Pain relief is a multi- billion dollar business these days. Mostly driven by the pharmaceutical industry as they have a powder, prescription, lotion or potion for almost every pain or pain-related condition. And, millions of people are now turning to alternative & natural & less invasive forms of health care to find solutions for their pain as for one reason or another, they choose not to treat their pain with drugs or medications. Let’s begin by discussing the purpose of ‘pain’. Most people do understand that it is a symptom that is uncomfortable & they want it gone immediately.
[flashvideo file=http://lifechiropractic.s3.amazonaws.com/22.02.11.pain.relief.cat.brad-1.mp4 image=https://lifechiropracticcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/pain.relief.jpg width=500 height=300 /]Well, this is where the pharmaceutical companies have made their billions upon billions of dollars designing drugs & medications for fast symptomatic relief of pain – all types of pain. Headache pain, spinal pain, joint pain, stomach pain, tooth pain, fever pain,sinus pain, eye pain, foot pain … & the list goes on & on & on. Do you realize that by the time the average north American reaches the age of 18, they will have been witness to up to 20,000 hours of drug commercials whether on TV, in newspapers or magazines, on the computer or on giant bill-boards? Great marketing jobs by the big drug companies; so much so that people turn towards these treatments with out batting an eye. And even more so if it has been standard practice in their household growing up that their was a medicine cabinet full of drugs & medications that the parents used & taught their children how to use. Maybe people wouldn’t be so quick to turn to the pill bottle at every little ache & pain if they understood a couple of very important facts. Pain is an important element of being in touch with your body, the house where your spirit lives, & it’s purpose is to communicate with you in no uncertain terms that something is not right & needs attention. What do I mean by this? … you know when you are in pain. There is no mistaking it. It manifests in different forms – achey, sharp, burning, stabbing, constant, shooting, radiating, hot, cold, numbing, nauseating, blinding, periodic, intermittent, bearable, unbearable & in different intensities. It can be mild, moderate or severe, & it can be a regular occurrence or an irregular occurrence. Well, one question I have for you is this … if pain is your bodies way of telling you there is a problem, why on earth would you want to mess up the whole information system by totally confusing it with a drug or medication? Let me tell you a story of a patient I saw a few years ago; this will help make my point here. There was a young man in his early 30’s who came to see me because he was suffering from severe headache pain. He had been suffering with headaches which he termed ‘migraines’ since he was 18 yrs old when he hurt his neck playing college football. And for at least 12 years the only thing he did to treat these headaches was pop pills. He told me that he would easily take 10 to 15 pills a day as this was the only thing that would give him relief so he could get through his day & do what he needed to do. Well, the reason he came to see me was because the drugs were not working anymore & his good friend ( already my patient) referred him to me. We proceeded with the standard work-up; health history, complete examination & xray analysis. What I saw on the xray caused me great concern. He had a cancerous tumor involving a part of the very 1st vertebra in the neck upon which sits your skull. I immediately sent him to a neurologist who quickly set forth to surgically repair the damaged vertebra. The neurologist told me that this type of tumor typically starts developing in the teenage years & even though the prognosis for this patient was good, if would have been much better if it were caught in the beginning because there was still a concern that the cancer cells had spread to other parts of the body. But because this patient did not know any better, and did what he thought was the right thing to do, & what his family, friends & doctor told him to do (take medication for the pain) instead of finding out WHY the pain ( headaches ) were there in the first place, there will always be the risk that the cancer had spread elsewhere. POINT – do not ignore your pain or cover it up with drugs or medications! Find out what is ‘causing’ your pain as this is where the problem lies. Remember that the pain is just the ‘message’ and in most cases is not the problem. This patients friend –the one who referred him to me – literally saved his life because we may have never found out about the tumor until it was way too late. Another important thing that many people fail to realize is that every drug or medication has one or more side-effects. Just read the bottle or do a google search. This is where you will get the truth & believe me, there are always more contra-indications ( reasons to not take drugs ) than there are indications ( reasons to take drugs ) for most every drug out there. This should tell you something straight away not to mention all the possible complications that come with taking different ( multiple ) drugs. Did you know that residents in north American nursing homes on average take between 12 & 23 drugs per day?! Ask yourself this question… how many times have you heard of someone getting well & leaving a nursing home? [ Draw your own conclusions from your answer.] The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) are what people most commonly buy for their over-the-counter pain relief. Did you know this… these drugs & medications can make you prone to liver damage, kidney failure, stroke, heart-attack & even joint pain? And the reason I mention joint pain is that if you are taking drugs for muscle &/or joint pains, you better think twice! Your over-the-counter pain pills have been found to destroy the cartilage lining in your joints & inhibit new cartilage formation. Cartilage is found in most every joint in you body & is CRITICAL for healthy & smoothly gliding joints. Having unhealthy joint cartilage provides no benefit to anybody except maybe the people selling the drugs & medications. So, think about this. Pain travels along the pathways of the millions upon millions of nerves that are found in your body. The nerves are connected to your spinal cord which is inside your spine ( which is made up of 24 moveable vertebrae ) & the spinal cord is connected to your power supply – the brain which is protected by your skull. Often times , some of these vertebrae become misaligned – it is a fact of life & happens to everybody—and will irritate the nerve. This will cause pain in the part of the body that the nerves go to. If it is the nerve that goes into your neck, it will cause a pain in your neck. If it is the nerve that goes down your arm, it will cause pain in your arm. If it is the nerve that goes to your stomach, it will cause stomach pain. How about re-aligning your mis-aligned spinal vertebrae to relieve the pinched nerve & it’s painful symptoms? That is the beautiful thing about chiropractic! No drugs, no surgery, no side-effects. It addresses the cause of the problem and is not a feeble attempt to mask your symptoms. Click Here To Get In Contact With Dr. Brad, Your Burlington Chiropractor