Posts Tagged ‘Migraine’
Stephen Lau asked:
Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau
Pain is not localized because it is the outcome of a series of reactions in the body and the mind. Pain is felt and experienced only when the injured area sends signals through your nervous system to your brain, which receives and interprets these signals.
Pain is always connected with inflammation. When the injured area becomes inflamed, the inflammatory response intensifies, and so does your perception of pain.
What should you do when dealing with pain? Most people’s first reaction in dealing with pain is to stop the pain with a painkiller – it is understandable. However, this may not be the best option for dealing with pain, because it only temporarily relieves the pain but does not prevent the pain from happening again.
If you have chest pain, which may portend an imminent heart attack; your priority is to avoid the heart attack rather than the pain itself. In fact, sometimes pain may be a positive sign of warning of the imminence of a disease. Therefore, in dealing with pain, it is important to prevent a health crisis rather than just suppressing the pain.
Take another example: if you are prone to migraine attacks, your priority in life is to prevent a migraine episode from happening, rather than dealing with the pain that results from the crisis. Migraines are not caused by trauma, but by chemicals in your body that control pain and inflammation. Accordingly, to deal with migraines is to anticipate and control the inflammation, rather than the resultant migraine pain. Like the common cold, once it has started, taking vitamin C or a cold tablet will not stop the cold – you just have to let it run its course. Any cold medication may only further weaken your immunity down the road, just as a painkiller may make your body more toxic, and thus more susceptible to pain in future.
Therefore, dealing with pain is not to influence your perception of pain, but to stop the damage from causing the pain in the first place.
Using diet is the most effective way in dealing with pain (see my previous article), not only by preventing the occurrence of pain but also by combating the pain itself. For example, hot chili peppers contain a chemical called capsaicin, which is effective in blocking your nerves from transmitting pain messages to your brain. Capsaicin is one of the most important active ingredients in ointments used for arthritis, shingles, and post-mastectomy pain.
Apart form diet, exercise also helps you boost your pain resistance. Your body makes natural painkillers – enkephalins and endorphins. Exercise may activate these chemicals in your body. This is best explained by pain tolerance in competitive athletes. In vigorous competitive sports, the body releases endorphins to block out pain perception. The kind of exercise that stimulates endorphin release is aerobic – bicycling, running, and walking – exercise that pumps your heart and works out your lungs, as opposed to weight lifting that targets only your muscles.
Acupuncture is another way to deal with pain.
For thousands of years, acupuncture has been used by the Chinese to decrease pain by increasing the release of endorphins. Many acu-points are located near nerves. When stimulated, these nerves cause a dull ache or feeling of fullness in the muscle. The stimulated muscle then sends a message to the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), causing the release of endorphins. The theory is based on the belief that there is “qi” (vital life energy) coursing through your body, and that diseases are caused by lack of balance between the positive and negative energies in an individual. Acupuncture not only generates its analgesic effects through sensory stimulation, but also removes the problem that causes the pain.
Whittier Chiropractor
Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau
Pain is not localized because it is the outcome of a series of reactions in the body and the mind. Pain is felt and experienced only when the injured area sends signals through your nervous system to your brain, which receives and interprets these signals.
Pain is always connected with inflammation. When the injured area becomes inflamed, the inflammatory response intensifies, and so does your perception of pain.
What should you do when dealing with pain? Most people’s first reaction in dealing with pain is to stop the pain with a painkiller – it is understandable. However, this may not be the best option for dealing with pain, because it only temporarily relieves the pain but does not prevent the pain from happening again.
If you have chest pain, which may portend an imminent heart attack; your priority is to avoid the heart attack rather than the pain itself. In fact, sometimes pain may be a positive sign of warning of the imminence of a disease. Therefore, in dealing with pain, it is important to prevent a health crisis rather than just suppressing the pain.
Take another example: if you are prone to migraine attacks, your priority in life is to prevent a migraine episode from happening, rather than dealing with the pain that results from the crisis. Migraines are not caused by trauma, but by chemicals in your body that control pain and inflammation. Accordingly, to deal with migraines is to anticipate and control the inflammation, rather than the resultant migraine pain. Like the common cold, once it has started, taking vitamin C or a cold tablet will not stop the cold – you just have to let it run its course. Any cold medication may only further weaken your immunity down the road, just as a painkiller may make your body more toxic, and thus more susceptible to pain in future.
