6 ways to take control of pain

[Deleted User]

6 ways to take control of pain | Inspire Magazine

"The latest findings from health experts reveal there’s a lot you can do to tackle pain and boost your wellbeing – with no meds required"

http://www.inspirearthritiscare.org.uk/features/6-ways-to-take-control-of-pain

Mod B

stickywicket

What????

"Walking barefoot outside – ideally on damp grass or sand – not only feels good, it does good. It’s particularly helpful for inflammatory conditions such as arthritis because the positive flow of energy from the earth to the body effectively neutralises the free radicals (unstable cells) that cause damage and chronic inflammation in the body. ‘Think of it as quenching the fire of inflammation,’ says Dr Mercola"


I was moved to check out said Dr Mercola. Here are some of his other publications:

The Great Bird Flu Hoax: The Truth They Don’t Want You to Know About the ‘Next Big Pandemic’
The No Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction and Stay Slim for Life
Fluoride and Apoptosis: Trading Dental Caries for Cellular Death?
Premarital HIV Testing

He seems to be an expert on everything.

Come on, Arthritis Care. You can do better than this mumbo jumbo.

Sharon2960

What a load of codswallop!

If my feet make contact with damp grass, I know about it for several days afterwards, and not in a good way!

Jen

Great link Mob B



I'm walloping the cod

Here is a page from arthritis care on pain:

http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/arthritis-and-daily-life/pain-and-arthritis.aspx

[Deleted User]

Hi - back after a break and return to see that I need to check on what is posted on Inspire Magazine before linking it here...

Extraordinary!

:island-shark:

Mod B

OliverT

So what 6 ways of dealing with pain do you suggest instead?

Rather than rubbishing someone elses ways, why not just say that it is something that you personally do not understand?

For me, currently, my 6 are as follows, and no I do not expect anyone to understand all of them least of all myself, so no more of that back-chat ok?

1. Exercise. Whether that's standing in water and waving my arms around or even swimming in it, or just going up the stairs one time more than is actually required.

2. Beauty. Looking at it in pictures, or finding myself in the oddest places.

3. Diet. Not as in trying to lose weight or anything too prescribed, I mean working out what causes you inflammation and avoiding it. For me, red wine, grapefruit, too much beer (I know) and too much red meat.

4. Chi-gung. It's powerful stuff.

5. Turmeric. I try to take a teaspoon or two a day. It's well known as a powerful anti-oxidant and there is some evidence that it could be an anti-inflammatory and anti-depressant too so win-win-win!

6. Lemsip and a ****. Cures everything. Allegedly.

What's your's?

Edited by Moderator JK

ITLSusan

Good post Oliver!

Diet, beauty, supplements - none of that works for me.

- Self belief is my number one. Hard to explain exactly what I mean. I guess it's multi-dimensional. But I KNOW I will overcome anything. When someone tries to make me doubt myself that's when pain will start to sneak in. Looking back, I realize there have been a few really painful times but they don't register. I guess I feel them at the time then they get wiped from my memory because I'm 100% clear in my mind I'm not a person that has pain. It really does work for me.

- 2. Exercise is the number two. Not a case of 'i feel sore so I'll go exercise'. But being fit and strong shores up dysfunction thus eliminating many kinds of pain. It makes you feel like an athlete rather than an old invalid - sounds silly, but sore joints from hard training is a lot less bothersome than equally sore joints from being an invalid with an incurable disease! Training hard most days ensures a steady stream of endorphin's.

- 3. Trigger point therapy - works miracles! Eliminates many painful conditions that stump docs and physios and lets you keep training hard and enjoying sports.

- 4. This video was the catalyst for getting me out of 6 months of bad, chronic pain (along with a CBT technique called 'anchoring'):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3NmTE-fJSo

- 5. Amytriptiline (sp?) for nerve pain - you NEED help if nerves get irritated. I know the article said no meds needed but in my experience this is the exception to the rule. You need to get those irritated nerves settled down so you can get back to beating your condition!

- 6. Struggling to think of a number 6. Heat I guess.

stickywicket

I'm sorry, Mod B, but I've only just seen your second post. I agree, the usually excellent Inspire magazine came a cropper there. Maybe it was the wet grass

Which 6 ways would I advocate, Oliver? Well, I'd start with Arthritis Care's own Pathway Through Arthritis, an excellent, comprehensive online course on the many ways we can deal with this disease.

Next – a sensible diet, the right kind of exercise and obviously smoking is a nono.

The discernment to prioritise the essentials from the non-essentials of life.

The ability to adapt and change – constantly.

Laughter and friendship. A great deal of both especially if the former is directed at oneself.

The essential medication always: pain relief when necessary.

(I'm afraid Lem Sip is out for any of us who take paracetamol in any form and the other for the vast majority of arthritis sufferers.)

ITLSusan – I'm atruggling to reconcile your 'I'm 100% clear in my mind I'm not a person that has pain.' with your ' Amytriptiline (sp?) for nerve pain '

ITLSusan

Stickywicket - everyone gets pain from time to time. Even frequently.

