#243 Spread smiles

This is one of those mysterious things that helps my pain without really having a rational explanation. I know that smiling reduces pain, but for some reason spreading smiles works even better!

In the waiting room, on the bus, in the parking lot....

I grinned at this old lady in the grocery store, first she looked at me like I was kind of weird, then when I kept smiling without acting crazy her face lit up in a beautiful smile and she nodded at me... like we shared a secret.

Maybe small meetings like that don't actually change my health, but I feel so much better afterward!!! And that sure changes my perception of pain, if nothing else... So I'm ready for a challenge: If it's possible to brighten the day of a random stranger in the grocery store....

How many smiles can you spread today?

#137 Get it on

Sex is an excellent method of pain relief, whether you have it alone or with a partner. Although it may be one of the first things to disappear when you are in constant pain, the good news is your sex drive can be kept healthy by regular ... ehem... practice. Keeping sex enjoyable also when you have daily pain takes some time, effort and creativity, but it's definitely worth it, because apart from everything else good about it, orgasm is a powerful pain-killer!

Oxytocin, a natural chemical in the body that surges before and during climax, gets some of the credit, not to mention the amount of endorphins produced. At the risk of repeating myself here: Endorphins (a neurotransmitter in the brain) as a painkiller are much more powerful than morphine. Around twenty different types of endorphins have been discovered in the nervous system to date. One of the endorphins, beta-endorphin, is 18-50 times more effective than morphine, while another, called dynorphin, is over 500 times stronger!

Besides that, there's science showing that having sex raises your pain tolerance. A study by Beverly Whipple, professor emeritus at Rutgers University and a famed sexologist and author, showed that when women had an orgasm “the pain tolerance threshold and pain detection threshold increased significantly by 74.6 percent and 106.7 percent respectively.”  

So why wait?

#54 TENS your body

You know what they say: "It's never too late to learn how to electrocute yourself!" or... wait a minute, maybe that's not what they say... or, who are "they" anyway, and what are they doing in my blog?

Well.

This is a TENS machine, and TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, which might explain why I'm quite happy using the abbreviation.

A TENS unit is a small batterypowered thingy that lets you electrocute yourself, or give yourself mild electric shocks through sticky electrodes placed on the skin. Now why would anyone want to do do this, you might ask? Well my friend, turns out that zapping yourself with high frequency electricity at low voltage blocks the pain signals to the brain and stimulates the production of endorphins.

Simply speaking: Zapping yourself with a TENS unit 20 minutes a day can relieve your pain.

It doesn't work for everybody all the time, and some people prefer opioids and other narcotics, but if you're looking for safe, non-addictive pain relief, TENS is definitely worth a try. Most health insurances will cover the purchase of the unit.

There are different places you can zap for different effects, and most units have different programs, that combine high and low frequencies for best effect. Safety rules: Never use TENS around your heart or neck, never use it if you have a pacemaker and always always always consult your doctor before trying TENS or any other new treatment.

#6 Smile

Yep, it's true: smiling reduces pain!

The buddhists have apparently know this for a very long time: when you smile, your brain releases chemicals that make you feel calm and happy.

Aha, you thought it was the other way around, that when your are happy, you smile? Well so did I. Apparently this is one of the things that falls into the "tricking your brain" category.

But when you are in pain and your life sucks you may not feel like smiling, it actually might feel like the most difficult thing to do.

Yesterday I was at the airport in Frankfurt, flying back to Norway from Christmas holiday with my sister in Austin. Sitting in an airplane seat for 9 hours had really got my back and neck aching, and the neck pain was quickly approaching the level where I have problems functioning and can't see straight. I was too tired to get up and do much about it, my otc painkillers hadn´t worked and I didn't have anything else with me. I remembered this tip, and vainly tried fake-smiling for a while but really couldn´t get very into it.

Then when I was going through security, this friendly man was searching my bag for security hazards, and he came across the bottle of "Texas Roadkill Barbecue Sauce" I'd got for my father in Houston. The security officer (who looked sort of like Santa Claus) wiggled his finger and tried to look very stern; "Now this is an explosive, young lady, I can't let you bring this on the plane" and then I started laughing for real. He let me off (thankfully he didn't open the other bag, that had the slightly naughtier present for my boyfriend in it), the roadkill sauce was history, but I just thought it was all so funny I couldn't stop grinning.

And what do you know? A little while later the pain was gone.
Thank you Frankfurt Airport Security!

That experience sure helped me understand this theory, and now I've looked it up again and found lots of information about how smiling (even fake smiling!) releases endorphins, natural pain killers and seretonin, which helps you relax, it also lowers blood pressure, boosts your immune system and makes you look younger.

So Why wait?

Can´t even imagine smiling? Here's How And here is some inspiration :)

#1 Get Physical!

Aerobic exercise is definately not something you're up for when you've been in serious pain for a long time, and that's why I got pretty pissed off at the doctor who told me this...

Back in 2003, I'd been through hell with my whiplash injury, when several months of waiting and getting sent from one place to the other brought me to this supposedly specialized neurologist who simply said: "There's nothing we can do for you, but you should try getting your blood pumping by doing aerobic exercise 20 minutes a day."

I was getting my blood pumping right there and then, but maybe not in a very healthy way. "Who the %&$/ is HE to tell me to exercise?? Doesn't he know what kind of hell I'm going through, I can hardly walk to the kitchen and back, and here this guy is telling me to get fit?" etc etc etc...

But a while later I got to try it out, inadvertently of course, as I would never dream of actually following the advice of a doctor I didn't get along with... but I had a good day and was walking up a steep hill, first it was just really tough and my breath was labored, but after a while I noticed that I reached that level where my breath sort of evened out and got calmer, I got more energy and the pain was completely gone, my body was warm and just felt great for the first time in a looong while. Afterwards my pain was significantly lowered for the rest of the day, very noticably so, and I came to remember that doctor and his advice...

I did some reading up and found out that getting your breath going like that maximizes the amount of oxygen in your blood. Your heart beats faster, and increases blood flow to your muscles and at the same time your body releases endorphins, natural painkillers that make you feel good for a long time afterwards. All natural and even builds some muscle.

It will always be difficult to motivate yourself to move much at all when you're feeling awful, but it's definitely worth a try. Specially since it's free and it feels great.

Yayy:D