How children's TV favourite Steve Backshall fights chronic 苦痛 on a daily basis to take on dangerous wild animals

By Julie Cross for MailOnline
Updated: 08:49 BST, 12 February 2011

Deadl y 60 presenter Steve Backshall has been stung and bitten by wild animals - but 取り組むing chronic 苦痛 from an ankle 傷害 has proven his toughest challenge. Here he tells JULIE CROSS about 対処するing with 執拗な 苦痛 and how meditation has 証明するd to be the best 薬／医学...

Steve Backshall pictured at home in Buckinghamshire with a cage structure around his foot. It was used to create a 2cm gap in his ankle 共同の that was then 注入するd with 茎・取り除く 独房s

活動／戦闘 man and adventurer, Steve Backshall, presenter of CBBC’s Deadly 60 programme, knows やめる a bit about 苦痛.

A 世帯 指名する for anyone with children, he has been 法案d the new David Attenborough but with a Steve Irwin 新たな展開.

But his 手渡すs-on approach to 現在のing 野性生物 TV means he has been bitten and stung by all manner of dangerous creatures. He 要求するd stitches after a caiman crocodile clamped its jaws around his 脚 while he was wading through water in Argentina.

He also took part in a coming-of-age ritu al in the Brazilian アマゾン, where he 許すd himself to be bitten on the 手渡すs by 400 弾丸 ants - the sting of which is the most painful of any invertebrate on Earth.

But neither of these events compare with what he’s 苦しむd in the last two and a half years, living with chronic 苦痛 after 支えるing an 傷害 while mountain climbing.

In 2008 he fell ten metres の上に a 激しく揺する while climbing in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. He broke two bones in his 支援する and his left 脚 and dislocated his left ankle.

‘I stopped to 残り／休憩（する） during the climb and the next thing I knew I was 落ちるing. My foot took the 十分な 軍隊 of the 落ちる, and my heel bone went through the 底（に届く） of my foot,’ says Steve, 37.

‘The 苦痛 was like nothing else. I was 絶対 beside myself.’

Fellow 登山者 Tarquin Cooper, tried to support Steve’s 負わせる during an hour-long struggle to get 支援する to the car.

‘Every time I put my foot 負かす／撃墜する I passed out,’ 解任するs Steve, who lives 近づく High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

His 支援する 傷をいやす／和解させるd within six weeks with his strong 支援する muscles 供給するing a natural corset to support the 損失d vertebrae.

However, his ankle re-始める，決める in the wrong position. There followed three 操作／手術s, in which doctors 成し遂げるd keyhole 外科 to 除去する bone and 60 per cent of his cartilage, in the hope it would give the ankle 支援する its 機能（する）／行事.

With hardly any soft tissue between the tibia, the 脚 bone and talus, the foot bone which also forms the lower part of the ankle 共同の, he was in agony every time he moved his foot, as bone 捨てるd against bone. He has been 苦しむing with the 傷害 ever since.

避けるing a downward spiral

It is believed one in seven people in the UK を煩う chronic 苦痛, 一般に 分類するd as 苦痛 固執するing for more than three months. It can have far-reaching 影響s, 主要な to 職業 loss, family 決裂／故障 and 不景気.

Dr Austin Leach, a 顧問 in 苦痛 薬／医学, from the British 苦痛 Society, says because 苦痛 is subjective, two people with the same 傷害 or 条件 can 報告（する）／憶測 全く different experiences.
He says having a 肯定的な 見通し can vastly 減ずる chronic 苦痛.

‘The 重要な to understanding 苦痛 is understanding that emotion and past experiences play just as important a part as the physical 面,’ says Dr Leach.

'It's very 平易な for those with chronic 苦痛 to get caught in a downward spiral.’

Steve Backshall 持つ／拘留するs a 粗野な人間 Spider which can （打撃，刑罰などを）与える a painful bite. にもかかわらず 存在 stung and bitten, the worse 苦痛 the adventurer has experienced has been from an ankle 傷害

He says continuing to work, when 苦痛 許すs, and gentle 演習 are two of the most important things you can do.

‘Many people give up their 職業s, stay indoors, become more 孤立するd and depressed, which 現実に 増加するs their 苦痛, because 苦痛 is linked to 消極的な emotions.

‘In some 事例／患者s there is no cure. That realisation can 現実に 少なくなる the 苦痛, because that understanding can be the turning point.’

Steve Backshall said the first month after he had the cage placed on his ankle was agonising

When the 団体／死体 傷つけるs it sends a signal from the source, along specialised 神経 fibres, through the spinal cord, to part of the brain that 取引，協定s with emotion.

Once there, how it 解釈する／通訳するs the signal either helps to 減ずる or 増加する the 苦痛.

To 追加する to the problem, those with 執拗な 苦痛 can find that the 独房s in their 神経 endings in the spinal cord and brain also become more 極度の慎重さを要する, producing an 増加するd feeling of 苦痛, or a 延長／続編 of 苦痛, even when the 初めの source of the 苦痛 has 傷をいやす／和解させるd.

に引き続いて the 事故 Steve was given Voltarol, a 最高の strong anti-inflammatory, which only took the 辛勝する／優位 off the 苦痛 and swelling.

He took this 麻薬 for two and a half years until December when he had his last 操作／手術, which he hopes will encourage some of the 損失d bone and cartilage to re-grow.

He was advised to 避ける any form of anti-inflammatory as they can 妨げる that from happening.
Instead he was given Oxycontin, which is an opiod and 関係のある to morphine. It mimics the 活動／戦闘 of ‘feel good’ 化学製品s called endorphins and helps to 封鎖する 苦痛 signals.

