Living with daily, chronic pain is becoming a more predominant problem in America, as more and more baby boomers become aging seniors. Even the millennial generation is suffering from more pain-related issues as they embrace fit-living habits of sports and exercise, often to extremes. According to the latest figures from the American Pain Society, Pain Management costs now hit over $635 billion per year. The growing spike drives up everything from insurance premiums to prices for over-the-counter remedies.

More and more people are turning to “alternative” methods of managing pain after trying the myriad of conventional approaches.

Adrienne Cerulo was a portrait of the young, thriving, healthy woman all her life. In 2012, she began vigorous training for marathons and even completed her first marathon. At the end of her race, a nagging, non-stop pain began that persisted for four years. Every technique from the ultra-expensive to the ridiculous was equally ineffective in ridding her of the pain. As she described on “Megyn Kelly TODAY” for January 16, what she found browsing in a bookstore brought the elusive relief at last, and Adrienne is still pain-free.

From the inside out

Listening to the mere list of techniques and treatments tried by Ms. Cerulo can't help but bring a laugh, detailing everything “deep massage therapy” and having her own blood removed and transfused back into muscle tissue, to “fancy chairs” and much more expensive “fancy mattresses.” She describes her ordeal as a persistent “knot” in her upper right shoulder that started during her marathon and stayed, no matter what she tried.

She was browsing in a bookstore in 2016 when “The Tapping Solution” by Nick Ortner caught her attention. She recalls tilting her head to look, even though it gave her that familiar tinge. She took the book home, and after just two sessions of tapping, she was pain-free. She openly confessed to Megyn Kelly that “I don't know all that much about it,” as far as exactly how the body's meridians work, apart from being an avid proponent of tapping.

She is very aware of the locations of those “endpoints” for releasing energy, and how they released her from pain, and the fear of pain.

Impromptu tap session

Nick Ortner, the author of the book, joined Cerulo and led the audience in an on-the-spot tapping session, and some in the crowd couldn’t wait until all the meridians were shown to start.

Meridians are located on the inside of the hand, the forehead, beside the eyes, below the eyes, all along the collarbone, at the center of the chest, and the top of the head. Either or both sides of the body can be tapped in a session, usually lasting 20 minutes or less.

Cerulo insists that every session of tapping is “digging deeper,” allowing her to shed the negative emotions of “fearing that I would wake up in pain every day.” “It’s like peeling an onion,” she relates, letting go of the emotional root so that the physical hurt can release.

Ortner elaborates that pain often puts the body in a constant state of “flight or fight.” Tapping sends a calming message to the amygdala in the brain, which controls emotions, as a sensory “trick” to allow the body to “let go.”

Megyn Kelly wasn’t so sure it would work at her next presidential debate, but tapping is surely worth a try for the those suffering from bad backs and the barrage of other aches and pains. It's easy on the bank account, too.