Naturopathic Pain Relief

Naturopathic medicine has been around for hundreds of years, in many forms in native treatments.

Therefore, it is logical and natural to bring the ideas and principles of naturopathic medicine to the treatment and relief of chronic pain.

One Naturopathic Principle - Do No Harm.

By the use of natural pain management self-help techniques, it is easy to appreciate and understand this particular naturopathic principle.

Understanding this doing no harm means: -

No negative side effects such as we have with medication.
Positive messages as opposed to negative prognosis – new ideas needed
Continual small steps taken regularly, with continual changes.
Supported on your pain relief journey, with help and advice.
Help with setting your personal goals for the future - goals that work

However, you may think naturopathic ideas sound a bit different.

Therefore, I have found clients sometimes experience problems when they start working with a naturopath, who are multimodal, with training in many therapeutic skills.

New ideas can be confusing because this something you haven't heard before.

It's a different message than what doctors have been saying to you possibly for most of your life.

You have seen and heard many messages from online that may promise a lot and may not be accurate explanations particularly if they're selling you something.

When we try to do something that is not readily accepted by family and friends, it can make us feel pressured. They do not use the self-help techniques and also to give up too quickly.

If you are not ready to hear new ideas that differ from the medical view I fully understand.

Otherwise, if you are ready - welcome!

I invite you to: -

Keep reading.
Spend time on my website.
Or get in touch with me.

Second Naturopathic Principle - Treat the Whole Person.

Natural Pain Solutions does not generally advocate include supplements as taking supplements needs to be done with your local naturopath.

We must remember that supplements are not lollies and need prescription and guidance from a qualified practitioner, your local naturopath or pharmacist.

Let's look at diet and exercise lifestyle changes that you can integrate into your life NOW!

Nutrition and Diet - Eating for Pain Management

There is a need for a healthy diet.

Pain causes fatigue, therefore may be lacking the energy needed to prepare food
We need easy to eat food also
Our favourite food (healthy)

"Make these above become a habit. Beware sometimes it's quite easy to start a habit, but to make it a habit takes a little bit of effort."

"Start a stepwise approach to eating more fruit and vegetables - by adding one more piece, normalise, then add one more....."

Investigating the various government recommendations I found the information below that you might find useful.

1. NZ - at least 5 vegetables and 2 fruits (link)

2. UK - have 5 portions of fruit and vegetables - 2022 (link)

This site is interesting site doesn't expect too much of a non-vegetable eater, with advice just to add 'one more piece of fruit or vegetable - a stepwise approach' in an informative video.

3. Australia - Again recommendations are 2 fruit and 5 vegetables, although a little more complicated information from their official 2013 dietary guidleines

4. Canada - easy to use information, about healthy eating - down to earth and easy to understand, not giving particular numbers but helpful ideas to improve the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat. (link)

Beware processed foods - they contain many "non-researched" manmade chemicals

Ultra-processed foods are increasingly filling the shelves of supermarkets and they contain many, many additives and chemicals that are needed to keep food fresh or to hold it together in certain way.

These chemicals are created to stick the pieces of food: that started as food before it was taken, cut into pieces and then reassembled again?

As far as these chemicals and additives and flavourings, and colourings and stabilisers and emulsifiers - we have no idea of the affect of long-term eating these ultra processed foods.

However research is showing that they are not good for us and it's much better to be eating "healthy food", as above.

But what is healthy food?

First be curious about the labelling because "healthy" and "natural" marketing may mean very little or absolutely nothing. Therefore the best diet is fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains and good protein.

"If you have chronic pain the very first self-help technique has to be a good diet."

Supplements for chronic pain can be very confusing.

Just a brief word here about supplements that so many people take - without noticing the label on all dietary supplements that should say "supplements don't replace a good diet" that I wrote about above. So, before you spend money on supplements make food and eating changes mentioned above.

As a naturopath I have prescribed supplements in my practice resulting in improvements in pain and general health. However, nutritional supplements should be used appropriately and their use monitored.

Beware of purchasing anything from the Internet.

Beware of recommendations from a friend their body's illness is not yours.
Get professional advice from a naturopath or nutritionist.

There are two ideas as a naturopath that I will suggest you investigate. If not from a naturopath, your local pharmacist may help.

Magnesium may be of benefit if you have chronic pain, preferably as a powder as it's easier to digest. And also discuss the use of zinc for chronic pain with your pharmacist, naturopath or doctor.

Link between being overweight and in chronic pain

Finally there is one thing that needs to be mentioned in relation to what and how you eat, that is weight loss.

If you realise your body will benefit from losing weight - make changes.
The weight is from the fat that you are carrying - fat is inflammatory.
Start with the healthy eating ideas - just make one change, then another....
Plus start to bring the portion size down - very important step
A key idea to this is to use a small plate.

If you have an enormous plate and are trying to put small portions onto that plate it will only make you feel more hungry, and want so much more food.

Important Tip - switch to a small, well filled plate will satisfy you from the eyes down.

The Importance of Exercise and General Movement for Chronic Pain.

Movement is the most important aspect of our health after what we eat, but movement and exercise is often completely given up if we have long-term pain. Understandable, if it hurts to move.

I think this is sometimes the most difficult part of managing or treating chronic pain.

If we are in pain the last thing we want to do is move is that painful part of our body. When even thinking about moving that painful body part can immediately make our pain worse, often by various degrees.

Relevant Article: Why do physiotherapists ask clients to move

So there's a couple of ideas that I think are important for movement and by extension exercise when we are trying to make changes of the intensity or the duration of our chronic pain.

The movement or exercise that we do must have a purpose.
If we are doing exercises to recover or improve our range of motion the exercise has to be, as much as possible, enjoyable or at least rewarding.
The movements that we are expected to do must make sense to us, we need to fully understand the what where and how of the movements we are being asked to do.
Movement of a body has to be done for our health, physical and mental. As we have to have blood circulation and other enzymes hormones and neurological messages continually working as well as possible.
We have to remember that healing and pain relief is not a mechanical process it is a physical and mental process which needs us to be active.

This article below provide information about how your body and brain enable muscles to move your body and to relax.

Relevant article: Learn about how contralateral movement helps chronic pain