Health with Nature

It’s not a laughing matter. Fear really can stalk the night. You can be lying in bed, enjoying the moment as sleep slowly overtakes you at the end of tiring day when, with just the merest warning, the pain can strike, usually in the calves. Or you can be jerked unceremoniously from sleep. Nothing seems to protect you. You wonder about hanging garlic above the windows, but reject it. You experiment with temperature, adding or rejecting coverings. But cramp is not to be frightened away like a vampire, nor does it seem to care whether your legs are hot or cold. Those muscles can suddenly contract and tie themselves into a knot. And the pain! Even though it may only be a minute or so, it feels like forever. So what do you do apart from grab the leg and howl with pain. Well, some believe in rubbing it. Others try stretching – pulling or pointing the toes up or back can seem to help. While the more active leap from bed and walk it off. Well, that should be limp it off since putting weight on the leg only seems to add to the pain at first.

Let’s get the helpful piece of news out of the way. No one knows why it happens. For some it’s a regular disruption to sleep, particularly affecting some women during the later stages of pregnancy. People who play sport or exercise more vigorously also report more incidents than the couch potatoes among us. continue reading…

One of the building blocks of medical treatment is the need for the patient (that’s you) to consent to whatever treatment is proposed. Hopefully, the doctor gives you a good explanation of the all costs and benefits, and this allows you to make a properly informed decision. The problems with this in the real world come on both sides of the equation. Some doctors act as if they walk on water and you should do whatever they tell you and be grateful they were actually prepared to speak to you. Some patients come with prejudices and, no matter what the doctor tells them, they don’t want to hear anything that conflicts with their own beliefs. In the middle come the doctors who are bad at explaining and the patients who struggle to understand. The result is that many pain management clinics fail to give a comprehensive and satisfactory range of treatments to every patient, i.e. many patients are left in pain.

So what are people afraid of? The most common is the legitimate concern that there’s a risk of addiction with some drugs. Some doctors believe they should be protective and not prescribe some painkillers. Some patients refuse to take anything where the risk exits. This has produced an irony. Hospitals have trained thousands of nurses and support staff in the management of pain, but they are not allowed to prescribe drugs. continue reading…

There are many misconceptions about fibromyalgia but, in a sense, they all boil down to one central concern. Is it a “real” disease? For some reason, fibromyalgia has been slotted into the “mental disorder” camp, where those affected are creating their sensations of pain. In part, this reflects a wider problem. Thanks to the persistence of the pharmaceutical industry, many have grown used to the idea that there is a cure for every disease and disorder on the planet. Thus, if there is no cure, it cannot be a “real” physical disease. It must all be happening inside your head. The reality is rather different. Unfortunately, there are a significant number of different diseases and disorders for which there are no “cures”. For some, there will be treatments to make the more obvious symptoms less severe. But the very best many patients can expect is a reduction in pain – such quality of life as there is will be based on learning how to live within the new physical limits. The real problem comes when people believe there is no help for them if they are diagnosed with fibromyalgia. They give up and rapidly become invalids.

There are some very precise criteria for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia which appears to be a disease affecting the way in which the nervous system processes pain messages. The reality is that everyone will feel varying levels of pain. Some times, this will be because of loss of mobility in joints or greater sensitivity when touched. Other times, everything just seems more difficult and pain levels rise even though you are passive. continue reading…

Where you go for information on back pain affects the quality of the information you find. Many sites have a specific agenda to sell a particular drug or treatment. This will bias the information. In that sense, this site is no exception. These articles are in support of a particular drug, but we prefer to put that drug into context and give you as rounded a picture as possible. Although we cannot claim to be independent and therefore offer completely unbiased advice, we hope you will find balance here and a freedom to make up your own minds.

Medical research indicates that up to 80% of adult Americans will experience back pain at some point during their lives. In surveys, the respondents consistently report that pain in the lower back is the most disruptive, not only interfering directly with the ability to work and so earn a living, but also affecting the quality of life by:

• disturbing sleep;
• encouraging inactivity and weight gain; and
• even preventing the enjoyment of sex.

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Throughout our lives we often have to deal with pain in its various forms. It can be a small injury or a serious trauma, it can be a light headache or a strong back pain, it can wear off in minutes and last for years. Pain follows us throughout our lives and never leaves us to be careless about what we are doing. Of course, there’s nothing pleasant about pain but if we were unable to feel pain the world would be much more of a stranger place for us where surviving would be much harder for the whole humankind. Pain simply tells us that something is wrong, whether within our body or outside of it that is dangerous and harmful. Imagine world without pain – yes it would be a very good place for a couple of minutes until you are exposed to something harmful, not feeling it, and simply die. Yes, pain is that important.

However pain can certainly make you wish you were dead, especially when it’s severe and chronic. That is why people throughout centuries have been developing ways of treating pain. From herbs to Tramadol, from cold objects to cognitive therapy there are numerous ways you can manage pain. But before trying to overcome pain, you first have to understand what pain really is. It is not a medical condition by itself, pain is only a symptom, a signal that something is wrong in the body. And if in case of an injury the cause is evident, quite often pain signals that there are underlying health problems that have to be treated, which the person was not aware of. And this is one of the most effective ways to overcome pain – treating the condition causing it. Chronic pain is the type of pain that is most commonly observed in cases of an underlying medical condition. Acute pain usually results from injuries and typically fades away over a short period of time. Chronic pain, as you can guess from the name, persists for longer periods of time, which in some cases spread over days, months and even years.

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