Therefore, dealing with pain is not to influence your perception of pain, but to stop the damage from causing the pain in the first place.
Using diet is the most effective way in dealing with pain (see my previous article), not only by preventing the occurrence of pain but also by combating the pain itself. For example, hot chili peppers contain a chemical called capsaicin, which is effective in blocking your nerves from transmitting pain messages to your brain. Capsaicin is one of the most important active ingredients in ointments used for arthritis, shingles, and post-mastectomy pain.
Apart form diet, exercise also helps you boost your pain resistance. Your body makes natural painkillers – enkephalins and endorphins. Exercise may activate these chemicals in your body. This is best explained by pain tolerance in competitive athletes. In vigorous competitive sports, the body releases endorphins to block out pain perception. The kind of exercise that stimulates endorphin release is aerobic – bicycling, running, and walking – exercise that pumps your heart and works out your lungs, as opposed to weight lifting that targets only your muscles.
Acupuncture is another way to deal with pain.
For thousands of years, acupuncture has been used by the Chinese to decrease pain by increasing the release of endorphins. Many acu-points are located near nerves. When stimulated, these nerves cause a dull ache or feeling of fullness in the muscle. The stimulated muscle then sends a message to the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), causing the release of endorphins. The theory is based on the belief that there is “qi” (vital life energy) coursing through your body, and that diseases are caused by lack of balance between the positive and negative energies in an individual. Acupuncture not only generates its analgesic effects through sensory stimulation, but also removes the problem that causes the pain.
Whittier Chiropractor
Peter James Field asked:
At one point or another each of us has experienced pain.
Though few people actually welcome it, few would deny that it has an essential role to play in our survival. After all, without pain, we simply wouldn’t be aware that tissue damage is taking place somewhere in our body and that we need to do something – fast.
In any approach to pain, of course, we need to first check with a qualified doctor or other medical practitioner. It is essential that we get a proper medical evaluation of our situation and the correct treatment for any disease or injury that we may have suffered.
But what if we have already done this? But what if we have already received and understood the message pain brings, done all we – and the doctor – can do and yet still the pain exists?
This is the predicament faced by millions of us on a daily basis. And living with this kind of pain seriously affects the quality of life for anyone forced to experience and endure it.
Generally speaking, pain may be divided into two distinct types: Acute pain and chronic pain.
Acute pain is useful and indeed, essential. It informs us of what needs attention and this is the reason for its existence. It’s a signal relayed from the wounded area to the brain alerting us to take action.
But chronic pain is altogether different. With pain of this kind, we have already received the message and still it persists. It is ongoing and relentless. It’s as if we seem to be just stuck with it.
Indeed, the chronic pain generated by conditions such as rheumatism, back and shoulder pain, arthritis, migraine headaches, post surgical pain, cancer (and sometimes its treatment), fybromyalgia etc serves no useful purpose. It is unneeded for our survival.
Put simply, chronic pain is useless pain.
When pain outlives its usefulness it needs to be muted or silenced.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that we almost always look to ourselves last in any attempt to control our chronic pain. Yet it is within our self and our own mind that real pain relief and truly effective pain control can be found.
Because we are so accustomed to looking outside of ourselves for help with pain, we seem to have a learned mind-set of helplessness when it comes to chronic pain. We have been conditioned to accept that something or someone external to ourselves is responsible for making pain go away.
Understanding that we have it within our self to control pain is a major step forward in releasing its truly debilitating grip on our life.
And this is the wonderful power of using hypnosis and self-hypnosis for pain relief.
With properly applied hypnosis we are empowered to instruct our own mind to dramatically reduce – and in many cases totally eliminate – any pain we may be experiencing.
No drugs, no apparatus, no TEMS machines are needed. Indeed, hypnosis is so powerful that it can be, and sometimes is, used instead of local or general anaesthetic in order to completely eliminate pain even in major surgery.
All that’s required is your mind’s own innate capacities and abilities.
If you or someone you care about suffers from chronic pain, there really is something you can do about it.
By working with an experienced and fully qualified transformational hypnotherapist, you can learn how to control even long-standing chronic pain.
