Pain is so 21st century...BC

Latest breaking news from the UK medical community: “Pain should be viewed as a disease in its own right.” Now there’s a concept, except that it’s several millennia old. But I’ll get to that in a second.

This epiphany of theirs stems from a few reasons: one, because employees are calling sick due to pain-related issues; two, because most pain doesn’t have a known cause; and three, because, well, it’s not right for people to suffer so much. Oh, yeah. That.

The odd thing here is that they want to do more investigation into how the nervous system works when it comes to pain syndromes so that they can come up with effective intervention strategies. There is mention of physiotherapy as an aid (this is a good thing), and they also bring up distraction. (Denial can be useful, too, in a pinch, but they didn’t mention that one.) And, of course, they want more pharmaceuticals to choose from. Apparently there haven’t been enough new drugs developed in recent years to mask—oops, I mean, treat—pain.

OK. So why is this issue so close to me? Well, for starters, the cause of pain is one of the most basic principles of Chinese Medicine. Check this ancient Chinese saying out:

Without free flow, there is pain. If there is free flow, there is no pain.

Simple, huh? Now if we can figure out how to get everything flowing freely, we’d have it made. Wait, we do! It’s called acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. It’s called yoga, qi gong, t’ai chi. It’s called movement and exercise. It’s called bodywork. It’s called emotional and spiritual therapy. It’s called singing, dancing, laughing, loving. It’s called anything that frees up whatever is stuck in your life.

Is it a coincidence that these tools can help people with their insomnia, anxiety, depression, stress, GI problems, menstrual difficulties, high blood pressure, and drug side effects, in addition to what’s generally thought of as that thing that hurts? Not at all. Until these docs redefine their idea of what pain is, they will be stymied, and they will end up peddling stuckness.