With more than 116 million Americans suffering from chronic pain, it has become a significant public health epidemic that costs our society at least $600 billion annually. Women are twice as likely to experience chronic pain as men and surprisingly, 17 percent of U.S. children, ages 4 to 18, experience chronic pain, including frequent or severe headaches and migraines.
In her forthcoming book, Naturally Pain Free, (July 2012; $15.99) leading expert on natural healing remedies, Letha Hadady, uses a practical, useful and most importantly, natural approach to preventing everyday pains and injuries. Naturally Pain Free showcases the top five methods to prevent pain.
Naturally Pain Free suggests multiple pain preventative treatments, such as:
Adjusting your diet/nutrition. Some of our favorite foods, such as coffee, garlic and chocolate, can cause pain. How do we know what foods trigger our pain? Follow the “Pain-Free Cleansing Diet” to find out. By eliminating pain-triggering foods, we ease digestion and eliminate toxins that create pain.
Incorporate healing herbs. Adding a half teaspoon of ginger to your water daily can reduce stiffness and pain, particularly in humid or cold weather. The book features many other healing herbs that can be incorporated into our diet including aloe, skullcap and triphala.
The healing power of touch. There are many forms of massage that help realign nerves deranged by overwork, exhaustion and trauma.
Meditation. Meditation can desensitize us to nagging pain. Individuals who practiced meditation during a clinical observation reported much less discomfort than they did in earlier meditation-free sessions.
Activities: Walking, Dancing, etc. These activities encourage the body to release natural pain killers called endorphins. Endorphins act like morphine in the brain, nerves and bloodstream.