Pain Free 2013 Part I

Welcome to the first in a multi-part series about how to establish a pain free life in 2013.  Here, I’m going to give you cause to think and analyze your pain as well as steps to take to diminish it.  

Today, we’re going to discuss the root of your pain.  Some of the following questions may require more than a moment of thought.  Take your time. 

1. How long have you been experiencing pain? Is it chronic or acute? The duration of your pain tells you how much you’ve learned to live with it and how attached you actually may be to it.
2. Where is your pain located?
This one can actually be surprisingly difficult for some people.  If you can’t pinpoint the location(s) if your pain at a moment’s notice, it’s time to sit down and think about it. 
3. Is there a known cause for your pain?Did you have an accident? Did it just manifest? What happened when you first started experiencing the pain? All of these are keys to eliminating it. 
4.  Are you ready to get rid of your pain?This seems like an obvious question.  Sometimes, however, pain is a useful tool. Take the work-a-holic who only lets himself have down time when his back hurts.  Are you using your pain as a crutch in another area of your life? Until you’ve established this, you won’t be able to make a choice about whether you’re ready to eliminate it or not.  (And yes, it’s okay if you’re not ready.)

Take some time to think about these questions. Write them down if it will help.  They’re important questions leading to the next step in living a pain free life.   

*Sore No More! is not a licensed physician. All information on this blog is researched by our staff and is subject to inaccuracies. No information found here should be used in the place of advice from your doctor. * Sore No More 150 East Center Street Moab, Utah 84532 Tel: (435) 259-5931 Toll Free: (800) 842-6622 www.sorenomore.com

Psychosomatic Pain Part II

This is a continuation on last month's article on Psychosomatic Pain.

Emotions and Pain
Chronic pain can be tied to abuse as a child, or even as an adult {source}.  In fact, the brain processes physical pain and mental pain in a very similar manner, making the correlation between the two entirely feasible.  Without proper coping mechanisms, emotional pain can easily manifest itself into physical pain.  Likewise, physical pain can lend itself to emotional discontent.  In many cases, chronic pain and depression can be found living in a parasitic harmony, each feeding off the other.   

In her book ‘You Can Heal Your Life,’’ Lousie L. Hays lists the probable emotional cause for many different ailments and suggest affirmations to solve them.  It provides an interesting insight on how working through emotional pain can have a positive impact on physical pain.

Neurotransmitters and Pain
Neurotransmitters are responsible for delivering messages from your brain to your body and vise versa. They play vital roles in physical, mental and emotional reactions. Much like the hormone imbalances discussed in the adrenal fatigue section, neurotransmitter imbalances can impact physical pain levels and emotional wellbeing.  

Neurotransmitters work as filters in the communication network of the brain.  If the pain management filter is not working effectively, it can cause or worsen chronic pain.  

Solving the Problem
The first step to solving any pain problem is trusting yourself.  Trust that there is a way to solve your problem and that you are worth the effort required to get there.  You must be strong enough to seek out physicians and other healers who are able to help you.   

Adrenal fatigue, emotional stress and neurotransmitter imbalances can all be helped by lifestyle choices including nutritional changes and stress management techniques.  This may require adding things to your diet, finding a therapist you can communicate with, taking up a new exercise routine, and/or treating yourself to monthly massages.

Psychosomatic/psychogenic pain is very real.  Often times it is downplayed because of the difficulty in finding a physical cause.  A bruise hurts when you press on it.  It is an obvious physical pain with an obvious physical cause.  Just because the cause of a pain cannot be seen, visually does not make it less relevant.  Over time, pain that is caused by hormone imbalance, emotional struggle or neurotransmitter dysfunction can cause obvious physical problems (tightened muscles can move bones, generating disc, bursa and ligament problems to name a few).  As many of you know, at this point in the progression, problems become much more difficult to fix, so why not start trying to solve them now?

{Sources: Pain Center of Orlando, NaturalNews.Com, National Sleep Foundation, NCBI, Psychology Today, LA Times, Wikipedia, IWR.Com}

*Sore No More! is not a licensed physician. All information on this blog is researched by our staff and is subject to inaccuracies. No information found here should be used in the place of advice from your doctor. * Sore No More 150 East Center Street Moab, Utah 84532 Tel: (435) 259-5931 Toll Free: (800) 842-6622 www.sorenomore.com

Psychosomatic Pain Part I

Have you ever felt as though your chronic pain was being downplayed because it was “all in your head?”  That may be true.  The fact of the matter is that mental and emotional states can have a profound and very real impact on pain levels.  A high stress level has physical consequences.  It can exacerbate pain that is already present, such as arthritis.  Or, it can generate new pains that were not previously present, as is often the case with those suffering from Fibromyalgia.  

There are some key players in the stress-pain correlation;

Adrenal Fatigue
Hypoadrenia (adrenal fatigue) occurs when your adrenal glands become overworked, expelling too much adrenaline and cortisol.  These are your ‘fight or flight’ hormones.  In the absence of need to flee from, say, saber tooth tigers, today’s human is expelling far too many of these hormones in response to things like getting the incorrect order at Starbucks.

Adrenal fatigue can express itself as chronic pain and is often misdiagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.  Muscular pain is a common symptom of adrenal fatigue, most specifically those muscles found in the legs (sartorius, gracilis, posterior tibialis, gastrocnemius, and soleus.)  These muscles impact the balance of the pelvis and can subsequently cause low back pain. Left unremedied, this unbalance can travel up the spine, generating mid back, upper back, shoulder, and even neck pain.

Sleep is often disturbed by adrenal fatigue. The imbalance of cortisol production makes falling asleep and staying asleep difficult.  Lack of quality REM sleep has long been known to impact pain levels negatively.

Learn more symptoms of adrenal fatigue here.

Check back next month for part two of the Psychosomatic Pain article. 


*Sore No More! is not a licensed physician. All information on this blog is researched by our staff and is subject to inaccuracies. No information found here should be used in the place of advice from your doctor. * Sore No More 150 East Center Street Moab, Utah 84532 Tel: (435) 259-5931 Toll Free: (800) 842-6622 www.sorenomore.com