Feeling no pain - solutions to headaches and backaches

American Fitness, March-April, 1990 by Peri Caylor

Feeling No Pain

Simple and safe solutions to make headaches and backaches a thing of the past.

Experts report more than 80 million Americans are victims of chronic pain. In fact, an estimated 45 million Americans are afflicted with chronic recurrent headaches, according to the National Headache Foundation in Chicago. After the common cold, problems with the lower back are the most frequent cause of lost work time in adults under age 45, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Park Ridge, IL.

That's the bad news. The good news is you can regain control of your life by maintaining simple lifestyle strategies.

HEADACHES

If you suffer occasionally from headaches, and who doesn't, taking aspirin or an over-the-counter muscle relaxant may eliminate the pain. On the other hand, chronic headaches are different. "Unfortunately, for someone suffering from headaches on a regular basis (once a week or more), muscle relaxants and over-the-counter medications aren't effective," says Dr. Robert Adler, staff member of the Pain Management Associates, a Beverly Hills, California medical group offering a comprehensive approach to relieving chronic pain. "In fact, eventually they cause rebound headaches."

Relaxation, exercise and proper posture are key elements in preventing tension headaches, according to Adler. Whereas tension headaches strike indiscriminately, migraine victims generally are high-energy, ambitious, orderly people who strive for perfection, and more than 70% of them are women. Unlike other headaches, migraines are usually preceded by some kind of signal -- your vision may blur, become sensitive to light, odors or sounds may increase and you may become nauseous or dizzy.

By maintaining a diary of their activities, migraine sufferers can often identify what triggers attacks. Common culprits include stress, menstruation or ovulation, environmental changes and diet. Foods commonly associated with migraines include aged cheeses, chocolate, wine, sour cream, avocados, ripe bananas, cured meats, many processed foods and foods containing monosodium glutamate -- although research into the relationship between food and migraines is inconclusive to date. Preventing or stopping migraines also involves the use of medications that "reduce the likelihood of or abort a headache," says Adler. "Newer aspects of treating migraine headaches include non-medication ways of affecting blood flow and body temperature."

Time management is also vital to headache patients who tend to overcommit their time, according to Mark Oakley, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist with Pain Management Associates and a staff member of the biobehavioral sciences department at UCLA School of Medicine. One useful practice to help establish control is to write a daily prioritized action list. "It's best for us to have a sense of where our limits are," says Oakley. "If we exceed or fail to meet those limits, stress sets in, leading to tense muscles and, finally, pain."

BACKACHES

Headaches and back pain are the most common manifestations of pain, according to the National Chronic Pain Outreach Association in Bethesda, Maryland. Sixty percent of chronic pain victims suffer from lower back pain, which is commonly attributed to poor posture, work or sleeping habits, lack of exercise, obesity or bad sleeping habits. While stress is not considered a cause of back pain, it is an aggravator. "Stress will cause muscle tension, but improper posture is often the key to the pain," says Sally Ho, physical therapist with Pain Management Associates. "Poor posture is constantly putting the muscles in an imbalanced state, making a person more prone to injury."

For those who are unsuccessful with single strategy treatments, a multi-disciplinary approach is recommended. People who have back, head, jaw and neck pain on a regular basis, meaning weekly for more than six months, and tried various treatments without results, are good candidates for pain management, according to Adler. Pain Management Associates' eight-week program involves an elaborate screening followed by a combination of treatments tailored to individual needs. It is designed to provide the patient with skills to independently cope with pain following the program, during which he or she works with the consulting doctor, a pain psychologist, a physical therapist and the referring doctor. "We are looking at the person as a whole -- mentally and medically," says Ho.

For all pain patients, stress management is part of the protocol. In addition to increasing muscle pain, stress affects its victim's mood, activity level and enjoyment of activity. With less activity, the victim often becomes depressed, and a vicious circle begins. Relaxation training helps reduce stress once it has stricken, according to Oakley. "One of the key things is to learn to relax under ideal circumstances," he says. "We suggest coming up with portable, shorter methods of reducing stress that can easily be called upon in the heat of the battle."