Posts Tagged ‘Quality Of Life’
Low Back Pain – Acute & Chronic
The most common of all the types of back pain is that of lower back pain.
As with any type of pain there are two different types (and low back pain is no exception): acute and chronic.
Acute low back pain is usually a problem that can work itself out over a period of time.
Chronic low back pain, however, can be responsible for aches and pains that last throughout your lifetime and it is the chronic back pain that lessens the quality of life for anyone who suffers from it.
In this article, we’ll address the problems that are posed by acute back pain as well as chronic low back pain and we’ll discuss some methods of getting rid of the pain.
Low back pain is one of the most commonly occurring medical conditions that send even the toughest among us to our doctor’s office. Statistically, you have a very good chance at some point in your life suffering from some sort of lower back pain. In fact, this condition is responsible for more sick leave and/or time away from work than any other condition.
The causes of acute low back pain are often very different than the causes of chronic low back pain.
Acute low back pain (as with any type of acute pain) is usually caused by a single event or circumstance that is easily remembered and described by the afflicted.
Situations such as accidents, heavy lifting, or falling can result in acute back pain because of the trauma that incident places upon a particular part of the body.
With acute back pain, more often than not, it can be solved through physical therapy, massage, or some other type of healing process over a period of time.
Chronic back pain, on the other hand, is quite a different story. It is most often the result of long-term degeneration of the bones that make up the very foundation. There are several degenerative causes can be the reasons that one experiences chronic low back pain.
The discs that make up the spine can become herniated. This will cause rather intense chronic back pain. Many times this type of case tends to last throughout the life of an individual even though the effects on one’s quality of life can be lessened via chiropractic visits, therapy and possibly even surgery.
When it comes to diagnosing a case of chronic low back pain, and assessing its severity, doctors can make use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to determine the extent of the damage. By evaluating the results of the MRI, physicians can better diagnose what it is that is cause of the back pain. This gives your doctor a much better idea of what type of treatment to engage in and what you can do to prevent the pain from occurring in the future.
The list of reasons that any one individual is experiencing lower back pain, and getting magnetic resonance imaging performed is very important when it comes to pinning down the problem.
Beyond the various types of physical therapies, anti-inflammatory drugs or pain medications may be prescribed by your doctor to help reduce swelling and pain. In the more serious of cases in which the discs of the back are out of alignment or bulging, surgery may be necessary in order relieve or get the pain and discomfort under control.
At one point or another each of us has experienced pain.
Though few people actually welcome it, few would deny that it has an essential role to play in our survival. After all, without pain, we simply wouldn’t be aware that tissue damage is taking place somewhere in our body and that we need to do something – fast.
In any approach to pain, of course, we need to first check with a qualified doctor or other medical practitioner. It is essential that we get a proper medical evaluation of our situation and the correct treatment for any disease or injury that we may have suffered.
But what if we have already done this? But what if we have already received and understood the message pain brings, done all we – and the doctor – can do and yet still the pain exists?
This is the predicament faced by millions of us on a daily basis. And living with this kind of pain seriously affects the quality of life for anyone forced to experience and endure it.
Generally speaking, pain may be divided into two distinct types: Acute pain and chronic pain.
Acute pain is useful and indeed, essential. It informs us of what needs attention and this is the reason for its existence. It’s a signal relayed from the wounded area to the brain alerting us to take action.
But chronic pain is altogether different. With pain of this kind, we have already received the message and still it persists. It is ongoing and relentless. It’s as if we seem to be just stuck with it.
Indeed, the chronic pain generated by conditions such as rheumatism, back and shoulder pain, arthritis, migraine headaches, post surgical pain, cancer (and sometimes its treatment), fybromyalgia etc serves no useful purpose. It is unneeded for our survival.
Put simply, chronic pain is useless pain.
When pain outlives its usefulness it needs to be muted or silenced.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that we almost always look to ourselves last in any attempt to control our chronic pain. Yet it is within our self and our own mind that real pain relief and truly effective pain control can be found.
Because we are so accustomed to looking outside of ourselves for help with pain, we seem to have a learned mind-set of helplessness when it comes to chronic pain. We have been conditioned to accept that something or someone external to ourselves is responsible for making pain go away.
Understanding that we have it within our self to control pain is a major step forward in releasing its truly debilitating grip on our life.
And this is the wonderful power of using hypnosis and self-hypnosis for pain relief.
With properly applied hypnosis we are empowered to instruct our own mind to dramatically reduce – and in many cases totally eliminate – any pain we may be experiencing.
No drugs, no apparatus, no TEMS machines are needed. Indeed, hypnosis is so powerful that it can be, and sometimes is, used instead of local or general anaesthetic in order to completely eliminate pain even in major surgery.
All that’s required is your mind’s own innate capacities and abilities.
If you or someone you care about suffers from chronic pain, there really is something you can do about it.
By working with an experienced and fully qualified transformational hypnotherapist, you can learn how to control even long-standing chronic pain.
Using the power of your own mind you can indeed learn to control pain – and regain control of your life.
Whittier Chiropractor
Knee pain does not care about your age or your overall health. It does not care how rich or poor you may be either… Sharp knee pain can effect you differently and we will discuss how to help effectively treat this problem in this article, so read on my friend…
Despite the origination of your sharp knee pain, there is one thing in common: It hurts!
Sharp knee pain can stop you in your tracks, put a damper on your activities, and generally decrease your quality of life. What’s more interesting is that sharp knee pain causes can be difficult to identify because numerous factors may be contributing to your discomfort. If you are able to figure out what your sharp knee pain was caused by, then this is a step in the right direction.
Of all the joints in the human body, the knee joint seems to cause the most trouble for most people. In general, 9 out of 10 individuals will indicate that they have suffered from knee pain problems at some point in their lives.
Sharp knee pain causes are often hard to pinpoint because of the inconsistency of the pain. It may come on from time to time, or it may be present for only certain activities. Actually, this seeming inconsistency may hold the key to identifying sharp knee pain causes, so it is important to keep track of when you experience the sharp pain, and what activities you were doing at the time.
Some of the causes of sharp knee pain are self-evident. Sudden injury to the anatomical structures of the knee joint (i.e. twisting the knee) can result in severe knee discomfort. Moreover, trauma to the knee joint(i.e. falling and hitting the knee cap), can result in sharp knee pain issues. On the other hand, some causes of knee discomfort are not always so noticeable. A few of the more common, less obvious causes are as follows:
Arthritis: Arthritis can develop slowly, gradually affecting the mobility of the knee until one day, you begin to experience sharp pain.
Free-Floating Matter: Bits of bone or cartilage can break off within the knee and shift around, interfering with the mechanics of the knee and causing sharp pain.
Chondromalacia: This condition occurs when the cartilage under the knee cap (patella) becomes soft, allowing the knee cap to rub against the bone, causing sharp pain.
Malalignment: The knee joint can become malaligned, forcing the patella out of place and putting extra stress on the muscles and ligaments. This problem, sometimes caused by such simple things as improper gait, bad posture, and overuse, can be a cause of sharp knee pain.
Bursitis or Tendonitis: Sometimes, the bursae (sacs of fluid) around the knee joint, or the tendons within the knee become inflamed, and becomes another of the many knee pain causes.
There are several other causes of intense knee pain. In order to properly diagnose the causes of your knee pain, you need to be evaluated by a qualified medical professional. Still, in the interim, whatever the cause of your knee pain, you may be able to obtain some relief through the use of a well designed knee brace.
In the vast majority of cases, a knee brace can help protect your knee and help alleviate your painful symptoms. Well designed knee supports can come in several different styles, and they are not difficult to use. Some are more rigid (which can be a good thing) with a hinge that prevents excessive painful movements; others are soft, being more flexible in nature.
Regardless of the style or type, knee braces are designed to help support your knee, helping to take the pressure off the joint and thus helping to reduce any inflammation that may be causing discomfort.
Knee braces are also designed to help keep the knee properly aligned, thus helping to prevent sharp pain caused by malalignment while also helping you to avoid traumatic injury.
