Self-Care for Pain

By David Spero
Last week I wrote about all the different medicines available to treat chronic pain. But there are many nondrug approaches as well. Here are a few:
You can do physical things at the point of pain. Massage is good, and it doesn't have to be professional. Any kind of caring touch may distract from pain sensations and help tissues heal. Self-massage helps, too.
Topical creams like something that includes capsaicin or Arnica reduce pain for a lot of people.
Ice or heat can help healing and reduce pain. It doesn't seem to matter which — some people like cold and others like heat, or you can alternate them. Heat and cold both compete with pain signals and so reduce pain sensations. So does gentle touch.
Exercise — stretching, strengthening, and conditioning — can reduce pain. An interesting study showed that being sedentary increased sensations of pain in mice. (They could tell by observing the mouse's behaviors — they didn't ask the mice to rate pain on a scale of 1–10.)
Of course, it's hard to exercise when you're hurting. It's important to start slow and keep it gentle. A good physical therapist can help.
Anodyne Therapy is treatment with an infrared light. It seems effective for peripheral neuropathy, which can cause pain in the arms, legs, feet, and hands. You can read about Anodyne Therapy here.
Electrical stimulation to the nerves can be done through the skin and can block pain signals. Ask your doctor about a "transcutaneous ...

Source: Diabetes Self-Management - February 13, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Spero Source Type: blogs