December
30, 2008
Important News About Pain
Interview
with Mel Pohl, M.D, author of A
Day Without Pain |
Mike Carruthers:
A
third of the population suffers from chronic pain and we're all
bothered by pain at some point. Here's something interesting...
Mel Pohl,
M.D.:
Probably twenty percent of chronic pain is related to the injury
and the tissue irritation and about eighty percent is related
to our attitudes about the pain.
Mel Pohl, M.D.
and author of the book A
Day Without Pain...
When you feel
pain of any kind what's your initial response to say? "Ah
darn it, I don't like this." And that response secretes
activation enzymes that cause us to have more pain and just
on a local level if your muscles are tense you hurt more because
they press on the nerves.
So making peace
with your pain, says Dr. Pohl, will actually make it hurt less
and so will movement, though typically when we have pain we
tend to stay still.
And that's the
enemy of chronic pain, so the intervention that we use and that
I recommend strongly is exercise. Now having said that, that
doesn't mean when you start to move you're not going to feel
worse. So you should do it under supervision is the bottom line
but it is really better to move than not to move.
But really it's
attitude that makes the difference.
It's not , "Oh
that rotten stinking pain." It's, "Oh it's pain and
it's here now. What am I going to do, am I going to sit here?
No I'll try a walk around the block and see what happens."
Distracting ourselves from pain is a very effective tool.
At
somethingyoushouldknow.net
- I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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