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[Audio] Controlling Pain Without Painkillers

murraystate.edu

Tracy Ross and Dr. Michael Bordieri discuss ways to treat pain without taking painkillers.

 

Bordieri says one in four Americans will experience episodes of back pain at some point in their life and 50 million Americans currently live with chronic pain. But instead of treating those in pain with medication, Bordieri says doctors have started adopting a new model of treatment that leaves painkillers as a last resort. These alternative treatments include exercising to build strength in the area of pain and practicing mindfulness-based stress reduction. Bordieri says these methods can actually be better than medication in the long term with patients experiencing less pain and less impairment related to pain.

 

“One of the big things we know about pain from a psychological perspective is the more you wait and rest to try to get it to go away, the more you can get trapped in a cycle where it runs your life, where your pain can control whether you can be there with your family or be at work or go out and go shopping or be at that event you want to go to,” Bordieri said.

 

Mindfulness-based stress reduction, Bordieri says, can help you bring pain with you. “Not hating it, not fighting it, not liking it, but not letting pain dictate where you get to be in your life and giving you techniques that over time can reduce the intensity and impairment of the pain.”

 

 

Tracy started working for WKMS in 1994 while attending Murray State University. After receiving his Bachelors and Masters degrees from MSU he was hired as Operations/Web/Sports Director in 2000. Tracy hosted All Things Considered from 2004-2012 and has served as host/producer of several music shows including Cafe Jazz, and Jazz Horizons. In 2001, Tracy revived Beyond The Edge, a legacy alternative music program that had been on hiatus for several years. Tracy was named Program Director in 2011 and created the midday music and conversation program Sounds Good in 2012 which he hosts Monday-Thursday. Tracy lives in Murray with his wife, son and daughter.
A proud native of Murray, Kentucky, Allison grew up roaming the forests of western Kentucky and visiting national parks across the country. She graduated in 2014 from Murray State University where she studied Environmental Sustainability, Television Production, and Spanish. She loves meeting new people, questioning everything, and dancing through the sun and the rain. She hopes to make a positive impact in this world several endeavors at a time.
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