Pain is a way of the body telling you that there is something wrong with it; it is like the troubleshooting mechanism that naturally reacts to abnormal functioning of the body. Pain comes in many forms and can be due to injury or illness. Depending on the cause, people take painkillers to subdue the pain and continue with their dailies.
The four main types of pain entail:
Nociceptive Pain: The cause of this type of pain is tissue damage.
Inflammatory Pain: A type of pain produced by an immune system reaction that isn’t properly working.
Nerve irritation causes pain, referred to as neuropathic pain.
Pain that has no evident cause yet can produce pain is known as functional pain.
What Is Wrong With Painkillers?
But conventional medicine, mainly over-the-counter painkillers like aspirin and morphine, cause more harm than good. Some of the side effects of pain relievers include drowsiness, dizziness and nausea, weak immune system, itching, and sweating. The body can also develop tolerance against the medication in that you will need more of the drug to treat the same effect; this can lead to addiction. Your body becomes dependent on these drugs and cannot function normally without them.
It is therefore advisable that as much as possible, you stay away from these drugs. Explore other options that are better and friendlier to your body.
Healthier Alternatives to Pain Medication
Pain is uncomfortable, and no one likes it because it disrupts the planning of the day. But how do you get rid of this undesirable characteristic if you happen to have it? There are healthier options to pain medication that cause less harm and boost your body’s immune system to combat illness, one of the primary causes of pain.
1.Using Heat and Ice
Applying ice directly on an inflammatory area will cause the pain to go down and slow the inflammation. This is a common remedy if you have muscle strains like a dislocated joint or sprained ankle.
However, for pain that has no inflammation, use heat to relieve the pain. Mainly the muscles have tension, and the heat will help your muscles relax and ease the pain. These are good medications for injury pain, joint pain. An ice pack can help with headaches too.
2.Acupuncture
In traditional China, needles were punctured on the skin. It was either in the affected area or away from it, depending on the pain. The operand is that the thin sharp needles clear the pathway for body energy and thereby relieving pain. A different scientific study indicated that the therapy causes the feel-good chemical (serotonin) to be released. This relaxes the body and masks the pain.
3.Avoiding stress
Stress can cause mental discomfort and results in headaches, fever, and feeling disorientation. Managing your stress levels will go a long way to ensuring that you are in less pain. Practicing meditation and yoga has benefits to the body and relaxes the tension in muscles by allowing the body to free the mind.
If you are a business person, work can overwhelm you and cause stress. You can read more here about how having someone to help you out with how you handle clients, marketing, and brand positioning reduce work-related stress. It gives you ample time to concentrate on other operations and home affairs as you are sure that your business is getting the attention it needs.
4.Cloves
They are a good treatment for nausea, toothaches, headaches, fungal infections, and inflammations.
5.Turmeric
Tumeric has valuable antioxidants (Curamin) that help protect the body from free radical molecules causing cell and tissue damage. It also aids in treating indigestion, ulcers, psoriasis (body scaling), and stomach aches.
6.Willow bark
It helps with inflammation, fever, lower back pain, and headaches. You can brew it like tea and add some honey to taste.
7.Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
This is a type of therapy in which the patient thinks about their thoughts and feelings.
8.Massage Therapy
Massage helps in releasing muscular tensions and stress levels.
9.Physical Therapy
Hitting the gym frequently or going for a morning run helps keep the body fit and your body organs functioning at optimum.
10.Dieting
Eating healthy is an option that reduces illnesses. You can maintain your immunity at high levels and escape complications.
Pain, either acute or chronic, is a distracting occurrence that may face you. Over 20% of people trying out conventional pain relievers say they still experience the pain. Before you rush to buy OTC drugs to calm that headache, try alternative medication easily accessible to you, which has less harm to your body.
