Natural Pain Relief Tips

Despite pain killers being available over the counter and being marketed in child friendly varieties too, the simple fact is they are killing people every day in Europe and the USA.

16,000 people die every year in Europe from Aspirin. The US Food and Drug Administration's own best estimate is that 200,000 cases of gastric bleeding occur with these kinds of drugs each year, including 10,000-20,000 deaths. In the UK, some 4000 people die each year from these drugs - twice the number of deaths from asthma.

Apart from death, here are some other side effects: heartburn, abdominal pain, nausea, ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding, increased problems in patients with ulcers, mental depression, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), weight gain, swelling in the lower extremities, vomiting, changes in eyesight or hearing, nosebleeds, drowsiness, confusion and constipation, Parkinson's disease, and hair and fingernail loss; they can also damage the liver and kidneys, and increase the risk of high blood pressure (hypertension), especially when taken in large doses.

Not everybody gets side effects, but there are safer ways to ease pain for those that can't tolerate the drugs, or simply don't want to take the risk.

When you go to a normal GP or MD, who is usually up to thier neck in trying to cope with often life threatening problems, they only really have one main option - a pill.

Out in the real world, where drugs often don't produce the desired results there are many alternatives. There are indeed many pills - herbs, spices, vitamins, amino acids and minerals that can help speed up the heeling process and ease pain; but there are also physical therapies such as massage and chiropractic; modalities such as TENS, cold laser and ultasound; herbal patches; homeopathy; muscle rubs; acupuncture; and a whole lot of other stuff.

I will start off with some very, very simple basics though and as time permits, add more to this page.

The simplest and most underused and under-rated form of natural pain relief - water. Good old H2O.

When you first sustain an injury, or if a pain appears from nowhere, then it's usually a good idea to ice it, or run it under cold water. It's great to have an maleable ice pack always in the freezer - or cloth made damp water then frozen - for such occaisions. You can compress the ice pack on the painfull area for upto 10 minutes per hour. Be careful not to apply an ice pack directly to the skin - its good to use a slightly damp cloth between it and you.

Ice can be used every hour for the first 3 days as it helps bring down swelling, numbs the pain and decreases scar tissue formation.

After 3 days you can add in some warmth - a hot bath, shower, hot water bottle etc. After cooling down an area of pain for 5-10 minutes you can then GENTLY heat it up again for 5 - 10 minutes. After heating you can ice again and keep on swapping every 5-10 minutes. Make sure that this is a gentle process as you don't want to burn yourself with heat or ice.

The theory with alternating hot and cold is that this contracts then relaxes the effected tissue.

You will proably find that heating will feel better than ice as time goes on so over a perios of about a week you should increase the heating time up to 1/2 hour, while keeping ice at 5 minutes.

After a week you will find heat alone to be best.

For chronic pain (pain that has been around for more than 6 weeks) you will find heating for 20-40 minutes per hour of great benefit as this increases circulation and relaxes muscle tension. no matter what part of the body your pain is in you'll most likely find hugging a hot water bottle to your tummmy very soothing.

So you can use hot water, you can use cold water, but drinking it is also very effective for pain relief.

If your body dehydrates the tissues contract and your other fluids concentrate. With only minor levels of dehyration you will get headaches. Chronic low level dehydration can lead to aches and pains throughout the body and even disc injuries. This is why when I see patients with back problems one of the first things I get them to do is drink more water. Some experts think that dehydration can cause very seriuos health conditions so I sugest drinking enough water to make you go to the toilet once per hour (in the day).

Check below for more about water.

As well as icing, heating and drinking water, the next easiest thing to do is either rest, or exercise.

Eight times out of ten your body will give very clear signals as to when to rest and when to exercise. Geneally you should rest for no more than 3 days though, then try to increase movement. If your body feels like it need to rest longer and you haven't already sought professional help then go get some!

Of all the exercises walking is the one we should be doing the most, but it will depend on the exact nature of your injury/pain as to which exercise may be best. If your current exercise/movement pattern is making you worse - stop it; if your current exercise is not making you feel better - rest or change it.

The most commonly used supplements to help with pain are those used for artritis - fish oils and glucosamine sulphate.

Although glucosamine sulphate undoubtably works miracles on some people (it ususally taks 3 months of full strength supplementation at 1500mg day for effects to be felt), and some long term studies on arthritis using X-rays have confirmed it's use in protecting the joint; other studies have found it of little benefit when taken as a supplement. My own clinical experience also leads me to doubt its usefullness, but I have seen more relief given by using glucosamine gell rubbed directly onto the painfull area.

Fish oil is a different matter. Of all supplements I think this one is king. Almost anyone can benefit in some way from taking it - as long as it is 'pharmaceutical grade', which means that it has been molecualr distilled to remove as many harmfull toxins as possible. The toxins come from all the pollution we dump into the oceans and are more liely to be found in cod liver oil than other fish oils. I recommend 5ml (1 teaspoon) per day for wellness, and up to 6 per day for pain relief - for short periods. Before taking fish oil in such large amounts you should check that it does not interfere with any medication or other health problem you may have.

There is more detailed information about fish oils on my main website and blog.