HEAL BY GOING ONLINE

A study published in Archives of Internal Medicine followed 500 back-pain sufferers for one year. It found that people using email discussion groups to commiserate about the pain, swap pointers of what to do and got medical advice all online had better functioning abilities, experienced less pain and had fewer doctor visits.

What I think is happening is that the discussion group gives the back sufferer a support system of people who know what they're experiencing, as well as, tips and ideas for changing things.

To locate online support groups on a variety of topics go to www.selfhelpgroups.org

THE USE OF FAITH TO STOP PAIN

A study reported in the Journal of Pain found that having a daily spiritual ritual or experience can help people with chronic pain feel better.

They had 35 people with rheumatoid arthritis keep daily diaries that rated their religious coping strategies, pain levels, mood and social support. People who had less pain had religious and coping strategies that worked for them personally.

REDUCE SURGERY PAIN & ANXIETY

A study conducted at Yale University School of Medicine had women undergoing in vitro fertilization while wearing virtual reality audiovisual headsets showing water scenes accompanied by classical music. They had an 86% reduction in anxiety and a 40% reduction in pain.

OPTIONS FOR NATURAL PAIN RELIEF

Dr. Julian Whitaker reports using bromelain for natural pain relief. Usually bromelain is used to aid digestion. However, Dr. Whitaker has found that it's also great for pain relief but only if it's taken on an empty stomach.

If you need additional pain relief, he recommends taking Serrata. One study showed an 88% level of improvement in people who were permanently bedridden or unable to work.

Cutting Pain From Osteoarthritis Of The Knee

You’ve got osteoarthritis of the knee so you reach for the ibuprofen. Would you like more natural choices as effective as ibuprofen? That would be curcumin or glucosamine. A study reported in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine compared the two with ibuprofen. The research showed that the anti-inflammatory properties of these substances gave subjects relief from knee pain. If you want to use them, take 1 gram of curcumin or 1,500 mg of glucosamine a day. (If you take blood thinners, talk to your doctor first). (Reported Prevention, May 2011)

Using Yoga And Tai Chi To Reduce The Effects Of Fibromyalgia

A study from the Comprehensive Pain Center at Oregon Health and Science University found that women with fibromyalgia who attended a 2-hour weekly yoga program and practiced the poses at home for 20 to 40 minutes a day experienced a 31% drop in symptoms, including pain and fatigue.
This study shows the importance of doing yoga both in class and also at home.
With Tai Chi, Tufts University researchers found that doing Tai Chi improved the ability of women with fibromyalgia to sleep better and reduced the pain and depression from the disease.
In both studies the researchers think that it’s both the controlled breathing and movements that are interrupting the pain cycle.
My thought is it could also be the attitude of the mind that develops when you do these two approaches.

Two Ways to Help Stop Pain (DMSO & Prolotherapy)

Rub DMSO On And Get Pain Relief
According to Dr. Julian Whitaker Dimethyl silfoxide (DMSO) is a great way to stop any kind of joint or muscle pain.

When you rub DMSO on the skin, it is quickly absorbed into the deeper tissues. DMSO is a potent anti-inflammatory that stops pain.

You need to rub a small amount into the affected area until it is absorbed. Repeat two or three times a day. Just be aware that it can have a sulfur smell.

(Reported Health & Healing, Vol. 23, No. 3)

Another Way To Stop Pain – Prolotherapy
Prolotherapy is another way to stop pain. It involves injecting a substance that is not a drug but creates irritation into areas of the back, neck, knee and shoulder that are in pain.

What the irritation seems to do is strengthen the ligaments and tendons. It may also release local growth factors. So…if you have pain in those areas, check out prolotherapy.

Using Meditation To Reduce Pain

You can use meditation as a pain relieving tool for the brain and the body.

When you hurt yourself and have pain, the pain comes from your brain and you experience it in your body.

What meditation is doing is reducing brain activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, which is an area that helps create the feeling of where and how intense a painful stimulus is.

If you want to learn how to easily meditate, you can learn how to do it from my book, Managing Your Stress In Difficult Times: Succeeding in Times of Change.

Use Meditation To Stop Pain

Meditation can stop pain from happening. Research reported on LiveScience.com reveals how this happens. Meditation changes the way your brain processes pain signals.

They found that it only took four days of practicing a meditation technique called mindfulness meditation to change the pain responses in your brain. Brain activity decreased in areas devoted to monitoring a painful body part and also in areas responsible for relaying sensory information. This reduced the perception of pain by 57%.
 
Since the effect is so fast, if you have to go into the hospital for surgery, you might want to learn how to meditate at least four days ahead and start doing it twice a day. Oh, and you will want to continue meditating during your recovery.

