Renew Ketamine Infusion

Fibromyalgia and The Volume Knob of Pain

s21-designer — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:53:38 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Justin Yanuck MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to answer a question about a condition that many doctors struggle to treat.

Question: “Everything hurts and I’m always tired. Can ketamine help with my fibromyalgia”

Answer:

Fibromyalgia is a condition where the “volume knob” of your pain system is stuck at the highest setting. Even light pressure or normal movements can be perceived by the brain as intense pain. This is a classic example of central sensitization. The problem isn’t necessarily in your muscles or joints; the problem is in the way your central nervous system processes those signals. Because the system is constantly overwhelmed, it leads to the “fibro fog” and the exhaustion that many patients experience.

Standard pain medications often fail here because they are trying to fix the “hardware” of the body, while the issue is actually in the “software” of the brain and spinal cord. Ketamine is uniquely suited for fibromyalgia because it targets the NMDA receptors that are responsible for this volume amplification. By blocking these receptors, we can efficiently turn the volume down. We are giving your nervous system a chance to rest and recalibrate.

But turning the volume down is only the first step. We then use the 48 and 72 hours of neuroplasticity to help you reintroduce movement. Many fibro patients avoid movement because it hurts, which then makes the system even more sensitive. During the neuroplastic window, we use gentle exercises to show your brain that movement is safe. This “re-education” of the nervous system is how we achieve lasting results that go beyond just a temporary reduction in pain.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post Fibromyalgia and The Volume Knob of Pain appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

Preparing for Your First Session at Renew

s21-designer — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:32:19 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Justin Yanuck MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to answer a very practical question for our new patients.

Question: “I am nervous about my first infusion. What should I expect and how do I prepare?”

Answer:

It is completely normal to feel some anxiety before your first treatment. Most of our patients in Mission Viejo tell us they felt the same way. The first thing to know is that you will be in a quiet, private, and comfortable room. We use low lighting and comfortable seating to ensure the environment is as relaxing as possible. We will start a small IV and the medicine will be administered slowly by a pump. You are never alone; our medical staff is always nearby to check on you.

To prepare, we ask that you don’t eat for about four hours before you appointment to prevent any nausea. You should wear comfortable, loose fitting clothing. We will provide a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a playlist of calm, instrumental music. Music is a powerful tool during an infusion; it helps guide the experience and keeps your mind from getting “stuck” on any one thought. Avoid music with lyrics, as they can sometimes be distracting.

After the infusion, which usually lasts about forty minutes for mood, you will have time to sit and relax until you feel grounded again. You will need a trusted friend or family member to drive you home, as you cannot drive for the rest of the day. The rest of your day should be “low stakes.” No big work meetings or stressful chores. Give your brain the space it needs to start the healing process. We want you to focus on rest and recovery so that the neuroplastic window can be as effective as possible.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post Preparing for Your First Session at Renew appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

Quieting The Chatter of Anxiety

s21-designer — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:51:21 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Tanya Dall MD and I’ve given myself 10 minutes to talk about how we treat anxiety at our clinics.

Question: “My mind is always racing and I can’t turn it off. How can ketamine help with this?”

Answer:

Anxiety is more than just feeling worried. For many of our patients in Tustin, it is a physical sensation of being trapped in a loop of intrusive thoughts. This is often linked to an overactive “Default Mode Network” in the brain. This is the system that handles self-reflection and internal chatter. When it is running too hot, it becomes a cage of “what if” scenarios that you cannot escape. This constant mental noise leads to the same pruning of neural branches that we see in depression.

Ketamine works for anxiety by providing a temporary disconnection from that chatter. During the infusion, many patients experience a sense of being an observer rather than a participant in their thoughts. This “break” from the anxiety is not just a temporary relief. It actually allows the brain to begin repairing the pathways that help regulate emotion. It strengthens the “brakes” of your brain so that you can eventually slow down the racing thoughts on your own.

The neuroplasticity that follows the infusion is the key to long term relief. By regrowing the connections in the prefrontal cortex, we are giving you back the tools to stay grounded. When combined with our reprogramming techniques, we help you practice staying in the present moment while your brain is most receptive to that change. We want to move you from a state of constant reaction to a state of calm control.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post Quieting The Chatter of Anxiety appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

CRPS and The Fire That Won’t Go Out

s21-designer — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:37:42 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Justin Yanuck MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to discuss one of the most challenging conditions we treat in Orange County.

Question: “I have CRPS and the pain is unbearable. Is ketamine a real option for me?”

Answer:

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is often called the most painful condition known to medicine. If you have it, you know that the standard treatments like physical therapy or basic nerve blocks often fall short. This is because CRPS is a total malfunction of the nervous system. The nerves are not just sending pain signals; they are in a state of permanent “wind up.” This means the more pain you feel, the more sensitive the nerves become, which leads to even more pain. It is a vicious cycle that is extremely hard to break.

In the case of CRPS, we use a much more intensive ketamine protocol than we do for mood disorders. We often use longer infusions and higher doses to ensure we are fully saturating the NMDA receptors. We are essentially trying to douse the fire that is raging in your nervous system. We want to stop that “wind up” process and give your nerves a chance to return to a baseline state. It is a deep reset of the way your spinal cord and brain communicate.

Because these infusions are more intense, the role of the clinician is critical. We are there to manage your comfort and ensure your vitals remain stable throughout the process. Our goal is to give you enough of a break from the pain that you can finally engage in the rehabilitation needed to keep the symptoms at bay. We have seen patients who couldn’t bear to be touched finally find enough relief to start wearing clothes comfortably again and participating in their lives.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post CRPS and The Fire That Won’t Go Out appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

What Exactly is Neuroplasticity

s21-designer — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:06:23 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Tanya Dall MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to answer a questions that is at the heart of what we do at Renew.

Question: “I keep hearing the word neuroplasticity. What does it actually mean for my treatment?”

Answer:

Neuroplasticity is a fancy term for the brain’s ability to change and reorganize itself. For a long time, we thought that once you reached adulthood, your brain was hard-wired and couldn’t be fixed. We now know that the brain is much more like a muscle than a piece of hardware. It can grow, it can shrink, and it can form new connections based on how we use it. Depression, anxiety, and chronic pain are states where the brain has become “plastic” in the wrong direction. It has learned to be sad or in pain.

When we talk about ketamine inducing neuroplasticity, we are talking about a biological reset. Ketamine triggers the release of a protein called BDNF, which acts like fertilizer for your neurons. It allows the brain to grow new synapses and repair the ones that have been damaged by stress. This doesn’t mean the medicine “fixes” you by itself. It means it creates a state where your brain is capable of being fixed. It opens a door that was previously locked shut.

This is why our protocol involves more than just the infusion. If you get the medicine but go right back to the same negative thought patterns or the same lack of movement, you are wasting that window of growth. We us those 48 to 72 hours of medicine induced plasticity to feed your brain new, healthy information. Whether that is through our reprogramming exercises or through therapy, the goal is to use the “soft” state of the brain to build a new, more resilient structure.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post What Exactly is Neuroplasticity appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

PSTD and The Constant State of High Alert

s21-designer — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:32:37 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Justin Yanuck MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to answer this question about trauma and the brain.

Question: “I feel I am always waiting for something bad to happen. Can ketamine help me relax?”

Answer:

What you are describing is the classic “startle response” of PTSD. This happens because your amygdala, the part of your brain that senses danger, has become overactive. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex, which is the logical part of your brain that tells you that you are safe, has lost its ability to regulate that fear. The connections between these two areas have been pruned away by the stress of trauma. You are essentially living with a fire alarm that is permanently stuck in the on position.

This constant state of high alert is physically exhausting. It leads to a fixed way of processing the world where everything feels like a threat. Because the neural architecture is fixed, it is very hard to “talk” to yourself out of this feeling in traditional therapy. Your brain is simply not plastic enough to accept the new information that you are safe. You are stuck in a loop of fear that self-perpetuates every single day.

Ketamine works by rapidly opening up that neural architecture again. It allows for the growth of new connections between the logical brain and the fear center. It creates a window of time where the “alarm” is turned down and you can finally process your environment differently. This is why we advocate for doing the work during that 48 to 72 hour window. We want to help you rebuild the “safety” pathways in your brain so that you can finally move out of survival mode and back into living your life.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post PSTD and The Constant State of High Alert appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

The Reality of Ketamine Costs and Insurance

s21-designer — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:42:07 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Tanya Dall MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to answer a question that affects every patient in our Orange County office, including our patients from Irvine.

Question: “Why isn’t ketamine always covered by my insurance”

Answer:

This is a frustrating topic for both doctors and patients. The medical world moves very slowly when it comes to insurance coverage. Even though the research for ketamine is incredibly strong, many insurance companies still classify IV Ketamine as “off-label” for depression and pain. However, the FDA has approved a version of ketamine called Spravato for depression, and we do see insurance coverage for that quite frequently.

For our IV infusions, we try to be as helpful as possible. We provide what is called a superbill. This is a detailed receipt with all the medical codes that you can submit to your insurance company. Depending on your specific plan and your out-of-network benefits, many of our patients are able to get a portion of their treatment costs reimbursed. We believe in total transparency, so we never want you to have a surprise bill after your treatment is finished.

When you look at the cost, I encourage you to think about the long term. Many of our patients have spent thousands of dollars over the years on medications that didn’t work, lost time at work, and co-pays for specialists that couldn’t give them answers. When you consider the value of getting your life back and functioning again, the cost of a ketamine series starts to look like a much more logical investment. We are here to help you navigate those financial questions during your initial consultation.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post The Reality of Ketamine Costs and Insurance appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

Chronic Pain: Moving Beyond the MRI

s21-designer — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:34:59 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Justin Yanuck MD and I’ve given myself 10 minutes to talk about a paradox I see often in Orange County, California.

Question: “My doctor says my MRI looks okay, but I am in constant pain. What is going wrong?”

Answer:

This is a classic issue in modern pain management. We have been taught to look at the image to find the pain. If the MRI shows a bulging disc, we blame the disc. If the image is clear, we sometimes tell the patient it is in their head. Both of these approaches are often wrong. As I’ve mentioned in a study of healthy runners before, you can have a terrible looking MRI and feel zero pain. This is because pain is not just about the tissue. It is about how your brain and spinal cord process information.

Think of your nervous system as a computer. If the hardware is a little bit worn out, the computer can still run fine. But if the software has a bug, the computer will crash even if the hardware looks brand new. Chronic pain is often a software problem. Your nerves have become sensitized. They have learned to fire pain signals even when there is no injury present. The nerves essentially over-reacting to every signal they get from your body.

Ketamine allows us to address the software. By blocking the NMDA receptors, we can quiet down those overactive nerves. We aren’t just masking the pain like an opioid does. We are allowing the system to reset. During the 48 to 72 hours after an infusion, your brain is in a highly plastic state. This is when we use our reprogramming protocol to teach your nervous system a new way to process signals. We are shifting the focus from the “stuff that is wrong” on an image to the way your brain actually perceives your body.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post Chronic Pain: Moving Beyond the MRI appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

Is Ketamine Safe? A Physician’s Deep Dive

s21-designer — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:19:26 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Tanya Dall MD and I’ve given myself 10 minutes to answer this question. This is a topic we discuss daily at our San Juan Capistrano clinic.

Question: “Is ketamine safe for me to use?”

Answer:

Safety is the foundation of everything we do at Renew. Let’s look at the history of this medicine. Ketamine was first approved by the FDA in 1970 as an anesthetic. It has been used for over fifty years in every emergency room and operating room in the world. It is so safe that it is often the primary choice for pediatric surgery because it does not suppress the respiratory system like other sedatives do. You continue to breath on your own and your heart remains stable.

The safety of ketamine in a clinical setting is vastly different from its reputation as a street drug. When used recreationally, there is no monitoring and no control over the dose or purity. In our clinic, we use sub-anesthetic doses. This means we are using a small fraction of what would be used in surgery. We monitor your heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels every step of the way. We are right there to adjust the infusion in real time based on how your body is responding.

Most of the side effects, like feeling floaty or having a brief increase in blood pressure, are transient. They last only as long as the infusion is running. Because we are physicians, we can screen for underlying conditions that might make ketamine a poor fit for you. When administered by a trained medical team in a controlled environment, ketamine is one of the safest tools we have to treat the brain and the nervous system.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post Is Ketamine Safe? A Physician’s Deep Dive appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.

Why Traditional Antidepressants Fail

s21-designer — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:26:39 +0000

Hello,

This is Dr. Justin Yanuck MD and I have given myself 10 minutes to answer this patient question. This week’s question centers on the common struggle many in Tustin face when their medication stops working.

Question: “I have tried several SSRIs and nothing has changed. Why are traditional antidepressants failing me?”

Answer:

Let’s get some biology straight first. I promise we will get to ketamine soon. For decades, the standard medical theory was that depression was simply a chemical imbalance. The idea was that your brain didn’t have enough serotonin or dopamine. If we just added a pill to increase those levels, you should feel better. This is the monoamine hypothesis. While it works for some, it ignores a much deeper issue: the physical structure of the brain.

When a person lives with chronic depression or stress, their brain actually undergoes a process called pruning. The branches of the neurons that allow for communication between different parts of the brain literally wither away. It is like a tree losing its leaves and small branches during a drought. If those connections are gone, you can pour as much serotonin into the system as you want, but there is no infrastructure left to receive the signal. This is why you might feel like you are just managing side effects without any real change in your mood.

So, how is ketamine different? Instead of just trying to change the chemical levels, ketamine targets the hardware. It triggers a cascade of events that leads to the growth of new synapses. We are essentially giving the brain the fertilizer it needs to regrow those withered branches. This is the neuroplasticity we talk about. We are rebuilding the neural architecture so that your brain can actually process emotions and thoughts in a healthy way again.

If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.

Cheers,

Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD

Renew Ketamine Infusion

Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach

The post Why Traditional Antidepressants Fail appeared first on Renew Ketamine Infusion.