Nerve Pain reminds me a lot with an angry human – do the things that it loves, and avoid the things that it hates. That’s the general principle I tell all patients.
If your best friend was really angry, you wouldn’t nag them. Instead you would give them something they really like, ice cream for example. That’s the same way we should treat the really irritated nerve – avoid the things that it hates or aggravates it and do the things that it loves.
1. Movement is key! I know it sounds contradictory, but its actually more helpful then you would ever think. The body thrives off movement. There are a couple of reasons why:
Movement is a ‘lubricant’ for the body. It helps minimise stiffness so that you can move freely with minimal restrictions
Movement is healthy for the brains connection with the rest of the body. Movement in general requires communication between with your brain and the rest of your body, so the more communication, the healthier it becomes. If we don’t move often, the communication becomes inaccurate which can feed into our pain.
Movement results in strong and healthy muscles as well as joints. Movement allows for good and healthy blood flow, which means good health and healing.
2. Nerve Pain occurs due to an irritated and inflamed nerve/nervous system. So a really effective and natural way to calm this inflammation is placing ice/cold. Start by even 5 minutes each time. Small but frequent bouts can be really effective in reducing nerve pain
3. There is a lot of research which shows that breathing plays a huge role in pain and how we feel it. Its quite common for the new-aged human to breath through their mouth, which is actually the worst thing we can do, as this results in a sensitised or irritated nervous system. Try breathing in and out through your nose, but breath nice and slow, aiming to fill the bottom of your tummy first. It actually activates something called the ‘parasympathetic nervous system,’ which then calms us down more and more. If you want to read more about this, read ‘how breathing can affect our neck…’ blog! It’s a great one!
4. Staying Positive. Times like these, staying positive is the hardest thing to do. but its actually the most important time to do it. Positivity encourages the release of ‘happy’ chemicals into our body – dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and other endorphins which help us relax all the while can reduce pain sensitivity.
5. Reassuring yourself! This is really important because its quite common for us to tense up when we have severe pain. Its completely normal. But this is not good for us, as tensing up will only make everything so much worse. Reassure yourself that this is only a period and this will get better provided you are doing all of the above.
Most importantly, we are here to help. If you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to give us a ring and speak to one of our friendly physios.