Using the power of your own mind you can indeed learn to control pain – and regain control of your life.
Whittier Chiropractor
At one point or another each of us has experienced pain.
Though few people actually welcome it, few would deny that it has an essential role to play in our survival. After all, without pain, we simply wouldn’t be aware that tissue damage is taking place somewhere in our body and that we need to do something – fast.
In any approach to pain, of course, we need to first check with a qualified doctor or other medical practitioner. It is essential that we get a proper medical evaluation of our situation and the correct treatment for any disease or injury that we may have suffered.
But what if we have already done this? But what if we have already received and understood the message pain brings, done all we – and the doctor – can do and yet still the pain exists?
This is the predicament faced by millions of us on a daily basis. And living with this kind of pain seriously affects the quality of life for anyone forced to experience and endure it.
Generally speaking, pain may be divided into two distinct types: Acute pain and chronic pain.
Acute pain is useful and indeed, essential. It informs us of what needs attention and this is the reason for its existence. It’s a signal relayed from the wounded area to the brain alerting us to take action.
But chronic pain is altogether different. With pain of this kind, we have already received the message and still it persists. It is ongoing and relentless. It’s as if we seem to be just stuck with it.
Indeed, the chronic pain generated by conditions such as rheumatism, back and shoulder pain, arthritis, migraine headaches, post surgical pain, cancer (and sometimes its treatment), fybromyalgia etc serves no useful purpose. It is unneeded for our survival.
Put simply, chronic pain is useless pain.
When pain outlives its usefulness it needs to be muted or silenced.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that we almost always look to ourselves last in any attempt to control our chronic pain. Yet it is within our self and our own mind that real pain relief and truly effective pain control can be found.
Because we are so accustomed to looking outside of ourselves for help with pain, we seem to have a learned mind-set of helplessness when it comes to chronic pain. We have been conditioned to accept that something or someone external to ourselves is responsible for making pain go away.
Understanding that we have it within our self to control pain is a major step forward in releasing its truly debilitating grip on our life.
And this is the wonderful power of using hypnosis and self-hypnosis for pain relief.
With properly applied hypnosis we are empowered to instruct our own mind to dramatically reduce – and in many cases totally eliminate – any pain we may be experiencing.
No drugs, no apparatus, no TEMS machines are needed. Indeed, hypnosis is so powerful that it can be, and sometimes is, used instead of local or general anaesthetic in order to completely eliminate pain even in major surgery.
All that’s required is your mind’s own innate capacities and abilities.
If you or someone you care about suffers from chronic pain, there really is something you can do about it.
By working with an experienced and fully qualified transformational hypnotherapist, you can learn how to control even long-standing chronic pain.
Using the power of your own mind you can indeed learn to control pain – and regain control of your life.
Whittier Chiropractor
herbalremedies asked:
More people call out sick from work because of chronic pain than call out sick because of the common cold. Chances are you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain. Pain is a necessary part of life. It alerts us when something is wrong with our bodies. It’s normal to experience pain with an illness or injury. Normally, this pain fades as the injury heals or the sickness goes away. This is referred to as acute pain.
Pain becomes chronic when it continues after the healing time of the injury. This pain can hang on for months or even years and often causes depression in its sufferers. Chronic pain can also occur as the result of an ongoing condition, like fibromyalgia, arthritis, or cancer. Back injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, and migraine headaches are some other examples of conditions that cause chronic pain. Some pain can result from injury to the nerves causing them send false signals to the brain. How massage affects your pain is partly dependent on its source.
If your pain is caused by a muscle injury massage can not only help ease the pain but also help speed the healing process. Acute or chronic – these are the two words that describe pain. Acute goes away easily and rarely lasts long. Chronic is its exact opposite. Chronic pain can last for six months and is expected to recur at anytime. The main cause of it is very hard to pinpoint. And it doesn’t help if doctors were more interested in addressing the pains rather than knowing what is actually causing it. As such, chronic pain relief can be elusive to patients.
