BBC: Prostatitis: 'How I meditated away chronic pelvic pain'

[Andy]

Of course he did....

But the prospect of spending the rest of my life managing pain was dispiriting. I got my first hopeful insight that autumn by reading a book by Tim Parks, a British writer living in Italy. Teach Us To Sit Still describes how Parks overcame an acute version of the syndrome through Vipassana meditation, or "mindfulness".

This sounded kooky, but I was ready to listen to anyone who said CPPS was not a life sentence.

It helped that I identified with Parks. Like me, he'd settled in a foreign country that had given him a foreign culture and a wife to love; he lived largely through words; he was anxious and intense, prone to overreacting and internalising emotion; he did not believe in New Age healing, or any form of spirituality.

Not until halfway through

Physical exercise was as important as the meditation. Swimming twice a week palpably relaxed my pelvic muscles. So did daily stretches - those that brought me the most relief more or less replicated Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch (John Cleese, a one-time prostatitis sufferer, may have got useful practice in advance).

and the rest is the normal new-age influenced garbage. Central sensitisation makes an appearance as well...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44910438

 

[Tia]

Hahaha... Talking about his Dr he says:

'When I told him about meditating, he was quick to reclaim my body for science. "Just because you and I have nervous personalities, it doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with us," he said.'

THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE HEAR!!

I think that central sensitisation probably is an issue with SOME pain, just not most pain. May have been part of the problem for him.

 

[NelliePledge]

would it be inappropriate to say what a load of bollocks

 

[Trish]

So he did swimming and exercises and a lot of time elapsed. So why the hell attribute his improvement to the meditation?

 

[Luther Blissett]

So he did swimming and exercises and a lot of time elapsed. So why the hell attribute his improvement to the meditation?

For the same reason people have lucky socks for their sports team? Sympathetic magic.

 

[James Morris-Lent]

If you're inadvertently kegelling 24-7 from nervous tension, that could probably cause pain and be amenable to meditation and relaxation techniques.

 

[Tia]

Why not attribute it to meditation? Just because meditation doesn't 'cure' ME doesn't mean it can't help other people manage different conditions. If the pain is associated with tension in the body (as may have been the case with this person) then doesn't it stand to reason that finding a way to relax the body could be helpful?

I'm not sure it helps our cause to be negative about certain experiences and techniques helping other people with different conditions. It seems like he's saying that a combination of different things including exercise, specific stretches and relieving stress through meditation helped him. Seems reasonable to me. He's not saying that these techniques will cure every disease and he doesn't mention ME at all.

 

[Trish]

It seems like he's saying that a combination of different things including exercise, specific stretches and relieving stress through meditation helped him.

I'd be happy if the improvement he experienced was attributed to possibly one or a combination of the exercises, stretching, meditation and time. As you say, the relaxation and reduced stress he felt as a result of the meditation may well have helped. But no one can know from a single case like this where multiple methods were used which one if any was the key. The problem with this article is mainly the headline. The actual article itself is more balanced.

 

[Tia]

I'd be happy if the improvement he experienced was attributed to possibly one or a combination of the exercises, stretching, meditation and time. As you say, the relaxation and reduced stress he felt as a result of the meditation may well have helped. But no one can know from a single case like this where multiple methods were used which one if any was the key. The problem with this article is mainly the headline. The actual article itself is more balanced.

Yes I agree that the headline is a problem. To say 'I meditated away pain' is intensely annoying (both to meditators and to people with pain!) To be fair to him he probably didn't make up the headline himself.