Living with Chronic Pain is never easy. You’re desperate for the pain to end, but most doctors are unprepared in helping you live with Chronic Pain. They seem to be limited to treatments like prescription medications and that’s about it.

There are many ways that you can help improve the quality of your life and I’d like to share several of them with you. I have not personally tried every technique listed, but all of them are worth investigating so you can gather as much information as possible on whether they are worth it for you. Let’s get started.

Massage

There are various types of massage available and all of them have the potential of making your Chronic Pain feel better. Styles include:

Each style works the Body in a different way and all styles have the ability to help with:

• Fatigue or pain caused by cancer
• Back pain and stiffness
• Osteoarthritis in the knee
• Post-operative recovery and pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome relief
• Fibromyalgia
• Boosting immune system function
• Decreasing frequency of headaches
• Blood pressure
• Alcohol withdrawal symptoms

This is a great link to the many types of massage and what they can do for you

Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a discipline that is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially the spine. Chiropractors have proposed, especially those in the field’s early history, that such disorders affect general health via the nervous system

Chiropractic care provides diagnosis and treatment without the use of drugs or surgery for problems related to your muscles, joints, nerves, and spine. Common conditions that are treated include low back pain, neck pain, sciatica, headaches, and sprains. Chiropractic doctors can also provide advice on nutrition and exercise to support recovery and promote prevention.

Ayurveda

Ayurvedic medicine (“Ayurveda” for short) is one of the world’s oldest holistic (“whole-body”) healing systems. It was developed more than 3,000 years ago in India.

It’s based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit. Its main goal is to promote good health, not fight disease. But treatments may be geared toward specific health problems.

In North America, it’s considered a form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Students of CAM therapy believe that everything in the universe – dead or alive – is connected. If your mind, body, and spirit are in harmony with the universe, you have good health. When something disrupts this balance, you get sick. Among the things that can upset this balance are genetic or birth defects, injuries, climate and seasonal change, age, and your emotions.

Those who practice Ayurveda believe every person is made of five basic elements found in the universe: space, air, fire, water, and earth. These combine in the human body to form three life forces or energies, called doshas. They control how your body works. They are Vata dosha (space and air); Pitta dosha (fire and water); and Kapha dosha (water and earth).

Everyone inherits a unique mix of the three doshas. But one is usually stronger than the others. Each one controls a different body function. It’s believed that your chances of getting sick — and the health issues you develop — are linked to the balance of your doshas.

Ayurvedic Treatment

An Ayurvedic practitioner will create a treatment plan specifically designed for you. He’ll take into account your unique physical and emotional makeup, your primary life force, and the balance between all three of these elements.

The goal of treatment is to cleanse your body of undigested food, which can stay in your body and lead to illness. The cleansing process—called “panchakarma”— is designed to reduce your symptoms and restore harmony and balance.

To achieve this, an Ayurvedic practitioner might rely on blood purification, massage, medical oils, herbs, and enemas or laxatives.

Reiki

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. Many have reported miraculous results.

Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use. It may be effective in helping Chronic Pain, and generally creates a beneficial effect. It may also work in conjunction with other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery.

Myofascial Blasting

Healthline.com says that in recent years, the treatment of fascia has exploded in popularity. The idea is that the fascia, or myofascial tissue, contributes to pain and cellulite when it’s tight.

For this reason, fascia manipulation, a technique that aims to loosen the fascia through physical manipulation and pressure, has become a trending topic in the health and wellness realm.

One widely popular method is fascia blasting. This technique uses a tool that’s designed to loosen the fascia, which is supposed to reduce pain and cellulite.

The always excellent blogsite The Zebra Pit has some wonderful posts about Myofascial Blasting and you can find them all here.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

A non-physical method of managing Chronic Pain, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, aka CBT is a structured, time-limited, problem-focused and goal oriented form of psychotherapy. CBT helps people learn to identify, question and change how their thoughts, attitudes and beliefs relate to the emotional and behavioural reactions that cause them difficulty.

It works on Chronic Pain by helping to remove limiting thoughts about your pain, and move you towards a better understanding of what pain is, and how you can manage it. Pain doesn’t always mean something is getting worse…and when we catastrophize pain, we can actually amplify it. By using CBT, you:

• identify distortions in your thinking
• see thoughts as ideas about what is going on, rather than as facts
• stand back from your thinking to consider situations from different viewpoints.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that has been practiced for centuries. It’s based on the theory that energy, called chi (pronounced “chee”), flows through and around your body along pathways called meridians.

Acupuncturists believe that illness occurs when something blocks or unbalances your chi. Acupuncture is a way to unblock or influence chi and help it flow back into balance.

Acupuncture is done by putting very thin needles into your skin at certain points on your body. This is done to influence the energy flow. Sometimes heat, pressure, or mild electrical current is used along with needles

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many alternative forms of treatment that might be worth looking into. Which ones have you tried already? Which ones would you like to try? Leave your comments below. Remember,

There Is Always Hope

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