Chronic Pain Management: Tips for Coping and Relief
Try these chronic pain management tips to reduce suffering and improve your quality of life:
If you’re suffering from chronic pain, you likely have days when relief might seem out of reach. But simple strategies for chronic pain management can make a big difference in improving your quality of life.
What is Chronic Pain?
Dr. Shelley Adams, a chiropractor at Back2Health Chiropractic Kitsilano in Vancouver, says chronic pain extends beyond the expected period of healing. “We expect people to have problems and there are different timelines for different problems.”
Chronic pain usually lasts more than three to six months, if not longer, says Linda Soltysiak, a group leader for the North Shore Chronic Pain Group. Chronic pain can be unpredictable, vary from mild to excruciating and be in one or multiple areas of the body.
Causes of Chronic Pain
“We still do not have a really good explanation why chronic pain persists,” says Dr. Patrick Myers, a registered psychologist at Stress-Less Consulting. Many people have pain without obvious cause and there may be a “biopsychosocial framework.”
Common causes of chronic pain include:
- Physical injury and trauma — including car accidents, especially if the injury wasn’t treated immediately
- Medical conditions — such as arthritis, migraines, cancer, fibromyalgia, TMJ and IBS
- Bad posture — that has caused strain on joints and other body parts
- Degeneration of spinal joints — due to genetics, injury, inactivity and lifestyle
- Inactivity – motion improves joint health, relaxed tissues and increases blood supply to keep tissue healthy
- Diet – diets high in animal fat promote inflammation and poor choices can lead to weight gain that causes joint degeneration and posture issues
- Stress – creates muscle tension, pulling on joints and increasing irritation, and causes tissue distress due to long-term cortisol exposure
- Disease – arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer and other illnesses
Complications of Chronic Pain
The hurt of chronic pain can go beyond just the physical. Chronic pain can lead to multiple issues, including:
- Broken sleep and difficulty getting to sleep
- Psychological trauma
- Depression
- Isolation
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Some tips to help us with managing our chronic pain. Do you have any tips not covered that you have found to help you? Please share them in the comments section below.
Blessings,
Jacqui
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