‘That did the trick, but I felt flat and 激しい in the day and slept ten hours a night. It really knocked me for six,’ says Steve.

However, he has had to stop taking that 麻薬 too because of work かかわり合いs. He is 現在／一般に in the middle of 小旅行するing with his Wild and Live show.

‘Standing in 前線 of an audience of up to 1,500 people 存在 asked 野性生物 questions, I need to be on the ball mentally or I’d make a 権利 fool of myself,’ says Steve.

‘This is a 特に painful time in my 治療 but the only 選択 I have is to use 緩和 techniques. I need to have a （疑いを）晴らす 長，率いる.’

He has also tried acupuncture, but he says he felt little 利益, and is relying 単独で on meditation techniques he 選ぶd up while staying a Buddhist 退却／保養地 in Thailand when he was 18.

Mr Backshall comes 直面する to 直面する with a Sloth 耐える while filming CBBC?s Deadly 60 programme. He hopes a fourth 操作／手術 will finally relieve him of chronic 苦痛

‘I was there for a week and I wasn’t 許すd to talk to anyone, or make 注目する，もくろむ 接触する,’ he 解任するs.

‘It was really hard. The silence drove me nuts. But I’ve often used what I learned there to help me during difficult periods of my life and this has been one of them.’

Dr Leach says 緩和 techniques can have an 極端に 肯定的な 影響 on 苦痛 and are very much in line with modern advice.

When someone feels 激しい 苦痛, they tend to panic, taking shallow, 早い breaths, and 緊張したing muscles, which all help to put the 団体／死体 on high 警報, meaning it experiences 苦痛 in the deepest way possible.

Meditation produces 化学製品 endorphins that 減ずる 苦痛

People who meditate have been 設立する to have lower levels of the 強調する／ストレス hormones cortisol and adrenaline in their 団体／死体s when they feel 苦痛.

Those who meditate also produce more of the 苦痛 減ずるing 化学製品 endorphins, which 影響 the brain’s 返答 to the 苦痛 signals, 少なくなるing the 苦痛.

‘Meditating distracts the brain from the 苦痛 signals and as someone gets more 技術d at 緩和 techniques they can 現実に 上げる the level of endorphins in the 団体／死体, which is like your own 内部の morphine 供給（する）, says Dr Leach.

‘This is a fantastically 複雑にするd 過程 and there are many other brain 化学製品s 伴う／関わるd, and which is the 支配する of その上の 研究 that could one day result in new 苦痛 relieving 麻薬s and 治療s.’

As for his ankle, Steve still hopes to make a 十分な 回復. He had a fourth 操作／手術 個人として in December, overseen by 主要な orthopaedic 外科医 Prof Roger Atkins, from Nuffield Hospital, Bristol.

During the 操作／手術, his ankle was 直す／買収する，八百長をするd by ten pins, running through his 脚 and bone and kept in place by a cage structure called an Ilizarov でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる, which was been built around his foot.

Then over the に引き続いて month he 負傷させる the でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる open to create a 2cm gap in the 共同の, a 過程 known as distraction.

No 恐れる: Steve with a hippo - an animal 責任がある more deaths than lions and tigers 連合させるd

The space in between was 注入するd with 茎・取り除く 独房s, taken from his bone 骨髄 and cultivated to create cartilage 独房s and growth factors, which is 現在の in the 血 and encourages re-growth. It’s a 手続き that has not been 広範囲にわたって practised, therefore there are no 保証（人）s.

He is now halfway through the four-month 過程.

‘During the first month, I was in a lot of 苦痛, because of the unnatural stretching. I can’t put into words just how painful it was.’

If his ankle does not 傷をいやす／和解させる, his only other 選択 is to have a fusion, which is when the two bones are fused together, vastly 制限するing movement in the ankle, something that would have a 破滅的な 影響 on his lifestyle.

‘My life 回転するs around 存在 outside, cycling, climbing, kayaking and running,’ says Steve. ‘I couldn’t 耐える to have any of those things taken away from me.’

It is estima ted there are more than seven million fractures in the UK every year, many 原因（となる）ing lifelong disabilities.

For those with 条件s or 傷害s for which there is no cure, there are a number of 治療s besides painkillers, 含むing 電気の stimulation of the pathways of the spinal cord, which help to 封鎖する 苦痛 signals getting to the brain.

People can also 利益 from acupuncture, physiotherapy and 緩和 techniques. Psychologists are useful in helping people come to 条件 with their 条件 and encouraging them to stay active and social.

Steve 収容する／認めるs: ‘I have felt 暗い／優うつな about my 状況／情勢 from time to time but whenever I feel negativity の近くにing over me like a dark 一面に覆う／毛布, I use the 力／強力にする of 肯定的な thinking to pull myself out.

‘I tell myself to “snap out of it”, to “pull myself together” and that “there are people in a lot worse 状況／情勢s than myself”.

‘Getting outside, where you can feel and see life all around, which is something I rejoice in, helps. There’s nothing better to 解除する dark thoughts.’

Steve says he can meditate anywhere as long as he 除去するs himself from distractions. He says he （疑いを）晴らすs his mind of all thoughts and concentrates on breathing in and out. 同様に as helping him feel more in 支配（する）／統制する of his 団体／死体, after about ten minutes he feels いっそう少なく 苦痛.

He said: ‘Meditation has been a powerful 道具 in my life, but I’ve never needed it more than I need it now.’

Steve’s Wild and Live 小旅行する is in London today. For more 詳細（に述べる）s of this and other shows around the country スピードを出す／記録につける の上に www.stevebackshall.com
www.britishpainsociety.org