Laughter is the Best Medicine!
Posted: Tuesday, April 01, 2008
by Doc Tel Boy
Back Trouble UK
They say that laughter is the best medicine, research shows that a spell of laughter can help relieve pain.
It increases Blood flow, boosts the metabolism and stimulates the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkiller.
But Back pain is not a laughing matter and by understanding more about back pain, you can work together with your practitioner to find ways you can best treat it or at least get it under control.
Faced with a patient in chronic pain the Physician has several important tasks. The first is obviously the assessment of the pain and its various causes, including physical and psychological components. Realising that pain is a bio-psycho-social phenomenon, all of these aspects have to be addressed in the history and evaluation of the patient. Only when a proper evaluation has been made can appropriate treatment be carried out. Only the most naive of clinicians would take a simplistic mechanistic approach, or indeed go the other way and dismiss pain as "all in the mind".
Such assessment is complex and beyond the scope of this book. However, this has to be undertaken, and undertaken well. Not only does the pain have to be evaluated, but so does the distress that it causes the sufferer and whether this feeds back to have a major part of the pain itself. Finally disability has to be considered; is it appropriate for the known nociceptive (causing pain) disease, or inappropriate? Is the disability that has developed a major factor in the chronicity? (A chronic condition is one that has lasted for three months or more. In some conditions, chronic is defined as six months or longer. Chronic conditions often progress slowly and last for the remainder of a person's life.)
Once this assessment has been made, management can be developed along appropriate lines. The distress should be minimised and disability should be reduced. Sometimes this can be done with great effect (e.g., through Pain Management Programmes) without altering the actual amount of pain. On the other hand, sometimes relief of the pain (for instance appropriate intervention) will alleviate distress and reverse the disability.
In most cases it is impossible to completely alleviate pain and thus a management plan has to be agreed with the patient. This may involve a rehabilitation approach, including increased mobility, perhaps in conjunction with a Chiropractic Practitioner, or the patient's own exercise programme. These will be facilitated by appropriate analgesic techniques.
Pain is your body's way of communicating to your mind. You do not have pain because your body was poorly designed: you have pain because you were ingeniously designed. Every pain, every symptom you experience is a part of this ingenious design.
There are as many treatments for spinal pain and muscle aches as there are causes.
But what works? And can you avoid problems in the first place?
Back pain need not be a Mystery
Back and neck pain is not a mysterious "condition." People spend their day sitting, working, walking, and driving in terrible posture, hunching over the computer, lifting and bending wrong all day, walking heavily, and slouching all day, and then exercise in ways that strain and pressure discs and muscles. They do yoga and Pilate's that forcibly pressurise their discs. They take anti-inflammatory medications for mechanical pain that is not inflammatory in nature, try remedies that do not address the cause of the problem, do physical therapy in ways that exacerbates the original problem. Give up favourite activities, have surgery then return to previous injurious habits, then everyone is astonished that they "tried everything and nothing seemed to work." It's like eating chocolate and chips all day, then waving your hands in the air for 5 minutes and saying "I don't understand why I don't lose weight, I do my exercises."
Use healthy positioning to stop the cause of disc damage and discs can heal.
It increases Blood flow, boosts the metabolism and stimulates the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkiller.
But Back pain is not a laughing matter and by understanding more about back pain, you can work together with your practitioner to find ways you can best treat it or at least get it under control.
Such assessment is complex and beyond the scope of this book. However, this has to be undertaken, and undertaken well. Not only does the pain have to be evaluated, but so does the distress that it causes the sufferer and whether this feeds back to have a major part of the pain itself. Finally disability has to be considered; is it appropriate for the known nociceptive (causing pain) disease, or inappropriate? Is the disability that has developed a major factor in the chronicity? (A chronic condition is one that has lasted for three months or more. In some conditions, chronic is defined as six months or longer. Chronic conditions often progress slowly and last for the remainder of a person's life.)
Once this assessment has been made, management can be developed along appropriate lines. The distress should be minimised and disability should be reduced. Sometimes this can be done with great effect (e.g., through Pain Management Programmes) without altering the actual amount of pain. On the other hand, sometimes relief of the pain (for instance appropriate intervention) will alleviate distress and reverse the disability.
