11 Pain Control Techniques

The importance of a healthy mindset for recovering from, as well as coping with the pain from spinal damage couldn't be more vital. Most patients that visit a chiropractor will initially visit because they are in pain. Their assumption is that if the chiropractor improves their physical performance, they will feel better. A lot of the time, this is the case. However, what we also see, is that some people will respond better than others. We may see several patients, all with exactly the same underlying problem and yet one person recovers and repairs quicker than the others despite the chiropractor doing the exact same physical adjustments for each of them. There are lots of reasons that such change may vary, but the vast majority of the time it appears to be the mindset of the patient that is the determining factor. Some people just can't see themselves ever getting better, while others 'know' that they will.

So, if you are struggling to cope with joint, muscle or nerve pain, you firstly need to book yourself in to see a chiropractor to find out what the underlying cause is. Secondly, you need to remain positive. Perception is reality - If you don't think you can feel better, then you never will. 

Re-focuse your mindset: The neural pathways in your brain that relate to your chronic pain are not set in stone. The adaptability of the brain and its ability to open up or close down such negative connections is known as neuroplasticity. The way you think, as well as what you think, can really help to shut down the pathways in the brain that can lead to chronicity. Here are a few techniques you might find effective.   

• Altered focus: This is a favorite technique for demonstrating how powerfully the mind can alter sensations in the body. Focus your attention on any specific non-painful part of the body (hand, foot, etc.) and alter sensation in that part of the body. For example, imagine your hand warming up. This will take the mind away from focusing on the source of your pain, such as your back pain

• Disassociation: As the name implies, this chronic pain technique involves mentally separating the painful body part from the rest of the body, or imagining the body and mind as separate, with the chronic pain distant from one’s mind. For example, imagine your painful lower back sitting on a chair across the room and tell it to stay sitting there, far away from your mind

• Sensory splitting: This technique involves dividing the sensation (pain, burning, pins and needles) into separate parts. For example, if the leg pain or back pain feels hot to you, focus just on the sensation of the heat and not on the hurting.

• Mental anesthesia: This involves imagining an injection of numbing anesthetic (like Novocain) into the painful area, such as imagining a numbing solution being injected into your low back. Similarly, you may then wish to imagine a soothing and cooling ice pack being placed onto the area of pain.

• Mental analgesia: Building on the mental anesthesia concept, this technique involves imagining an injection of a strong pain killer, such as morphine, into the painful area. Alternatively, you can imagine your brain producing massive amount of endorphins, the natural pain relieving substance of the body, and having them flow to the painful parts of your body

• Transfer: Use your mind to produce altered sensations, such as heat, cold, anesthetic, in a non-painful hand, and then place the hand on the painful area. Envision transferring this pleasant, altered sensation into the painful area.

• Age progression/regression: Use your mind’s eye to project yourself forward or backward in time to when you are pain-free or experiencing much less pain. Then instruct yourself to act "as if" this image were true.

• Symbolic imagery: Envision a symbol that represents your chronic pain, such as a loud, irritating noise or a painfully bright light bulb. Gradually reduce the irritating qualities of this symbol, for example dim the light or reduce the volume of the noise, thereby reducing the pain.

• Positive imagery: Focus your attention on a pleasant place that you could imagine going - the beach, mountains, etc. - where you feel carefree, safe and relaxed.

• Counting: Silent counting is a good way to deal with painful episodes. You might count breaths, count holes in an acoustic ceiling, count floor tiles, or simply conjure up mental images and count them.

• Pain movement: Move chronic back pain from one area of your body to another, where the pain is easier to cope with. For example, mentally move your chronic back pain slowly into your hand, or even out of your hand into the air.

Dr Michael Lucas

BSc DC 

(Chiropractor)

Reference:

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/chronic-pain

Drink water and reduce pain!

The vast majority of us don't drink enough water. When people drink anything it is usually loaded with caffeine, sugar/fake sugars, colourings, flavourings and in many cases, all of the above. Such drinks can actually reduce the amount of water that you retain in your body. 

The human body is made up of more water than you might have realised; your brain and spinal cord is about 70% water, your bones are about 25% water, your intervertebral discs in your spine are about 90% water. 83% of the blood in your body is water. So, it's not too surprising that without adequate water, you might not be functioning to your full potential. Water is a natural anti-inflammatory and therefore is great for reducing episodes of back/joint pain, eczema, acne etc. It keeps our urinary tracts clear of infection reducing the risk of cystitis. It helps us maintain mental clarity and overall energy. It also can help with maintaining our blood pressure and even aid in weight loss. 

