3 Ways To Reduce Pain Without Opioids

There are plenty of reasons to want to avoid opioids, even if your pain level is severe. Heavy duty painkillers can leave pain sufferers addicted, cause gastrointestinal bleeding, and can lead to abuse of other drugs. Of course, that doesn't mean that you should suffer in pain just to avoid addictive pills. Here are three methods for reducing your pain that don't rely upon opioids.

Physical Therapy

In many instances, pain stems from old injuries. There's even a chance that you're experiencing discomfort in an area that hasn't been directly injured, but is connected to a former injury. For example, people sometimes experience chronic pain in their arms when a shoulder or neck injury occurred in the past.

If you haven't had an injury, physical therapy could still help you. Sometimes, poor posture can be to blame for chronic pain. In other instances, muscles degrade to the point where they can no longer control the body the way that they should, resulting in discomfort. It can be extremely difficult to restore muscles that have atrophied on your own, but expert physical therapists excel in this field.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is extremely useful in managing pain. Several studies have shown that acupuncture is useful, although doctors and scientists are unclear on exactly why. Some believe that acupuncture needles encourage the body to release endorphins, which help to suppress the feeling of pain in the body. Others think that the needles can help to loosen up muscle tension and increase blood flow, which may promote healing. Traditional Chinese medicine indicates that energy flows to specific areas of the body when acupuncture is used, which facilitates healing. Whatever the reason is, acupuncture works, and it's worth a try for your pain.

CBD

Lastly, a compound found in marijuana called CBD might be helpful for you. If you're wary of opioids, you might be afraid of cannabis. However, you'll be glad to know that CBD contains none of the hallucinogenic or "trippy" chemicals that marijuana is known for. Those chemicals are found in THC, another component of marijuana. The extracted CBD, however, provides all of the health and pain benefits without making the user feel goofy or under the influence. It also greatly reduces the risk of any kind of addiction or desire for the drug, all while helping to control pain.

If you have chronic pain in your body but don't want to risk the damage opioids can cause, these methods may be useful for you. Work with a pain specialist to determine which treatments are ideal for your needs.

Contact a center like Regional Pain Care for more information.

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