A little throbbing in the head or an ache in the back: “It’ll be fine,” say more than 90 percent of Germans. You do nothing – and fall into the pain trap. But that won’t happen to you. Because whether osteopathy, acupuncture or meditaping : These ten therapies slow down the pain and prevent it from spreading in the body in the long term.
The trick: you can choose the method that is best suited to your pain. How? By simply measuring the pain intensity. The symbol key then takes you to “your” method.
how bad is your pain Measure him!
You can now measure the intensity of your pain almost as objectively as you can measure blood pressure. Read on here and classify yourself in a pain level. Compare them to the scale above. If you get a smiley, you are pain free – congratulations. With a “saddy” you need an experienced pain therapist. The four levels in between are a case for the ten anti-pain therapies. You can see at a glance which one can help you from the symbol above the respective method.
Pain Level 0 You have no pain.
Pain level 1 TO 2 You only have slight pain, but you feel it more and more clearly.
Pain level 3 TO 4 Your pain will become a little more stubborn, but is still bearable.
Pain level 5 TO 6 You have severe pain that affects your well-being and, for example, also disturbs your sleep.
Pain level 7 TO 8 You have severe pain, persistent and stabbing. This is slowly sapping your strength.
Pain level 9 TO 10 You have very severe to unbearable pain, which gradually plunges you into despair, hopelessness, fainting or even depression with suicidal thoughts.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture stimulates a total of 700 energy points on the channels (meridians) of the life energy Qi. From the point of view of traditional Chinese medicine, we get pain when the Qi builds up. Needle therapy is designed to get it flowing freely again. Modern Western medicine has proven with many studies that the small needles actually do great things: After acupuncture, our body produces substances that inhibit pain over the long term.
Helps with: acute joint, neck, shoulder and back pain, tennis elbow, lumbago, migraine, headache, menstrual pain. Also effective as an adjunctive therapy for chronic pain of all kinds!
Important to know:Numbness and dizziness can sometimes occur. People with low blood pressure should lie down better during acupuncture, otherwise there is a risk of collapse.
Price: A session costs between 40 and 70 euros, depending on the number of acupuncture needles. In the case of chronic knee and lumbar spine diseases, the statutory health insurance companies cover the costs.
Information and therapists: German Medical Society for Acupuncture, Würmtalstr. 54, 81375 Munich, Tel. 0 89/7 10 05 11, daegfa.de.
Biofeedback
Heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration or muscle tension: all bodily functions that we cannot seem to influence are made audible and visible by biofeedback via skin electrodes on a PC screen or loudspeaker boxes. In this way, patients can learn to positively influence these bodily functions. The deep-acting relaxation method primarily relaxes painfully tense muscles.
Helps with: tension headaches, migraines, shoulder and neck problems, muscle tension and pain, back problems, fibromyalgia, joint pain.
Important to know:Not every pain patient responds to biofeedback. After the fourth session at the latest, you should see the first successes. That is why a reputable pain therapist will arrange an interim consultation after the third or fourth treatment. Requires an average of 20 sessions, especially in the beginning two to three times a week.
Price: 50 minutes costs 80 to 100 euros. Statutory health insurance usually pays for behavioral therapy, but not for biofeedback as individual therapy.
Information and therapists: German Society for Biofeedback, c/o President Dipl.-Psych. Lothar Niepoth, Steinsdorfstrasse 5, 80538 Munich, Tel. 0 89/3 68 98 31, dgbfb.de.
Kneipp
thermal therapy Water doctor and pastor Sebastian Kneipp used the healing effects of heat and cold applications to treat pain 160 years ago. Cold in the form of affusions, baths, compresses, washes or cold packs helps against pain caused by acute inflammation (e.g. hot, swollen joints). Cold reduces pain transmission in the nerve fibers. Typical Kneipp heat applications are wraps, baths, fango and pads such as the hay flower bag. Modern alternative: infrared lamp. The heat stimulus stimulates the blood circulation and thus also the removal of “pain substances”. Indication for heat applications are particularly persistent pain.
Help by:Menstrual cramps, stomach and intestinal cramps, bruises, sprains, sore throat, rheumatism, muscle tension.
Important to know: Warm applications unfold their full effect if they are carried out for at least three weeks. Not suitable for varicose veins, infections and fever. Only use cold when you are well warmed up. Not recommended for cystitis, circulatory disorders in the extremities.
Price: Hay flower bags around 9 euros, cold packs (both from pharmacies) around 4 euros, red light lamps in electronics stores from 16 euros, fango cushions for the microwave (pharmacy) around 13 euros.
Information: Kneipp Association, Adolf-Scholz-Allee 6-8, 86825 Bad Wörishofen, Tel. 0 82 47/ 3 00 20, kneippbund.de.
