____________ are manufactured by the brain to help relieve pain.
Hopefully one will work for you. 1  See Pain Management for Chronic Back Pain and How Pain Killers Sometimes Increase Chronic Pain. 2  Release your inner endorphins. 3  Endorphins are the body's natural pain relievers, and they can be as strong as many medication pain relievers. 1 Muscle relaxants reduce pain from tense muscle groups, most likely through sedative action in the central nervous system. 2  Anti-anxiety drugs work on pain in three ways: they reduce anxiety, they relax muscles, and they help patients cope with discomfort. 1 Back pain almost always comes with some level of inflammation, and ice is the best natural way to reduce it. 2  Ice also helps by acting as a local anesthetic and by slowing nerve impulses, which interrupts the pain signals in the affected area. 3  See Ice Packs for Back Pain Relief. 4  Loosen up. Some find that wearing a heat wrap, such as those from ThermaCare, is best because it releases a low level heat for several hours and can be worn under clothes so you can remain mobile. 1  See also Heat Wrap Therapy Can Reduce Post-Exercise Low Back Pain. 2  Cool it with ice. 3  See Ice Packs for Back Pain Relief. 4  Loosen up. In addition to decreased feelings of pain, secretion of endorphins leads to feelings of euphoria, modulation of appetite, release of sex hormones, and enhancement of the immune response. With high endorphin levels, we feel less pain and fewer negative effects of stress. Pain medications are drugs used to relieve discomfort associated with disease, injury, or surgery. Because the pain process is complex, there are many types of pain drugs that provide relief by acting through a variety of physiological mechanisms. Thus, effective medication for nerve pain will likely have a different mechanism of action than arthritis pain medication. 1 Eat cookies. 2  Research shows that eating sweet foods like cookies, chocolate, or ice cream helps reduce the sensation of pain. 3  Or, just bake the cookies: Enjoying a smell that is both sweet and pleasant has been shown to reduce the perception of pain. 4  Try heat therapy. 1 Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) act on substances in the body that can cause inflammation, pain, and fever. 2  Corticosteroids are often administered as an injection at the site of musculoskeletal injuries. 3  They exert powerful anti-inflammatory effects. 1 They can also be taken orally to relieve pain from, for example, arthritis. 2  Acetaminophen increases the body's pain threshold, but it has little effect on inflammation. 3  Opioids, also known as narcotic analgesics, modify pain messages in the brain. Endorphins can be found in the pituitary gland, in other parts of the brain, or distributed throughout the nervous system. Stress and pain are the two most common factors leading to the release of endorphins. Endorphins interact with the opiate receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain and act similarly to drugs such as morphine and codeine. In contrast to the opiate drugs, however, activation of the opiate receptors by the body's endorphins does not lead to addiction or dependence.
Endorphins