Resource Pain Management

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Due to bad dietary choices and improper posture, I suffer from chronic pain. In my experience, the following treatments are effective for pain management. Some cost money, some require one to attend classes (ie time commitment):

• Acupuncture example pain due to falls, lower back pain, twisted back, paralysis after stroke, rheumatoid arthritis
• Acucupping
• Bekam (also known as Hijamah or Wet acucupping)
• Cane Exercise (originate from Taiwan)
• Chiropractic
• Guasa
• Massage
• Wai Tan Kung

For many years, I have kept the following items by my side which is my go-to when I have chronic pains and aches here and there. These are relatively inexpensive items and some are small enough to be carried when you are travelling or commuting:

1. Guadsa using guasa board

Useful when you have muscle aches, headaches or when your eyes are tired (for eyes, I close my eyes and run the board over my eye socket area it helps with my eye strain after looking many hours at the computer (read about my articles on guasa here). It is also effective to relieve joint stiffness and pain. For me, I do not use the porcelain spoon. In fact, I have a guasa board that I bought from Elken for more than 10 years.

2. Acucupping set

These are very useful to use when have aches due to too much ‘wind’ from bathing at night or drinking too much cool drinks. You just cup at the area which is uncomfortable and then will feel much relieved.

3. Hot water bottle – helps to relief aches and pains on a cold day.

4. Resistance bands– these are helpful to help with stretching and relieving tensed muscles which can cause pain. I always pack these bands into my carry on bag during travel as well as my office drawer to help me with stretches after sitting too long on my desk. Once during my company teambuilding trip, I manage to get a workout done in my hotel room thanks to these resistance bands.  Below are examples of stretches I do with the resistance band- it can really free up your tensed muscles. Caution: Please warm up your muscles through light exercises before stretching.

5. Castor oil– my mom’s friend who suffered from severe pain recommend the use of castor oil.

Mind Body Connection

I have come to discover that pain is not merely a physical condition. Through my life, I have find that the pain that I or others have experienced correlates with the emotions that one is experiencing. Often, the pain would reoccur despite treatments or medication because the root cause of the pain (ie emotion management) is not addressed.

Examples:

• persistent lower back could be linked to feelings of lack of support in life
• I had kidney pain for years (all medical tests indicate as normal) which went off after I learned to deal with fear
• gallbladder issues could also be fear related
• digestive issues like wind in the stomach (sharp pain and stomach spasms) due to feelings of overwhelmed

There are books written that explore in the mind body connection between our emotions, personality and physical ailment. If you wish to do your research, then I highly recommend the following books:

1. Dr Gabor Mate (a medical doctor that after decades of working with the sick and dying came to see a correlation between childhood trauma and illness like cancer, pain and auto immune diseases)

• :When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection 
•  In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

2. Dr John E. Sarno (blog post about his work)

• Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body Connection
• The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders
• Mind Over Back Pain: A Radically New Approach to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Back Pain

3. Deb Shapiro:  “Your Body Speaks Your Mind: Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness”.

4. Dr Joseph J Sweere : Golden Rules for Vibrant Health in Body, Mind, and Spirit: A Holistic Approach to Health and Wellness

5.  Dr Vernon Coleman page:  Mindpower- How to Use Your Mind to Heal Your Body 

Below are the books in Amazon: