Did you know that one in five Australians suffer from chronic pain?
Chronic pain affects all people in all areas of our community – musculoskeletal pain is common amongst members of the armed forces and elite sports people who put stress on their bodies on a daily basis plus those who suffer workplace injuries.
And because chronic pain is invisible, and can lead to decreased enjoyment in normal activities, many sufferers feel misunderstood and are also prone to suffer from mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is persistent pain that lasts for more than three months. It is intense and unrelenting. Without proper management, persistent pain can create disability.
It is contrasted to acute pain, which can be sharp and appear suddenly for short bursts of time. Acute pain will subside once the cause of the pain has been treated. Post-surgical pain, or the pain we feel when we break a bone, is acute pain.
Our Nervous System
Through the process of neuroplasticity our nervous system changes and adapts in response to different experiences.
Our nervous system includes our nerves, spinal cord and brain, and part of its job is to signal when we are in pain.
Our nervous system sends from our nerves to our brain telling us we are in pain. These messages usually stop once the pain is resolved. However with chronic pain, these messages are confused, and the nerves or nervous system send signals of pain even after the body has healed.
For people with chronic pain, this can mean that pain is caused by touch or movement or worsened by standing in the same position for too long. Pain can even be caused by a breeze or clothing touching the skin.
Causes of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is complex. It can be caused by a medical condition, or as the result of an injury or trauma that has damaged nerves.
There are common medical conditions that can cause chronic pain:
- Arthritis
- Migraine and headaches
- Back pain
- Past surgery
- Nerve damage
- Infection
- Fibromyalgia
- Cancer pain
- Endometriosis
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
What does chronic pain feel like?
There is more than one symptom of chronic pain, such as:
- Fatigue and a lack of energy
- A dull ache in muscles
- Throbbing or burning pain
- Shooting
- Squeezing
- Soreness, stinging or stiffness
- Sleeping problems
- Joint pain
- Loss of stamina and flexibility
- Loss of appetite
Effects of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain affects a sufferer’s life in every way, and prevent a person doing things they enjoy and actively participating in society.
Having to deal with persistent pain on a daily basis affects personal relationships and work and home life, decreasing concentration, strength and fitness.
Chronic pain is physically, emotionally and socially draining, with the fear of participating in life creating further pain weighing down a chronic pain sufferer and known to lead to mood changes and feelings of depression, anxiety, and irritability.
Treatment Options For Chronic Pain
If you are finding that traditional methods of treating your pain just do not work and find you are increasingly relying on strong prescription medication supplemented by over the counter pain relief, Mosaic Health and Fitness can assist to improve your lifestyle and manage the effects of chronic pain.
Our health practitioner Gary Bates is experienced in working with clients who experience persistent pain as a result of injury and medical conditions such as migraine or back pain.
He can assess the triggers for your pain and work with you using health fund approved techniques and healing therapies to reduce symptoms of severe chronic pain:
- Improve flexibility through stretching
- Restore movement and function with remedial massage
- Use techniques to improve range of movement and normalise the nervous system
- Reduce pain sensitivity with techniques such as postural conditioning
- Strengthen targeted muscles with controlled exercise
- Relieve muscle tightness and pain with myofascial release therapy
Make an appointment with Gary Bates at Mosaic Health and Fitness in Windsor today to discuss options to relieve persistent pain.