Pain…we all hate it and we all suffer
from it at one time or another! One has only to walk through a pharmacy
and examine the plethora of pain killing drugs to realize that there
is a lot of suffering in the world.
Pain has an important function…it serves
to warn us when damage could occur to our physical bodies. It also
tells us when we need to take care of an injury. However, many people
have chronic, debilitating pain that interferes with their enjoyment
of life and at times may keep them from being productive members
of society.
What do you do when pain strikes? Do you
quickly reach for the nearest analgesics so you can keep on with
whatever activities you were engaged in? Do you take a hot bath
and relax till the body has a chance to heal? Do you get massages
for muscle pain and use topical lotions to sooth and relax sore
muscles? Do you take supplements like glucosamine to prevent or
heal arthritis symptoms?
I am personally plagued by chronic neck and
shoulder problems, which range from mild discomfort to periodic
excruciating headaches. I’ve seen multiple chiropractors and
been told I have “kyphosis” which is a fancy name for
rounded shoulders or hunchback, a postural misalignment that my
mother tried in vain to get me to correct as a teenager. Now that
I am “middle-aged” the chiropractors tell me there is
no real cure anymore…I am permanently malformed…and
my only hope is to continue going for chiropractic adjustments for
the rest of my life.
Well folks, I’m just too stubborn to
go for adjustments every week for the rest of my life, especially
since it never completely eliminates the discomfort. Of course the
hours I spend at the computer aren’t exactly beneficial, but
I do get regular exercise in the form of long walks and a couple
of surfing hours every week. I’ve tried yoga, lying on my
back on an exercise ball, massage, hot baths, glucosamine, topical
pain relieving creams and when a migraine strikes, I reach for the
white willow bark (a natural painkiller from which aspirin was originally
synthesized). Each of these methods has given me some relief, but
the underlying problem remains and returns to plague me on another
day.
A client recently told me about Pete Egoscue,
author of the book Pain
Free as well as a number of other books on pain, who runs the
Egoscue Method Clinic in San Diego. If you live in the San Diego
area, tune your AM radio dial to 1170 on Saturday mornings at 9
and listen to Pete give advice to callers suffering from pain of
all kinds. I called into the show a few weeks ago and told Pete
about my chronic neck pain and kyphosis. He asked me to stand up,
take my shoes off and stand in a pigeon toed position, stick my
stomach out and pull my shoulders back and down. Then he instructed
me to turn my head from side to side. Miraculously, the pain was
less!
I started doing the exercises recommended
in the book Pain
Free and slowly, my posture is starting to improve. As a result,
I can stand and sit for longer periods of time without discomfort.
This amazes me, because standing for any length of time has been
painful for years, and I could never sit straight very long either…I
always slouched back in chairs to help support my weight. Unfortunately,
slouching actually made the problem worse.
Of course not all pain is caused by postural
misalignment like mine was. Sometimes the body has been deprived
of the proper nutrients for so long that systems cannot repair themselves
and eventually start to break down, causing pain. Sometimes we simply
“overdo” it when exercising or working and the unaccustomed
activity causes the muscles to ache the next day. This is partly
due to the buildup of lactic acid, which occurs when oxygen supplies
in the muscles run low and fuel is no longer burned efficiently.
Topical
pain relief creams like APR15 can
be very helpful for temporary relief from muscle pain. People have
found the discomfort of following conditions can be made less by
their use:
