5 Who-knew Ways To Fight Pain Naturally

You slept funny and your neck is stiff. You tripped over your child’s skateboard and whacked your knee. And oh yes, that tension headache after the call with your, er, extremely helpful sister-in-law. Learn about the latest approaches to feeling better, fast.

- Nancy Stedman

Ouch! You probably have some kind of pain almost every day, says Dr Xavier Jimenez. The most common are back pain, headache and neck pain, in that order. And – wouldn’t you know it? – women tend to feel pain more often, longer and with a greater intensity than men, says Dr Beth Darnall, a pain psychologist at Stanford University in the US. ‘That’s partly because sex hormones like oestrogen and progesterone play a role in how we experience pain,’ she says.

And there are good reasons not to run to the medicine cabinet too often. Opioids, of course, carry a significant risk of addiction, but even over-the-counter pain meds aren’t meant for long-term use and can cause liver or kidney damage and stomach ulcers. Fortunately, there are kinder, gentler strategies that don’t have side effects. Read on for the latest news on ways to alleviate all levels of pain – mild, moderate and even severe.

1 CHANGE YOUR DIET

Simply put, inflammation in the body is one big cause of chronic pain, and it can become magnified when you eat certain foods.

Here’s how it works. Suppose you twist your ankle. The jolt ruptures some ligaments and small blood vessels, and these leak fluid into nearby spaces, leading to swelling, explains Dr Alaa Abd-Elsayed, director of the Pain Management Clinic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. Microseconds later, your immune system rushes good-for-you chemicals (including cells that help repair damaged tissue) to the sore spot, which makes it swell even more. ‘All this swelling triggers pain receptors in nerve endings,’ says Dr David Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in the US. You can also develop inflammation in your heart, gums and other body parts. The extent of the ache depends on the kinds of pain receptors in these spots.