Table of Contents
Osteopathy and Medicines
Medications
Mild pain is well managed with over-the-counter medications. The most common: the “Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs” (NSAIDs). They throttle the production of pain and inflammatory messengers. This group includes, for example, the headache classics acetylsalicylic acid (“aspirin”), ibuprofen, diclofenac, paracetamol and naproxen. If you don’t like swallowing tablets, you can often get the active ingredients as an ointment or gel variant – but they usually don’t help as effectively. Triptans (e.g. “Formigran”), which stop micro-inflammation in the brain vessels, are now available without a prescription for migraine patients.
Help with:Headache, joint, muscle and joint pain, migraine, strain, bruise, sprain, back and menstrual pain, toothache, stomach and intestinal cramps.
Important to know: If used for a long time, NSAIDs can irritate and inflame the mucous membrane in the stomach and intestines, affect blood pressure and kidneys. Therefore, do not take it for more than three days at a time and not more than ten days per month!
Price: 20 tablets from about 2 euros, 100 g gel for about 8 euros, triptans: 2 tablets from about 4.60 euros.
Information: German Pain League, Adenauerallee 18, 61440 Oberursel, Tel. 07 00/ 3 75 37 53 75 (Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., 12 cents/min.), pain league.de.
Meditaping
A special tape made of elastic cotton is stuck to the painful area and develops a beneficial pulling effect over several days or weeks. It relaxes the muscles via skin receptors and massages them with every movement. This relieves the superficial lymphatic system and activates the pain reduction system.
Helps with: joint pain, muscle tension, sprains, tennis elbow, migraines, tension headaches, back and menstrual pain, heel spurs, tendon problems, restless legs, torn muscle fibers, trigeminal neuralgia, shoulder and osteoporosis pain.
Important to know: The skinmust not be creamed before taping. You can shower with the tape – but not for too long and not too hot. Tingling under the tape is not an allergy, but a sign of an activated metabolism. The therapy works particularly well if you move the taped body part a lot. Sensitive people may experience an initial worsening of their symptoms in the first two days.
Price: A Meditape costs about 13 euros. A maximum of ten are allowed per treatment. Health insurance companies don’t pay.
Information and therapists: Pain and Tape, Lübecker Str. 95 18, 23843 Bad Oldesloe, Tel. 0 45 31/ 6 72 58, www.medi-tape.de. Therapists: therapeuten.de.
Osteopathy
The primary goal of this holistic treatment method is not to fight an illness or its symptoms like conventional therapies. Rather, it is about eliminating functional disorders and blockages that cause illness and thus helping the body to regain its health. That is why osteopathic treatment is useful for most illnesses – depending on the degree of severity as an individual or as an adjunctive therapy. The osteopath restores the body’s inner balance and activates its self-healing powers with barely perceptible, careful movements. Functional disorders disappear, pain subsides. What hardly anyone knows: There is also a special osteopathy for eye and ear diseases.
Help by:Joint pain, lumbago, tension, whiplash, sprain, headache, migraine, pain in the jaw joint, menstrual pain.
Important to know: The osteopath never treats individual complaints or areas of pain, but always treats the organism as a whole. A reputable therapist will tell you at the beginning of the treatment how many sessions are likely to be necessary. Also suitable for children and babies.
Price: approx. 60 to 120 euros per treatment. The statutory health insurance companies do not cover the costs, the private ones partially. Information and therapists: Association of Osteopaths Germany, Untere Albrechtstraße 15, 65185 Wiesbaden, Tel. 06 11/ 9 10 36 61, www.osteopathie.de.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Edmund Jacobson (1885-1976), a Swedish doctor and physiologist living in the USA, developed this relaxation method, which is very easy to learn and incorporate into everyday life. The principle is simple: Gradually, all muscle groups from head to toe are first tensed and then relaxed again after a few seconds. Through this contrast, the practitioner gradually learns to perceive all the important muscle groups in the body and to relax them in a targeted manner. This is accompanied by a general feeling of relaxation that dispels restlessness and fears, dilates the blood vessels and soothes the muscle tone. The pain subsides.
Help by:Migraines, tension headaches, back and menstrual pain, fibromyalgia, muscle tension in the neck and shoulders, stomach pain and painful intestinal cramps caused by stress.
Important to know: stay warm. Anyone who has cold feet or freezes during the exercises cannot relax deeply. Not suitable for people with neuroses, cardiac insufficiency and acute depression.
Price: adult education centers offer courses. Ten hours cost about 80 to 90 euros. Anyone who wants to teach themselves the relaxation method on their own will find Dr. Friedrich Hainbuch, Gräfe und Unzer, 80 pages with practical exercise CD, 16.99 euros.
Info:Giessen Forum, c/o Dr. Cornelia Löhmer, Helgenstockstraße 15a, 35394 Giessen, Tel. 06 41/ 49 36 05, progressive-muscle relaxation.de.
