Tips for Empowered Pain Management

September is Pain Awareness Month. According to the Center for Disease Control, chronic Pain affects over 50 million adults in North America. Nearly half of these individuals say that it interferes with work, family life, and enjoying hobbies on most days, or every day. And according to AARP, half of adults over 65 suffer from chronic pain as well. This means that our senior clients served at Qualicare’s in-home healthcare and senior care franchises are often in serious need of relief.  

When chronic pain is present, every measurable health dimension is worse off, according to a 2013 article in the British Journal of Pain. Chronic pain is a huge physical and emotional burden and is a strain on society as well. The financial cost alone is enormous – over $600 billion dollars per year is spent on chronic pain management. This on top of the over-prescription of pain-relieving drugs which caused the opioid crisis in the U.S. shows the vital need for pain management education.  

Today, we offer a few tips and helpful information to empower loved ones suffering from chronic pain.  

How is chronic pain diagnosed? 

Chronic pain presents a variety of long-term mental and physical symptoms. It also impacts a wide array of socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups. However, the more likely you are to have other medical conditions, the more likely you will experience chronic pain that can be more severe. Pain is subjective, and every person’s experience is unique. This makes chronic pain difficult for researchers to study. However, there is a general diagnostic standard for chronic pain.  

For a doctor to diagnose chronic pain, the following factors must occur: pain must exist in one or more areas of the body and never ease entirely, pain must have existed for at least 3-6 months, there must be no apparent cure for the pain, and pain must fluctuate depending on treatment. Once diagnosed, there are many options for chronic pain treatment.  

Top holistic pain management tips 

Common approaches to holistic pain management, whether used in tandem with other treatments or on their own, have proven to be helpful in many people’s lives. Here are a few common holistic treatments for chronic pain, several of which are listed on the U.S. Pain Foundation’s website:  

Acupuncture: A common practice in Chinese medicine, which involves inserting tiny needles into certain points of the body, to balance the flow of energy. Western doctors see acupuncture as a way to promote pain relief by stimulating nerves and muscles.  

Chiropractic: The main goal of a chiropractor is to realign, and manipulate the spine and neck, in a way that relieves pain and promotes healing.  

Exercise: There are endless ways that moving the body through various types of exercise can aid in pain relief. Walking, yoga, swimming, tai chi and other activities have proven to be extremely helpful to individuals who experience chronic pain.   

Reiki: Originating in Japan, Reiki is a safe, gentle technique for stress reduction and relaxation, focused around the “life force energy.” A reiki treatment includes the whole body, emotions, mind and spirit, and works to balance the body’s chakras. Reiki is offered by individual practitioners, and is a treatment available in many hospitals.  

Massage: There are a wide range of massage styles which have proven to be beneficial for many different chronic pain conditions. Reflexology focuses on the feet, deep tissue massage penetrates deep into the muscles, and Swedish and Thai massage are options for relieving pain as well. Massage also helps to decrease stress and anxiety. 

Mindfulness and meditation: Quieting the nervous system through meditation and mindfulness lowers anxiety and stress, which can help muscles relax and relieve pain. Meditation techniques encourage calm, deep breathing, which is one of the fastest ways to relax in any situation.  

Take a pain management course 

If you or your loved ones have been diagnosed with chronic pain, there are courses available to learn more about the condition offered by the Center for Disease Control. Though chronic pain may have obvious conditions related to it, like arthritis or past injuries, many people may not know the underlying reason why they are in chronic pain, and the process of understanding it can be difficult.  
 
The courses for pain management offer a variety of techniques to deal with the emotional and physical toll of pain, in particular fatigue, isolation, and frustration. There are recommendations for exercise and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance. Medications are discussed, as there are a wide variety of pharmacological options.  

Empowered lifestyle changes for pain management  

One very important piece of information to remember during Pain Awareness Month, is that knowledge is power when it comes to alleviating pain. The 2013 article in the British Journal of Pain that was previously cited, discusses environmental and lifestyle factors that are associated with chronic pain.  

Some factors cannot be changed, such as gender and history of trauma. But there are also other factors that you and your loved ones should be aware of that are linked to chronic pain that can be changed. Mental health, smoking, alcohol use, obesity, sleep, physical activity/exercise, nutrition, and employment status are all elements of life that can be adapted to potentially alleviate chronic pain.  

Particularly notable in this study is how mental health impacts physical pain. Depression, anxiety, and “catastrophizing beliefs about pain” are often associated with the presence of chronic pain. The article states that neuroimaging in patients with depression shows that there’s a dysfunction in emotional regulation during pain stimulation. Depression and anxiety can “become part of the overall condition itself and augment the pain experience.”  

A body in chronic pain is sending stress signals to the brain, which leads to a heightened perception of the pain itself, and also a perceived level of threat. This is important for individuals to know so that both their mental health symptoms and their chronic pain symptoms can be addressed together with pain management. It is the hope that with this increased knowledge during September’s Pain Awareness Month, fewer individuals will be burdened by chronic pain, and able to live healthy and joyful lives!