Pain can cause severe impairment in quality of life and daily functioning. There are many medications for pain management, but they involve side effects and risks and can lead to addiction. The number of deaths caused by overdose of painkillers has tripled in the United States in the last decade and the numbers increase worldwide. There are ways to assist your pain without having to medicate.
Last year, a study was published that found that meditation can be more effective than painkillers. Healthy volunteers have learned a meditation technique in which they concentrate on breathing and release distracting thoughts and feelings. Before and after the meditation, the activity in their brains was examined using imaging tests, during which a device caused painful heat in their legs. The researchers found a 40% reduction in the intensity of pain after meditation. According to them, meditation produces a greater reduction in pain even than morphine and other painkillers, which typically reduce the pain rating by about 25%. Brain scans showed that meditation significantly reduced brain activity in the area involved in creating the sensation of the location of the pain and the intensity of the stimulus causing the pain.
Hemp
Hemp products may help with pain relief. It has anti-inflammatory substances and substances that help relieve pain and sleep. You may want to look at baysmokes.com for further information on what products to choose. Today, CBD is known to treat chronic pain – including severe migraines and fibromyalgia, when other treatments do not help. In 2010 a controlled clinical study was published that found that marijuana helps reduce pain, improve mood and bring about better sleep, in those suffering from chronic neuropathic pain due to injury or surgery. Hemp products containing 25 mg of active ingredient 9.4% reduced pain intensity greatly.
Hypnosis
Our brain has an amazing ability to affect the body. Each of us can decide on an idea – consciously or not – and make it a reality. Hypnosis uses this ability for positive purposes. Hypnosis is a state of focused mental concentration, as a result of which the brain effectively implements ideas in which it is concentrated. Through therapeutic hypnosis, it is possible to help the patient discover the talent inherent in them to make the idea become a reality, and direct the talent to a positive goal. In situations where the pain has no physical justification, the degree of suffering can be significantly reduced through hypnosis. If the cause of the pain is a chronic physical illness, hypnosis is less effective. For example, a symptom that has no medical justification may be created out of an expectation or worry that you will feel bad. A type of subconscious premeditation. People who have suffered from headaches or any other symptom that could have passed, unconsciously and mistakenly expect it to return, and the body responds accordingly. Pain can also occur as a result of contraction of muscle groups – even in internal organs – most often against a background of stress and anxiety. As contraction becomes a habit, chronic pain is created. Each patient must strive to work towards letting go of the habit and hopefully the pain will follow in time.
Acupuncture
A study published in 2011 found that acupuncture was more effective than drug treatment in preventing migraines. The study was conducted among patients suffering from high-frequency migraine attacks, half of whom were treated with acupuncture. Another study that was published, found a possible explanation for the effectiveness of acupuncture: it changes the perception and processing of brain pain. It is something that should be considered for those with chronic pain.
What is acupuncture? Acupuncture (also called acupuncture blasphemy) is an ancient treatment method from China that helps balance mind-body. According to ancient Chinese tradition, acupuncture is based on the energy that drives life in our world, which is qi energy. Qi flows in different energy channels along the length and width of the human body called meridians. Along the meridians, there are a number of points that can affect the flow of energy – by inserting a fine needle during acupuncture, the body itself works to heal certain systems in the body, or to relieve pain and/or optimal balance.
When we have stopped fighting pain it is important to try and start listening to our bodies – what message it has for us, and how we can learn to combat it over time. It is time to make a change and find a new way to turn our lives around.
