Living with chronic pain is very difficult. If a person also has a coexisting addiction or other psychological disorders it becomes even harder. Given the biopsychosocial nature of chronic pain it is imperative to utilize a multidisciplinary treatment plan.  The Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) System requires looking at the whole person, which means treatment plans for the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual domains.

The APM™ System consists of three major components: (1) A medication management plan—in consultation with an addiction medicine specialist; (2) A cognitive-behavioral treatment plan addressing pain versus suffering, treating family system issues and changing self-defeating behaviors, using eight Core Clinical Exercises from the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Workbook; and (3) A nonpharmacological pain management plan—developing safer medication-free ways to manage pain. Most pain patients need a strategic combination of all of the above.

One of the nonpharmacological interventions some pain programs have successfully implemented is Tai Chi. Tai chi, which originated in China as a martial art, is a mind-body practice in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Tai chi is sometimes referred to as “moving meditation”—practitioners move their bodies slowly, gently, and with awareness, while breathing deeply.

As I was researching this topic I found several proponents of Tai Chi that I believe important to share. MedicineNet.com had an article titled Moving Meditation: Tai Chi for Arthritis Relief, that I’ll post excerpts here and if you want to read the entire article please Click Here.

While many of today’s tai chi movements have roots in martial arts, the goal is indeed therapeutic. Progress is measured in terms of coordination, strength, balance, flexibility, breathing, digestion, emotional balance, and a general sense of well-being.

Tai chi and other types of mindfulness-based practices “are intended to maintain muscle tone, strength, and flexibility, and perhaps even spiritual aspects like mindfulness - focusing in the moment, focusing away from the pain,” says Raymond Gaeta, MD, director of pain management services at Stanford Hospital & Clinics.

Parag Sheth, MD, assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, saw the popularity of tai chi on a visit to China 15 years ago. “We saw it every morning - thousands of people in the park doing tai chi, all of them elderly,” he tells WebMD.

“There’s logic in how tai chi works,” Sheth says. “Tai chi emphasizes rotary movements — turning the body from side to side, working muscles that they don’t use when walking, building muscle groups they are not used to using. If they have some strength in those support muscles - the rotators in the hip — that can help prevent a fall.”

“I’m an absolute huge fan of tai chi,” says Jason Theodoskais, MD, MS, MPH, FACPM, author of The Arthritis Cure and a preventive and sports medicine specialist at the University of Arizona Medical Center.

Any type of motion helps lubricate the joints by moving joint fluid, which is helpful in relieving pain, he says. “Tai chi is not a cure-all, but it’s one piece of the puzzle. What’s good about tai chi is that it’s a gentle motion, so even people who are severely affected with arthritis can do it. Also, tai chi helps strengthen the joints in a functional manner? You strengthen muscles in the way your body normally uses the joints.”

To better understand the importance of working with the whole person please check out my article, The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management, that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you or a loved one is undergoing chronic pain management, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and you want to learn more effective chronic pain management tools, please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.