Alternative Treatments for Pain Management
When you are injured in an accident or due to chronic illness, the recuperation time can seem eternal and many patients look for alternative therapies. It is important in these cases to remain patient and work closely with your pain management team to continue your treatment plan.
In some cases, however, alternative treatments used in conjunction with traditional medicine can be helpful. Here are a few common alternative therapies that your physiatrist may be willing to consider as complementary medicine to your treatment plan.
Overview
In the past ten years or so, alternative therapies have been given a strong second look by healthcare professionals. Such practices as acupuncture, yoga, biofeedback, relaxation techniques and even hypnosis are being seen as beneficial to recovery from injury.
By incorporating massage, chiropractic treatments, herbal therapies and diet and nutrition approaches, it is now believed that a therapeutic whole-body approach can form a viable recovery and recuperative option.
Mind-Body Therapy
Treatments that help with a “mind over matter” approach are becoming more popular. These approaches involve relaxation, meditation, biofeedback, trance, hypnosis and guided imagery approaches. When it comes to dealing with chronic pain or recovery from injury, such relaxation techniques can help to train the mind to address the body’s pain and alleviate discomfort while your team works to restore dexterity, mobility and function.
Acupuncture
There are over thirty diseases and conditions recognized by the World Health Organization that can be helped by acupuncture. One of the most common uses of this technique is for pain relief. This technique which uses needles placed into specific biofeedback points on the body has been around since at least the sixteenth century.
Therapeutic Touch
Reiki healing and therapeutic touch techniques are believed to reduce pain and anxiety in patients, as well as encouraging self-healing in the body. Further studies are being conducted as to the hard efficacy of this kind of technique.
Diet and Nutrition
Everyone’s nutritional needs are unique and individualized. While once considered secondary to medical treatment, today’s pain management teams are using nutritional counseling as an important and vital part of health and healing.
Your nutritional needs will vary based on your body, lifestyle and the kind of pain management with which you are dealing, but part of your recovery team may involve a nutritionist and dietary counseling. Such a nutrition plan could include certain herbal and vitamin supplements believed to help managing your pain.
Massage and Chiropractic Treatment
When it comes to managing pain, these processes are no longer alternative, but a vital part of your recovery. For pain in the back, neck and shoulders, chiropractic treatment is almost always part of the recovery process. Massage is proven to reduce stress and tension, increase blood flow, and relax and loosen muscles, which is always important to pain management.
At Complete Injury Management, our affiliate services employ a whole body approach to getting you healthy, well and back on your feet again. If you are in the Las Vegas area and have any questions, feel free to give us a call for more information today!
