Too often, the first approach for the management of long-term or chronic pain there is in the form of a pill. Both over-the-counter and prescription medications promise that everything that we need to do is to find a pop, sweet relief.
Sometimes it works, especially if the pain is a mild headache or sore muscles. But if the pain is chronic or long term, pills can turn into a serious problem. Using nothing more than long-term medication to control pain rarely results in complete discharge and can easily lead to addiction.
But the scientists show us the way to a chemical form of pain relief necessary to demonstrate better than any pill.
It has long been known that the human brain is in a position to the release of many chemicals. The number was once thought to be in the hundreds. But new studies in neurology have shown that the number is currently in the thousands, and if we consider combinations of the number of chemicals that the human brain can release may be beyond calculation.
The scientists are developing these chemical combinations hoping to discover what the brain produces, and therefore preferred, for pain relief. Manufacturers of drugs, of course, hope that such a discovery could lead to the production of the ultimate pain pill. But there is reason to believe that we humans may already have the ability to tap these natural chemicals on demand.
The tests done on people with schizophrenia have shown that the simple act of smiling may be the trigger that induces the brain to release a rush of chemicals, the natural mood enhancer, stress and relieve pain reducers.
Schizophrenia is widely regarded as one of the most difficult mental illnesses to treat. Drugs must often be used in such high doses that the patient is lethargic and unable to work. As a result, people with schizophrenia often refuse to take medication.
But a study of a small group of schizophrenic patients showed that only a smile to 15 minutes per day change in the patients brain chemistry to the extent that prescribed medication could be halved. This would reduce the medication, it was hoped, lead to patients with better relief of their symptoms with fewer adverse side effects.
The participants in the study were instructed to a timer and look in a mirror, in order to monitor their actions and make sure that they actually smile for the full 15 minutes.
They were not told to say they were happy, happy to think or thought to do anything other than physically turn the corners of her mouth in a big smile. Through the blood samples before and after exercise smiling, scientists were able to show that the mere act of smiling will lead to significant changes in the patient’s blood chemistry.
It was noted in the audit that the chemicals are released from smiling were mostly endorphins, the body’s natural opiates.
Surprising as it seems, it turns out, we are human beings with our own natural form of pain relief and the trigger for the release it has always been right under our noses!