Today’s treatment options give chronic pain sufferers a chance for a normal life

 

Life with chronic pain is impossible to imagine unless you have suffered it personally. “I lived with chronic pain for 40 years,” says DeMont Seagrave. “Part of the pain is hereditary, but at 19 I cracked my sacrum in two places. Doctors thought I wouldn’t walk again.”

Seagrave did walk again. And he enjoyed a genuinely dynamic life that included nine years playing with the New York Yankees and two subsequent careers in construction and restaurant ownership. But finally the pain was so constant and intense that he had to give up his business. “I didn’t smile or laugh and was always a grouch. I couldn’t load the dishwasher without sitting in a chair,” he says.

Millions suffer similarly to Seagrave. In fact, the National Center for Health Statistics estimates 76.2 million people live with chronic pain, costing annually in healthcare and lost productivity nearly $100 billion.

There’s one thing I’ll say about pulling a muscle, and that is: It’s no fun. It’s not as serious as a break, so you won’t get the sympathy that walking around in a cast will get you (not that I wish that upon anyone), but it’s just serious enough that it can cause severe pain and keep you off your feet during recovery. Here are some things you can do if you pull a muscle.

1. First, make sure that it’s just a pulled muscle and not a break. A break that doesn’t get immediate medical treatment can cause problems down the line, whereas a pulled muscle generally requires some at-home pain relief and nothing more.

2. Next, get off your feet (if you’ve pulled a muscle in your leg). Applying the pressure of your body to a pulled muscle will hurt and will not allow for a quick recovery.

Are you tired from work? Then most likely you are experiencing an excruciating backache because of strained muscles in your back. A lot of people will just disregard this pain without knowing that it can possibly lead to more serious complications in the future. And when this happens, treatment is more intense.

A backache happens when there is a straining on the muscles of your back. In some cases, this pain is caused by fatigue and overwork. Once you have experienced back pain, it might be automatic for you to take pain medications. Taking medications is not acceptable and not always recommended because it will only block your pain receptors so that you will not feel any pain.

What spinal decompression does is create a vacuum effect in the spine so that the disc material is suctioned back into place between the spinal bones. You see, between each spinal bone or vertebrae there is a disc. This disc is a gel like material that acts as a shock absorber and as a spacer. Without this spacer the neural foramen (openings where nerves exit off the spinal cord) don't remain open and free from pressure. Disrupt the disc and you lose the hole where nerve roots exit out and you disrupt the anatomy of the spine.

 

When a disc is injured it may bulge or leak out of the area it normally should be. When this happens it may put pressure on nerves. Also, since it is no longer contributing to the mass or height of that “spacer,” you lose the normal opening of the foramen that the nerves stemming off the spinal cord exit out of. Additionally, closing of the neural foramen or spinal canal from leaked disc material and inflammation is a major cause of stenosis. In fact, that’s what stenosis is, a closure of those holes.

Some medical practitioners have the idea that psychological problems predict the development of chronic pain. To date, however, the research does not support this idea (Kuch, 2001 Clinical Journal of Pain, Vol 17, No. 4).

 

The largest link between psychological problems and chronic pain is a history of trauma in a person’s life. The study of trauma and its affect on human health is a growing area of study. Essentially the thought is that in some way trauma affects how the body processes stress. But it is unclear exactly how the two relate. Most likely it will take years of research to figure this out. What is important is for doctors to not assume that if the patient just receives therapy for trauma that the patient’s pain will be cured – or to label the patient as a “psych” case.