Chronic pain and mental health are almost Siamese twins. Anxiety, guilt, frustration, and depression weaken the entire body and are themselves tremendous stressors.
Obviously, the first need when there is physical pain is to learn whether there is a physical cause that can be corrected. This often requires evaluation by a physician.
Perhaps the most common physical CAUSE of low back pain is a rotation of the sacrum, called a sacral shear. No chiropractor or usual M.D. knows this diagnosis.
Unfortunately, 90% of osteopaths no longer practice osteopathic manipulative therapy. I have treated successfully in one minute hundreds of this easily corrected problem! It is much more common than a ruptured disc.
Obviously fractured bones and appendicitis require physical intervention, as do abscesses, local infections, benign tumors, etc. A majority of urinary or bladder infections can be successfully managed by taking D-Mannose.
But both acute and chronic pain create anxiety and depression.
One of the most common causes of pain is muscle tension, most often associated with magnesium deficiency. Indeed, almost 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium, because our soil is deficient. Beef and dairy farmers know they must give cattle extra magnesium but vegetable and fruit farmers do not give their crops magnesium!
Interestingly, although magnesium in vegetables is great, magnesium supplements are very poorly absorbed. Indeed, oral magnesium is useful only as a laxative! Chronic pain and mental health are best helped with magnesium lotion on the skin!
When chronic pain and mental health do not respond to physical intervention or simple magnesium lotion, there are numerous simple, safe alternatives.
Perhaps the simplest is TENS, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve stimulation, introduced by me in the 1960s, and still used worldwide. Unfortunately, physical therapists are accustomed to using short modalities, often just 30 minutes. Successful use of TENS requires anywhere from one or two hours to all day.
If it is easy to surround the pain with electrodes above and below and/or on either side of the pain, that placement may be ideal. If the area is too large or the around the pain placement does not work, there are eight alternative remote placements that can be totally satisfactory.
(You can look up the following acupuncture points and see physical placements for each acupuncture point named. TENS should be strong but never painful and trial stimulation of at least one hour should be tested.)
- Master of the Heart or Pericardium 6-on the palmar aspect of the wrist about one inch above the wrist, coupled with Triple Heater 5, about one inch above the back of the wrist. This placement may be useful for arm, shoulder or neck pain
- Conception Vessel 6, about one inch below the umbilicus coupled with Governing Vessel 16, just below the inion on the upper back of the neck. This combo is good for pain in the chest or neck.
- Kidney 1 on the sole of the foot between the ball of the big toe and the second toe coupled with Bladder 60, behind the external malleolus and between it and the gastrocnemius tendon. These points are excellent for pain in legs, pelvis, and lower half of the body.
- Large Intestine 4 on the fleshy part between thumb and the index finger on the back of the hand coupled with Stomach 36 just below the knee between the tibia and fibula. These can be used to treat diffuse and somewhat generalized pain.
Chronic pain and mental health deserve a trial of any and all combinations to be confident of pain relief with continued use of TENS.
These additional two placement options are also great for generalized pain.
- Kidney 3 between the medial malleolus and the gastrocnemius tendon, coupled with Master of the Heart 6, on the palmar aspect of the wrist about one inch above the wrist. These also for generalized pain.
- Triple Heater 5 about one inch above the back of the wrist, coupled with Spleen 4 on the inside of the foot at the proximal end of the long bone, the metatarsal of the foot. Another great combo for generalized pain.
If TENS does not work for a marked improvement in chronic pain and mental health, the next best bet is the Shealy-Sorin Gamma PEMF®, the only Pulsed Electromagnetic Frequency device that puts the brain into Gamma, the “in the zone” state for happiness, freedom from depression and anxiety, and recovery from opioid addiction, as well as improved circulation and pain relief.
One or another of these many options, used with Biogenics® mental retraining exercises will succeed in excellent relief of chronic pain and mental health challenges in at least 85% of individuals.
