Live Life Team
Pain can impact your life in a way that you never thought possible until you are actually suffering from it. While most medical practices concentrate on trying to relieve the afflicted area of your body, holistic methods attempt to treat the person as a whole. This type of pain management does not just treat the injury but also involves examining mental health and social factors. Holistic pain medicine ascribes to the theory that the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The following holistic methods can help with your pain management in a number of different ways.
Acupuncture
For over 2,000 years, acupuncture has treated a variety of ailments. While certain acupuncture treatments do not have studies backing up their effectiveness, using acupuncture for pain is actually verified by both studies and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an effective remedy. If severe pain is constantly disrupting your life, then not only can acupuncture treatment help to relieve this discomfort, but it can also help reduce tension levels. Increased tension can be a major factor in the level of pain that you experience, and acupuncture can provide you with some much-needed relief.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a practice that almost fits in between holistic and modern treatments. While it does involve modern technology to provide information about your body, the actual pain management is all down to you as a patient. Biofeedback uses instruments to measure various bodily functions, including blood pressure, muscle tension, oxygen saturation level and heart rate. Practitioners use the results of the biofeedback to determine what most affects your pain levels. They can then train you to control these normally involuntary measures so that you can help manage your pain better.
While biofeedback does not work as a painkiller in the way that acupuncture does, it can help you target some of the factors that are causing your pain, such as stress and muscle tension. Once you are able to manage the root of the problem, the pain will stop manifesting as intensely. In some cases, biofeedback can help remove the cause of your pain altogether.
Chiropractors
For years, chiropractors had a reputation as being quack doctors. Things have changed over the last ten years, however, and the benefits that chiropractors offer have finally gained acceptance in mainstream medicine. A great deal of pain in many different areas of the body originates in the back. A chiropractor will not only be able to isolate the area of your back that is causing you pain, but he or she can also adjust your back to stop the pain from radiating around your body. As well as being able to help realign your spine into its correct position and shape, chiropractors can give you tips on how to walk and sit and which posture to take to ensure that your pain does not come back in the weeks and months ahead.