Rolfing
A combination of connective tissue massage and body work – that is Rolfing, named after its “inventor”, the American biochemist Ida Rolf (1896-1979). At the beginning of a Rolfing treatment, the patient’s posture and movement patterns are analyzed. The “Rolfer” watches him standing and walking and tries to find out which shortened and tense body zones prevent a harmonious balance. The therapist then relieves painful tension and hardening of the muscles with a strong, deep pressure massage of the connective tissue. And with the help of targeted breathing and movement exercises, the patient learns more effective, healthy movement sequences and corrects long-practiced incorrect postures of his musculoskeletal system. Release the physical tensions the soul is also balanced – the pain subsides a little more. By the way: A reputable therapist documents the progress of the therapy with photos.
Helps with: back pain, disc problems, arthrosis, pain after accidents and operations, chronic headaches, muscle tension, psychosomatic functional pain, e.g. B. in the abdomen or in the digestive organs.
Important to know: Not suitable for heart diseases, acute herniated discs and strokes, taking anticoagulants, osteoporosis, arthritis.
Price: 60 minutes costs around 80 to 100 euros. Eight to ten sessions are usually required. The health insurance companies do not cover the costs. Information and therapists: European Rolfing Association, Saarstrasse 5, 80797 Munich, Tel. 0 89/54 37 09 40, rolfing.org.
Tens
The abbreviation stands for the tongue-twisting term “transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation”. This refers to electrical impulses that a device uses electrodes to direct through the skin deep into the pain area. There, the weak stimulation current influences nerve tracts, so that the transmission of pain to the brain is dampened or completely blocked. The overstimulated nervous system can harmonize itself – the pain disappears permanently.
Helps with: back pain, lumbago, disc problems, tennis elbow, neck pain, headaches, surgical pain, scar pain, rheumatism, tendon problems, shingles pain.
Important to know:Not suitable for heart patients with pacemakers, venous thrombosis, cardiac arrhythmias, pregnant women, wounds, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, infections. In individual cases, the pain may worsen during the first applications.
Price: If an orthopedist or pain therapist uses TENS, the statutory health insurance companies usually pay. The same applies if the doctor prescribes a device to use at home. If you want to buy a TENS device yourself, you have to invest between 50 and 140 euros in the pharmacy or electronics retailer.
Information: Federal Association of German Pain Aid, Sietwende 20, 21720 Grünendeich, Tel. 0 41 42/ 81 04 34, pain-help.de.
Trigger point infiltration
The doctor uses a fine needle to inject a low-dose, local anesthetic (eg prilocaine) into trigger points – these are the contraction nodes in the muscles that trigger pain. Trigger points can also be found on the bones, ligaments, and in the skin. From these points, pain and spasms radiate to distant areas of the body. The doctor detects the patient’s trigger points by means of precise scanning and initiates the injection therapy. It numbs the pain emanating from these contraction knots, relaxes the muscles and soothes micro-inflammations. The musculoskeletal system can regenerate.
Help by:hardened muscles, shoulder, arm and neck problems, soft tissue rheumatism, joint problems, ligament and tendon overload, back pain, nerve pain, osteoporosis pain.
Important to know: In rare cases, there is an allergic reaction to the local anesthetic (shown, for example, by wheals, tachycardia, circulatory problems). And: As with any injection, inflammation can form at the puncture site.
Price: Since there is no scientific evidence of effectiveness so far, the statutory health insurance companies do not pay. A treatment costs about 30 euros.
Information and therapists: German Pain League, Adenauerallee 18, 61440 Oberursel, Tel. 07 00/ 3 75 37 53 75 (Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., 12 cents/min.), pain league.de.
Interview: pain expert
Prof. Hartmut Göbel is chief physician at the neuro-behavioral pain clinic in Kiel.
Tolfioow: Chronic pain is no longer an outsider disease. What’s the problem?
Prof. Göbel: Many pain patients do not have adequate, scheduled medication. They feel out of therapy, left alone with their illness. Healthy people can hardly imagine what it means to start the day in excruciating pain, not being able to sleep at night and knowing that the ordeal will continue tomorrow. The sensitivity to pain is often increased by the associated stress and overload.
So it becomes a permanent problem?
Yes, untreated or mistreated pain changes the functioning of the nervous system. They create excitation patterns in the brain that last much longer than the triggering stimulus. This is what is meant by the formation of a pain memory. This can be compared to an alarm system that continues to ring after a false alarm, even though the fault has long since been rectified. Avoiding mistakes in pain therapy can prevent the formation of a pain memory.
That sounds so technical. What happens to the soul?
Once a pain memory has developed, changes in thinking, mood, drive and withdrawal from the social environment, in the family, among friends and colleagues follow. The patients become hopeless, depressed and can no longer actively participate in life. Pain-related personality change is a serious complication of chronic pain.
What advice do you have for patients?
Treat acute pain as soon as possible. It is best to get advice from a doctor. Ask him to explain how to behave correctly and how to use medication. If in doubt, see a pain therapist if relief is not obtained.
