Everyday pain management ideas

Cryotherapy takes the idea of icing an injured body part to a whole new level. Imagine standing inside a tubular structure stark naked, and feeling the effects of liquid nitrogen that's been cooled to a mind-boggling 200 degrees below zero.  It sounds crazy, but some are saying that it works wonders for chronic pain problems. Cryosauna unit Image Source: Wikipedia "Cryosaunas", as they are called, are not widely available here in the US...but they are beginning to appear in various locales. That being said, since its introduction in Japan in the 1970s, there are some true believers.  There's not much in the way of scientific study to back the claims, but those who have regular treatments have said the following: that they experience a feeling of euphoria during treatment sleep quality is improved relief from joint pain, arthritis calorie burn--over 500 to 800 calories are burned over the next several hours! flushes out toxins pain relief is instantan

Many people believe that massage is for the wealthy; that it's a way to be pampered in the same way that going for a facial or pedicure would be.  In truth, a good massage can be a way to make ourselves feel pampered... but it is so much more than that ! According to the Mayo Clinic, massage therapy can decrease swelling and improve joint mobility. Muscle spasms are eased, and blood circulation increases when undergoing massage. It is also possible that this form of therapy can increase the level of endorphins--i.e., the body's naturally occurring pain killer. Stress and anxiety are reduced, and some studies suggest that immune system function improves when massage therapy is applied. There are many health conditions that benefit from massage therapy--among them are cancer, heart disease, digestive disorders, insomnia, fibromyalgia, headaches, and nicotine dependency. Keep in mind that there are many massage techniques available.  Here is a sampling: Swedish Massag

This story about a research study in the United Kingdom is interesting...it brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "keep your fingers crossed." According to the article, the test subjects were exposed to a phantom pain sensation known as thermal grill illusion, and asked to cross their fingers, and uncross their fingers.  It is believed that crossing of the fingers causes brain confusion and helps to reduce pain like sensation. Thermal Grill Image source: Flickr What does this mean for future pain sufferers?  It's not really clear but the concept of using finger crossing or select body postures to relieve pain may come in handy! Here is an excerpt about thermal grill illusion--you can read in entirety by clicking here. "The ‘thermal grill illusion’ refers to paradoxical sensations of heat and pain, resulting from simultaneous application of interlaced warm and cold stimuli to the skin. It provides an interesting model of integrative mechanism

In searching for material for this blog, I came across an interesting article written by Ted Jones, Ph. D., a psychologist.  He begins by saying that good pain management is like a 3 legged stool.  The legs of the stool represent the 3 elements of treatment: interventions, medications, and psychological education/counseling.  All these elements must be in place in order for the stool to remain upright and stable...right? The article goes on to point out more detailed information about each leg of the stool.  As the author is a psychologist, he goes on to say that many people are treated only with interventions and medications...but the psychological leg of the stool is left out, leaving treatment sorely lacking. Why is the psychological aspect of treatment so important?  Because this part of a pain management treatment can help a patient to learn very important coping skills that enhance the overall effectiveness of treatment.  According to Dr. Jones, there are five skills that a

Today's post is based on an interesting story about a woman named Esther Gokhale.  Who, you might ask? She is an acupuncturist in the San Francisco Bay area.  The short story is that she was having some spinal issues.  Unfortunately, she had to have surgery.  After that, she travelled across the globe and into history and anthropology books to understand why some cultures are more prone to spinal issues than others.  Esther's observations are fascinating.  She has some good tips for back pain sufferers, too! You can read this very interesting story by clicking here.    I think it's fascinating and I hope you will too! Sources: NPR; Wikipedia

Most people have taken one or more of drugs from the NSAID class at one time or another. Maybe you're not familiar with the term NSAID, but I bet you know the names ibuprofen or naproxen, or the trade names: Motrin, Advil, Aleve.  The National Ambulatory Study,  conducted in recent years, revealed that 95% of those questioned over a period of 7 years had taken this type of drug. My whole reason for writing this blog is to promote the "less is more" mentality when using medication for pain, and this class of drugs illustrates my point very nicely. So, without further ado, let me elaborate a little bit. While we are greatly familiar with what a great tool these drugs are in the world of pain management, many do not know the risks/side effects that go along with them.  The first one that comes to mind is damage to the GI mucosa...leading to ulcer formation, or even worse, GI bleed.  The more regularly you take these drugs, the more likely you will be to have the

Results of a study published in spring 2015 indicate that longstanding treatment for headache may also benefit people with fibromyalgia.  The treatment is known as occipital nerve stimulation, or C2 nerve field stimulation.  This treatment involves surgical implantation of a small device at the base of the skull. Once implanted, the device can be connected to a power source that sends electrical impulses to the nerve. That being said, this is more invasive than some other forms of treatment and that means there is more risk involved when it is implemented. The study group was relatively small, so everything I am telling you here is preliminary. suppose Further studies would give a better idea of how beneficial this would be for people with fibromyalgia. Early results show an overall 50% improvement in quality of life for subjects in the study.  If you would like to read more detail about the study, you can reach it by clicking here. Sources: Chronicfatigue.about.com; Wiki

Dr. Ruth Defrin and colleagues at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel have once again shared some interesting findings in the journal Pain.  This time they have done a review of research about how people with various forms of cognitive impairment (due to conditions such as autism, stroke damage, Alzheimer's disease, and others) perceive pain. The authors feel that this review is important considering that so many people are affected by these forms of impairment. When coupled with aging and the development of other health conditions, these individuals cannot always verbalize how they are feeling.  So it's important to know how their pain sensitivity rates--more sensitive, less sensitive, or the same as other individuals. This scenario makes affected individuals more difficult to treat than the general population As to the findings-- Dr. Defrin and her team say that the evidence suggests the following: 1) Normal , healthy aging may be associated with inc

Pain management in children can be extremely challenging. For one thing, due to the fact that their physical and mental development is still an ongoing process, they cannot always verbalize what they are really feeling.  Medication dosages change as children develop from infancy to adulthood. One of the toughest things is getting a read on the severity of pain.  The methods used to date such as FACES scale are less than ideal.  Sad but true, many things experienced in childhood can cause acute or chronic pain.  Consider childhood cancers or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, for example.  Ouch! As published in the June 1 edition of Pediatrics, a new way to assess pain in children was validated at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.  This novel approach uses facial recognition software to study the changes in a child's facial expression over time to assess the severity of pain. This is exciting if you ask me--hopefully it will go a long way to help ease the discomfo

One of the many resources I like to use for this blog is WebMD.  Today, I am sharing a slide show that they put together that sort of separates fact from fiction with regard to some things you may have heard about regarding chronic pain. For example, did you know that changes in the weather actually does affect pain sensation..and even though a root cause of pain cannot be found, a person can still be in serious pain? How do diet, exercise and attitude affect pain?  Does one gender handle pain better than the other gender? If you really want to know then answers to these and other questions...click here for a very interesting presentation! Sources: Flickr, Wikimedia; WebMD

Are you into the juicing craze?  If so, this post is for you.  Click on this link to arrive at "Juicing for Health" section.  You will see a recipe for juice specific to pain relief, along with a brief essay that explains how the ingredients can help with pain relief.  Maybe it won't help...but unless severely allergic to an ingredient, it's safe enough to give it a try.

The results of a recent study certainly don't surprise me... I don't think they would surprise anyone.  Professors from Tel Aviv University and Canada's McGill University recently published their findings in the journal PAIN . This study focused on the effect of stress on pain. The research team studied 29 healthy men. The subjects underwent a number of commonly accepted pain tests...then they were given a test known as MIST (Montreal Imaging Stress Task). The MIST test is a psychological trick, a mathematical test whose very purpose is to induce stress.  Following MIST, the commonly accepted pain tests were repeated. The results indicated that the induced stress did not seem to affect pain thresholds or pain tolerance. The addition of stress to the scenario, did, however affect the intensity of pain and caused a decrease in pain inhibition capability.  Some variation was observed amongst the subjects-- i.e ., the effect was more intense in those who more stron

You may have heard of Deepak Chopra, MD.  He is an American physician who was born and trained in India.  His beliefs about medical practice are somewhat different than traditional Western Medicine because he combines spiritual and medical worlds in his approach, rooted in the idea that there is a mind-body connection. He has written over 80 books, 22 of which have been NY Times best sellers. Recently, Dr. Chopra wrote a piece for SF Gate regarding the application of his philosophies towards chronic pain.  He states that in this day and age, the complaint of pain is the most common reason people seek medical help.  Traditionally, that medical help consists of orders for diagnostic testing to help pinpoint the cause of the pain, and medication for pain relief.   In the modern era, we have come to a moral/ethical dilemma about when/when not to use opiates in the management of pain.  Dr. Chopra's mind-body approach is very appropriate here.  The pain signal is ini

