The Causes & Treatment of Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain! An exasperating condition! 

Sure enough, we all know that chronic pain is a pain that persists longer than a period of 12 weeks!

It is that ‘stubborn pain’ that doesn’t go away easily despite the regular course of medication and treatment. 

Not just it brings along with it the physical discomfort but also the mental agony restricting our day to day functions and activities!

No wonder the count of chronic pain sufferers has been on a shooting edge. According to research published by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, about 20.4 percent of US adults are suffering from chronic pain and 0.8 percent of people have high-impact chronic pain. 

1.5 billion people around the world

It literally drains the zeal and positivity out from the lives of the patients forcing them to lead an average quality of life.  

But does it conclude that once caught in its trap one has to live with it?

The clear answer is no! Seeing from the perspective of a physiotherapist, I would say that chronic pain is little extra-demanding. To escape from the cycle of recurring body pains and exhaustion, you need to follow a patient approach and firm-efforts to restore your normal body movements. 

It might seem daunting at first where you will feel that your efforts are not being fairly rewarded but your persistence will serve as the most important tool for you to get back to your healthy nature. 

You can also seek the assistance of a professional physiotherapist. In fact, it is the best practice to heal in the supervision of an expert that can not only save your time to gain a healthy recourse but will help you with professional expertise to make your healing journey much smoother and hassle-free.

Let’s dig a little deeper on how chronic pain occurs and what are the best measures that can bring the much-needed comfort from such pains! 

Studying the science behind the chronic pains

The general mechanism is that whenever we happen to receive some injury, our nerve-cells signals it to our mind. Our mind then responds back by sending us an alert about it. 

But in case of chronic pain, even after we have recovered from a certain pain, any given stimuli can reactivate the condition of our pain causing us to go through the whole process of enduring our pain all over again.  

Some of the common factors that can trigger chronic pain in the body

  • Aging process:

    As we grow old, we tend to lose our muscle strength and bone tissues. The wearing out of strength in the body becomes the cause of fatigue and body pains in the later stages of life. Deficiency of minerals and accumulation of bone waste as we age aggravates the health condition that requires our due attention and care to deal with our restricted body movements.
  • Injuries:

    Injuries, as we all know, is a common cause of body pains hindering our body movements. Whether you have received an injury while playing or in general course, an injury can really last long until we offer it a proper resort to heal.
     
  • Poor postures:

    As we develop the tendencies to stay in the poor or unhealthy postures, we enhance our chances to fall into the trap of body pains. Poor positioning interferes with the muscle alignment. What’s more, this interference with body structure further increases the probability of having pain in the different parts of our body.
  • Obesity:

    Obesity is a great cause that can stimulate body pains. Being overweight means the excessive weight on the joints and less body movement. Obesity can instigate a chain of reactions of being lethargic and with that reduces the flexibility of our body.
  • Unguided workout sessions:

    Working out with gym equipment or otherwise requires proper supervision that can offer you complete guidance on an ideal workout session for your body type. Over body exertion, not just leads to the exhaustion but can cause damage to your muscles posing long term repercussions.
  • Diseases (Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia): Diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis causes the joint to swell. As you know, joint swelling is a common origin of extreme body pains. Furthermore, the ailments that affect the anatomy of joints, tissues, and muscles also become the greater cause of triggering body pains. Say, for instance, Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes pain in the body affecting the soft tissues.   

Probable measures that you can do at your end to improve your health condition

  • A healthy dose of exercise:
    A light but consistent form of exercise will bring you great results. What’s more, you will feel improvement in your pain index. As you involve yourself in doing the daily exercise, or perhaps a walk, you are making a conscious effort of bringing harmonious sync within your body.
Chronic pain can be mitigated by a physical therapist.
  • Relaxation (Meditation):
    Relaxing is a very useful tip. Relaxation calms your existing pains and inconsistencies in the body. With your engagement in any activity that brings you relaxation, whether it’s listening to music, doing yoga or meditation, you can heal your body pains. It has a deep impact over your mind and body that works as a strong-cure mechanism to eradicate your pain from the root.
  • Painkillers:
    A great use of painkillers is never encouraged. However, in case of extreme pain scenarios, you can have a reasonable intake of painkillers. Seek the recommendation of your physicist to avoid such body pains.
  • Be easy on yourself:
    Your extreme efforts to get rid of the pain will make you bear its double brunt. One favor you can do for yourself is to be easy on your pain. Do not try too hard to get over it for it will only worsen when strained.

The other remedial options to treat your chronic pain patterns is to seek help from the branch of physiotherapy. Physiotherapy, on the basis of its expert knowledge and application in the field of pain-management can work wonders.

The treatment measures of physiotherapies range from extensive exercises to ultrasonic massage therapies. Each aspire to bring back your body functions to its regular algorithm. 

P3 Physical Therapy is a renowned physiotherapy clinic offering expert physiotherapy sessions. We are trained in the range of musculoskeletal disorders and irregularities within the body.  We focus on each of our patients like family. You can opt for a smoother recovery process with the professional help of our pain-specialists.