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A majority of Americans feel pain on a daily basis.


address it that are inexpensive, effective and with what I call side benefi ts rather than negative side effects,” says Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, of Kona, Hawaii, author of the smartphone app Cures A-Z. Complementary, integrative or functional medicine, all names for a holistic approach to health care, offer a comforting wealth of gentle ways to address chronic pain, most of which the vast majority of conventional medical doctors are unaware, says Daniel Cherkin, Ph.D., senior investigator emeritus with the Group Health Research Institute, at the University of Washington, in Seattle. “Effective natural treatments include yoga, acupuncture, chiropractic,


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Natural Ways to Feel Much Better Watch Out for Opioidst hO tf O i


by Kathleen Barnes di


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ccording to the National Center for Health Statistics, 25 percent of Americans, or 76.2 million, are suffering from pain that lasts more than 24 hours at this very moment: Ouch! Lower back pain alone keeps Americans from going to work a total of 149 million days each year, costing the U.S. economy $100 to $200 billion, reports the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Other common types of chronic pain affect musculoskeletal tissues, knees, hips or the neck. Migraines and severe headaches plague 16.6 percent of adults over 18, per a National Health and Nutrition Survey. Neurological discomfort can reach as high as 12.4 percent, estimates a study from the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. Even visceral or organ pain associated with heart disease, cancer and pelvic diseases occur in at least 20 percent of the global population, according to the International Association for the Study of Pain, in Seattle. If chronic pain is affecting you, you feel it and want relief—right now.


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Unfortunately, conventional medicine often has little to offer most pain patients. Even for something as pervasive as back pain, surgery and steroid injections are usually an unsatisfactory fi rst line of defense, having mixed results at best, seconded by prescriptions for addictive opioid painkillers.


Dr. Nora D. Vokov, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, told the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control in 2014 that there were an estimated 2.1 million people in the U.S. suffering from substance abuse disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers in 2012. The problem is worsening. Every day, 1,000 people are treated in emergency rooms for misusing prescription opioids, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Go Natural for Effective Relief Such statistics expose the magnitude of the problem of chronic pain. “It’s daunting, but there are many natural ways to


22 Central Florida natural awakenings


Break Free of CHRONIC PAIN


meditation, lifestyle changes and exercise,” notes Cherkin. “But since they’ notes Cherkin. “But since they’re not in most doctors’ medical training or learned repertoire for pain relief, patients aren’t offered the opportunity to try them.


repertoire for pain relief, patients aren’ offered the opportunity to try them.”


What Helps Relie Wh t H l R li ve Pain i


Here are just some of the many natural and affordable forms of pain relief.


Try the Yass method: Mitchell Yass,


Ph.D., of St. John’s, Florida, author of The Pain Cure Rx, is busting the myth that musculoskeletal pain is often caused by osteoarthritis. “Arthritis or joint deterioration is rarely the cause of joint pain,” says Yass. He points out that 90 percent of people over 60 have herniated discs, but no associated pain. Yass treats patients based on his


observation that in up to 98 percent of the cases he sees, weak muscles are the underlying cause of joint pain, and 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


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