National Pain Awareness Month

September is National pain awareness month and aims to raise awareness about people dealing with forms of chronic pain. Nearly 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain – more than the amount of people that have diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. 

Understanding Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is long-standing pain that persists beyond the usual recovery period or occurs along with a chronic health condition, such as arthritis. Chronic pain may be ‘on’ and ‘off’ or continuous.” This is different from other pain, such as acute pain, which comes from inflammation, injury, or surgery and only stays for a few weeks. Chronic pain can feel many different ways and often comes in the form of aching, burning, shooting, squeezing, stiffness, stinging, and throbbing.

Chronic pain often causes a decreased quality of life for people coping with the ailment. It can cause you to pull away from loved ones, events, or things you’d usually be able to do that you no longer can. Chronic pain can also cause people to need to take off work and abandon responsibilities to cope with the pain they’re experiencing. 

People with chronic pain are 64% less likely to view their job as rewarding. Working with pain can also cause heightened levels of stress, which can lead to depression and other ailments. The economic burden of chronic pain is major, it cost United States an estimated $560 to $635 billion in 2010, due to a combination of medical costs and productivity lost.

Treating Chronic Pain

There are many people dealing with chronic pain on a daily basis. Chronic pain is treated in a multitude of ways and the approach often depends on factors like the type of pain you have, the cause of pain, and your age or overall health. There are many medications made for treating chronic pain. Such as anticonvulsants, muscle relaxants, topical products, etc. 

However, a lot of people are deciding to make lifestyle changes to cope with their newfound ailment. There are basic health and lifestyle changes people are reverting back to in order to take care of themselves. Stress can often hinder coping with chronic pain and it is beneficial to reduce it as much as possible. 

Some methods are practicing mindfulness and doing things you enjoy or find relieving. Another factor is exercise, low-intensity workouts are often stress relievers for people and have numerous benefits to your health. Also, eating a healthy and anti-inflammatory diet is beneficial to chronic pain as well as getting good and basic nutrients. Sleep is also a vital factor in health and stress management.

Feel Better 

Chronic pain can have a major effect on your quality of life. At the Natural Health Center we will work with you to help relieve your pain. Everyone’s healing process is unique and takes place on a different timetable. However, we’ll look for the root cause of your pain and give you the best chance of recovering and returning to your favorite activities.

If you are suffering from chronic pain, contact the Natural Health Center in Clifton, NJ. Our board-certified doctors have helped people with chronic pain work to alleviate their suffering. To schedule an appointment, call us at 973-370-9155 or fill out our online contact form, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible