Ten Easy Techniques for Pain ManagementWritten by Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed.
These techniques are helpful for Chronic Pain such as headaches, Migraines, myofacial pain, muscular and connective tissue pain, organ pain and just pain in general. 1. Go Into Your Pain Allow your pain to consume you and become one with it. Don’t resist it. Just let it exist in its fullest extent. Welcome it and embrace it. When you resist pain it becomes stagnant, if you go into it, it will flow through you. This doesn’t eliminate pain, but releases power it has over you and changes it form, therefore allowing you to function within it. 2. Breathe deep into pain. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose with your mouth shut. The abdomen should distend on inhale, not your chest, and then exhale very slowly while focusing your mind and your breath into area of pain. In your minds eye direct your breath into pain. Visualize breath flowing into painful area and melting it away. Do this repeatedly until you feel it begin to release and then move to another pain area and begin again. It may take several breaths to release it. It may also take a lot of practice to train your mind to focus into pain. I find this exercise more effective when I can close my eyes, but it is also helpful when your driving or in public places by doing breathing without closing eyes. 3. Stretch your face and jaw Open your mouth as wide as it will go and then gently push it to go a little wider. When you feel muscles in your jaw and head pulling and tingling then relax it. This will probably be excruciating and bring tears in your eyes, but it will release pain and you will have a lot of relief afterwards. Then pull your lips forward over your teeth and stretch front face muscles. Experiment a bit, wherever you feel pain and pull and stretch jaw in different directions until it hurts so bad you can’t stand it and then relax it. After doing this several times then do breathing into exercise described above and breath into all jaw muscles and connective tissue in shoulders and collar bone. 4. Self Massage and apply pressure to trigger points Gently massage area with pain. Use your 2nd and 3rd fingers to rub softly in a circular motion. This is also helpful on painful organs. Massage trigger points on collarbone, back of head or wherever they may be for you. Sometimes it is more effective to use thumb for deep penetration into areas such as collarbone. Gently press into trigger points until again it feels like you will go through ceiling and bring tears to your eyes and then release pressure. Do this several times to each painful or tender area. Sometimes just laying hands on painful area can give it some relief. After applying pressure to painful areas and releasing then do breathing into technique described above. 5. Take a Hot Shower Stand in shower with water as hot as you can tolerate and let it flow gently over painful areas. Also shut bathroom door and all windows so heat can build up in room. It is also helpful to apply pressure to trigger points, do gentle massage and do breathing into exercise while you’re in shower. 6. Have an Orgasm or Two An orgasm can bring about incredible relief to a severe headache, generalized muscular pain, and even a migraine. If you have one at beginning of your migraine it is possible at times to stop it from progressing. Of course when you are in pain you may not feel like having sex, and you certainly don’t want to get into habit of using sex as a pain reliever, but using it therapeutically now and then is very beneficial. If you can muster up desire and your partner is willing then act of sex itself, if you allow yourself to become immersed in it, can provide great relief by drawing your attention away from your pain. When you have an orgasm it has a natural pain killing effect on body. When sex is not desired and to avoid using sex too often for relief, then masturbation that ends with an orgasm will produce exact same pain killing effects. For women, getting a clit stimulator, which can bring about orgasm quickly, is very useful. That way you don’t have to spend much time at it. For men, well most men now how to handle themselves to bring about an orgasm in a rather short amount of time. If not feel free to talk to me about this.
| | Addressing Alcoholism with Diet and NutritionWritten by Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed.
Alcoholism is a very complex problem that is rampant in our society and has many variables that need to be addressed simultaneously. The success rate with mainstream treatment options is poor at best. The nutrition and diet components are rarely addressed and most people are unaware of their extreme significance. It is not widely known that Bill Wilson, one of founders of AA was aware of importance of vitamins and hypoglycemia in treatment of alcoholism. Before his death he was trying to educate physicians about these issues. (Null 95, Larson 92) After losing a son who had tried all traditional approaches to alcoholism, Joan Larson researched with passion of a mother on a mission and wrote a detailed comprehensive book that emphasizes importance of addressing diet and nutrition in treatment of alcoholism. In her treatment Center, The Health Recovery Center, they maintain a 75% success rate with an approach that addresses issues such as making diet changes, eliminating sugar and refined foods, supplementing numerous vitamins, amino acids and minerals which are most often depleted in alcoholics, treating hypoglycemia and treating food allergies. Her book provides very specific guidelines necessary to take beginning with detox and continuing through recovery. She discovered it is necessary to make biochemical repairs in order to achieve success and prevent relapse. It is a “must have” book for anyone involved in treatment of alcoholism. Randolph (80) contends that alcoholism is not a mental sickness, but rather it is a symptom of advanced food allergy. In his practice he has found that it is not alcohol that one is addicted to it is food source of which alcoholic beverage is made of. Alcoholic beverages are made of food such as grains like barley, corn, cane or grapes. Alcoholics have a food allergy to these. In advanced food allergy individual craves allergic food. Randolph proposes that alcoholic is craving beverage is made from not alcohol itself. The alcohol serves as a catalyst to help food be absorbed more quickly, because alcohol is absorbed rapidly throughout gastrointestinal tract. This is why most alcoholics struggle to stay sober and relapse is so common. Because, when alcoholics put alcohol down they are continuing to eat sugar, corn, etc., and when they eat these foods it triggers cravings. The food itself cannot provide quick fix that alcohol can provide because of its rapid absorption. Pfeiffer(80) has found that people with addictions have high levels of histamine which he states results in compulsive behavior. He has had success using calcium, methioninine and a low protein high carbohydrate diet in treating not only compulsive behavior, but also depression. There is considerable data that supports notion that most alcoholics are hypoglycemic. (Larson 92, Airola 77) There is a reciprocal relationship between two. Chronic drinking just like excessive sugar contributes to development of hypoglycemia just as people with hypoglycemia are potential candidates for alcoholism. Hypoglycemia can cause irritability, depression, aggressiveness, insomnia, fatigue, restlessness, confusion, a desire to drink and nervousness, many of same symptoms of an alcoholic. (Larson 92) When an alcoholic gets sober symptoms listed above continue to plaque them and if hypoglycemia is not addressed these symptoms leave individual at high risk of relapsing in order to temporarily relieve these symptoms.
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