Has anyone just STOPPED medical pain releif for chronic pain, and/or replaced it with natural pain relief?

[PavlovtheCat]

In particular back pain joint pain, arthritis etc other inflammatory or degenerative conditions (not for medical conditions or illness that will worsen/eccelerate the ill or condition without medicine) that cause chronic pain where long term (often high doses of) painkillers are needed?

I am reading about long term use of NSAIDs increasing joint degeneration, increased tolerance/reduced effects of long term us of codiene/tramadol etc, not to mention the side effects of using and then coming off them after long term use. Steroid injections can increase joint degeneration too it seems. And generally having artificial chemicals in your body For significant periods seems unhealthy in itself!

I have been reading about use of glucosamine,omega 3, ginger, turmeric, oils in evening primrose oil, and other stuff to reduce inflammation. And exercise, mindfulness, meditation to cope with pain, myo fascia, release and other massage for releasing toxin buildup in muscles.

Has anyone swapped conventional painkillers for natural remedies?, either now or ever? What do you use/what did you try?

Or, Did you find you had to take some cnvential pain releif but could reduce significantly?

Apologies for random capital letters, apostrophes. I am blaming the iPad. Apologies for the one misspelling of 'relief' in the title, I was not concentrating!

What do you for distraction?

What type of exercise do you find helps you?

Proper clinical trials have shown no evidence of efficiency for any of the food supplements you mention above although some people say the get benefit from them. I think the key is balance, have a healthy lifestyle to maintain mobility, good diet to encourage joint health and use painkillers sensibly (i.e. enough to control pain and keep you moving but no more than you need)

I suggest you go to a pain clinic, they do courses in how to cope with your pain, how to pace yourself. They can refer you to physiotherapists who specialise in pain too - sometimes that will mean streches or exercises, sometimes hydrotherapy, massage or accupuncture. My pain clinic is very good, if you don't want to take meds they will work with you to find other solutions.

Personally I do take meds, but I also find swimming and pilates helps, I want to try accupuncture but I have to wait until I'm no longer pregnant. I know some people swear by yoga for back/neck pain, not sure about if it's caused by arthritis though. Alternating hot and cold can be really good, so a cold pack followed by a hot water bottle followed by the cold pack. For distraction I MN, Knit, listen to music that I love.

Oh and for me pregnany works, but it's not really a long term solution

If the medication is prescribed, please just don't stop taking it. My sister stopped diamorphine (with medical blessing), and went into full scale withdrawal. She said it was hell. And she acquired Addison's disease from use of steroids, meaning that if she stopped taking the steroids she was in serious trouble.

Ooo TENS as well, pain clinics can let you borrow one before you buy to see if it works for you

I have a serious spinal condition. I find acupuncture alleviates the worst of the pain. I can deal with the rest as long as I can stand up/sit down without crying.

I may resort to stronger painkillers later in life.

viperade but aren't clinical trials biased, in that they want them to show that, as otherwise people might swap medication for natural remedies that are relative cheap and affect the pharmaceutical companies?

Problem with keeping dosages low, is that for example tramadol does not really cut it in terms of pain. I feel more remote from the pain when at lower levels but it does not go, and I am finding that I need higher dose more often to manage it enough to keep me moving. Same with codeine when i took that build up a tolerance in terms of pain releif, although i found it a better pain reliever, but the side effects were horrendous. Would love to not take daily pain meds, but only if pain reaches unbearable and find other ways to cope (but expect I am clutching at straws! ) I really like the idea of my body being chemical free, at least much of the time, if I can't manage all the time.

Just exploring avenues really.

jee no I won't just stop! Just thinking about my long term. trickle seeing physio now, so far it is exercises for me to be doing but will hopefully include acupuncture and massage too. But for now, two months of back rehab before deciding if new MRI and possible neurosurgery route or the pain clinic route, senior physio working with neuro team wants me to work harder on exercises before exploring further pain management options. His view is increase meds for now

trickle sorry if confusing, i don't have arthritis, but I know that is is a long term chronic condition that has similar pain levels and often pain management as what I have

For those who use heat and ice packs. Do you just improvise with hot water bottle and bag of peas or do you use specific sports type packs?

I did a natal hypnotherapy course to use for labour... certainly, labour is a very different and very temporary form of pain but it nevertheless worked amazingly well for those few hours. My guess is that there must be equivalent techniques for more severe and longterm pain developed?

I use the pain relief in conjunction with exercise, physio, heat/cold, good diet, rest. I take disease modifying drugs & biologics to control the disease but try to minimise pain relief where possible
Used Tens for a bit but got resistant to it very quickly.
Unfortunately back on stronger painrelief despite RA being under control after tearing some cartilage

I just use wheatbags & a furry hot water bottle for warm and a couple of kids mr bump ice packs (having RA is boring enough so try to inject a little humour where possible)

bm actually, labour contractions are not that different from my back pain!

I like the idea of mr bumps ice packs, great for the kids bumps too! I have read that humour is a good form of pain relief but I seem to have lost my humour

What are biologics?

In which case... OMG I admire your resilience. And I have short labours
..

I guess it's not same for everyone, my labour pain concentrated in my lower back, and into my thighs and legs, and this is same deep pain that emirates, with severity up to as bad as full labour and as low as early labour.

I've recently cut out all medication, was frankly getting pissed off with how little impact they were having on me. I found yoga (stationary yoga, not crazy run around yoga) with a teacher who I made aware of my delicate areas to focus on helped with my hips and back for a while (until my freaking ovaries stopped co-operating). Also detox, and cutting back things like dairy, as they can increase inflammation.