Whenever you feel hungry it is actually most likely that your body is telling you to hydrate. Drink water 15-20mins before a meal and you may well find that you require less food to feel satisfied/full

Vitamin C - Essential for life

Vitamin C is possibly one of the most important vitamins of all. It helps us fend off free radicals that cause cancer and heart disease, boosts our immune system helping us to produce white blood cells and aids in growth and repair of our bodily tissues.

In order to get enough Vit C your diet needs to contain lots of fruits and vegetables (mainly vegetables). That said, the way that you prepare these foods can drastically effect the amount of Vit C you are getting. For example, heating your vegetables destroys ALL the Vit C. Freezing your fruits and veg kills off at least 50% of the Vit C. The less fresh the produce is, the less Vit C it will contain. How often you eat Vit C also matters as it only hangs around in your body for 4-5hrs. This means that you need to consistently consume foods high in Vit C in order to keep your blood levels optimal for the entire day.

Did you know that parsley, broccoli, brussel sprouts and bell peppers all contain more Vit C when measured weight-for-weight than an orange? Guava is the optimal fruit for Vit C with 4x as much as an orange. Guava for breakfast anyone?

Chew Your Food!

It sounds so obvious to say that you might think that reading this post would be a complete waste of your time. But the fact of the matter is, the majority of people (yes, probably even you) don't chew their food properly.

When we chew food, the main aim should be to break it up into smaller pieces in order for us to digest it fully. Proper digestion allows us to access all the micro and macro nutrients locked away in our meals.

Did you know that the first phase of digestion actually occurs in your mouth? Chewing food for longer allows the saliva in your mouth to coat a greater surface area of your food. This is important because saliva contains a digestive enzyme called amylase which kicks off the digestive process by breaking down starches into glucose (this is why bread tastes sweet if you hold it in your mouth for a while). 

Once this well-chewed food hits the stomach, hydrochloric acid in the stomach starts breaking food down further in addition to a whole host of other chemicals that target specific carbohydrates, proteins and fats. 

So what happens if you don't chew your food  properly? Well firstly, poor nutritional absorption. If you eat your food in huge chunks, you are simply not going to get all the goodness out of your food. 

Woofing your food down like hungry dog also tends to include a whole lot of air being swallowed at the same time, which is going to want to come out from one end or the other at some point. In addition to this, poorly digested food will ferment in the gut. Gas produced during fermentation blows back up into the oesophagus, taking some stomach acid along with it for the ride. Ever wonder why your getting so much wind, bloating, heartburn and acid reflux?  

IBS sufferers out there, chew your food well. Eat less, but eat more often - see your symptoms improve greatly. 

Overweight? Chew your food well. Allow more time to enjoy your food and feel fuller, sooner. Eating more slowly allows your body the time to produce the satiety hormone, leptin. Leptin signals that you have eaten enough and you can stop eating. Hoovering your food down before your body can signal in such a way could mean that you are consuming far more food than you really need to be. 

Move like a Caveman

Look around you. What do you see? Do you see normality in our daily activities? Is it normal to jump into the car every morning to drive half an hour to work? Is it normal for the body to be sat at a computer desk for 12 hours a day? Is it normal to watch 4 hours of television every evening? Is this a lifestyle that you believe is truly congruent with our anatomy? 

The world has become a very unfamiliar place to our bodies. Going back even just a 100 years or so we can see that there are huge changes in the type and the quality of our activity levels. If we were to go back even further to our paleolithic, stone age ancestors, we would see them walking about 5 miles every day and running in bursts to catch or hunt their prey. In addition to that they would have jumped, climbed, pushed, pulled and lifted with regularity. In short, their activity levels would have put us to absolute shame. The human body has adapted over hundreds of thousands of years to work in a very particular way. And in just a few hundred years we have managed to force it do do things very differently. That doesn't just include the way in which we move, but also the way we think and eat.

Primative movement patterns: if you want to exercise effectively and in a way that is congruent with the human body then why not check out this video explaining the 5 most essential movements that should be a big part of your daily exercise routine. Add to this some walking and running... and maybe even a little jumping for good measure.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VexzP8X2MI4

Cholesterol makes you happy!

Cholesterol has been given a hard time in the media for as long as I can remember. When I wasn't reading that cholesterol caused heart disease online or in the newspapers, I was further convinced of the fact whilst training as a chiropractor at university. It was explained to us in great detail that HDL cholesterol is GOOD and LDL cholesterol is BAD. Since then I have even read some studies that suggest that even HDL can be bad for you. The story begins to look ever more confusing until you look at the bigger picture.  Only 40% of patients diagnosed with heart disease actually have raised cholesterol levels - How do you explain the other 60%?

