Reduce Chronic Pain – Improve the Quality of Your Life

By Contributing Author, Ainsley Lawrence

As we age, we get a lot of use out of our bodies. Depending on your lifestyle, you may start to experience constant aches and pains early on — especially if you’ve lived a very physically active life.

However, you may be able to postpone chronic pain by taking care of your body. This can involve taking steps to keep your spine healthy and exercising regularly to keep your body strong. When this fails, we can start to look for some of the many natural resources that can help treat our chronic pain.

Chronic Pain Impact

Chronic pain is extremely common. According to the CDC, about 20.4% of Americans were living with chronic pain in 2016. Of these, 8% of adults experienced pain that kept them from participating in a major activity. This can have a huge impact on a person’s quality of life, which is why it’s important to find ways to treat pain.

When possible, it’s often more effective and safer to treat chronic pain without opioids. Prescription opioids like Oxycontin, Hydrocodone, and Vicodin are all highly addictive.

They can be dangerous — and even fatal — when taken in excess.

Addiction can occur after taking opioids only a few times, and it can be very difficult to overcome, often requiring the use of prescription drugs like Suboxone to treat a person’s opioid drug dependence.

Natural Ways to Alleviate Chronic Pain

Fortunately, there are many natural ways to treat chronic pain that can be highly beneficial. Whether you participate in physical therapy, meditate, or use natural herbs and supplements, you’re likely to find a treatment method that will help you relax and quell the constant pain you’re experiencing.

You deserve relief from chronic pain, and trying a variety of treatments will help you find those that will allow you to live a better and happier life.

Mindfulness

People often underestimate the power of their own minds. Your brain controls all of your thoughts and feelings, which are directly tied to your emotional and physical health. Chronic pain tends to have a hard impact on a person’s mental health, and the combination of chronic pain and stress can be an overwhelming combination.

Mindfulness can help you control the feelings associated with chronic pain. Practicing mindfulness is a form of meditation that involves being completely present in the moment. This is done by being as conscious as possible of your surroundings and sensations — feeling the hair on your face, the temperature of the room, and the tension in your body.

This can help deter stress, as well as the feelings of hopelessness that often follow chronic pain. Meditation can be a difficult process, as it can be hard to focus on such small, specific details when your head is racing with thoughts about your life, work, and relationships. 

The following are a few apps that can guide individuals toward improved mental health, and they can even send push notification to remind you to make time for your mental health:

• Insight Timer: This app offers thousands of meditations taught by more than 2,600 teachers that aim to reduce stress, help you understand your relationships, and more.
• Stop, Breathe, and Think: This is a great app for beginners to learn about mindfulness, recognize their emotions, and listen to relaxing sounds and meditations.
• Calm: The app opens open with the message “take a deep breath” and only gets more relaxing from there, with nature sounds and mindfulness meditations.

Herbs to Reduce Chronic Pain

Humans have been treating chronic pain since time untold, long before prescription drugs were invented. The world provides us with everything we need, but the ease of synthetic drugs has caused many individuals to ignore the solutions nature has to offer. There are many natural products that have pain-relieving qualities.

Some of these natural healing remedies include:

• Willow bark: Can be used to reduce inflammation, which often causes pain
• Turmeric: The antioxidant in this spice helps eliminate cell- and tissue-harming molecules
• Cloves: This spice reduces inflammation and nausea, and it can ease toothaches

There are many other natural products that have healing qualities that can help get the body what it needs to function at its best. These can also help provide the general nourishment you need to stay healthy throughout the year, especially throughout the cold seasons.

Conclusion

It can take some time and effort to find the natural products that your body needs to function at its best, but once you figure it out, you’ll reap the benefits. Although sometimes you can’t alleviate pain through natural sources, it’s worth looking into, even if you don’t think it will help.

It may be a challenge, but trying natural treatments for your pain can alleviate your symptoms and put you on the road to living your best life!