Whittier Chiropractor
Chronic pain is a complex medical condition influenced by biological, physical, behavioral, environmental and social forces. Because this is true I am dedicated to and passionate about using a multidisciplinary approach, relying upon my well-rounded training and experience in the field of interventional pain medicine.
Using a multidisciplinary approach increases the chance of identifying the source of pain at its root and then developing a treatment plan from the very beginning that has the greatest potential of lessening pain and returning the patient to as normal a life as possible.
And, whenever possible, I believe the patient should receive relief from pain and become trained in coping techniques to speed up their recovery. Why would anyone want to delay the lessening of pain and improve their quality of life? That?s not rational. In fact, it is very irrational for patients and employers not to take Chronic Pain seriously and intervene as quickly as medically possible.
Consider that in the United States alone employers spend nearly $1 billion a week on wage payments and medical care for workers hurt on the job, according to the 2005 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index.
A survey by the National Pain Foundation (NPF) has found that persistent pain has risen dramatically, up almost 40 percent, among full-time U.S. workers in the past 10 years. The NPF poll of more than 1,000 workers found the prevalence of chronic pain was much more common in the workplace (26 percent) in 2006 than it was in 1996 (19 percent).
Even more, almost nine out of 10 employees with chronic pain typically went to work rather than stay at home, the survey found. The vast majority ? 95 percent ? said their pain had to be either moderate or very severe before they stayed home from work. Forty-six percent of those employees with chronic pain said their pain often or sometimes affects their ability to perform their job.
I am the Medical Director of the Walton Pain Center, a part of the Walton Rehabilitation Health Systems of Augusta, GA, which uses a continuum of care approach to return Workman?s Comp clients or returning patients to work and to a comfortable lifestyle as well.
Walton has been a leader for many years in the conservative treatment of Chronic Pain through traditional outpatient services. Now that reputation has been elevated by reaching the same goal within two weeks through a new program recently launched by the Walton Pain Center.
The center has a demonstrable record of success using reliable interventional strategies, therapy, surgical consultations, and massage. The innovative Inpatient Pain Program adds a new dimension of achieving the same desired results but in far less time ? within two weeks!
The primary goals of the new two-week comprehensive Inpatient Pain Program are to:
? Break the patient?s pain cycle
? Enhance physical function and mobility and thus increase productivity
? Improve emotional distress (depression, anxiety, diminished self esteem)
? Promote the return to pre-injury activities and/or employment
This new two-week program is designed for patients with Chronic Pain that has disrupted their professional and personal lives. The focus is on intensive pain management, under close supervision, in a structured, therapeutic and supportive environment. The pain treatment team consists of Physical and Occupational therapists, Psychologist, Nursing staff, Masseur, Dietician, Chaplain, and in-house case management.
Treatment strategies center on providing medication monitoring and conservative interventional management to insure patients are taking the most appropriate medications at the most effective dosages and other pain relieving procedures as needed. The physical/occupational therapy component is structured in such a way as to encourage the patient to take a greater role in improving their stamina and physical functioning through muscle strengthening, tone and endurance exercises.
The new two-week Inpatient Pain Program will provide more intensive and focused pain management than what is available now only through outpatient treatment.
By providing the psychological component, we speed the recovery process by ensuring that the Chronic Pain patient understands that our aim is not to eliminate pain but to lessen pain and providing coping skills needed to return to work and live a more normal, productive life.
And how important is this? Ask American employers who are paying $1 billion a week for workers hurt on the job. Returning workers to their jobs as quickly as possible and curbing reoccurring bouts with pain can produce major savings.
With reasonable per diem rates, based on the patient?s needs, this new Inpatient Pain Program is designed to provide more intensive and focused pain management than currently available through outpatient treatment only.
Walton Rehabilitation Health Systems (WRHS) is a leading not-for-profit comprehensive, multi-specialty, dedicated provider of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Our mission is to be an advocate for wellness by providing a continuum of services to treat the whole person. WRHS, whose reputation extends throughout the south, is a trusted partner with just the right expertise and treatments to help people with disabling injuries and illnesses return to work and to a fulfilling life.
