An alarming amount of people suffer from chronic pain in the US. To be specific, one in five people have this condition. It makes working difficult. Spending time with family and enjoying social events are barred as times due to this pain. If you are suffering chronic pain which you have been experienced for three months or more and do not receive any pain relief from the treatment, it may so happen that your body has not stopped sending pain messages to the brain, even though there is a possibility that there is no pain at all in the area concerned.
Pain can be linked with conditions like arthritis, sprain, injuries, and an end number of elusive causes. There are medicines, especially painkillers, to deal with nagging and chronic pain, yet people prefer the natural or holistic methods to get rid of the pain. However, some do not find medicines useful. They decide to opt for natural treatments alongside their standard treatments. If herbal therapy proves to be more effective, they even ditch their regular treatment strategy to be loyal to natural remedies.
The most bizarre or weird thing is that doctors still do not understand what is chronic pain. They just know that the same remedy may not work for another person. It is important to find a solution for the issue by doing trials and errors until you are satisfied with the outcome.
Next time, you have a chronic pain to bog you down, consider to follow the natural route to get relief from pain. And since no the level of pain experienced differs from individual to individual, check with your doctor for specifics about natural or alternative treatments. Some effective pain relief treatments are as follows:
Exercise: Exercise has proved to be very helpful for people suffering from any pain. If you exercise regularly and maintain a decent aerobic condition, your pain would start to fade away. This is because exercising makes the body produce endorphins, which is the body’s version of a painkiller. This hormone can help increase the pain threshold. Endorphins communicate with the brain receptors and change the sufferers’ perception of pain.
Fish oil: Fish oil has anti-inflammatory properties, and everybody knows how large a role is played by inflammation as far as pain is concerned. In a study, participants were asked to consume 1200 mg fish oil supplements alongside docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic in a day. After 75 days of the same, more than half the patients reported that they had discontinued their prescription painkillers. Fish oil has such effects and is considered as one of the most effective pain relief treatment options.
Turmeric: Turmeric is a miracle root and is one of the most effective pain relief treatments. It has several medicinal properties like anti-inflammatory properties. Researchers tested a unique combination of turmeric with bromelain and Devil’s claw on patients suffering from osteoarthritis pain. The study showed that the patients experienced noticeable pain relief.
Resveratrol: This substance, found in berries, grapes, and red wine, is also one of the most effective pain relief treatments. It is known to possess various beneficial properties that include anti-cancer, life-prolonging, brain protective properties, etc. A recent study showed that it also helps relieve pain on a cellular level.
Heat and cold therapy: This is a time-tested way and is a great pain relief treatment. Hot Epsom salt baths can prove to be a great pain reliever. It relaxes the mind by changing the nervous input right from the body to the brain. Ice therapy is a great option to get rid of the pain as well, since rubbing an ice cube on the pain affected area will decrease inflammation locally. However, it is important to identify when to use cold therapy and when to use heat therapy as pain relief treatments. If you suffer an acute injury, rub ice on that area right away. For instance, if you have twisted your ankle, it would be swollen and painful. If you use heat in such situation, it will increase blood flow to that region and the swelling would increase. However, if you have a continuous back spasm, heat therapy is the best option for you.
Meditation: Meditation is the answer to a lot of mental and physical ailments. It can subdue pain as well and is, therefore, considered as one of the most effective pain relief treatments. It is a wrong notion that you have to do meditation in a certain way to attain what you want, but it is not true. It is not something scripted. However, you can look for approaches and follow the given instructions, for instance, the approach known as mindfulness meditation. A study conducted with 109 patients with chronic pain shows that those who went to the mindfulness meditation program experienced relief from the pain. They also experienced lower anxiety and depression levels as well as a better quality of life mentally against those who did not opt for the study.