Note: The information contained in this article is for educational purposes and is not medical advice.
Below is a list of specific health conditions with some options for self-care and professionally-assisted therapies that may help. This guide is not meant to be exhaustive or complete, but to offer suggestions that might not be mentioned elsewhere, especially self-help methods. If you are seeking health, further learning and study about your condition is recommended as there may be other effective treatments besides the ones mentioned below.
To start working with a chronic problem that is not life threatening nor quickly getting worse, it is usually a good idea to begin with inexpensive, non-invasive methods. However, it is never a mistake to consult with a physician before beginning self-help or other treatments in order to rule out the possibility that you have a life-threatening condition. If pain is severe or your condition is obviously worsening, consult a physician or knowledgeable practitioner.
Most chronic conditions have multiple causes, therefore it may take a combination of treatments, remedies, or lifestyle changes to reverse the illness. When trying to resolve a health condition, it is ultimately important to understand why you get recurrent problems and to work on the causes (not just the symptoms). For more information about your specific condition and further treatment options, see also Dr. Walt Stoll's website at www.askwaltstollmd.com.
I have written a short article about the difference between healing and curing to help you understand more about how to resolve all kinds of health problems. I suggest that you read the article first before clicking down to read about your specific condition.
Generally people consult a health care professional or try different healing techniques because they want to be free of an illness or set of symptoms, or resolve pain. When selecting a health care professional to work with, or when choosing a method or technique to use, it is often helpful to consider whether the focus of that practitioner or method is upon healing or curing.
Curing involves concentration upon eliminating symptoms and sometimes focuses on abnormal pathological tests. The emphasis of curing is upon removing symptoms and seeking to return you to the state you were in before you became aware of an illness or were injured. Curing techniques can be very beneficial and invaluable for temporary relief of symptoms, in emergency situations, for injuries, and for individuals whose lives do not permit healing to occur.
Healing addresses symptoms in a manner that delves to their cause or root. These causes may include such things as lifestyle, environmental influences, current or past emotions, traumatic experiences, or beliefs. Healing may explore what a symptom may be telling you about yourself. Healing uses inner power and mind/body resources to restore or create a unique balance and harmony resulting in health, vitality and joy. Thus, inner balance and overall well-being may be improved with or without a specific problem being present.
Both curing and healing play an important role in health care. They can complement each other. Curing may be an important part of healing. Curing often works on the physical level. Healing may also work on the physical level, and then explore other influences upon the health problem, such as the mental-emotional connection. This connection between the body and mind is being addressed more and more by different realms of medicine and science.
Sometimes healing can be like putting together a puzzle. A person on a healing journey may need to use several self-help methods plus consult with several practitioners of different healing modalities in order to accomplish both healing and curing. Each method and practitioner might provide a different piece to the puzzle, and harmonize in working together toward the resolution of a chronic or complex issue. Using different methods at the same time can sometimes create a kind of healing "synergy" in which the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Each individual is different, so typically one protocol will not be right for all individuals with the same condition. Thus each person must individually seek exactly what is needed for oneself.
Some therapies can often both cure and heal. Massage is one example. Massage can cure by alleviating symptoms and pain on the physical level, often producing dramatic results in one session or in a series of sessions over time. Massage can also heal, because of its holistic nature. (Holistic means addressing the wholeness of a person.) Massage touches all levels of a person's being, so a person may come into a massage session with tight muscles, but leave with a whole different state of mind and emotions. Massage has a preventive role in health care as well, by helping increase your awareness to avoid future problems.
Before you select modalities and methods to use for self-healing, be an informed health-care consumer. Learn as much as you can about your own condition and about whatever healing method you wish to try. There is a wealth of information available on the web, and my Book/Video Resources List recommends books with information about different curing and healing modalities.
The book I am writing with Walt Stoll, M.D., Recapture Your Health, also includes an entire chapter about the causes of illness. This chapter is meant to help you understand how and why illness occurs, so you can become more effective in finding the remedy. The rest of the book is about several remedies that help the largest number of people succeed in seeking health.
^ IndexHypersensitivities or allergies are an abnormal response to a food, drug, or something in our environment that usually does not cause symptoms in most people. If you have food allergies, an elimination diet (avoiding specific foods) may help to find out which foods are causing problems and alleviate symptoms. However, since food allergies are generally related to leaky gut syndrome, healing of the intestinal lining is needed to reverse the tendency to produce the allergic response.
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A variety of problems in the muscles, tendons, bones, ligaments, or in an underlying organ, such as kidneys or colon, may cause back pain. The leading cause of back pain is now believed to be simple muscle strain or hypertension. Even if symptoms come on suddenly and are acutely painful, back pain is usually a problem that develops over a long period of time. Improper footwear, ill-fitting furniture, improper lifting, injury, and emotional or stress-related problems may all be contributors. If you have recurrent back pain, consider trying massage and self-care before using irreversable options like surgery.
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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a repetitive stress injury, the result of repetitious movement of one or more parts of the shoulder, arm, hand, or wrist resulting in muscular, structural, or fascial (connective tissue) pain. Common symptoms include weakness, aching, burning, limited range of motion, numbness, and tingling. Repetitive movements, in and of themselves, are not always the cause of carpal tunnel syndrome. It may be related to previous injury histories, postural habits, structural factors, or traumas. This is why in a workplace some people are affected and others are not. If you have carpal tunnel syndrome, consider massage before pursuing surgery or other more invasive or irreversable options. Massage is helpful for some but not all types of carpal tunnel syndrome. If pain persists, consult a physician. Permanent damage may result if carpal tunnel syndrome is not treated in a timely manner.
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Symptoms associated with CFS include aching muscles and joints, anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, fever, headaches, intestinal problems, irritability, jaundice, loss of appetite, mood swings, muscle spasms, recurrent upper respiratory tract infections, sensitivity to light and heat, sleep disturbances, sore throat, swollen glands, temporary memory loss -- and most of all, extreme and often disabling fatigue. There are usually a combination of different factors that combine to cause chronic fatigue in susceptible individuals.
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Costochondritis is inflammation of the rib joints and attachments of intercostal muscles to the ribs, due to chronic muscle tension. This is perceived as chest pain with tenderness to one or both sides of the sternum (breast bone) that are often worse when taking a deep breath or when moving the chest wall. Other areas of the chest or ribs may be painful as well.
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Dysautonomia is an imbalance of autonomic and endocrinological systems function due to a homeodynamic resetting, caused by stress. An effective way to help dysautonomia is to reset the hypothalamus through the practice of Skilled Relaxation and the 3LS Wellness Program.
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Environmental illness or multiple chemical sensitivity is a disorder characterized by muscle pain, stiffness, and easy fatigability. People who are susceptible to reactions to environmental substances may become sensitive to more and more of them. There are now more chemicals in our environment that never existed on this planet before, and each of these is a burden to the immune system and each additional one magnifies the body's burden of all the rest.
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A disorder characterized by aching muscles and joints, anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle spasms, sleep disturbances, and fatigue. There are usually a combination of different factors causing fibromyalgia in susceptible individuals.
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References:
http://lifespringarts.com
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Website Claimer and Disclaimer: In the holistic healing model, each person is responsible for one's own health and makes one's own choices in healing. The information in this website is provided for your information and education. It is not medical advice. Any application of the information is at your own discretion. If you feel you need to do so, consult with your physician or other knowledgeable health care practitioner before or while making use of this information.
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by Jan DeCourtney, CMT
