Managing Daily Pain - With Effective Natural Painkillers and Lifestyle Modifications It is estimated that almost 85 million people in America live with chronic pain. This number is absolutely staggering. Living with chronic pain, regardless of the actual physical cause, can be the most trying of life events you've ever had to overcome. Many living with daily pain have actually had thoughts of suicide, just to stop feeling the pain. While that may be the most extreme case, it is telling of the impact that pain has on our lives. It robs us of our life enjoyment, of our functioning and productivity, and our will to live. Some of the most powerful prescribed painkillers such as Hydrocodone and Oxycontin, are very effective at pain management, but often times lead to serious addiction when taken over longer periods of time for chronic pain. Some patients may even start taking more and more, as the effects of smaller dosages begin to not have the desired effect on their particular disorder. High Profile Addiction - It Can Happen to Us All Take for example, TV and radio personality Rush Limbaugh's admission that he had become seriously and debilitatingly addicted to the powerful and highly addictive drug Ocycontin for years after a spinal injury. This drug actually has been demonstrated to have similar effects to heroin when ground up and taken as a powder. For this reason, Oxycontin is heavily sold on the black market, since doctors can only prescribe it for the patient for as long as they need it for their injuries. Another celebrity, Matthew Perry of hit TV show "Friends" fame, was seriously addicted to prescription painkillers, more specifically Vicodin, after a jet skiing accident. There are storie like this all over, you just don't hear about them as often because they happen to everyday "citizens" like you and I. Some simple lifestyle tips to help manage chronic pain are as follows: 1.) Try a natural pain management remedy. There are some great ones out there that attack pain the same way prescription anti inflammatories do, only they do it naturally, with no harmful side effects, and without risk of addiction. 2.) Get a good Vitamin D supplement. It has been shown in studies that Vitamin D helps strengthen bone and muscle tissue. Strengthening connective tissues and actual bone mass has been demonstrated to help prevent chronic pain from occurring. 3.) Stretch! If you visit a physical therapist, massage therapist, or holistic doctor for your pain, they will communicate to you which stretches are best for your particular area of pain. Movement and stretching is a must in preventing muscle cramping and nerve damage that can lead to chronic pain (sciatica is a good example of this - sitting too long aggravates this condition). 4.) Make sure you get quality sleep every night. Sleep is the body's way of healing itself form the daily traumas we subject our body to. It is restorative and recouperative in nature, and skipping it or not getting enough of a quality sleeping pattern can aggravate many painful conditions. 5.) Eating a balanced diet low in "inflammatory" foods such as sugars and high glycemic impact carbs is going to benefit you more than you can imagine. This helps reduce inflammation, which is the primary cause of most types of pain. If you follow these lifestyle tips, and find yourself a good natural chronic pain management remedy, you will be well on your way to living a pain free life again. |
