Approximately one-third of Americans suffers from chronic pain, and takes medication for their symptoms. Second only to the common cold, pain is the second most common reason for trips to the doctor each year. If you’re suffering from pain, and have sought treatment from a chiropractor, you just might be missing out on a life free of pain.
Pain is a signal from your body that something is not right. At its worst, it robs you of enjoying life and being productive. The burden of pain on Americans is at epic proportions, as over half of a trillion (yes TRILLIONS) dollars are spent annually on those suffering from pain.
For the purpose of this post, we’ll discuss acute and chronic pain as a result of a single traumatic event or pain caused from repetitive stresses and how to best treat your pain.
Acute pain can be intense and short-lived. It’s usually an indication of some injury. When the injury heals, the pain at that location usually goes away.
Chronic pain is typically classified as pain lasting for longer than six months. It can be episodic, or continuous in nature.
It’s important to understand that pain is the result of an electrical signal being sent from your nerves to your brain as a result of tissue damage to your body. When you take “pain medication” the medication may help decrease pain regardless of whether you have back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, headaches, etc. The medication does not know how to find your pain. It will cause global changes to your bio-chemistry that may result in decreased pain.
It’s well known that due to these global changes, most pain medications have side effects that at times can be worse than the pain itself.
Google Bextra and Vioxx to get a better idea what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, much is still unknown on the exact ways that pain medications (NSAID, acetaminophen,etc) work within the body. The longer you take any medication, the longer it may last in your body; increasing some risks of more severe side effects.
If you’re suffering from pain, you have many choices. Ignoring it, is still a choice; albeit a poor one. When getting assessed for your pain, it’s essential to get to the root cause of it. Pain is never the result of not having enough pain medication in your system.
In the majority of cases of non-traumatic, and repetitive stress injuries the site of pain is not the cause of the pain. The painful area is often functioning well, I’d say, too well, as it’s likely compensating for another part of the body, thus being overworked and resulting in pain.
“You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” The brain is smart, and it finds the weakest link, and creates ways for the body to compensate in effort to avoid the “weakest link.” Over time, the stress
gets too great, tissue damage results, and pain is the final signal letting you know that something is not right.
Continually overriding the pain signal with medication may lead to greater damage to tissues, and can result in permanent damage.
If you or someone you know is suffering from pain, and are not getting more than just short term relief from some kind of treatment, let’s get to the root cause of your pain, and eliminate it, allowing you to get back to enjoying everything you want to be doing.
Dr. Brian Strump is a chiropractor and owner of Live Active Charlotte, a CrossFit/functional fitness gym located in the Steele Creek area of Charlotte.
If you’re interested in making a change in your health or simply have questions, you can learn more about Brian and his staff by visiting: liveactiveclt.com
