Living With Chronic Pain: What Can Help?

Living with chronic pain is never easy. The daily challenges can seem overwhelming at times, but it is important to remember that you are not alone. In fact, it’s estimated that over 50 million American Adults suffer from chronic pain.

Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center sees many people who are living with chronic pain. With our help, they have found ways to manage the challenges. In this blog post, we will discuss some tips for managing the pain and how our Austin clinic could help you. 

Understanding Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for over three months. The pain can be there all the time, or it may come and go. It can happen anywhere in your body. This pain can be debilitating and make it difficult to go through daily routines such as work, school, and social events.

Causes of Chronic Pain

There are a number of causes for chronic pain. In some cases, the source of the pain may be obvious such as an injury or infection. Other times, it can be caused by problems in your nervous system, organs, bones and muscles.

This list includes conditions that cause chronic pain:

• Arthritis: This is a disease that causes pain and swelling in your joints.
• Back problems: This can include pain in your neck, low back, sciatica, or leg pain.
• Fibromyalgia: This is a disorder that causes muscle stiffness and pressure throughout the body. 
• Headaches/migraines: These are painful headaches that are not caused by an obvious problem, such as a brain injury.
• Cancer: This is an illness that can cause pain in the body.
• Bursitis: This is inflammation of fluid-filled sacs located throughout your joints and tendons.
• Complex regional pain syndrome: This condition causes changes in your skin, tissues, nerves and blood vessels.

Symptoms

If you experience pain at least two to three times per week, you should visit us for diagnostics and treatment. Daily pain needs immediate treatment, especially if it is moderate to severe. We focus on alternatives to medications and surgery for symptoms like:

• Aching knees due to arthritis
• Hip and leg pain linked with sciatica
• Migraines that disrupt your day
• Hands and feet with burning sensations
• Shooting, throbbing, or steady back pain
• Neck tightness and irritation
• Pain and sensations that only affect the surface of the skin

Risks of Developing Chronic Pain

If you are currently without chronic pain, you may be able to avoid developing this problem in the future by caring for your health now. However, some risk factors are simply out of your control. Watch out for risks like:

• Stress from your career or family demands
• Depression
• Major surgeries
• Heredity
• Gender – Women report more chronic pain than men
• Obesity
• Injuries from strenuous work or sports participation
• Aging

Living with Chronic Pain

Managing chronic pain can be extremely difficult, which is why it’s important to receive help from a medical professional. Our Austin chiropractic clinic has helped many people who are living with this chronic condition. We have the skills and knowledge needed to get you feeling better so that you can get back to living your life.

Treatment Options

Most doctors only prescribe narcotic painkillers to patients with chronic pain that won’t heal on its own. We specialize in more conservative treatments with far fewer side effects and risks.

We offer the following, safer, treatment options:

• Massage therapy. This helps eliminate tension and keeps pain away for days or weeks. Massage therapy can also improve your range of motion.
• Electrical stimulation to soothe nerves irritated by damage or pressure. Using electrical stimulation can help reduce pain by stimulating your body’s own pain killing mechanisms.
• Spinal manipulation and chiropractic care. With chiropractic care, pain can often be greatly reduced.
• Full physical examinations from a medical doctor. Sometimes, pain in one area can be the result of something happening elsewhere in the body. A full body examination will allow us to get to the bottom of exactly what is happening and resulting in your pain.
• In-depth testing through X-rays, MRIs, and full nutritional and allergy testing to discover a cause.

Make an Appointment with Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center

If you’re tired of living with chronic pain, it’s time to make a change and start feeling like yourself again. Start by making an appointment with Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center by calling us at: (512) 806-0015.