As we age, chronic pain can be a debilitating issue. Sometimes, these pains creep in despite being active. Age-related bone and muscle weakening, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, etc., can cause these pains. It is highly frustrating when the pain interferes with your daily activities or stops you from going out or doing something you enjoy. Often, people rely on prescription medicines to manage their pain. This approach may work well in the short term. However, taking painkillers is not advisable for long-term pain management, as it can have other side effects on your body. Also, after a while, the body may not respond to these.
An alternative is to explore some other popular pain management techniques that are more to do with exercises and stimulation. These do not include regular medicines and concentrate on those specific body parts to strengthen them. Today, we explore a few such therapies that you can try to reduce your pain.
Acupuncture
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This therapy is an ancient, traditional Chinese mode of treatment that believes in restoring the flow of energy(chi) in our body using tiny needles. These needles are inserted at strategic points in our body based on the problem. They are minute and only prick your skin without causing pain or harm. After placing the needles at specific points, they are left there for a while. Acupuncture is becoming increasingly popular in stress and pain management as it is said to restore the healthy energy flow across the body to relieve pain.
Massage
Massaging the body parts having pain is another alternative way to treat pain. Massage can be done by yourself for some body parts, whereas you might have to rely on others to massage your back, etc. It involves gentle stimulation by applying pressure to the body parts to relieve the pain. In traditional Indian Ayurveda, many massage options are available for different problems. The Ayurvedic massages may involve oil or other medicinal concoctions applied to your body. It could also involve steam baths. It is a holistic approach to relieving stress and pain.
Naturopathy
This alternative therapy believes in treating the root cause of the pain to eliminate it. The treatment involves therapies and changes in diet and lifestyle. It is minimally invasive and removes toxins from our bodies to restore natural metabolism with minimal drugs. It believes that the pain and other issues are due to an imbalance of panchbhoothas (air, water, soil, heat, and space) in our bodies. Hence, the treatment aims at restoring balance. Naturopathy uses many techniques to cure the problem, such as:
- Diet
- Exercise
- Fasting
- Hydrotherapy
- Acupuncture
- Mud therapy
- Massage
- Magneto therapy
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Colour therapy
Biofeedback
This lesser-known therapy is gaining popularity for treating issues by learning voluntary control of bodily processes such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, etc. Initially, the biofeedback therapists will connect electrodes to your skin and display the various parameters on a monitor for you to understand. Then, they will teach you techniques to control it, and you can see the change on the monitor. Once you practice it, you no longer need the electrodes or the monitor. The techniques to change the parameters involve deep breathing, meditation, visualisation, etc. This therapy is highly effective in treating chronic pains without any side effects.
Yogic mudras
This technique is also called mudra therapy. It works on the principle that our body is created based on the five elements -Agni (fire), Vayu (air), Akasha (ether), Bhumi (earth), and Jala (water). When any of these are disturbed, it creates an imbalance in the body, leading to pain and health issues. In this technique, we make mudras(gestures) with our fingers. It helps restore the disturbed balance. Thus, it provides pain relief.
The mudra guides the energy flow into specific affected body parts to provide relief. The mudras work on the principle that nerve endings on our fingers are connected to the brain to influence bodily reflexes. Vayu mudra relieves gastric issues, neck, and knee pain. Varun mudra can relieve muscle pains, while prana mudra relieves migraines, muscle spasms, and painful sensations in the legs.
Some other alternative healing techniques for pain management are reiki, Pranic healing, aromatherapy, flower therapy, etc. Each of these work on the principles of mind and body connection to health impurities or imbalances to restore health and relieves pain.
