Chronic Pain: Natural Treatments
Medicines can help us relieve pain, but not cure it. We can also adopt healthy eating habits and a positive attitude.
Pain is that invisible enemy that makes you prisoners. The one who locks you in her cell in order to get away from what is around. It sometimes prevents you from immersing yourself in the routine or the work. Then family and friends are pushed aside because of this chronic pain.
Without a doubt, the pain immobilizes, and when it persists over time and becomes “chronic”. It is important that a new approach where drugs are not the only and indispensable resource is explored. Moreover, medicine is still looking for the magic remedy, for the moment without much success.
People with fibromyalgia, for example, have yet to find the perfect recipe for solving their disease. Chronic pain is a complex disease where several factors that we know are intertwined: physical, psychological and neurological factors.
Pain is a challenge, we know it, but we all have enough weapons to deal with it and achieve a better quality of life. See how to face it:
What type of pain do I suffer from?
The first essential step is to identify what is causing this chronic pain. The medical diagnoses will give us an idea of what is going on. However, you need to know the difference between “pain” and “chronic pain”.
For example, an accident, a fracture, or an operation are situations where the pain is normal. But when this feeling extends beyond six months, your life begins to take a whole new turn : consumption of drugs, loss of energy, motivation, not being able to do certain things …
In front of you seems to open the door of darkness in which you are trapped, and the most difficult for example is the case of people with fibromyalgia, where the diagnosis is slow to come. Months and even years can pass without arriving at a clear answer as to the origins of the widespread ill-being that prevents those who suffer from it from leading normal lives.
Knowing what is going on in our body is the first step in this process of seeking a better quality of life.
Typically our pain experience is momentary or transient, relieved by rest or a pill. It does not affect the normal rhythm of our existence. But when the diagnosis that the pain is prolonged over time is made, it sometimes has an impact on the vital processes of the sufferer.
A techniques for chronic pain
Professionally
You feel limited or handicapped. Then, the delays or the drop in performance begin … The feeling of handicap and the fear of being made redundant increase.
Socially
We note that the person affected by chronic pain begins to distance themselves from friends or family and lacks the motivation to go out and enjoy any leisure time.
Relationships Following Chronic Pain
Often, for affected family members or partners, the mood is not the same and they may even feel misunderstood by those close to them.
Chronic pain is something that is felt only by the affected person. However, don’t shut us down or spend your time constantly thinking about it.
Once the diagnosis is established, the next step is acceptance, a step where you are allowed to feel anxiety, anger and fear in the face of suffering. Acceptance is a process by which a palette of feelings and emotions will emerge that you must identify in order to better face them. Then, this is where the knowledge of the simple technique of the three “A” becomes essential.
Accept, but not avoid
You assume you have chronic pain, but that doesn’t have to be inevitable. In addition, the person should not miss out on their life and what defines them as a person: seek support around you, face each moment with as much energy as possible.
Agree to continue experimenting
Your daily life forces you to move on, providing you with sensations and emotions that you should not dismiss.
Acceptance is synonymous with compromise
You have understood that you are suffering from a specific disease, that pain will be present on specific occasions. But you also have to make a commitment to face it, to adjust your goals to your abilities, in order to get the most benefits possible.
Accepting doesn’t mean staying in pain
Not at all. You have to dive into a psycho-physiological process to reduce fear and avoid depression. The goal is to accept a new personal role, to face life with optimism and confidence in yourself.
Opening new doors in the face of chronic pain
Sometimes your efforts to deal with chronic pain can lead you to certain vicious circles that are not going to help solve the problem. An example would be criticism of the family, who do not understand the situation you are going through. But still, she might think that the disease itself is going to confine you, isolate you in bed at the mercy of medical treatment.
Fear and anxiety can lead you to depression; you must be able to develop your own resources to take new paths and open new doors.
It is thus forbidden to take refuge in your isolation. Here, social and emotional support is essential to maintain personal balance. Talking with family, friends, doctors, psychologists or even associations, will help you to be strong and especially to understand that you are not alone.
The weapons of your thought
Emotions directly affect our sense of pain. On days when we are more stressed or in mourning, the pain we feel has a greater impact on our body. What if we learned to control our thoughts, to turn them in a positive direction whenever possible?
