Alternative Information

If Youre Unhappy with Your Pain Relief Meds, Heres a Whole New Class You Havent Tried


The 8 That Are Produced in Your Brain

When you're in serious pain, the medications you're taking are mainly designed to neutralize the brain chemistry that relays pain signals. Here's why your subconscious may be more effective than drugs at doing that.

Unless you're taking anti-inflammatory drugs, the purpose of the pain meds you're taking now is to alter your brain chemistry so that pain signals don't get sent or felt. But brain chemistry is an extremely complex subject that's not fully understood, so these meds don't always work.

No fewer than eight brain chemicals are known to be involved in pain transmission - four to amplify pain, and four to limit it. If you target only one or two, as most drugs do, you may accidentally throw the others out of balance, possibly causing side effects or limited effectiveness.

This could be true whether you have back pain or pain in the neck or other extremities, arthritis pain, fibromyalgia pain, or neuropathic pain (nerve pain).

Because the subconscious controls the involuntary functions of the body, it may know what combination of neurotransmitters is most likely to ease your pain. It may also be uniquely positioned to create that combination on your behalf. To see how, let's take a brief look at each of these eight chemicals.

The Four Main Transmitters of Pain

? Glutamate is the main neurotransmitter used by the NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) pain receptors in the spinal cord, the ones most involved with chronic pain. Unless glutamate is present, those receptors don't work. Activation of the NMDA receptors has serious consequences that you may be able to reduce using visualizations.

? Substance P can cause inflammation in some types of neuropathic pain. It can also help glutamate to activate NMDA, thereby greatly increasing the pain signal. Visualizations may be able to help you reduce these effects.

? Norepinephrine normally inhibits the perception of pain. But if the stimulus is prolonged, as in the case of back problems or fibromyalgia, norepinephrine may actually enhance pain signals. In some cases visualizations can help avoid this switch from pain inhibitor to pain facilitator.

? Acetylcholine helps to transmit pain signals. It's possible that some analgesics work simply because they prevent acetylcholine from being released. To relieve pain, The subconscious seems willing to adjust acetylcholine levels through visualizations.

The Four Main Inhibitors of Pain

? Endorphins and a sub-type called enkephalins are the body's main defense against pain. As soon as pain signals arrive in the brain these chemicals are released to inhibit both substance P and acetylcholine. If your pain is chronic your subconscious will probably request that you visualize an increase in endorphins.

? GABA inhibits both glutamate and substance P, the two main chemicals involved in chronic pain. Its release is triggered by the enkephalins. To ease pain, the subconscious often suggests an increase in GABA through visualizations.

? Serotonin relieves pain no less than four ways--by blocking the brain's perception of pain, making blood vessels more flexible, improving mood, and being linked to sleep. Using a visualization statement about increasing serotonin levels may thus be helpful in several dimensions.

? Dopamine, known as the feel-good neurotransmitter, is released not only during positive experiences but during pain as well. Too much of it can inhibit the endorphins, but the right amount can help to relieve pain. Achieving this balance through visualizations is something the subconscious may be able to do.

The Role of Visualization

If your pain meds aren't working, or are producing unacceptable side effects, consider this: the optimal way to manage neurotransmitters may be to induce your body to manage them naturally, through visualization statements.

Visualization statements represent the specific language that your subconscious wants you to read back to it to help ease your pain. They're simple and are targeted directly at the main factors that could bring you relief.

You can obtain these statements by learning how to communicate directly with your own subconscious mind. The process is straightforward and can be done at home by working with a facilitator over the telephone. You you need no special skills and no previous experience in working with the subconscious.

Balancing the Trade-Offs

In today's world of limited understanding about brain chemistry, the subconscious may in fact be one of the most useful tools you have balancing the many trade-offs between the neurotransmitters that control pain.

Ben Plumb is CEO and President of The Visualization Group, Inc. The company's service is delivered by people like himself who personally suffered from years of chronic pain, and used the visualization method described in this article to obtain relief when nothing else worked. For more information, please visit http://www.thevisualizationgroup.com.

(c) 2005 The Visualization Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The methodology and program disclosed in this article are Patent Pending.


MORE RESOURCES:

Waistband Stretcher Offers Alternative to Dieting, Excercise
Wired News - 7 hours ago
By Charlie Sorrel December 01, 2008 | 7:55:20 AMCategories: Apparel Over at the estimable BoingBoing Gadgets, fellow expatriate Brit Rob Beschizza has found ...


Give us an alternative to state-sanctioned marriage
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 16 hours ago
We are two straight women worried about marriage. We do not own the devastation of Proposition 8. That belongs to the women and men who lost the honor of ...


EKUpdate

EKU gets $4.65 million to start alternative fuels research program
Kentucky.com, KY - 2 hours ago
By Ryan Alessi - ralessi@herald-leader.com Eastern Kentucky University is launching a new alternative fuels research program in tandem with a San Diego ...
EKU-General Atomics Partnership to Boost Sustainable Biofuel ... EKUpdate
Biofuel Research at EKU WTVQ
EKU to study alternative fuel technology Kentucky.com
all 10 news articles


Rothstein Kass Rated Top Accounting Firm in 2008 Hedge Fund ...
MarketWatch - 6 hours ago
"Our selection as the top accounting firm to the alternative investment industry by Alpha Magazine is extremely gratifying. That we have achieved this ...


Deutsche Bank’s Alternative Investment Management Business, RREEF ...
WELT ONLINE, Germany - 2 hours ago
RREEF Alternative Investments, the global alternatives asset management business of Deutsche Bank’s (XETRA:DBKGn.DE / NYSE:DB) Asset Management business ...


Alternative school pays tribute to Crisenbery
Lebanon Western Star, OH - 4 hours ago
By Ryan Cook On its 10th anniversary, the Warren County Alternative School paid tribute to the late Larry Crisenbery, who was instrumental in helping the ...


Reminder - Media Advisory: First CNG Alternative Fuel Trucks ...
MarketWatch - 4 hours ago
LOS ANGELES, CA, Dec 01, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- WHAT: First compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled trucks in port drayage operation at the ports of ...


Buying on layaway seen as alternative to credit
Newsday, NY - Nov 30, 2008
The pay-as-you-go alternative to credit cards is "a way to rein in spending" and avoid piling new debt on top of old, said Gail Cunningham, spokeswoman for ...


Pedaled points of light: Christmas tree uses alternative energy
San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA - 7 hours ago
The alternative-energy tree won't be sucking up electricity from Indiana Michigan's power grid. Rather, visitors to the Festival of Trees will be allowed to ...


New Data Provide Comprehensive Understanding of Americans' Use of ...
National Institutes of Health (press release) - 7 hours ago
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's mission is to explore complementary and alternative medical practices in the context of ...
Complementary and alternative medicine 101 Thirty percent of ... AAP News (subscription)
all 2 news articles

Alternative - Google News

home | site map
© 2006