Alternative Medicine as “Pain Killers”

While chronic pain afflicts millions of Canadians, most family doctors do not often have the time or interest to help manage their patients’ pain. The big medicine guns in pain management are usually narcotics which “take the edge off”, but don’t provide complete relief. In addition, there is the fear of addiction in taking these pain killers.
Alternative pain management techniques are available at several pain clinics. At Thorson Burnaby’s Health Centre, there is a team approach to pain management. Physicians, chiropractors, physiotherapists, psychologists, and many other disciplines work together to treat individuals’ chronic pain.
Vancouver’s St. Paul Hospital (SPH) Pain Centre is also a multi-disciplinary clinic that treats British Columbia’s chronic pain cases. Here, they use spinal-cord stimulation, as one option to chronic pain. This involves the insertion of a device into the lower back, which is then connected with wires to the spinal cord. The device blocks pain signals from reaching the brain.
Other alternative pain relieving techniques include IMS or intramuscular stimulation, developed by Dr. Chan Gunn. IMS marries the best of western medical knowledge with the acupuncturist’s needle. This technique is in increasing use throughout the world.
A special device, called Farabloc, was invented by Frieder Kemp in response to his father’s chronic and disabling phantom limb pain. It is a thin fabric cloth with interwoven metal fibers. Placed over the sensitive tissue, it calms nerve ends and stimulates blood circulation.
For many, these alternative, multi-disciplinary approaches are the answer to pain relief.
SOURCE: BC BUSINESS (Burnaby, Canada) June 2003, pp. 38+ Original Article by Vicki O’Brien