Personal Well-being: 04

 Personal Well-being: 04 Relief from chronic pain.

   By Barefoot Medic

It was 1975 when I made an earth-shattering discovery. 

I remember it clearly it was the day of the cup final, West Ham v Fulham, the Hammers won 2 - 0.

 I had a raging toothache, I had doused the tooth with 'Oil of Cloves' without effect, even paracetamol failed me.  Beating my head on the wall didn't help either.

  The only respite came from biting my lower left lip, this eased the pain. But, after a while, it returned.  First as a dull ache, pretty soon it was as bad as ever.

  I bit my lip on the lower right side this time, and for a while, it worked.  I found that if I bit for twenty to thirty seconds, then stopped for twenty to thirty seconds, the effect lasted much longer.

Inevitably the toothache returned.  By that time my lower lip was sore and bleeding.

 So, I put up with the pain from the toothache as long as I could before starting on the upper lip.  Aware of the damage to my lower lip I tried not to bite so hard on my upper lip.  I bit down gently, slowly increasing pressure until it relieved the pain.  I alternated left to right; thirty seconds on thirty off.  My upper lip was undamaged.  But the pain still returned after a while.

 Then I had an epiphany.  the toothache was a prolonged chronic pain!  When I bit my lips I was producing a sharp acute pain.  My body was drawing attention to the acute pain disregarding the fact it was the lesser of two evils.  

 What if I produced an acute pain somewhere else? 

 I made several assumptions:

·                  What if the body can only cope with one pain at a time?

·                  What if acute pain trumps chronic pain?

·                  What if this is the basis of acupuncture?

·                  I looked around for something I could use in place of my teeth.

 I found a drawing pin (thumbtack) and pressed it into one of the finger pads on my right hand, not hard enough to break the skin.  I applied gentle pressure until the toothache was nullified.  I held the tack in place with the finger by making a fist.  When the pain started to return I first increased the pressure then swapped the tack to another pad; no skin was broken, no physical harm was done, and within the hour the toothache was gone.  To be safe I doused the tooth with oil of cloves, the pain did not return.

  I have since used the same method to successfully alleviate earache and other chronic pain.  At no time did I break the skin. 

  Yes, it has been pointed out that medication can accomplish the same result, but it doesn't always work and is not always available, or even desirable.  It's reassuring to know that when all else fails, there is another 'natural' method of pain control you can call upon.

As always, you try my remedies at your own risk.  If in doubt consult a doctor.