Kenneth Frank - Users Guide to Natural & Safe Pain Relief

I f you have picked up this book, physical pain is probably a bothersome part of your life. Arthritis, muscular aches and pains, joint injury, back pain, and headache are extremely common complaints that could have motivated you to look for answers in this Users Guide. For some of you, pain may be disabling, preventing you from doing the things you need, enjoy, or want to do in your day-to-day life. Or, you may be looking at this book because someone close to you is in pain and you want to help. In these pages, you will find valuable information that will give you the tools and knowledge you need to reduce your painwithout shouldering the significant risks now known to exist in many of the pharmaceutical drugs normally prescribed for this purpose. You will learn how to use natural medicinesherbs, nutrients, as well as dietary changesto reduce the impact of pain on your life.

Whatever its form, pain is the primary reason people go to the doctor. Pain Net, Inc. reports that more than 65 million Americans suffer from some form of pain at any given time, and that 90 percent of diseases are associated with pain. Pain costs the United States $100 billion a year in lost productivity, 50 million lost workdays a year, and $3 billion in lost wages a year.

Unfortunately, pain medications carry risks and side effects that range from annoying to life threatening. In 2004, with the withdrawal from the marketplace of the blockbuster pain drug Vioxx (the largest prescription drug withdrawal in history) due to significant increase in heart attack and stroke risk in patients on the drug, the publics trust in mainstream pain medicines began to wane. The safety of other similar drugs for pain has since been questioned. Although powerful corticosteroid drugs such as prednisone and sedating, addictive drugs like codeine, hydrocodone (Vicodin), and morphine are blessings for those who cant get relief any other way, they are therapies of last resort for good reason. Side effectsincluding addiction and major impairment of day-to-day physical and mental functioningfrom these medicines can be devastating.

Now for the good news: Natural medicinesherbs, nutrients, and other supplements, dietary changes, and homeopathycan play a role in controlling and preventing most kinds of pain. The effectiveness of these therapies varies according to the underlying diagnosis and individual response of patients, but overall they work through mechanisms that can help virtually every pain patient and that will provide complete relief for some.

With natural medicine, what helps to heal one symptom almost always is good for many other ailments. For example: Supplements and dietary recommendations that effectively treat osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease, also happen to help prevent most other degenerative diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimers and cancer. The same auxiliary benefits are found in natural remedies that reduce inflammation from injury. In short, all roads lead to Rome: the supplements and dietary changes Ill recommend for pain help prevent or decrease the risk of degenerative diseases as well. They fortify and strengthen the body, enhancing its natural self-healing processes.

One of the most important take-home messages of this book is that your bodys level of inflammation has a lot to do with your likelihood of having to contend with chronic pain. Youll find out why this is and how stopping inflammation before it gets severesomething you can do with natural therapiescan end pain, too.

Natural approaches for pain work best when diet, supplements, exercise, lifestyle change, homeopathy, and other therapies are used cooperatively to support overall health and boost the bodys ability to strike a balance that reduces pain. If you have severe pain, you may need to use some natural therapies as a complement to drugs prescribed by your medical team. If you have mild, moderate, or occasional pain, natural therapies might be all you require. Any severe or unexplained pain should promptly be evaluated by a physician. It could signify a problem that is serious or life threatening. Then, once you know what youre dealing with, you can use natural medicines to move toward a pain-free life.

Most of the natural pain relievers described in these pages have been used over millennia, and they rarely cause side effectswhen they do, they are mild compared to those caused by drugs. Relief isnt always guaranteed with them, either, but they frequently workwithout hurting you or causing addiction. They can also reduce your requirement for more toxic medicines or surgeries.

Each chapter of this book starts out with a series of simple action steps that will give you the big picture. I then go into more depth about why these steps are helpful and how they relieve pain. At each chapters conclusion youll find a section entitled Dr. Franks Natural Pain Prescription, where I sum up the advice in the chapter.

Most mainstream (allopathic) pain-care providers dont know much about natural pain relief. That is where this book comes in. It is a concise, user-friendly guide to natural therapies for pain. You can become the expert on these therapies and an important part of your own medical care.