Advice to treat 3 common ailments

The body is a complicated piece of machinery. Pain is its way of telling us something is wrong. When confronted by pain, it should never be ignored. Consider these first steps to take with these ailments:

Trigeminal neuralgia, also known as "Fothergill's Disease", is a neuropathic disease that triggers and carries painful sensation from your face to your brain.

• Acetaminophen and ibuprofen can help cut the pain. Take as directed on the package.
• As with all pain, the sooner you fight back, the better chance you have of quelling it. If you continue to have bouts of facial pain unrelieved by over-the-counter medications, see your doctor.

Carpal tunnel syndrome affects the hand. Those suffering from this diesease will experience numbness, tingling, pain and weakness.

• If the dosage on the label instructions isn't enough to ease the pain, talk to your doctor. He may advise that you can take up to 800 milligrams of ibuprofen three times a day or 600 milligrams four times a day, or 500 milligrams of naproxen twice daily. If you take either of these for 10 days and it doesn't help your pain, stop taking it and let your doctor know. Don't take this much on your own.
• The sooner you have the problem diagnosed, the quicker you'll find relief. Your doctor can rule out other conditions and offer medications and suggestions to speed your recovery.

Anyone — serious athlete or recreational adventurer — can suffer from muscle and tendon soreness.

• Lay off the parts that hurt for a little while.
• If you can stand it, soak the affected area in icy water for up to 15 minutes. Ice constricts the blood vessels, lessening swelling, plus it numbs your pain. If an ice bath is too much of a hurdle, apply ice packs wherever it hurts.
• A homemade ice pack: put ice in a plastic zipper bag with a little water, wrap the bag in a cloth, and apply. Or use a bag of frozen vegetables, such as corn or peas, which will mould to the area that hurts.
• Wearing an over-the-counter compression bandage or brace for several days after you develop tendon pain, say, at the shoulder or elbow, relieves pain by taking pressure off the spot where the tendon attaches to the bone.
• For muscle and tendon soreness in your legs, elevating them above your heart will help reduce swelling.

Aches and pains are natural and it's your body's way of telling you to pull back a bit. Follow these steps and you will get back to your normal routine quickly.