What you need to know first and foremost is that a cholesterol is good for you. It’s present in every single cell in your body where it helps to produce cell membranes, hormones (Oestrogen, Testosterone, Adrenalin), vitamin D and bile acids to help you digest fat. It has been shown to raise serotonin levels in the body which can make you feel happy.

In addition, cholesterol helps in the formation of your memories and is vital for neurological function, which is why it is not at all surprising that recent studies demonstrate that low cholesterol is linked to memory loss. After all, 25% of total body cholesterol is in the brain, an organ accounting for less than 2% of our body weight. 

The Risks of Low Cholesterol:

Impaired memory and dementia are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to low cholesterol’s impact on your brain. Having too little of this beneficial compound can also:

• Increase your risk of depression

• Cause suicide

• Lead to violent behavior and aggression

• Increase your risk of cancer
• Cause Alzheimer's/Parkinson’s disease

Unfortunately, the use of cholesterol lowering drugs is on the rise. Most people know someone 'struggling' to bring their levels down on doctor's orders. 

Your Cholesterol Levels Will Normalise When You Address The Cause

Contrary to popular belief, high cholesterol is not a disease in and of itself. It is actually a response to something gone awry in your body. Blaming cholesterol for heart disease would be like blaming tobacco stained fingers to lung cancer. Sure the fingers are stained, but that's not the CAUSE. Smoking is. 

Cholesterol is produced whenever your cells undergo damage. Cholesterol is a necessary component in making new, healthy cells.

So if you have a lot of damaged cells, you’re also going to have a lot of cholesterol in your bloodstream. This is a good thing in a sense, because it means your cells are being repaired. Now, while most conventional doctors would see all that cholesterol and put you on toxic cholesterol lowering drugs, a more knowledgeable doctor would search for what’s causing the damage in the first place.

And often it’s inflammation brought on by:

• A diet too high in sugar and grains

• Too many processed, overcooked foods and fats (Trans fats)

• Not enough exercise

• Emotional stress

• Smoking
• Tissue injury

The remedy involves, of course, addressing the cause(s). Whatever you do, don’t fall for the fallacy that the lower your cholesterol goes, the better. If you lower your cholesterol through artificial means (statin drugs) without addressing the underlying causes, your body will continue to degenerate. Leave the decision of how much cholesterol your body needs up to your body, and spend your time making the right lifestyle choices to keep your cells in top condition. This way you get the best of both worlds: the right amount of cholesterol and a body in tip-top shape.

Improve your Golf with Chiropractic

It’s been called the “gentleman’s game,” but more and more women are joining in as well. It's the perfect game for networking or negotiating important business deals. It's a game that, when you hit that perfect shot, fills you with joy and satisfaction. It's also a game that, with the wrong shot can send you smashing up a tree with your golf-club on the 17th green. 

So… how can chiropractic care help you to improve your golf game?

• Many golfers suffer from chronic low back pain. Back pain responds exceptionally well to chiropractic adjustments, increasing mobility and range of motion.
• Chiropractic care can help to improve posture and flexibility, two components of longer and more powerful drives.
• We become less flexible with age and immobility (working at a desk job, sitting in a car driving everyday) contributes to that as well. Swinging a golf club requires collaboration on the part of many joints from the feet up to the hands, including ankles, knees, hips, spine, elbows and wrists. Lack of flexibility contributes to many repetitive motion injuries in the joints. Chiropractic care attempts to address, correct and prevent joint injuries.
• Chiropractic care helps to improve proprioception. Proprioception is the sense of relative position of different body parts. We need good proprioception in order to co-ordinate movements such a bending, turning... and yes, hitting that troublesome tee shot. 
• When combined with stretching and corrective exercises, chiropractic care is a cost effective, all-natural way to improve mobility… which translates to consistency during the four – five hours it takes to play 18 holes.

Fancy new high-tech clubs, shoes with the right spikes and the latest golf attire do nothing to improve your game. However, increased flexibility and mobility can certainly improve your golf score. Just ask the pros – nearly 75% of them receive regular chiropractic care while on tour each year.

Jeffry H. Blanchard, golf professional and author of The Geometry of Golf stated, “The chiropractor is the perfect choice to evaluate, educate, treat, condition and train those who choose to play golf.”