How to relieve chronic pain according to a naturopathic doctor

Question: Given your focus and expertise, if someone is in chronic pain and you could only give him/her one piece of advice to put them on a path to recovery, what would you tell them?

Why ask this question? Well, we feel that it's a good idea to seek information from multiple outlets to gain new perspectives. It's great to learn new things.

We believe that chronic pain should be attacked from multiple angles such as with movement, mindset, and nutrition (find the whole roundup of experts here).

Here is what Dr. Deborah Drake, a Naturopathic Doctor, had to say about this question:

"The most important thing is to find out what is causing the pain. Find out if there is anything you can do to correct the underlying problem.

A good clean diet or one of the many health diets have been lifesaving for many. That is what caused me to turn to the natural health field many years ago. I had terrible IBS and did the Specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) from breakingtheviciouscycle.info. It took about 30 days and the pain stopped for the first time in 5 years.

But it is very important to do a combination of things. Exercise or physical therapy, walking, sleeping on a good schedule, drinking plenty of water and so many other little things in life can make a huge difference in our quality of life.

When you have pain and health issues that will not go away regardless of living the healthiest lifestyle possible, you might look to the communities with your illness and support groups. You may be surprised how many good ideas they have. Most illnesses have support groups that offer suggestions.

Some of the best suggestions for pain relief may include things like a 20 minute Epsom Salt bath, braces for joints, increasing or decreasing certain nutrients or toxins. You may find that each thing you do doesn't really help that much. Maybe the bath or a heating pad only helps 10% or maybe it only helps for a few hours but that is something.

All the little things you do can help 5% or 10% here and there. Essential oils or use relaxing herbs or tea help some a little too, say 5% or even more for an hour or so. Some even find a new bed makes a huge difference. If you cut out artificial sweeteners or genetically modified foods, you might feel another 10% better. Many find they have a sensitivity to certain grains. The SCD would help you figure that out. Don't expect the symptoms to always be digestive when there are food problems.

If you keep doing these little things that help, they will add up. There's no one single cure for most illnesses we see today. There are a lot of little things that can be done that will work together."