Chronic Pain
Chronic pain, something many of us have or currently deal with, is a challenge! Not only a physical one, but also mental and emotional.
So when is it considered chronic? When it has persisted beyond normal tissue healing time. According to the international association it’s generally 3 months… but I would consider a lot of cases to be chronic after 3 weeks. So I ask myself, why isn’t this person’s condition healing in accordance to the general healing time frame… and I focus on that (as well as reducing the pain).
There are so many factors that contribute to the prolonging of pain… whether it be the type of injury or condition, genetics, lifestyle, or more. I understand how it’s also multi-faceted in the sense that it affects a number of areas in your life. It can impede your ability to work, participate in social events or other activities, impact relationships, and give rise to feelings of frustration, sorrow, and isolation.
So how do we stop this pain in its path?
I dig into and look at a number of things:
- Structural irregularities
- Mental-emotional connections
- Central sensitization
- Inflammation
- Circulation
- Nutrition and lifestyle
- And more
What can be done to help with the pain?
- Specific exercises help to retrain the brain and nervous system to reduce pain signals.
- Acupuncture helps to increase blood flow locally, calm the nervous system, further retrain the brain to reduce pain signals, and release endorphins to decrease pain.
- Herbal medicine helps to increase energy and circulation as well as improve the functions of bodily systems.
- Checking for vitamin, hormonal, or nutrition deficiencies or imbalances, which can also contribute to chronic pain, can help as well. Especially in Melbourne winter I would highly recommend seeking out a good vitamin D supplement.
- Daily mindfulness or “slowing down” allows for the body to focus on healing.
- Early sleeps also allows for a quicker healing time.
Every individual’s pain is different and therefore the approach should be too. Let’s have a chat about why your pain is chronic and how we can work together to bring you relief.
Michelle
