Pain

Yoga for pain relief

This is a trailer for the new bookYoga for Pain Relief: Simple Practices to Calm Your Mind & Heal Your Chronic Pain (Whole Body Healing)
by Kelly McGonigal, PhD, and Timothy McCall, MD (foreword) .

I was somewhat intrigued when I discovered this trailer. I have recently started yoga. I have been suffering for some time with an ankle injury…sustained while skipping ( you would think at my age I would have more sense)! Oh and boy , the pain its immense! Well watch this space I’ll let you know how my ankle shapes up with this new addition to my fitness regime ❗

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a health psychologist at Stanford University – Check out Kelly’s post for NewHarbingers blog Off the Couch New Year’s resolutions for people with chronic pain or illness
You can also visit her at yogaforpainrelief.com.

😀 Hat Tip @NewHarbinger Yoga for pain relief is published by New Harbinger (January 2010).

Swearing can make you feel better

New Research Reveals That Swearing Can Actually Increase Pain Tolerance
swear-word

Researchers from Keele University’s School of Psychology have determined that swearing can have a ‘pain-lessening effect’, according to new study published in the journal NeuroReport.

While swearing is often a common response to pain, Dr Richard Stephens and his colleagues, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, were surprised to discover that no links had been established between swearing and the actual experience of physical pain. Since swearing often has a ‘catastrophising’ or exaggerating effect, serving to embellish or overstate the severity of pain, Stephens and his team hypothesised that swearing would actually decrease the individual’s tolerance of pain. [continue reading…]

It’s debilitating, isolating and can lead to severe depression – yet pain is widely accepted as something to be expected and regarded as ‘normal’ in later life. Now a new study from The University of Nottingham examines older people’s experiences of pain and how best Government, the NHS and social care agencies can address the issue.

The report, Pain in older people: reflections and experiences from an older person’s perspective, aims to highlight the issue of pain in older people by exploring their experiences of living and coping with persistent pain. Funded by Help the Aged and the British Pain Society, the study saw researchers interview older people about their experiences of pain and how it affected their lives, both physically and psychologically. Literature on pain in older people was also reviewed.

The report – which reveals that nearly five million people over the age of 65 are in some degree of pain and discomfort in the UK – has already led to questions being asked of the Government in the House of Lords.

[continue reading…]