A new spin on old technology was recently introduced to the pain management world.  The old technology is something that some chronic pain sufferers are familiar with--i.e. the TENS unit. The new spin introduces a new twist to using a TENS unit, by way of biometrics. This new product, known commercially as Cur (pronounced "cure") , delivers a wireless signal to the accompanying TENS unit by way of biometrics. The biometric component has sensors that detect muscle vibrations that signal the TENS unit when it needs to work.  The Cur device is very small...it fits on a band that can be worn on the upper arm. One important thing you should know..as of this writing,the Cur device is still awaiting FDA approval . No devices will be shipped to consumers until the approval process is complete, according to the manufacturer's web site.  Since this is the case, we will have to wait and see if it's a great product--or a flop. You can find out more about the product

What is Integrative Medicine, you might ask? This model of medical practice has been around for about twenty or thirty years .  The idea of this medical practice model is to treat a person (patient) as a whole person (mind, body, and spirit) rather than focusing on distinct medical diagnoses.  This brings to mind TV ads for Cancer Treatment Centers of America.   You may have seen these--usually a patient in the ad speaks about their cancer treatment and how these facilities took a team approach to the illness.  The "team" can involve people from many types of disciplines. For example, these disciplines can include medicine, nutrition, spiritual, physical therapy, and mind-body practices such as yoga. Integrative medicine is becoming increasingly popular and many treatment centers have opened since this concept emerged. And this is good news for my readers-because at this point in time, there is a growing role for this treatment approach in the area of chronic pain.

I came across this video while searching for material for my blog.  It's not as informative as most things I like to share, but it certainly offers some optimism for women who are dealing with this issue. Colleen Fitzgerald, MD is the speaker and she gives an overview of some of the musculoskeletal issues that women face at different points in their lives (youth, midlife, and older years)  and gives us a glimpse at some strategies for dealing with the pain in a drug free way.  If you have this kind of problem or you know someone who might benefit from what she has to say, feel free to share! Source: PainWeek

In all the time this blog has been in existence, we have discussed a number of auto-immune diseases that can cause chronic pain.  Some examples are rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus(SLE), and celiac disease.  But I have never explained the cause of these types of diseases. Once you understand the root cause, you will understand why the people who have these problems are often the victims of chronic pain. An artist's depiction of an antibody. Source: Wikimedia When a person suffers from an auto-immune disease, it is because somewhere along the way their immune system began to see normal body tissue as a foreign body.  Normally, when a foreign body is detected in the human body, a whole chain of biochemical reactions takes place in an effort to destroy that foreign body. In the case of auto-immune disease normal human tissue is perceived as a foreign body, the immune system produces antibodies that seek to find and destroy the invader. If you find that confusing, thin

The idea for today's post comes from a story out of Australia--a story about a man who suffered terrible back pain.  Although the initial back problem was healed from a physical point of view, the idea of walking even small distances was disabling to him.  The young man took pain medications and wore a back brace, but that did not seem to be enough.  To put it simply, his body was healed...but his mind was not. When the man's physician recommended cognitive behavioral therapy it seemed a bit absurd at first. But after, consulting thirty different doctors, he found a pain clinic that worked with him, in essence "training his brain to feel less pain." Using a stopwatch, they worked to increase the amount of time he could sit upright, for example, by increasing the time in small increments day after day. There was also a psychologist involved who worked with the patient on relaxation and meditation techniques. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a psychological tec

Celiac disease is an auto-immune disease that occurs in persons who are genetically predisposed. It is estimated that 1 in 100 persons worldwide are afflicted. In America alone, there are about 2.5 million people who are not yet diagnosed and at risk for long-term health complications due to the disease. When a person has celiac disease, they have an immune response to gluten, which is a protein that is found in wheat, rye and barley.  Long term health problems can result, including multiple sclerosis, anemia, osteoporosis, infertility, miscarriage, and others. Currently the only known treatment of celiac disease is a gluten free diet. Persons with this condition must avoid all foods and  that contain wheat, rye, or barley. This includes many things most of us take for granted in our daily diet--bread and beer for example, and even medications that contain gluten in their formulation.  Even a few crumbs can cause health issues, so the diet must be followed religiously 100% of

We have made many mentions in this blog about ways to control pain through diet.  Back in January 2014, I wrote a post entitled " Eat those fruits and vegetables!"  I mentioned that some people should avoid vegetables in the deadly nightshade family. In a recent post by the Healthy Home Economist , I was able to find further explanation as to why these vegetables are  sometimes problematic.  The author explains that members of this group of vegetables contain nicotine. She says that nicotine is known to inhibit proper healing.  One can determine if this food group is problematic simply by eliminating these foods from the diet to see if it is helpful. Also mentioned is a compound known as solanine, which apparently slows the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter found in the human body.  A common problem attributed to this is stiffness, particularly after sitting for long periods, due to prolonged muscle contraction. It is also said that this group of fruit