If you believe you're a person that suffers pain it can linger. You remember it and in your mind you're a chronic pain sufferer. If you believe it to just be a temporary blip - that you're not someone that has a problem with pain - then the moment the pain passes you forget about it. When asked your first response tends to be "no - I never have pain with it" - then on further reflection you realize that you can actually come up with quite a list of pain episodes! So yes, when the pain is actually there then you have to do something to get rid of it (and with irritated nerves I think drugs to settle nerve pain is prudent). But once it passes it's as if it never happened. And that I think makes you less likely to have more pain in the future. If you look at the 'pain - is it all in the mind' video that will make more sense.

Another example is when you think of cause of pain. As I said, when training - especially in my martial arts training days - you get a LOT of pain just from that training. But it has good connotations. It doesn't bother you. Similar pain from an incurable disease has bad connotations and that tends to cause your brain to amplify the pain.

Mindset is HUGE when it comes to pain (for me at least).

stickywicket

Thank you for the lesson in pain perception. I don't actually see myself as a chronic pain sufferer. I never have done. I see myself as a graduate, wife, mother, grandmother, with good family relationships all round and, in a minor way, a published author. All of these things I have achieved while having the pain of RA. They are what I am. RA and its pain are merely what I have. It does not define me but it's a fact of my life. I will not deny it because I believe in facing unpalatable truths head on.

ITLSusan

You're very welcome stickywicket. Always happy to answer questions about what works for me.

OliverT

Heh - it seems I've been moderated. I actually went and read the T+Cs after posting, and found some rather victorian attitudes are still in vogue here. So not support in all forms then, just the ones that the prurient find acceptable!

Ho hum - not my forum, not my rules, no problem.

As for the other being unachievable for many arthritis sufferers, I wonder if that that's either down to a lack of inclination or imagination?

ITLSusan

What have you been moderated for Oliver? I thought you were doing a lovely job of trying to get some uplifting, helpful conversation going

ITLSusan

Ahh - I looked up prurient in the dictionary and now I know! LOL I thought for a minute you were moderated for being too upbeat and positive!

mellman01

Well the only thing I've found work is Boron and Cymbalta, the Boron helps with bone growth and stabilises the damaged area, please note it's best to take in bouts and not all the time as it can deplete certain vitamins from the body but that said I take it for a month at a stretch in 2x3mg capsules and have a few weeks off and I'm fine if there is such a thing these days?, Now I have suffered with very severe associated neuropathic pain since a double knee OP in 2008 and to be honest it's been getting considerably worse over the past year or so and around the time it did I found a drug called Cymbalta in a desperate web search, I've tried anti convulsants and they made me seriously sick so I gave them up in short order and since then I'd just tried to struggle along but it was getting so bad during a flare I was throwing up in the middle of the night so a while back I asked my GP for Cymbalta but had held off using them for around a year, however the other month I'd suffered a big flare I was being sick for over a week and had stopped eating as I just didn't feel I wanted to eat, the flare was going then I got all the signs of it coming back so I dug out the tablets and took them and they worked to some degree, OK I still get to the point where I can throw up but I don't feel half as ill as I did, one other thing they do is give you a mood boost as they act on serotonin uptake in brain, oddly pre flare I'd always get really down but now I am fine mood wise in fact I feel rather chipper most of the time which is an added bonus, all I pray now is they carry on working because I seriously worry about them failing and the attacks coming back as before.

TrishaW

Love your ideas Oliver....sense of humour has to be up there if you have arthritis

I'd also add SINGING! May sound weird but i've recently joined a local singing group (no skill required) for all ages/disabilities etc etc. After belting out some tunes I can feel my mood lifting and I come home a very different person from the one who left.

Also I'm lucky enough to live near the sea, and for me if i'm struggling just watching the waves and the changing sky is both uplifting and invigorating.

I've also recently discovered watercolour painting to be a great distraction if i'm stuck at home unable to go out. I find writing and typing painful, but losely holding a paintbrush dosn't hurt! Amazing! I went to a couple of classes and now I just love it.

Also the obvious-ice or heat.

Mindfulness Meditation .Years ago I did a course on 'mindfulness for pain and illness' at the local Buddhist Center -i don't practice as much as i should but turn to it when i feel I'm 'losing it' and overwhelmed)

Going in a hydrotherapy pool with some floats and splashing about a bit without putting strain on the bad bits, followed by a 'treat' in the cafe next door!

Trisha x

Frose

1. My go-to for pain relief is drugs, I'm afraid (paracetamol, tramadol and oramorph).
2. I spend time every day meditating and learning about mindfulness and how this can help you cope with pain better. It has certainly helped me a great deal.
3. I do find heat helpful, I use either a hot water bottle or heat pad as I can't get in and out of the bath without hurting myself.
4. Gentle stretching or physio exercises
5. Watching comedy
6. Reading (either some good fiction or Mindfulness for Health or Living with pain)
7. Spending time playing with my cats

also...
8. Browsing this forum
9. Reading literature for Arthritis Care or NRAS
10. Making a cup of tea and paying attention to it when drinking
11. Listening to music
12. Eating a good balanced diet

... now, if only I could consistently but this in place.... I keep getting knocked off by extreme fatigue and anxiety. A work in progress!!