Opioid addiction is a scary reality today, but it’s not your only option for your chronic pain management. Here are 5 alternative medicine options to consider!
Each day, the CDC estimates that about 130 Americans die from using opioid drugs. If you or a loved one use opioids for chronic pain, then you are at risk of developing an addiction and becoming part of this statistic.
Take control of your pain while keeping control over your life. Read on to learn 5 alternative medicine options for treating chronic pain without opioids.
1. Kratom
Kratom grows on an evergreen tree in Asia and offers you an alternative to using opioids. This plant medicine attaches to the same receptors in the body to provide similar pain-relieving effects.
Many areas of Southeast Asia have used Kratom as traditional medicine since ancient times for everything from anxiety to pain relief. You can take this herbal supplement as a chewable, a tea, or in tablet form. This page offers more details.
2. Yoga
Pain occurs in both the body and mind. So, practicing an art that helps you gain control over both aspects of the self can help you better deal with pain.
The discipline of yoga incorporates meditation, breath control, stretching, and holding poses. On the surface level, it may seem like a gentle exercise.
But anybody who attempts to master the art knows better. Yoga brings your body back into balance both physically and mentally.
If you suffer from skeletal or muscular pain, then many of the gentle yoga poses will help you regain proper alignment and relieve the physical pain. Breathing and meditation help you experience pain differently, as you learn to control your central nervous system and other body processes.
3. Acupuncture
Acupuncture, the ancient Eastern art of strategically placing needles into specific points on the skin, can also serve as an alternative to opioids. This art helps to break up stagnation of chi, or vital energy. It also balances yin and yang or the hot and cold aspects acting on the body.
From a Western perspective, the tiny punctures amp up the body’s healing process. They release chemical messengers and call in cytokines and immune cells to heal specific parts of the body and ease the sensation of pain.
4. Nutrition
The food you put into your body will make a major impact on your well-being. It can also help with chronic pain control.
You can help the pain by reducing inflammation. Caspian, the spice that makes peppers hot, serves as a great anti-inflammatory and attaches to receptors that reduce the perception of pain in the brain.
Other foods that reduce inflammation in the body include pineapple, ginger, coconut oil, garlic, and swiss chard. If you suffer from nerve pain, nootropic mushrooms, like Lion’s Mane, may help even better than opioid drugs.
5. Laugh
Many call laughter the best medicine. Studies prove this true!
When you laugh, your body eases up, releasing muscular tension, and the brain releases endorphins. Endorphins create an opioid-like effect in the body, improving your mood, and actually easing pain. So, watch comedies and joke with your funnies friends to help with chronic pain.
Use Alternative Medicine First
Opioids may help the pain, but they carry great risk. If you suffer from chronic pain relief, first turn to alternative medicine.
Want to keep learning about wellness? Read more in our health section!
Chronic pain is caused by prolonged nociceptive or neuropathic impulses that occur in the presence of long-term ongoing and persistent diseases. In some cases, even minor damage can lead to long-term changes in the nervous system. Due to sensitization, minor pain with an already almost resolved disease is perceived as severe pain.