strengthening them provides relief. He says his prescribed exercises are usually effective in days or a few weeks. “Pain is an indication of tissue


in distress. For example, pain in the shoulder area is often an impingement of the bicep,” he says. His prescription is strengthening exercises using hand weights for the trapezoid, tricep and serratus anterior muscles. His book sug- gests a detailed self-diagnosis program and the necessary exercises to strength- en muscles and relieve joint pain (more at Tinyurl.com/YassIntroInfo).


Address underlying trauma: Osteopath Maud Nerman, of Novato, California, author of Healing Pain and Injury, has broad experience in treating neurological problems and brain injuries and often focuses on physical and emotional trauma as an underly- ing cause of chronic pain. She explains that the autonomic nervous system that directs unconscious body functions like breathing, digestion and heartbeat is interrupted by such trauma. “Trauma literally shocks the ner-


vous system,” she says. “The body can- not turn off the ‘fight-or-flight’ reaction, causing a firestorm of inflammation that can lead to a variety of serious dis- eases, overwhelming the body’s ability to manage its own healing.” Her work has showed how readjusting the body, restoring breathing and reactivating the autonomic nervous system can provide relief in short order.


Consider lifestyle, diet and


supplements: “Pain is like the ‘check oil’ light on a car’s dashboard. It signals that something needs attention,” says Teitelbaum, author of Pain Free 1-2- 3. “If the oil light goes on, putting a Band-Aid over it or smashing it with a hammer won’t help.” Teitelbaum recommends an energy optimization approach he dubs SHINE that addresses underlying causes of chronic pain that has worked for 91 percent of the people he’s treated for fibromyalgia and muscle pain.


Sleep—Eight to nine hours a night helps replenish energy and heal muscles.


Hormones—Treat hormone imbal- ances even if lab tests are “normal”.


Immunity—Dysfunctional immune systems and persistent infections can lead to chronic pain.


Nutrition—In Teitelbaum’s studies, op- timizing nutritional support, especially B vitamins, vitamin D, ribose, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and magnesium, was helpful. A healthy, high protein, low sug- ar diet is effectively complemented by a variety of herbs and nutrients, primarily curcumin, boswellia, willow bark and fish oil, nutrients that widespread studies show stop pain better than pharmaceu- ticals. He’s also a strong proponent of eliminating sugar entirely because it causes inflammation.


Exercise—Daily exercise speeds the healing process and after 10 weeks fol- lowing the first four SHINE steps, will increase the capacity to exercise.


vitamin B2


For migraines, Teitelbaum advocates (riboflavin). Numerous stud-


ies support the effectiveness of dosages of 400 milligrams per day to prevent migraines. After just six weeks of use, a German study published in the Euro- pean Journal of Neurology shows thats taking a daily riboflavin supplement cut the number of migraine days in half for participants and significantly reduced the amount of migraine medication needed.


Tap for Relief: Also known as the


Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Tapping Solutions founder Nick Ortner, of Newtown, Connecticut, says “Tapping sends a calming signal to the amygdala in the brain, turning off the fight or flight stress response and allowing the body to heal.” The physical tapping opens up the body’s energy meridians and allows them to relax so the natural healing process can take place, Ortner explains. EFT combines tapping on specific


body points while repeating appropriate affirmative statements such as: “Even though I have this [pain], I love, accept and forgive myself.” He recalls a woman that arrived at a seminar he led with a toothache that had lasted for years. Doctors had done X-rays, seen an infection and prescribed antibiotics to no good effect. He asked her if she recalled when the pain began; without hesitation, she answered, “When my mother passed away unexpectedly.” “So we started working together and the pain reduced significantly right away


and eventually disappeared completely,” says Ortner. A follow-up with her dentist showed no sign of the former problem. Up to now, the EFT research is


positive. One study from the Energy Medicine University, in Mill Valley, California, found it helped people with chronic pain (some coping with severe fatigue and fibromyalgia) feel physi- cally and emotionally better in as little as a month; another from the Foundation for Epigenetic Medicine, in Santa Rosa, California, showed substantially reduced trauma in institutionalized abused teen- agers after just one EFT session.


Meditation vs. Medication:


Meditation may not resolve the underly- ing cause of chronic pain, but research from the University of Alabama demon- strates it can interrupt pain signals to the brain. It’s at least as effective as opioid painkillers in relieving chronic pain, ac- cording to a study led by Cherkin at the University of Washington. His team’s 342 subjects that had ex-


perienced back pain weekly for at least a year were offered either eight meditation and yoga classes, eight cognitive behav- ior therapy (CBT) sessions or just keeping up their own regular daily routines that did not include yoga and meditation. The results, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirm what numerous other studies have reported: 44 percent experienced a “meaningful reduction” in pain within six months of the meditation or CBT ses- sions, equal to results reported by people taking addictive opioid pharmaceuticals. More, the pain relief continued for up to two years, even if the subjects stopped doing actual sitting meditation. “Meditation changes the way people think about pain and how they develop skills to keep it from becoming a major focus in their lives,” observes Cherkin. Regardless of the mechanism, experts in a holistic approach to chronic pain relief agree that encourag- ing self-control, self-determination and self-empowerment makes a huge differ- ence in patients’ abilities to control pain more naturally and effectively.


Kathleen Barnes is author of numerous natural health books, including Our Toxic World: A Survivor’s Guide. Connect at KathleenBarnes.com.


natural awakenings June 2017 35


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