By pursuing its mission, WRHS has grown to include Walton Pain and Headache Centers, Walton Community Services, Walton Options for Independent Living, Walton Foundation for Independence, and Walton Technologies. We are located at: 1355 Independence Drive, Augusta, GA 30901-1037. For more information visit www.wrh.org or call 866-4-WALTON.
Hemant Yagnick, M.D., is an Interventional Pain Specialist and Medical Director
of the Walton Pain Center in Augusta, GA. Dr. Yagnick believes that chronic pain is a complex medical condition influenced by biological, physical, behavioral, environmental and social forces. His new two-week comprehensive inpatient program helps patients receive relief from pain while becoming trained in coping techniques, speeds up their return to work and improves their quality of life. Dr. Yagnick earned his medical degree from JN Medical College and Hospital. He completed his residency in anesthesiology and an Interventional Pain Fellowship at Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. For more information visit http://www.wrh.org.
Although pain affects more than 76 million Americans, it can be an isolating experience. According to the American Pain Foundation, pain is a critical, biological warning sign to the body when something. Pain can signal injury, such as touching a hot oven, or an underlying disease or infection, such as cancer or shingles. Pain is classified as acute or chronic. Acute pain usually follows surgery or injury and resolves as the body heals itself. Pain is diagnosed as chronic when it persists after healing has taken place.
Failure to treat acute pain promptly and appropriately can contribute to the development of chronic pain syndromes. In such cases, pain signals remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months or even years. In addition, pain can lead to other health problems, causing damage to the body. If untreated, chronic pain can weaken the immune system, decrease the quality of life, create feelings of anger and depression, lead to a deterioration of relationships, and result in a loss of independence.
Many people wrongly assume they have to live with pain – that it is an inevitable part of their disease or condition, or a natural part of growing older. The fact is most pain can be relieved with proper pain management.
Pain should be assessed thoroughly and treated early and aggressively. Early treatment is the best way to minimize the suffering and disability often associated with under-treated pain.
It’s important to become your own best advocate as you navigate the road to pain relief and reclaim your life. The earlier you seek treatment, the better. Following are some helpful things to keep in mind from the American Pain Foundation:
In the search for a healthcare provider who will help you reach your goals of pain relief and management, you may have been told, “Nothing more can be done to ease your pain,” or “You’ll just have to live with it.” If this is your situation, take the time to find a healthcare provider who has the education, skills and willingness to work with you to manage pain. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Only you know the extent of your pain and how it affects your quality of life.
Consider starting a pain notebook, a tool to help you keep a record of pain. The notebook should include when the pain occurs, for how long, the level of pain, and its impact on day-to-day life. Keeping track of what things make your pain better or worse will help your healthcare team find the best ways to treat pain.
Knowledge is power. There are a variety of drug and non-drug therapies (e.g., physical therapy, yoga, meditation) available to effectively control pain. These are typically used in combination. Ask your healthcare provider about ways to relax and cope with pain. Pain can feel worse if you are stressed, depressed or anxious. Be an informed consumer and learn all you can about pain and pain management options.
As you work with your healthcare provider, set realistic goals for things you most want to do. Do you want to achieve better sleep? Begin exercising or return work? Begin with the easiest goals first. Set realistic goals for pain relief. Persistent pain tends not to disappear. Look for a provider who will work with you to get you to the point where you can “live life again.”
Prior to appointments, write down questions you have and let your provider know if there is something you don’t understand. Also, bring along a relative or close friend to provide support and to help take notes and remember what was said. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget or misunderstand what was explained during doctor’s appointments. Having someone else there to process the information can be a great boost to your appointments.
During initial appointments, share with your provider what over-the-counter medications, vitamins and supplements you take, at what does and how often. Also, be honest about personal health habits, such as smoking, alcohol use, etc., which can interfere with some pain treatments and increase pain levels.
Finally, find out about support groups and educational programs in your area or online. Also seek the support and encouragement of friends and family members when you need them. They can provide the incentive you need to not give up in your quest for pain relief. And remember, there will be both good and bad days. Give yourself some grace as you traverse the road to pain relief.
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