“Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old.”
The STONES’ 1966 anthem for tranquilizers to help Mums get through their activities of daily life seems darned relevant today.
This scribe tries to walk his walk of getting older(slowly) without conceding “oldness” AND without resorting to deadly pain-killers.
TV Shows, like BLUE BLOODS, have episodes with opioid overdoses sadly played out. TV talking heads advise that Houston, Hamptons and Hillbilly towns definitely have deadly problems.
– Why New Hampshire? West Virginia? Pennsylvania? Hmmm.
I read that 40 percent of our 110 deaths per day in America stem from PRESCRIPTION opioids. I don’t think that I’m the only citizen who senses a problem here.
“Doctor please” ?!
PAIN, from contrasting viewpoints of the legendary Vince Lombardi and US Marines, and of running in systemsrunninginsystems are worth your consideration.
On the play through it macho side of a pain coin:
“Fatigue can make cowards of us, Pain is fatigue leaving your body…
yet from a systems and feedback vantage,
“Lumped into the category of pain are soreness, discomfort, localized exhaustion, aching, sharp-pain, tearing pain, etc. Because, in the English language, pain can mean all of these things (and many more), it is an exceptionally poor word to use when giving advice as to when and why to maintain exertion.”
– Note to self – there IS a difference between pain and discomfort. I was uncomfortable in my recent ergometer stress test – yet I wasn’t in chronic pain.
What is your pain IQ? Try this quiz and see.
* I don’t think that enough people know about our body’s amazing capacity to generate its own opioid-like chemicals – endorphins.
Unless I drank funny kool-aid, I often experienced those endorphin highs – at about my 8-mile point of road runs. I thought I could run lightly – for many miles (until that inevitable wall at 20 miles, anyway).
In same, yet different ways, rowing also offers me those narcotic periods of zen-like ebullience. Prolonged aerobic exercise gets me higher 🙂
So what are these brain-induced (NON-PRESCRIPTION) endorphins as our quasi-opioids?
SELF HACKED (which passes my CRAAP test for proper sourcing) offers 30 natural highs,
“You don’t have to take heroin or painkillers to feel good. If your life is healthy enough and incorporates enough of these strategies, you should feel good enough with these natural highs. Of course, taking drugs will have a more pronounced effect, but that’s not the state most of us are looking for. We just want to feel pretty good.”
Thanks, SELF HACKED, for this list of 30 NATURAL alternatives to prescription or other opioids. I emboldened ones which I have tried, and which I use as part of my Wellness regimen to trigger endorphins.
– I am blessed that I have nil need for prescription opioids! May my good fortunes continue.
1) Take a Cold Shower
2) Exercise More
3) Sleep More
4) Binge On Sugar (or don’t if you don’t want to get addicted)
5) Get Some Sun
6) Fall In Love or Spray Some Oxytocin
7) Take a Hot Shower/Bath
8) Get a Massage
9) Hang Out With Some Friends
10) Butyrate
11) Eat Tasty Foods
12) Eat Chocolate
13) Eat Foods with Morphine-Like Characteristics
14) Use Alcohol in Moderation
15) Take Magnesium
16) Stress
17) Acupuncture
18) Take Low Dose Naltrexone
19) Don’t Sleep With The Lights On
20) Wear Red Glasses or Take Melatonin
21) Get Zapped With tDCS
22) Hold Your Breath (or don’t)
23) Kratom
24) Use LLLT
25) Pregnenolone
26) Probiotics: Acidophilus
27) Chili/Cayenne
28) Marijuana
29) Poppy Seeds
30) Nicotine
Note that there is indeed FOOD for THOUGHT on this SELF HACKED list.
And:
Dr. Josh Axe offers this useful infographic about Endorphins:
It’s my hope that more of us can NATURALLY avoid that 60’s Richards/Jagger message – WHAT A DRAG IT IS GETTING OLD.
Be well and join me in “feeling pretty good” – naturally,
df
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