But then again, there are certain medicines and therapies that are deemed effective for chronic pain. There are also a lot of medicines sold over-the-counter, which can truly help. While chronic pain is a major problem, patients do have options to treat it. Doctors normally prescribe medicines, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants, to address chronic pain. Chronic pain relief is also possible with physical therapy. Physical therapy corresponds to the low-impact exercises like swimming, walking, and stretching. If done regularly, these simple exercises can help your body a lot. It can help lower the intensity of the pain you’re going through.
However, these exercises are best performed along a trained physical therapist. Both occupational and behavioral therapies could also help. In occupational therapy, patients are thought how to pace and condition themselves when doing everyday tasks. Don’t get discouraged if you are one of the chronic pain sufferers for which a cause cannot be found. An unknown source doesn’t make the pain any less real. Fibromyalgia, for example, causes widespread pain in muscles and joints.
Yet, a person with fibromyalgia may not know the cause of the pain A healthcare provider may be able to link fibromyalgia to an injury or virus; but in other cases, a specific cause may go unidentified. Irritable bowel syndrome is another example of chronic pain for which the specific cause may not be known. Chronic pain may be related to changes in your nerve signals after a healed injury. Chronic pain may also be related to heightened pain sensitivity when your body produces lower than normal levels of painkilling endorphins. If you suffer from chronic pain do not ignore the warning signals. If you try to tough it out, the disease, illness, or injury may get worse. Left untreated, chronic pain can also mentally wear you down. Making massage therapy part of your treatment routine could help ease your pain and lessen your dependence on pain killing drugs. In the long run this will lead to less drug side effects and better health.
Whittier Chiropractor
More people call out sick from work because of chronic pain than call out sick because of the common cold. Chances are you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain. Pain is a necessary part of life. It alerts us when something is wrong with our bodies. It’s normal to experience pain with an illness or injury. Normally, this pain fades as the injury heals or the sickness goes away. This is referred to as acute pain.
Pain becomes chronic when it continues after the healing time of the injury. This pain can hang on for months or even years and often causes depression in its sufferers. Chronic pain can also occur as the result of an ongoing condition, like fibromyalgia, arthritis, or cancer. Back injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, and migraine headaches are some other examples of conditions that cause chronic pain. Some pain can result from injury to the nerves causing them send false signals to the brain. How massage affects your pain is partly dependent on its source.
If your pain is caused by a muscle injury massage can not only help ease the pain but also help speed the healing process. Acute or chronic – these are the two words that describe pain. Acute goes away easily and rarely lasts long. Chronic is its exact opposite. Chronic pain can last for six months and is expected to recur at anytime. The main cause of it is very hard to pinpoint. And it doesn’t help if doctors were more interested in addressing the pains rather than knowing what is actually causing it. As such, chronic pain relief can be elusive to patients.
But then again, there are certain medicines and therapies that are deemed effective for chronic pain. There are also a lot of medicines sold over-the-counter, which can truly help. While chronic pain is a major problem, patients do have options to treat it. Doctors normally prescribe medicines, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants, to address chronic pain. Chronic pain relief is also possible with physical therapy. Physical therapy corresponds to the low-impact exercises like swimming, walking, and stretching. If done regularly, these simple exercises can help your body a lot. It can help lower the intensity of the pain you’re going through.
However, these exercises are best performed along a trained physical therapist. Both occupational and behavioral therapies could also help. In occupational therapy, patients are thought how to pace and condition themselves when doing everyday tasks. Don’t get discouraged if you are one of the chronic pain sufferers for which a cause cannot be found. An unknown source doesn’t make the pain any less real. Fibromyalgia, for example, causes widespread pain in muscles and joints.
Yet, a person with fibromyalgia may not know the cause of the pain A healthcare provider may be able to link fibromyalgia to an injury or virus; but in other cases, a specific cause may go unidentified. Irritable bowel syndrome is another example of chronic pain for which the specific cause may not be known. Chronic pain may be related to changes in your nerve signals after a healed injury. Chronic pain may also be related to heightened pain sensitivity when your body produces lower than normal levels of painkilling endorphins. If you suffer from chronic pain do not ignore the warning signals. If you try to tough it out, the disease, illness, or injury may get worse. Left untreated, chronic pain can also mentally wear you down. Making massage therapy part of your treatment routine could help ease your pain and lessen your dependence on pain killing drugs. In the long run this will lead to less drug side effects and better health.
Whittier Chiropractor