Using Resveratrol For Chronic Colitis

Chronic colitis is a difficult and painful bowel disease.

Recent studies looked at the benefits of resveratrol’s anti-inflammatory effects.

In a study with mice with severe colitis, the ones given the equivalent of 30 mg of resveratrol experienced reduction of inflammation and even reduced mortality by 40% when compared with a control group that had colitis and did not receive resveratrol.

Resveratrol has also been shown to have an anti-aging benefits.

So…if you have colitis, you might want to consider taking resveratrol for a couple of months. As they say, it can’t hurt.

Caffeine & Migraine Headaches: Cause or Treatment?

For those who suffer from migraines or headaches, especially frequent ones, it is important to understand just how caffeine can impact headache frequency and intensity. There is a great deal of debate among experts about the benefits and negative effects of caffeine and this can be confusing to sufferers.

How Does Caffeine Affect Your Body?

Caffeine has a range of effects on the body, one of which is the narrowing of blood vessels, which then restricts blood flow. Since blood vessels are thought to expand at the onset of migraines or headaches, it is thought that caffeine's vasoconstrictive property eases the pain. Caffeine is also believed to increase the effectiveness of many pain relievers, and is therefore added to various migraine and headache medications.
It would then be logical to suggest that less pain reliever would be required to obtain the intended benefits of the medication.
Since some medications can cause gastrointestinal distress, a lower dose that is still effective would be particularly beneficial, and more so for chronic headache sufferers who require long-term medication use.
Studies have suggested that over-the-counter medications may be as much as 40% more effective when caffeine is added. Generally, most individuals will find that they feel the effects of caffeine approximately half an hour after ingestion and these last for anywhere from three to five hours.

Caffeine can, however, also cause some unpleasant feelings such as restlessness, headaches, dizziness, shaking and insomnia.
In addition, caffeine stimulates the heart and raises metabolic rate. It is at higher doses that the unpleasant effects of caffeine are more likely to occur.

Caffeine Withdrawal

Withdrawal is commonly confused with addiction; it is rare for anyone to become addicted to caffeine, which involves a compulsive craving for the drug. Withdrawal, however, can occur from caffeine use and this involves physical symptoms that occur when caffeine use is halted or decreased. Generally, moderate consumption of caffeine is safe but since caffeine does slightly stimulate the nervous system, withdrawal effects can occur. Some of these include:

• Nausea
• Headache
• Anxiety
• Difficulty focusing
• Agitation
• Irritability
• Non-specific muscle aches and pains

There is disagreement among experts regarding the exact amount of caffeine required to induce withdrawal symptoms. Your own personal tolerance can vary in comparison with someone else and age can also play a role, as metabolism of drugs changes as we age.
The average person can expect withdrawal symptoms to occur after consuming approximately 500mg of caffeine per day, which is equivalent to about five cups of coffee. Others may, however, still experience withdrawal from as little as 100mg of caffeine daily.

What is the Verdict?

Based on research to date, it would appear that mild to moderate doses of caffeine in medication are helpful in easing headache pain. If your medication doesn't contain caffeine, drinking coffee and consuming caffeine-containing foods or drinks in moderation shouldn't cause unpleasant symptoms or withdrawal effects.
If you are pregnant or on any other medications, your caffeine intake should be monitored more closely; and for everyone, it is wise to speak with your doctor if you have any doubts about how much caffeine you may safely consume as well as how caffeine consumption will affect your migraines and headaches.
The key to remember is that caffeine can be present in various foods such as chocolate, which is linked to migraines, so some caffeine rich foods may also have compounds that can exacerbate migraines.

For information on foods that affect migraine and headache pain, including other triggers and natural helpers, read more scientific research: Migraines Can Be a Thing of the Past: Why Migraines and Headaches Occur.

It's also important to monitor your daily intake of caffeine and to be aware of the differences in caffeine content between a cup of coffee brewed from one restaurant to another. Some 'coffee shops' will serve a cup of coffee that is double or triple the caffeine content of another one and you could be ingesting a lot more caffeine than you realize, resulting in headaches and uncomfortable shakes and stomach upset.
So a cup or two of coffee may help your headache but if you overdo it, you may be setting yourself up for more headaches than you started with.
Making Migraines a Thing of the Past
Migraine and Headache Relief with Shiatsu
Natural Migraine Treatment FAQ
References
 

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Using Your Mind To Relieve Arthritis Pain

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine have been busy. They also researched the impact of a meditation technique called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on chronic arthritis.

The researchers found that people with rheumatoid arthritis who practiced MBSR for 6 months were 35% less distressed than those who didn’t use this method – even though their physical disease progressed at the same rates as the control group.

Other studies have shown that MBSR works to reduce pain by constantly refocusing the mind on the present moment. To learn how to do MBSR read Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.