Several alternative methods of pain control for cancer pain have been sanctioned by the National Institutes of Health ref. 1995 NIH Technology Assessment Conference , sponsored jointly by the Office of Alternative Medicine and the Office of Medical Applications of Research. Although there is limited scientific data to support some of these methods, the risks associated with using them are minimal. Moreover, many of these methods can be used any place or any time and some of them don't cost anything. Therefore, many of these techniques are worth trying because they might help give you more control of your pain.
Relaxation relieves pain or keeps it from getting worse by reducing tension in the muscles.
It can help you fall asleep, give you more energy, make you less tired, reduce your anxiety, and make other pain relief methods work better. Relaxation can include quiet breathing, deep breathing, or progressive relaxation. Progressive relaxation is a technique used to reduce cancer pain in specific areas of the body. This technique entails lying down and successively clenching and releasing individual muscle groups, eventually focusing on those involved with the pain. This can work especially well while waiting for pain medications to take effect.