Pain

Pain, along with tiredness, accounts for the majority of patient visits to doctors in general practice. Two simple, but related definitions can be offered here:

- pain is an unpleasant sensation felt in some part of the body

- pain is a subjective experience that cannot be shared or imparted, may be difficult to pinpoint, and cannot be measured. But at the same time, it should be seen as an important alarm signal, the body's way of protecting the organism by alerting it to a particular danger and localizing it. Once it has performed this function, it can be eliminated. Only one medical situation brings on inexplicable and unproductive pain, and that is childbirth.

It was only in 1846 that a Scottish gynaecologist, Dr. Simpson, broke with the biblical injunction that "in sorrow thoushalt bring forth children", with his pioneering use of anaesthetics in midwifery. His medical colleagues protested, maintaining that the pain of childbirth is the moral guarantee of a mother's love for her child The clergy were also up in arms at the idea of a painless delivery, refusing to baptize children born in such conditions. It was almost a century before any real change in thinking took place brought about firstly by the development of preparatory classes in pain free childbirth, then by the widespread use of epidural injections.

Acupuncture

Pain is the main indication for the use of acupuncture.

Treatment Schedule: one session once or twice a week, depending on the nature of the symptoms and/or their intensity. Some pain reduction will usually be felt within the first few sessions.

Mesotherapy

This treatment is effective for most types of pain.

Treatment Schedule: one session once or twice a week, depending on the nature of the symptoms and/or their intensity. Again, some pain reduction will usually be felt within the first few sessions.

I would place this technique in the category of reflex therapies, as it uses tiny injectable doses of traditional medicines or homeopathic blends, and it strikes me as being similar to acupuncture, both in its areas of application and in its results. This therapy is not common in Britain and if it is used, it is only by GPs who have studied homeopathic medicine.

Transcutaneous Electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)

Treatment Schedule: a brief training session should be sufficient to learn how to use the equipment, after which it can be applied daily as needed.

Osteopathy and chiropractic

This treatment is appropriate for pain in the spine or joints.
-Treatment Schedule: Two or three sessions, one week apart.

Heat

Heat acts as an antispasmodic and a relaxant. Hot compresses on stomach cramps, a warm bath for lumbago, poultices for a backache, moxas for rheumatic pain, warm air from a hairdryer for a stiff neck, an infrared lamp for a frozen back, are just some of the ways heat can be applied.

Cold

Cold has an anaesthetic effect on pain. Some of the best-known remedies are an ice cube held against a bruise, running cold water on a burn, an ice pack for tendinitis, cold drinks given after a tonsillectomy, and the magic sponge or cold spray offered by the sports medicine specialist.

Homeopathy

There is no one specific homeopathic remedy for pain. But there are several treatments that are useful for different types of pain:

• Aconite: for violent, unbearable pain that has come as a shock
• Belladonna: for violent, inflammatory, throbbing pain such as migraine or headaches that accompany a high temperature
• Berberis: for the tearing, burning pain of renal colic
• Bryonia: for pain made worse by the slightest movement
• Cactus: for constrictive pain in the head and heart area
• Chamomilla: for teething pains
• Cantharis: for the pain of cystitis, for painful burning sensations when urinating
• Capsicum: for the pain of earache and the feeling that the ear will burst
• Chelidonium: for pain at the tip of the right shoulder blade, made worse by movement and touch, improved by heat
• Colocynthis: for very violent, cramping pain
• Ignatia: for variable pain, with some spasms, and contradictory symptoms
• Magnesia phosphorica: for acute, cramping, biting pain that causes the patient to double over
• Rhus toxicodendron: for pain made worse by rest or immobility, improving on first movement

- Dosage: four 5c tablets of one, or several of these remedies, which are to be sucked slowly like sweets, three or four times a day

Herbal remedies

Once again, there is no one specific herbal treatment for pain, except for toothache, for which cloves are the recommended remedy. But numerous plants have a localized effect on certain kinds of pain, such as marigold (Calendula) and phytolacca for sore throats, arnica and wild rosemary for bruises, and St. John's wort (Hypericum) for nervous disorders. Certain plants, such as angelica and camomile, are effective against spasms. And others are beneficial for rheumatic pain, namely devil's claw, horsetail, meadowsweet, and white willow.

Cloves

Cloves, much used here in the West to flavour certain dishes, are also a very useful medicine thanks to their anaesthetic and antiseptic properties. If you suffer from a toothache while travelling, you can soothe it by placing a dried clove next to the affected area. Even more effective is a drop of essential oil of cloves on a piece of cotton wool.

Plant essential oils

Basil, camomile and tarragon are digestive antispasmodics.

Cloves for dental pain.

Cajuput for certain rheumatic pains.

The Cajuput Tree

The properties of this aromatic tree from Southeast Asia are comparable to those of its relative, the niaouli tree of New Caledonia. Its essential oil is sometimes used as an ingredient in ointment for treating the pain of osteoarthritis.

Oligotherapy

Magnesium is recommended for its muscle-relaxing properties.