#134 Cool down

On the other side of the scale... cooling things down also have a good pain relieving effect, especially on muscular inflammation which is common both with whiplash, rheumatism and fibromyalgia.

Ice reduces swelling and increases blood circulation, while providing temporary pain relief by numbing the local tissue.

I have found that ice packs or simply (and more cheaply) just a bag of frozen peas can work wonders on my whiplash pain and prevent migraines if used early enough. Sometimes if my back is acting up at the same time, I need to sit with a heating pack or hot water bottle on my back and an ice pack on my neck simultaneously. That does make me look rather silly, but it really works, so hey, who cares? Both heat and cold can trick the sensory signal system and break a pain-spasm cycle, providing a simple and effective natural pain cure for many types of muscular pain.

#110 Neck extensions

Simple neck traction relieves pressure between the vertebras of the neck, gently stretches muscles and reduces headaches. This exercise has greatly helped my whiplash pain and migraines and it only takes 20-30 seconds. You don't need any traction device or fancy treatment facilities, it's as simple as taking hold of your head by the jawline and gently lifting to stretch and extend the neck. You can do it while lying down, sitting or standing. Don't twist or turn, just gently lift.

This video shows how you can use a towel or soft strap to do neck extensions at home:

#91 Practice Positive Thinking

One of the most annoying pieces of advice, and something that really feels unnatural when life in general sucks... as it often does when you're living with a chronic disease: "Think positive!"

But... it works. Being able to train your mind to adopt an optimistic attitude significantly reduces the experience of pain, and there is research showing that positive thinking can have as strong pain reducing effect as a shot of morphine. If you think this is strange, just consider this; even though there is concrete physical damage to the body, it's the brain and nervous system that interprets this and produces the pain signals. It's obvious that what happens to the brain and nervous system affects your perception of pain, the two can never be fully "separate".

So if you're born an optimist, that's great for you, but if you're like most people, keeping a positive outlook is something you have to choose to exercise and maintain just like any other capacity. Making a conscious choice to change your thinking is the first step, and from there on you can train and gradually build a strong positive way of thinking,which will help you in all areas of life.

Here's a step by step guide to help making the change:

• Observe and gradually turn around any negative inner dialogue. When you observe yourself going into a spiral of negative thoughts, don't judge yourself, just say "Ok, I'm repeating my pattern" then counter the negative thoughts with positive statements that promote your recovery.

• Send yourself a steady stream of affirmations. An affirmation is a phrase or sentence that sends strong, positive statements to your mind about yourself, such as "I am a good person" or "My joints are strong and flexible." Need inspiration? Check out the !Think Positive! blog for a daily positive affirmation.

• Visualize health and healing. Add mental images that support your positive affirmations.

• Don't feel guilty. There is no value in feeling guilty about health problems. While there is a lot you can do to reduce your risk for health problems and improve your chances of recovery, some illnesses may develop and persist no matter what you do. Some things just are. Accept that you are doing the best you can and applaud yourself for that.

PS: here is a good article about positive psychology.... and oh...positivity spreads:)

#81 Unclench your jaw

This is a tip especially concerning whiplash pain, migraines and headaches. I learnt it from my amazing chiropractor Kyrre, who unfortunately passed away too soon.

If you have suffered even a very slight whiplash injury, more often than not the neck extensors become over-stretched and as a result your neck will become slightly unstable. To compensate for that you may unconsciously begin to tighten your jaw muscles in order to stabilize the injury. Going months and years with clenched jaws leads to all other kinds of problems, most notably tension headaches and neck pain. This is what in many cases exacerbates pain in whiplash injuries that are too small to be detected.

By working to unclench and relax the jaw muscles, and then gradually training the small support muscles in the neck that are supposed to hold the weight and stabilize your neck, you will remove a common source of pain, and relieve yourself of many headaches, quite literally!

#2 Learn about your condition

It's Saturday, and a great day for surfing the internet or going to the library. Welcome to the world of the professional patient, it's time to get started on those self-studies!

Knowledge is power, and if you have a health condition, knowing more about it can help you get better. If you have a diagnosis, make it a point to read different descriptions of it, and take notes. Collect information from as many sources as possible and try to understand it so well that you can describe it to others in your own words.

If you suffer chronic pain without a specific diagnosis, you should learn more about the central nervous system, about pain signals and about chronic pain.

Set aside an hour or two and start with the basics. Find websites or books that work for you, it can be good to start with an illustrated textbook if you want to get a visual understanding of what's going on inside your body. Check out the neural pathways, read about the difference in nociceptive and neuropathic pain for example, and see if you can find information written both by doctors and by patients to get different perspectives.

This can be a good place to start:
The American Chronic Pain Association
And this page is excellent for a more in-depth explanation: Basic Science of chronic pain.

#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