Modern Pain Management: A Mixture of New And Old, Complementary and Alternative

Modern pain management practice is looking for alternatives to opioid prescribing...and as such, they are looking toward some very new approaches--such as the pain management devices that are coming onto the marketplace--and some very old methods--such as yoga, acupuncture, reiki, and nutritional supplementation. The question is--how can a patient tell what is safe and effective from what is not?

One good resource is the NIH--the National Institutes of Health. If you go to the Pain Management Section of the site, you can find information on many of the topics in this field.

The Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, two prestigious medical institutions, also offer online health libraries that you can access if you have a computer, laptop. or smartphone.

WebMD is another good resource. Many products--such as the devices on the marketplace--may have their own individual informational sites, and you can visit them for information.

A discussion with you medical care team may also be of help.

The best advice here is to investigate whatever practice you are considering before you actually try it. Not every complementary or alternative practice is good for everyone. It's sort of like trying on shoes...it may take trial and error to find a good fit...and you may need more than one pair to do the job!

Sources: Wrvo.org; NIH;Cleveland Clinic; Mayo Clinic;WebMD; Blue Diamond Gallery

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