3 STRATEGIES TO HELP REDUCE PAIN AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE
Are you struggling with pain flare ups or re-aggravation of previous injuries causing pain that stops you from doing your daily activities? Keep reading to find out some of my strategies that may help reduce pain immediately.
Acute pain and pain flare ups can be annoying to deal with, especially if they prevent you from doing your daily activities, such as cooking or playing with your kids.
Knowing what works for you and your body can be critical in reducing pain during these stages. When pain happens, you’ll want an instant solution.
Keep reading to learn 3 different ways that may help in these situations.
The first step is always to get assessed by your healthcare practitioner to rule out anything serious. Once you know that it’s something you can deal with from the comfort of your own home, you’ll feel much more comfortable trying to manage your own pain. It also helps to get an idea of what types of treatments are going to be the most effective and you don’t have to experiment or play the guessing game, because that can take a really long time to figure out!
Remember to use your own judgement. If things feel worse, discontinue and see your healthcare practitioner.
1. HEAT/ICE
Heat and ice are easily accessible and you don’t need to buy anything fancy for this to work. You can use a shower or bath, soak a towel in water, something from your freezer, etc. to have an effect. There are even inexpensive products you can buy such as a hot water bottle or hot/cold packs you can throw into the microwave or freezer.
Heat helps to increase blood circulation to the area that has pain. It opens up the arteries and that may help with healing. It also helps tight muscles feel more relaxed. Heat can be a great way to reduce pain quickly. Keep in mind that it is not safe to use for all conditions and can also make things worse so it’s always best to see your practitioner. Discontinue using heat if you feel worse.
Ice can help to temporarily numb the sensation of pain at the site of an injury. It can also reduce swelling and constrict the blood flow temporarily. Once the body realizes that this area needs warmth, it sends a rush of blood flow to that area, allowing it to potentially heal quicker.
2. GENTLE MOVEMENT
A lot of times, pain increases due to sedentary behaviours or avoiding movement, which can happen if you feel like moving might make things worse or moving causes pain to increase. In most cases, moving is beneficial to healing. Not moving means we allow for our muscles to waste away because they need to be moving in order to be stronger. When the muscles go through a period of immobility, they get smaller and weaker. That means they can’t support your body and simple activities such as walking and gentle movement can become more painful. In the long-term, movement is essential to reducing and getting rid of pain but for right now, focus on easier movements just to get blood circulating.
Working with your practitioner will give you more specific exercises that will help you depending on where the pain is coming from and what parts of the body you need to add specific movements into.
Sometimes walking can be enough to help reduce pain. It helps to get blood circulating in general through the entire body and engages muscles that need movement. Even a few minutes can make a difference.
Some resting positions may also be helpful here, such as child’s pose, legs up the wall, lying down on your back with knees bent, or Savasana (corpse pose).
Gentle moving exercises such as cat-cow and knee to chest may also be helpful.
Depending on what is going on in your body, some of these things might work better than others.
None of these types of movements require more than 5 minutes!
3. CHIROPRACTORS
Chiropractic adjustments to areas where joints are not moving well or muscle work in the areas where pain is originating from can help to temporarily reduce symptoms of pain, speeding up healing. It also releases endorphins which make you feel good and your body also produces oxytocin which helps relieve pain.
They can instantly remove pressure off joints and increase range of motion (ROM) immediately.
Initially, you may need more frequent adjustments until your body gets used to the new sensations from having better joint mobility.
Adjustments can very quickly reduce pain, especially if they are done as soon as you start to feel the pain. There are many other health benefits to adjustments besides instant pain relief.
WANT MORE STRATEGIES?
I created this quick reference guide that summarizes this post and provides a couple of extra ways that may help you to reduce pain. You can download it right here and refer to it the next time you need a strategy that may help to reduce pain quickly!
The key to using any of these strategies is consistency and practice. You’ll want to know how something works while you have relatively less pain so you aren’t thinking about the options you have. Once that intense pain or the flare-up hits, it’s hard to think. Practice so it becomes second nature and you know exactly what you need to do to start feeling better right away.
This blog is only for educational purposes only and is not to be taken as medical advice. Please read the Disclaimer here.