Pain Relief Options: Natural and Medical
Pain Relief Options: Natural and Medical – At some point in our lives, we will experience a kind of chronic pain that we hate positively and want to leave. But even if we immediately seek relief from pain and disregard discomfort, the truth is that pain is useful for our survival because it alerts us to the problems of our body. Pain also prevents a person from suffering more injuries and can be very useful. But, although useful, we all try to relieve the pain from time to time because … well, it hurts!
Relief of oral pain
Now, when most people think about relieving pain, the first thing that comes to mind is aspirin or another form of oral medication. In fact, we have been conditioned to believe that “you are taking something for pain” and this usually involves a little pill. For severe or chronic pain, opioids are prescribed more frequently. Morphine and heroin are two common opioids, and you will generally see cancer patients receiving these pain relievers as a pain relief in the end. Opioids are considered highly addictive and generally reserved for terminal patients.
Antidepressants have been previously prescribed only to treat depression and other mental illnesses. However, recent research has found that antidepressants relieve some types of physical pain and are often used in pain relief applications to help the patient sleep.
Antiepileptic medications are prescribed to treat acute or acute pain caused by dysfunction or damaged nerves. In most cases, they moisten or numb the nerves, so that pain signals do not reach the brain.
Less severe forms of oral pain relief usually take the form of aspirin or ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is specifically designed to reduce inflammation and, therefore, is recommended for muscle pain, while aspirin is more useful for relieving headaches and reducing fever.
Relief of pain from injections
One of the most important but useful types of pain relief comes in the form of injections. Cortisone treatments are common in athletes and involve direct injection into the muscle or nerve that causes the pain. This type of pain relief is very effective, but it can not be done at regular intervals due to tissue damage. Therefore, it is only recommended for the temporary relief of acute pain.
Dentists also use this form of pain relief when they inject their mouth with Novocain or a local anesthetic. These injections will numb your nerves so they do not send signals to the brain. The inflammation or source of pain will remain, but your body will not feel anything until the room is worn out.
Relief of nerve block pain
This type of pain relief is related to injections, but it deals with specific nerve blocks in the body. Known as a ganglion or plexus, a nerve block will affect a group of nerves linked to a specific organ or part of the body. The doctor administers an injection of a specific nerve block to temporarily relieve the pain of that organ or part of the body. It is different from a local anesthetic because it has been specifically designed to affect one type of nerve, so it is a specialized pain relief and tends to be more expensive than standard cortisone or novocaine injections.
Physiotherapy as pain relief
Physical therapy is often seen as a way to rebuild damaged muscles and nerves after trauma. However, physical therapy is also used as a natural way to relieve pain. Whirlpool therapy, deep muscle massage and ultrasound are all forms of physical therapy that are used in natural treatments to relieve pain.
Relief of pain by electrical stimulation
Known as TENS, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is an alternative to more traditional pain relief treatments. Without using a needle or medication, the pain is relieved when small electrical impulses are applied to the skin. The electric current then stimulates the nerve fibers in other parts of the skin and has the effect of relieving pain. The effects are only short-term, but TENS has been shown to be a legitimate way to relieve pain and is a standard component of many physiotherapy programs.
Pain relief with acupuncture
Although it is not recognized by the medical community as a legitimate form of pain relief, this oriental treatment has existed for centuries and its followers consider it a very effective tool for pain control. Acupuncture specialists use many fine needles at different pressure points of the body. The pressure points at which a professional applies the needles will depend on the source of the pain. Although not a proven form of pain relief, acupuncture remains a natural alternative to more traditional and accepted forms of pain control.
surgery
In very severe cases and when other forms of pain relief have failed, surgery may be the last chance to end chronic pain. In most cases, a surgeon will enter and, in fact, have serious nerve connections, so that pain receptors in the brain will no longer receive signals. Once again, it is a method of last resort because, as we have said before, pain can be useful and necessary for our survival. Doctors do not completely cut nerve endings because they can no longer alert their body to problems, but when other forms of pain control fail, surgery may be the only viable alternative.
Relief of topical pain
