Pain Management.
I saw this advertsiement about a basketball player who was selling some sort of heat releasing plasters for relieving pain. I found that the phase “When the heat is on the pain in gone!”, is very meaning and has a very insightful concept of the way how Traditional Chinese Medicine treats pain. This concept has been adopted by the Chinese for more than three thousands years and till now the fort still holds .

There are many ways of managing pain. You can take some pain killers which will numb your nerves so that your brain will not be able to sense the pain. You can also try other traditional treatments like acupuncture and acupressure. Both techniques were once considered as a unorthodox treatments until the use of the gate control theory of pain, which was put forward by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall (1962, 1965), which explained theory behind these treatments. Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall (1962, 1965), believed that pain was perceived by interaction between different neurons.

By rubbing the pain area or using some invasive methods, like acupuncture, will help to “distract” the interactions between the neurons and hence lessen the pain. This will also activate the nonnociceptive fibers that inhibit the firing of nociceptive fibers (Kandel et al., 2000).

The using transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TENS), which selectively stimulate the nonnociceptive fibers by using electrodes, will also help to lessen pain.Besides using the above scientific theories as the foundation for pain management, we can also use heat to relieve pain too. Heat will can stimulate the flow of blood and stimulate the nonnociceptive fibers in the affected area. Hence, when I treat my patient for pain, I will try to relax the muscles and then continuously stimulate the nonnociceptive fibers around the painful area. It is indeed has helped me to manage the pain effortlessly and cost effectively.

Using heat to manage pain. When the “Heat is on the Pain is gone” is what acupuncturist has also been adopting to treat chronic pain for about three thousands of years. The using of moxibustion together will acupuncture are both essential techniques for relieving pains. Chronic pains that were caused by bad flow of qi or trauma require heat to go into the deeper tissue to increase the blood flow to nourish fibers. Heat will also help to stimulate the nonnociceptive fibers as well. A Chinese Medicine practitioner will and must try to find out the underlying causes of the chronic pain when the systematic problems have been addressed. He must then renders cost effective method to treat the underlying problems and take the miseries from the patients.

It is important to note that to be able to manage pain is very important. According to McGill University, those who is suffering from chronic pain will affect their choice of friends, activities, lifestyle and profession. They believes that failure to take up the challenges that their bodies faced can be seen as a mental illness (McGill University). So, the next time someone told you that he/she was in pain, please pay attention!


Reference:
1. P.D. Wall, R. Melzack, “On nature of cutaneous sensory mechanisms,” Brain, 85:331, 1962.
2. R. Melzack, P.D. Wall, “Pain mechanisms: A new theory,” Science, 150:171-9, 1965.3.
3. Kandel E.R., Schwartz, J.H., Jessell, T.M. 2000. Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed., pp.482-486. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Tag: Acupressure,Acupuncture,chinese medicine,gate theory, Kandel,nonnociceptive fibers,pain management,Patrick Wall,Ronald Melzack,unorthodox treatments