In most cases it is impossible to completely alleviate pain and thus a management plan has to be agreed with the patient. This may involve a rehabilitation approach, including increased mobility, perhaps in conjunction with a Chiropractic Practitioner, or the patient's own exercise programme. These will be facilitated by appropriate analgesic techniques.
Pain is your body's way of communicating to your mind. You do not have pain because your body was poorly designed: you have pain because you were ingeniously designed. Every pain, every symptom you experience is a part of this ingenious design.
There are as many treatments for spinal pain and muscle aches as there are causes.
But what works? And can you avoid problems in the first place?
Back pain need not be a Mystery
Back and neck pain is not a mysterious "condition." People spend their day sitting, working, walking, and driving in terrible posture, hunching over the computer, lifting and bending wrong all day, walking heavily, and slouching all day, and then exercise in ways that strain and pressure discs and muscles. They do yoga and Pilate's that forcibly pressurise their discs. They take anti-inflammatory medications for mechanical pain that is not inflammatory in nature, try remedies that do not address the cause of the problem, do physical therapy in ways that exacerbates the original problem. Give up favourite activities, have surgery then return to previous injurious habits, then everyone is astonished that they "tried everything and nothing seemed to work." It's like eating chocolate and chips all day, then waving your hands in the air for 5 minutes and saying "I don't understand why I don't lose weight, I do my exercises."
Use healthy positioning to stop the cause of disc damage and discs can heal.
- Pain can be avoided by no longer damaging body structures with poor mechanics.
- It's simple - Don't memorise complicated rules. Just use muscles easily to reposition for daily life.
- Remove the bad mechanics causing damage and pain.
- Then no need for pills or surgery and the injury can heal.
- Postural mechanics is the same as brushing your teeth in the morning - a necessary health activity.
- If you need advice on your spine seek out a specialist, perhaps a Doctor of Chiropractic?
Ask yourself how is my body positioning right now? The whole point of exercise and therapy is missed when exercisers don't learn to consciously use their muscles the rest of the day for standing, sitting, bending, and shock absorption. Use your muscles to stand and bend properly for all daily tasks.
Does Laughing Keep Us Healthy-Even Make Us Well?
Absolutely, biochemically, laughter reduces the body's production of cortisol. It is known that cortisol suppresses the body's immune system. Thus, by laughter, the body's immune system is left unimpeded by cortisol.
In particular, the immune booster, interlukin-2 is allowed to express itself without being inhibited by cortisol. Furthermore, research shows that when we laugh, our metabolisms rate picks-up, muscles are massaged and stimulated, and a variety of biochemical substances rush into the bloodstream. Studies have demonstrated that, after periods of laughing, subjects not only feel momentarily relaxed, but they also have fortified themselves against depression, heart disease, and heightened their pain-resistance.
Back pain can be so debilitating and to be fair it is no laughing matter for the sufferer. However under the correct treatment regime back pain can certainly be reduced and kept under control. Life is for living, control the pain and do live your life to the full.
Does Laughing Keep Us Healthy-Even Make Us Well?
Absolutely, biochemically, laughter reduces the body's production of cortisol. It is known that cortisol suppresses the body's immune system. Thus, by laughter, the body's immune system is left unimpeded by cortisol.
In particular, the immune booster, interlukin-2 is allowed to express itself without being inhibited by cortisol. Furthermore, research shows that when we laugh, our metabolisms rate picks-up, muscles are massaged and stimulated, and a variety of biochemical substances rush into the bloodstream. Studies have demonstrated that, after periods of laughing, subjects not only feel momentarily relaxed, but they also have fortified themselves against depression, heart disease, and heightened their pain-resistance.
Back pain can be so debilitating and to be fair it is no laughing matter for the sufferer. However under the correct treatment regime back pain can certainly be reduced and kept under control. Life is for living, control the pain and do live your life to the full.
Taken from Terry's Book "Where Does It Hurt?" (c) copyright TOB 2008.
Terry O'Brien,
Back Trouble UK,
Terry O'Brien,
Back Trouble UK,
This Article has been viewed 432 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.