Last week I wrote about radiating pain, trigger points and dermatomes and the importance of treating pain at its root.
From my experience it is also important to treat acute pain that doesn’t seem to be healing to prevent it from becoming chronic pain.
You might be wondering – what situations make it more likely for acute pain to become chronic.? What external factors can affect pain and allow it to fester?
There are many things that can affect pain and block its healing.
I would like to address four barriers to healing pain.
The first barrier to healing pain is inflammation. While it is true that inflammation is necessary as the first stage in the body’s healing process, sometimes this process goes awry. Inflammation should be self limiting but sometimes it becomes chronic. To read more about inflammation click here.
Low-grade inflammation in the body magnifies pain and makes it harder to heal. And conversely – lowering inflammation can encourage pain to heal. To learn more about simple ways to reduce inflammation click here.
The second barrier to healing pain is connected to emotions. While chronic pain can create mental stress, the reverse is also true. Pain can often be connected to stress and other unresolved emotions.
We all know of cases of migraines or back pain that can be traced back to an emotional stressor.
Personally – when I have back pain my first reaction is to examine my emotions and look for a trigger. Then I can use my EFT tapping skills to work through the emotions that triggered the pain. Sometimes that’s enough to heal the pain, and sometimes I need to add acupuncture.
The third barrier to healing pain is body mechanics. When trying to eliminate pain you must examine your daily routines.
For example, if you have neck pain – do you strain your neck while talking on the phone (holding the phone to your ear with your shoulder), working at the computer, sleeping in an uncomfortable position?
Or, if you have lower back pain – do you sit for long periods of time (in the car or in front of the computer), do you stand in one place for long periods of time, do you carry heavy packages.
See if there is something in your daily routine that might be triggering the pain and think about how you can shift the trigger to allow healing to occur.
The final barrier to healing pain is low electricity. Huh?
How is electricity connected to pain and healing?
Well, your body has electricity flowing through it along the fascial planes (which line up with the acupuncture channels of Chinese medicine). The fascial planes are the the thin membrane-like coverings of muscles and organs. The fascia runs throughout the whole body. And it is extremely conductive.
In fact we can even measure the electricity flowing through the fascial planes. We know that in a healthy body there is around -20 to -25 millivolts of electricity flowing.
When the body becomes damaged it temporarily needs even more electricity to heal an affected area. (up to -50 millivolts)
What happens when the body just doesn’t have enough electricity in that area? You guessed it – it can’t heal properly.
What kinds of things drain electricity and how can you increase your body’s electricity and ability to heal?
Stay tuned….
