Dr. Jason Winkelmann

08/12/2026

Part 7: Your blood sugar might be feeding your pain. Literally.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of nearly every chronic pain condition. Your nerve cells are some of the most energy-hungry cells in your body, and when your mitochondria can't keep up, those cells become more vulnerable and more prone to sending pain signals.

Here's the connection back to earlier videos. Damaged mitochondria and uncontrolled blood sugar are both direct triggers for the inflammasome pathway we discussed in Video 3, the same pathway capable of feeding straight into central sensitization from Video 5. This is part of why chronic pain and metabolic issues like insulin resistance show up together so often, and it's rarely treated as connected.

The upside: blood sugar and mitochondrial health respond fast to diet, movement, and sleep changes.

Video 7 of 8.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
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08/11/2026

Part 6: Your gut and brain talk constantly. This nerve decides how loud that conversation gets.

The vagus nerve connects your gut to your brain, and 80% of its job is sending signals up, not calming them down. When your gut is inflamed, this nerve carries that danger signal straight to your brain's threat center, the same region controlling the pain gate from Video 5.

Here's what most people don't know. Not everyone's vagus nerve carries this signal with the same intensity. This is called vagal tone, and it varies based on stress history, fitness, and sleep. Strong vagal tone acts like insulation. Weak vagal tone means the same gut issue lands with far more force.

The good news: vagal tone responds to slow breathing, cold exposure, and consistent movement.

Video 6 of 8.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
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08/10/2026

Part 5: Everything in this series funnels into one mechanism. Here it is.

Your spinal cord has a natural gate that filters out insignificant sensory signals, only letting real pain through. This is controlled by the NMDA receptor. When that gate gets stuck open, it's called central sensitization, and it's why some people feel pain that doesn't match what's actually happening in their tissues.

Here's the connection. The hormonal imbalances (Video 4), the inflammatory messengers from your baseline tone (Video 3), and the spinal inflammation from certain genetic variants (Video 1) all activate this exact same receptor. Your genetics, hormones, inflammation, and gut health aren't separate problems. They're rivers feeding the same lake.

Video 5 of 8. This is the one that ties it all together.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
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08/07/2026

Part 4: 90% of your serotonin is made in your gut, not your brain. Here's why that matters for your pain.

Your gut microbiome directly regulates serotonin and GABA, the same calming neurotransmitters we talked about with hormones in Video 2. When your gut is imbalanced, that production drops, and your natural pain-filtering system loses support from two directions instead of one.

There's more. When gut dysbiosis disrupts normal serotonin production, a different pathway takes over instead, producing a compound called quinolinic acid. This compound directly activates the NMDA receptor, one of the most important drivers of chronic pain.

An unhealthy gut isn't just failing to help you. It's actively turning up your pain volume.

Video 4 of 8.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
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08/06/2026

Part 3: Same MRI. Same diagnosis. Different pain. Here's the missing variable.

Most people think inflammation only shows up after an injury. In reality, your baseline inflammatory tone, the background level running in your body every day, determines how your nervous system responds when an injury actually happens.

High baseline inflammation from poor sleep, chronic stress, blood sugar swings, or gut imbalance means your body is already primed and reactive before anything even hurts. That's why the same sprain can feel completely different for two different people.

This connects directly to genetics too. Someone with a slow-COMT variant from Video 1 experiences that genetic risk very differently depending on whether their baseline inflammation is controlled or constantly elevated.

Video 3 of 8.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
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08/05/2026

Part 2: Your pain isn't just genetic. It's hormonal too.

That same COMT gene from our last video? It increases pain sensitivity in women, but not in men carrying the identical variant. Same DNA, different outcome, because of the hormonal environment it's operating in.

Estrogen directly supports serotonin, a key part of your body's natural pain-filtering system. Progesterone calms your nervous system by boosting GABA. As these hormones shift across your cycle, pregnancy, or menopause, your pain sensitivity shifts right along with them. That's not in your head. That's measurable physiology.

If your pain flares at certain points in your cycle, you're not imagining a pattern.

Video 2 of 8 in our series on why pain is personal.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
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08/04/2026

Part 1: Two people, same presentation, completely different pain levels. Here's why.

Ever been told your pain is "out of proportion"? There's a real biological reason, and it starts with a gene called COMT. Some people have a variant that clears certain chemicals (norepinephrine and epinephrine) up to 20x slower than others.

Here's what most people don't know. These chemicals act like a fire department in your spinal cord, calming pain signals down. But in your tissues, the exact same chemicals act like gasoline, triggering inflammation at your nerve endings. If you clear them slowly, that gasoline builds up, and it wins.

This same gene also changes how many opioid receptors you have, which is part of why standard medication doses don't work the same for everyone.

This is Video 1 of an 8-part series on why pain is never one-size-fits-all. Follow along.

📍True Health Centers | Westminster/Arvada, CO
🔗 mytruehealthcenters.com

08/02/2026

https://youtu.be/1OvFFPJfikY

If you've been taking anti-inflammatory medications but your chroni...

07/31/2026

This one is free and it might be the most useful hour you spend on your chronic pain this year.

I am partnering with the US Pain Foundation for a free live webinar on one of the most overlooked drivers of chronic pain: how you breathe.

Not breathwork as a relaxation tool. Breathwork as a direct physiological intervention on the exact systems keeping you in pain.

Here is what you will learn:

Why dysfunctional breathing patterns reduce oxygen delivery to your tissues and how that contributes to pain signaling

The biochemical relationship between how you breathe and how reactive your nervous system is

How chronic tension and altered breathing create a feedback loop that keeps reinforcing each other

Specific techniques you can use in the moment when pain spikes

How to build a short, sustainable practice that creates lasting physiological change, not just temporary relief

How to do all of this safely, even with limited time or mobility

This is the kind of information your pain specialist probably has not mentioned, backed by the same mechanistic science we talk about here every week.

It is free. It is live. And there’s room for everyone!

Link in bio to register.

07/31/2026

https://www.mytruehealthcenters.com/post/why-your-anti-inflammatory-treatments-aren-t-working-the-four-inflammatory-pathways-driving-your-ch

Chronic inflammation runs through 4 pathways. Most treatments only target one. Learn what NF-κB, arachidonic acid, cytokines, and NLRP3 are doing to your pain.