Chronic pain is difficult and unfortunately all too common is US adults. About 70-100 million people suffer from chronic pain per year. Fortunately, your NJ chiropractor at Back and Body Springfield is here to help. There are about 5 steps to know to better manage your chronic pain. These are as follows: understanding pain, recognizing unhealthy attitudes or thoughts, targeting the treatment area, and passive/ active care. Today, we are going to be reviewing each one. Let’s get started.
Pain Relief at Back and Body Springfield
Let’s begin with some good news. With today’s technology, we are able to understand chronic pain more than we were able to in the past. When experiencing pain in a localized area, the nerves send a pain message from that area, to the spinal cord, and up to the brain for processing. From there, the brain determines whether or not the pain is a threat. It sends an inhibiter or exciter signal back down that path which gives either habituation or sensitization. Habituation is like living near the ocean. For the first few days or weeks, you hear the ocean all the time, but eventually, your brain eventually blocks it out, because you get used to it. Sensitization is like walking through a spider’s web and freaking out for the next 5 minutes thinking you might have a spider on your body somewhere.
Our Chiropractor at Back and Body Springfield
Your NJ chiropractor wants to look at your overall well being, meaning your mental health. Sometimes, there can be a mental block or a hopelessness that your pain will never be able to be treated. In order to find the best treatment method, we must understand a patient’s attitudes and outlooks of their pain. Once we do this, we are then able to determine which treatment will work best for you. There are three main target areas of treatment which are: nociceptive, neuropathic, and centralized.
- Nociceptive: The localized area where most of the pain occurs, ex: low back pain
- Neuropathic: The most common form of chronic pain and is usually a result of another issue somewhere else in the body, ex: sciatica.
- Centralized: Conditions that originate with the brain, ex: fibromyalgia or tinnitus
There are also two treatment methods: passive and active care.
Passive treatments: chiropractic adjustments that provide temporary relief to pain. These adjustments ease pressure on the nerves, breaks up scar tissue, and reduces inflammation, all helping the pain levels. The relief from these treatments is temporary and must be consistent in order to see results.
Active care: educating the patient and giving at home exercises to help treat the chronic pain. Here at your NJ chiropractor, we believe that education is the most important part of a chronic pain treatment. With the combination of active and passive care, we can effectively treat chronic pain, and possibly end it for good.
Your NJ chiropractor at Back and Body Springfield is here for you to help you with chronic pain. Come and see us today to begin your path to a painless life.
Make an appointment with us at Back and Body Pain Relief today to relieve your chronic pain for good.