If negative thinking is harmful to you, it is better to recognize those moments when the pain begins to emerge: in the morning, for example, jumping out of bed with that feeling that the body obeys you more … Forbid you think ” I can not “ , ” I will not be able to do that “ ; change that negativity to ” I will try “ , or better yet, ” I will succeed” .
Time can wait
You must understand that you need other rhythms: life is not a race but a path leading us to happiness. It is clear that we have obligations and that the pain will sometimes not allow you to achieve all of these goals written in your mind … Your body now needs a little more time for normal activities, and it should not be. fall into the two most common mistakes:
- To comply with your obligations, you tend to cut out activities that are pleasurable to you. Like going for a coffee, playing with your children at the park… It will end up making your days gray. Your personal time is irreplaceable.
- The second mistake is to take advantage of these days when you are feeling better to fulfill all of your obligations. This will cause unnecessary overexertion that will make the pain even worse the next day.
It is therefore important to control the requirement of oneself and know how to take a break to enjoy life. But also, delegating tasks and not overloading your shoulders with too heavy a burden.
The treasure of our values
While we are terrified of the idea, sometimes pain can limit certain aspects of life, which will determine whether you may need to stop working, or stop certain activities that were once important to you.
It is possible but also opens a new stage which consists in rethinking many aspects of your life, such as its value. What is really important to me? What do I like the most? Do I always act with my own principles?
It is therefore essential to ask all these questions and determine whether it is time to act on these principles, in accordance with what is really important.
A gift to our body: relaxation
The so-called Jacobson relaxation technique is one of the best. It is based on the action of stretching and relaxing the different muscle groups of the body, which eliminates the stiffness of the limbs, in order to immerse you in a state of calm and relaxation. So just find a quiet corner in your home and start practicing it every day. You will notice the benefits in no time.
How to eat to relieve pain?
The exclusive use of the drugs will not help you solve the pain problem or make it go away. On the other hand, it will allow you to attenuate it. Hence the importance of keeping a balance by also relying on good eating habits, which tends to help organizations with chronic pain.
Foods you should not eat in chronic pain
- Very sweet, refined or fried products.
- Cow’s milk, which in addition to being fatty, can also contain toxins that are dangerous for our body.
- Proteins of animal origin, such as sausages or foods high in oxalate or uric acid, such as red meat.
Recommended foods for chronic pain
- Fresh vegetables, especially carrots, garlic, onion, celery, aloe.
- Foods rich in potassium, zinc, selenium and silicon, highly recommended for treating fibromyalgia.
- Vegetable fats such as olive, sesame or sunflower oil.
- Whole grains like amaranth, millet, corn, etc. rich in protein, vitamins and minerals.
- Magnesium, which plays an essential role in the process of muscle contraction. Indeed, in case of deficit, the body suffers from apathy, weakness, cramps …
- Antioxidants: vitamin C, A and E, in carrots, orange, avocado, lemon …
- Food supplements: honey, seaweed, chlorophyll, flax seeds, aloe vera juice or Goji berries are supplements that will help us eliminate toxins and small wastes accumulated in our body.
- Vegetable oils and milks. Soy or almond milk, for example, is an essential source of calcium.
Sample menus for chronic pain relief
Just when you wake up
You can start with a lemon juice squeezed in hot water. Drinking in small sips will serve to purify the body. Do not take anything for the next half hour.
Breakfast
A bowl of fruit with a cup of soy milk: oranges, pineapples, bananas, all accompanied by nuts.
Lunch
Brown rice, a blue fish with boiled vegetables, seasoned with olive oil. We can accompany it with juice or simply with water.
Having dinner
Whole oats with soy milk, accompanied by a vegetarian sandwich with salmon. There are really tasty recipes. For example, sandwiches whose vegetables, in addition to being excellent for our health, can compose very attractive dishes. For dessert, cherries are fruit rich in vitamins and very effective in relieving pain.
Waking up day in and day out with pain is, unfortunately, an experience that limits your life and can sometimes plunge you into a state of sadness that is difficult to get out of. Fibromyalgia, arthritis, back pain and even lupus are complex diseases that affect the optimal development of life, but you should not see them as disabling or paralyzing situations.
Chronic pain doesn’t have to be a defining label. On the contrary, it is a challenge and an opportunity to get to know each other better. But also, to understand your possibilities and your values. Indeed, the quality of life depends directly on the state of mind and the will to face it day after day. With, of course, positive thoughts coupled with words of encouragement such as: “I can”.
