got a lot of people that have a lot of experience in helping people with the muscle and joint pain.
AnnaLaura Brown: That’s amazing.
Stacey Roberts: Thank you.
AnnaLaura Brown: So, anything else before we jump into the last few questions here that you feel like I haven’t asked yet?
Stacey Roberts: And no, I think you really covered everything that’s going to be in the book and I love your approach about, looking for the root and also I guess the one thing I would add is don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself. If you go into your orthopedic doctor and say, what, I think I have food sensitivities or gut issues that are affecting my joints or hormone issues. They might think you’re crazy, right?
Stacey Roberts: But there, keep looking around for somebody who is open-minded and, has the solution for you. But don’t always expect conventional medicine to be open and inviting to these newer ideas. Everything that I have in my book, I have probably over 20 pages of the research and citations for where all the research is coming from. So, it’s all supported by research, but it’s really new within the last five years, especially the gut joint access that I talk about. So just be a really big advocate for yourself and continue to keep looking especially if you continue to suffer from pain,…
AnnaLaura Brown: minded enough to actually understand all that and…
Stacey Roberts: Because right…
AnnaLaura Brown: to embrace new technologies and the new science that’s out there and…
Stacey Roberts: because I was listening to a couple of your podcast I think how many doctors did it take for Three doctors for your Yeah.
AnnaLaura Brown: free for me. Yeah. Which is actually pretty fast in some ways.
Stacey Roberts: Yeah. Exactly.
AnnaLaura Brown: Some people it takes five, six, seven sometimes.
Stacey Roberts: So, yeah, just definitely be an advocate for yourself.
AnnaLaura Brown: Absolutely. For So, last question I always like to ask everybody and then we’ll have our call to actions. have you tell people how they can find your book, how they can get their hands on even though it’s not published yet, so that’s not quite going to be possible, but connect with you. That kind of thing is if you could go back in time to let’s say, I don’t know, about 30 years ago or so, back when you were pretty new, you’d only been a physical therapist for a couple years. What kind of things do you wish you knew that you would tell yourself now?
Stacey Roberts: Yeah, probably about 90% of what I know now. I wish I knew that.
Stacey Roberts: but I would say, trust your gut because I know even back then when patients were doing everything that they were supposed to do and they still weren’t getting better, again, we just thought either the patients weren’t telling us the truth that they weren’t doing everything that they’re supposed to do or we just didn’t know, was it just kind of all in their head? And I never believed that in the past because I would trust my patients. So, I would say trust your gut, keep researching. there’s other reasons for what’s going on. And just keep searching and looking and you’ll find it. And that’s where I am today and be able to help a lot more people than I was able to help before.
AnnaLaura Brown: That’s That’s amazing. Okay, so like we mentioned before, her book’s coming out. This podcast, if you’re listening to it when it first comes out, you’re going to be listening to it towards the end of January, first part of February. But her book’s not coming out till March. that if people want to get on a list, I believe they can email you to join the list to get the information about the Okay,…
AnnaLaura Brown:
Stacey Roberts: They can either email info nfo newualth andwellness.
Stacey Roberts: That’s ne yu health andwellness.com or they can give us a call at the clinic and ask to be put on a list for u to be notified when the book comes out. And that phone number would be 4142998121. So easy.
AnnaLaura Brown: And we’ll put that in the description of the podcast as well along with your website. Anything else that you want to link to or any other calls to action that you want to invite listeners to connect with you? Just go to your website, check you out, that kind of thing.
Stacey Roberts: Yeah, absolutely. Check out the website. We’re launching a painfree formula podcast in March or April to kind of coincide with the book.
Stacey Roberts: So, we’ll be guest.
AnnaLaura Brown: That would be awesome.
Stacey Roberts: And Laura, I’ll have you on as a guest to tell me about I would love that.
AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah, I could do that, too. Yeah.
Stacey Roberts: So, that would be the other thing to keep eyes and…
AnnaLaura Brown: Awesome. That’d be great.
Stacey Roberts: ears open for. So, if you call us, you’ll get on the list so that we can let you know everything that’s coming out going forward.
AnnaLaura Brown: And then if you are catching this after the book is out in March, then we will have gone in and entered in a link to go buy the book, too. So, kind of just depends on when you’re listening to this, but …
AnnaLaura Brown: we’ll assume most of you are listening before the pop book comes out and you’ll need to contact her to get on the list. Awesome. Yeah,…
Stacey Roberts: Ous. Thank you so much for having me today.
AnnaLaura Brown: absolutely, Stacy. It’s been amazing. The information’s been really helpful, I think, to a lot of people. So, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with anybody else that you feel like could benefit. And if you would like to leave us a rating or review, those are always welcome as well. And we’d appreciate any feedback. Thanks again for listening. This has been another episode of the Autoimmune Rehab podcast.
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