WHAT IS CHRONIC PAIN
Pain is a normal feeling that our body experience when we hurt ourselves. Pain is our bodies way of telling us when something is wrong. However, pain is very different to Chronic Pain in that Chronic Pain is an ongoing experience that last over 3 months.
WHERE DOES THE SENSATION OF MY CHRONIC PAIN COME FROM?
Pain comes from our nervous system in the form of a signals or messages. Our nervous system and the pain receptors around our body send messages in the form of electrical signals to our brain which then processes the message that you are hurt.
In most cases this signaling and messaging stops when the pain has subsided, and the injury is repaired. However, in the case of Chronic Pain the pain receptors in your body continue to send messages of pain even after the injury has healed.
IS CHRONIC PAIN COMMON?
Is it estimated that 1 in 5 Australian adults will experience chronic pain. That statistic increases for individuals who have risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension or asthma as well as being female and older in age.
WHAT AREAS CAN CHRONIC PAIN AFFECT?
Chronic Pain can affect a multitude of areas and sometimes it can even begin without an obvious cause. For most people Chronic Pain begins in line with an injury or health condition including:
- Sporting injuries
- Surgery
- Back problems
- Migraines and headaches
- Arthritis
- Nerve damage
- Infection
- Fibromyalgia
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF CHRONIC PAIN
Symptoms of Chronic Pain can range from mild to severe and therefore impacts individuals lives differently.
Symptoms include:
- Headaches
- Burning feeling
- Shooting pain
- throbbing pain
- Squeezing sensation
- Stinging
- Stiffness
- Soreness
- Feeling tired and exhausted
- Loss of appetite
- Trouble sleeping
- Moodiness and mood swings
WHAT AFFECT CAN CHRONIC PAIN HAVE ON MY LIFESTYLE?
Chronic pain not only affects the individual and their lifestyle but can also affect the lives of their friends and family.
Chronic pain can put added stress on an individual, their lifestyle and their families as everyone learns to adjust to this new way of life.
Some sufferers find themselves feeling isolated due to their lack of energy and their pain impairing them from doing the activities they used to enjoy.
Secondly, a chronic pain patient may need extra assistance completing day to day tasks such as shopping and cleaning etc as well as reducing the individual’s ability to work and maintain full time employment.
There any many things that can be done to help someone with chronic pain maintain as much of a normal lifestyle as possible, including:
- Understanding what may cause the pain to come, go and fluctuate pain problem
- Understand the treatment plan and explain this to your friends and family to allow them to understand
- Schedule light activities to ensure that you can still maintain an as normal as possible social life within your limits
- encourage a healthy lifestyle that includes good sleep and rest patterns, a balanced diet, moderate alcohol use, regular exercise and other physical activity.
HOW CAN ENERGIE NATURAL HEALTH HELP WITH MY CHRONIC PAIN
The highly skilled team at Energie Natural Health can assist in the management and treatment of your Chronic Pain. If you would like to experience a more natural and holistic take on health care our team can introduce you to techniques such as massage, acupuncture, Bowen therapy as well as Nutritional Medicine.
When building your personal care plan our team take a deep dive in the cause of your symptoms and your pain, identify patterns and put strategies and techniques in place to manage and reduce your symptoms.
Call us today to speak to a trained professional about your pain concerns.