Feeling no pain - solutions to headaches and backaches

American Fitness, March-April, 1990 by Peri Caylor

Positive imagery is one popular mode of relaxation training. Travel to whatever place is your great escape, and make the image real by using each of your senses. Visualize that Hawaiian vacation. Once you have visualized the scene, (i.e. waves crashing against a rocky shore), feel the ocean mist lightly spraying your skin, taste the salty water and feel the sun bathe your body with its warmth.

Biofeedback, which monitors such physical processes as blood flow and muscular activity change, is an effective way to gauge stress levels. Using the different readouts that indicate stressful issues, patients learn to identify and respond to changes by using one of the stress management techniques. Not only are the body's responses to stressors measured, but also its responses to stress management techniques, according to Oakley. "I use biofeedback as a kind of yardstick upon graduating," he says.

Other components of her initial patient evaluation include strength, range of motion, mobility and flexibility of the entire spine. Ho says after evaluation patients undergo pain-relieving modalities such as ice and heat, electrical stimulation to reduce swelling, TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), ultrasound, massage, and spray and stretch, in which the therapist uses fluoromethane to relax the patient's muscles to achieve a deeper stretch. In addition, Ho shows patients how they can perform exercises independently of the clinic. The exercise program involves a great deal of stretching of the entire spine and extremities and strengthening, complemented by a recommendation for regular aerobic exercise. "The modalities help relieve the symptoms," she says. "The exercise is to maintain what we've accomplished."

Physical conditioning is commonly used to alleviate all forms of pain, and is heavily emphasized for back pain patients. Exercise not only strengthens the supporting muscles, but relieves stress and stimulates the release of the body's natural pain killers, endorphins, which are responsible for "runner's high," according to Oakley.

Neither the modalities nor the exercise will help a patient whose posture and body mechanics are improper. Ho recommends seeing a physical therapist to teach you the right ways to sit, stand, sleep or work at your computer. It's important, Ho emphasizes, because "anything you do -- repetitively or occasionally -- in the wrong manner, will cause injury."

For many chronic pain sufferers, being a victim is becoming less of a problem, more of a positive challenge. Although no single solution can free you from pain, various combinations of non-medication practices -- from support groups to biofeedback -- are providing more and more relief.

Peri Caylor is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles.