Pain relief is something that everyone needs at one point or another. Pain can be caused by a lot of different illnesses and conditions which is why it’s important to understand your body’s pain signals. Not all patients are suited for invasive methods to manage their pain. Some patients are not candidates for invasive procedures due to the fact that they are at risk of permanent bodily harm. Some examples of this are diabetics, pregnant women, elderly people, etc. Noninvasive pain management techniques are now becoming the preferred method because it causes less discomfort and there is hardly any recovery time involved after the procedure. Every patient should have a clear understanding on their options when managing their pain.

Treatments for Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a serious medical problem that is often under-treated. It is also a serious economic problem, both for the patients and for society. Chronic pain is a frequent complication of illness or injury, and a common cause of disability. Patients with untreated chronic pain have a significantly lower quality of life than patients with similar medical conditions who have been treated for their pain.

In the United States alone, chronic pain affects over 100 million people each year. In 2002, chronic pain cost this country $635 billion in lost productivity and medical costs. In addition to the human toll, chronic pain costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars in potential productivity and tax revenue each year.

The most common non-opioid treatments for chronic non-cancer pain include:

1. cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps patients learn new ways of coping with and thinking about their pain; and

2. exercise therapy, which helps patients keep physically active despite their pain;

3. spinal cord stimulation (SCS), which uses electrical pulses to interrupt or override pain signals before they reach the brain; and

4. various types of psychotherapy, such as cognitive therapy (CT), hypnosis, biofeedback (BF) and relaxation techniques (RT).

Avoid Negative Side Effects of Pharmaceuticals

When people are in pain, they want relief. They also want to avoid negative side effects of pharmaceuticals. The most common way to avoid them is to take nothing, or less than the recommended dose.

The most common way to get relief without negative side effects is to use the gentlest technique available. If you are not in severe pain, there are many gentler techniques available than drugs.

If you are in severe pain, there still may be gentler techniques available than drugs. If the problem is that you have pain signals that are too strong, then it's possible for them to become too weak instead of just exactly right. And if the problem is that you have pain signals that are too weak, then leading them back up to normal can cause problems of its own.

Those problems may be less serious than the problem of feeling like crap while your body adjusts to a new drug regimen, but not everyone will have the same reaction so it's impossible to tell who will have what kind of reaction until after the fact (and even then it might be hard).

Explore Dietary and Behavioural Changes

Pain is a complex experience, and it is often difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. There are many non surgical pain management techniques you can try, however, including dietary and behavioural changes.

In terms of diet, cutting back on foods that contain additives or chemicals may help reduce pain symptoms. In addition, eating foods that are easy to digest can also prevent constipation, which can be a contributing factor to certain types of pain.

Physical activity can also be helpful in managing pain. One study found that exercising at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes or more each day significantly reduced symptoms of arthritis and fibromyalgia. It may take some time for you to determine the amount of physical activity you can do without increasing your symptoms, but once you have found the right balance it could help improve your overall quality of life by reducing your pain as well as improving your mood and energy levels.

Stop the Cycle of Back Pain before it starts

Pain is a message from the body to the brain. The body isn't trying to hurt us, but merely to get our attention. In many cases, the pain is a warning that there's something wrong in there that needs fixing before it gets worse or becomes chronic.

The greater danger is from ignoring the pain and continuing to do whatever caused it. It's been said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That may be true with regard to diet and exercise, but with regard to back pain there's a good case for saying that a pound of cure is worth a ton of prevention.