Page Loading...Please Wait
Pain conditions encompass acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) states with diverse causes, including tissue damage (nociceptive), nerve damage (neuropathic), and nervous system changes (Nociplastic). Treatment depends on the type and cause, focusing on symptom management and improving function, and often involves medication, physical therapy, and lifestyle changes.
Acute Pain
Acute pain is short-term pain that arises suddenly as a warning sign for illness, injury, surgery, or other trauma and typically disappears as the body heals. It can be felt as sharp or intense and serves as a protective signal, urging you to rest, seek treatment, or remove yourself from harm’s way. Treatment often involves rest, ice, compression, elevation (RICE), and pain relievers, while proper management helps the body heal and prevent the pain from becoming chronic.
Key Characteristics
Common Causes
Chronic Pain
Pain that persists beyond the usual healing period, even after tissue damage is gone. Chronic pain lasts months or years and can affect any part of your body. It interferes with daily life and can lead to depression and anxiety. You may feel the pain all the time or it may come and go. It can happen anywhere in your body and has countless causes.
Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something’s wrong, like an alarm. But when that alarm continues to go off for months or years, it can drown out many aspects of life that bring you joy. And it can take quite a toll on your physical, mental and emotional health.
Common Causes
Chronic pain can come in many different forms and occur across your body. It’s the main symptom of a wide range of injuries, infections and diseases. Common types of chronic pain include:
Nociceptive Pain
Caused by actual tissue damage or inflammation, perceived as sharp, dull, or aching pain. Examples include osteoarthritis, muscle strains, and cuts.
Neuropathic Pain
Originates from damage or dysfunction in the nervous system. Sensations often described as burning, tingling, or shooting pain. Examples include sciatica and shingles.
Nociplastic Pain
A result of the nervous system becoming overly sensitive or changing how it processes pain signals, without a clear injury. Fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are examples.
Pain relief involves various strategies, including over-the-counter and prescription medications like paracetamol and NSAIDs for mild to moderate pain, opioids for severe pain, and adjuvant medicines for nerve pain. Non-drug approaches are also crucial and include exercise, relaxation techniques, and staying socially connected. For persistent or severe pain, or if you have underlying medical conditions, consulting a healthcare professional for personalized advice is essential.
Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain (pain relief, analgesia, pain control) in various dimensions, from acute and simple to chronic and challenging. Most physicians and other health professionals provide some pain control in the normal course of their practice, and for the more complex instances of pain, they also call on additional help from a specific medical specialty devoted to pain, which is called pain medicine.
Pain management often uses a multidisciplinary approach for easing the suffering and improving the quality of life of anyone experiencing pain, whether acute pain or chronic pain. Relieving pain (analgesia) is typically an acute process, while managing chronic pain involves additional complexities and ideally a multidisciplinary approach.
Exercise Interventions
Physical activity interventions, such as tai chi, yoga, and Pilates, promote harmony of the mind and body through total body awareness. These practices incorporate breathing techniques, meditation, and a wide variety of movements while training the body to perform functionally by increasing strength, flexibility, and range of motion. Physical activity can also benefit chronic sufferers by reducing inflammation and sensitivity and boosting overall energy. Physical activity and exercise may improve chronic pain (pain lasting more than 12 weeks), and overall quality of life, while minimizing the need for pain medications. More specifically, walking has been effective in improving pain management in chronic low back pain.
Scenar Pain Relief Therapy
A gentle therapy for excellent pain relief.
Scenar Therapy is a unique and revolutionary treatment for all types of pain and injuries. Scenar works in two ways to promote rapid healing and provide pain relief, even with stubborn and chronic pain. Scenar Pain Relief Therapy is unique because it locates, measures and prompts problem areas through the skin to help relieve pain and restore function for maximum therapeutic effectiveness.
The brain constantly monitors the condition of the body so will already know that this imbalance has occurred. As a normal process it would send bio-active compounds to ease the pain and begin the healing process.
Scenar technology was developed to “jump-start” the body’s own natural healing response, telling the brain that more of the bodies’ natural medicinal compounds are required to neutralise the pain and heal the injury. Using electro-stimulation on the skin a very sophisticated electronic feedback loop is set up and the nervous system sends a measured dose of neuropeptides, some of the most powerful pain relief agents that the body produces, to the site of pain. As the device is brushed over the painful area it continuously monitors the changes, sending messages back to the brain so that it is able to adjust the treatment accordingly.
Osteopathy
Osteopathy provides drug-free pain relief by using gentle, hands-on techniques such as massage, stretching, and articulation to improve joint mobility, relieve muscle tension, and encourage blood flow, with the aim of treating musculoskeletal problems like back pain, neck pain, arthritis, and sports injuries. Osteopathic treatments are individualized, focusing on treating the body’s bones, muscles, ligaments, and connective tissue to promote healing and overall well-being.
Massage Therapy
Massage offers pain relief by increasing blood circulation to reduce muscle tension and promote healing, breaking down painful knots and adhesions, releasing the body’s natural painkillers (endorphins) to improve mood, and reducing inflammation through anti-inflammatory responses. It also helps to realign the body, prevent future pain by correcting imbalances, and can alleviate symptoms of various conditions, including chronic pain and musculoskeletal issues.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture provides pain relief by stimulating nerves to release natural pain-killing chemicals, like endorphins, and other substances that promote healing and mood elevation. This drug-free treatment involves inserting fine needles into specific body points to address pain by stimulating the central nervous system. It is a safe, complementary therapy for chronic and acute pain, with a course of sessions often recommended, and may be used alongside or instead of other treatments.
Talking Therapies
Talking therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help manage chronic pain by changing thoughts and behaviours, improving coping mechanisms, and enhancing overall quality of life, even if they don’t eliminate the pain entirely. These therapies are often part of comprehensive pain management programs that also incorporate gentle exercise, mindfulness, and social support to provide a holistic approach to living with persistent pain.
