Natural Pain Relief
Are there ways to manage pain naturally without drugs?
Physical therapy is very good in managing pain. That's natural. You are moving your body around. You're strengthening it. There is motion involved. There are a lot of natural supplementations that can be used. We can use anti-inflammatory herbs; things like turmeric, boswellia, and ginger. There are other natural anti-inflammatory supplements like fish oil that has a lot of omega-3 in it that reduces inflammation. Sometimes a good night's sleep will get rid of a person's pain. You ask people with chronic pain "How do you sleep?" and they say, “I don't sleep.” If you can either teach them how to sleep; teach good sleep hygiene, or maybe use a non-addictive sleep medication or a sleep supplement (because there are a lot of supplements that relax the body and allow people to sleep like magnesium, thorium, and hops) then that will allow them to manage their pain. There is just a whole array of things to use for sleep and a person is going to feel better. You have strength from the sleep, and neurotransmitters and hormones are replaced in sleep. We feel better.
How can exercise help manage pain when it hurts to move?
Exercise is also very important in the management of chronic pain. Yes, it does hurt to move; yes, it does hurt to have chronic pain; and yes, when you have exercise soreness there is pain, but in my experience with my own body and from information from my patients, people feel a lot better when they're exercising. Patients feel so much better when they are exercising. They have a lot of endorphins running around their system, which reduce pain. They feel better about themselves. They look in the mirror and they have a better body image by losing some fat and gaining some muscle. There's also more range of motion and there's more blood supply to an area. I say exercise is one of the best ways of reducing chronic pain.
