Self Help - Natural ways to relieve pain

Pain is an interesting phenomena of the human body.

Firstly, you need to know why you have the pain. Pain is a signal of something wrong and shouldn’t just be ignored or self-medicated without knowing it’s cause. In Chinese medicine, practitioners are all about getting to the root cause of the problem. We don’t just treat the symptoms but the Root as well (In TCM, this theory is called the Ben and Biao).

 

This post is really for people in chronic pain, when you know the cause and may need to manage it. There are lots of natural remedies on this earth which can alleviate pain. Please don’t take this advice as a replacement for seeing your health care professional or Western medical doctor.

Pain in the muscles or joints is a common one where we may easily know the cause. A simple over-working at the gym or sleeping incorrectly can cause us to wake up with muscular pain. If pain continues or gets worse, its advisable to seek professional advice and treatment. 

Natural ways to relieve pain:

• Warming

Heat makes blood vessels expand, which increases the blood supply to the heated area. If there is infection, then heat should NOT be applied. In Chinese medicine we usually suggest using heat at a hot but tolerable level (not a lukewarm hotpack) applied to the area for 20 minutes at a time.

Heat gets Blood flow to the area, while massage or movement can move some of the stagnation and assist repair and healing.  Heat shouldn’t be continuously applied without any movement or massage in-between each dose.

• Acupressure

Thousands of years people have been rubbing where it hurts, as an instinctive reaction to pain. Acupressure and Tuina-Chinese massage has been born out of this instinctive touching where pain occurs to relieve it. Knowing which channels and points are good for different areas of pain is the key to successful self-acupressure.

Here are some of my favourite self-acupressure points which may be useful for pain relief:

 Houxi SI 3 – Neck pain

Make a fist and look at your pinky finger. This point is just above where your pinky finger sits in the fist – under the knuckle bone of the 5^th metacarpal bone. The pressure should be directed towards the thumb under the bones, Use on the same side as the neck pain. For a stiff neck press it for about 2-3 minutes until a dull-achy sore feeling  is in the hand, continue pressing it and slowly rotate the neck from side to side according to it’s natural position.

  Hegu LI4 – Head pain, neck pain, shoulder and arm pain.

This point strongly stimulates release of the bodies natural pain killers. It is commonly called the “headache point” although in my 10+ years of practice I rarely find it a cure-all for headaches, sometimes it can make a strong headache worse. It is a very strong point for treating pain along it’s channel (the Large Intestine Channel) which goes from the index finger to the elbow and up onto the face. Press it the with your thumb or the back of a pen to get the right pressure

Diji Sp8 – Period pain

This point is the number one point for treating abdominal and period pain. It will be very sensitive during the period so the best way to use it with acupressure is to press it in with the back (not sharp) end of a pen. It is 3 cun measurements from the crease of the popliteal crease of the inside of the leg – Easy way to find it is the width of the four fingers, below the crease of the knee. See the picture that will make more sense! The point is right next to the bone.

Press this one for about 5 minutes until the pain starts to subside. When the pain is coming back you can press it again as many times as needed. 

• Plants

Plants have pain relieving properties – ranging from the opium poppy to essential oils, many of our pharmaceutical pain relieving drugs have natural plant origins.

• Essential Oils

Essential oils that can relieve muscular pain or menstrual pain (period pain) are CLARY SAGE and FRANKINSENCE oil. These are not the fragrance oils but the essential oils.

Frankinsense is a Chinese herb called Ru Xiang. It’s main function is to “move Blood” or as some author’s say it “quickens the Blood to dispel stasis”. Stasis or stagnation of Blood causes sharp and stabbing pain which is fixed in location.

These oils would normally be applied externally to the affected area. Don’t apply any oils to an open or healing scar site. It’s always appropriate to seek professional advice about whether it’s ok to use Essential oils in your specific health /sickness circumstances or in cases such as in pregnancy.

• Moxibustion

Heat is used in the treatment for pain in Chinese medicine, going back thousands of years. Heat was used in the form of Moxa, or Moxibustion well before there were microwaves to make wheat-bag hot packs.

If youre not familiar with moxa or moxibustion, you can click here for the post: Whats that Moxa smell all about?

The moxa box is a great invention of Chinese medicine which essentially houses the moxa stick and makes it easy to apply to the self.

MARIE HOPKINSON - Practice Details at www.metrohealth.com.au