| Understanding Pain |
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What's good about pain? Believe it or not, pain has a good side. It is generated in the nervous system and serves as a warning to prevent the body from further injury. Once the cause of pain has stopped, those neurons usually stop firing the pain signals. But, unfortunately, chronic pain develops when those neurons get "stuck", continuing to fire pain signals. Doctors and scientists have not been able to answer the question as to why some pain develops into chronic pain while other pain resolves itself. The price of pain According to the National Institute of Health, approximately 90 million Americans are living with chronic pain, and most are desperate to find a solution. The presence of relentless chronic pain may cause job loss, divorce, depression or even suicide. Because pain is subjective, it is difficult for doctors to measure, and, therefore, difficult to treat. Where extra strength Tylenol may be sufficient to treat one patient's pain, another patient may be prescribed powerful narcotics to control their pain. Lifting the fog Since the early 1990s, physicians began to routinely prescribe powerful narcotics, such as Oxycodone, to treat chronic pain. This "quick fix" soon became an accepted practice - patients demanded pain relief narcotics, so doctors prescribed them. Unfortunately, adverse side effects were not well publicized. These side effects can be uncomfortable at best, including nausea and constipation, and devastating at worst, including "foggy head", drug addiction and even death. Breaking the cycle of pain Current research strongly suggests that breaking the cycle of pain caused by the continuous firing of pain signals, is the key to relief of chronic pain. Research has proven that use of electrical stimulators to interrupt the pain signal, is a safe, effective and non-narcotic approach to pain relief - and, in many cases, should be tried before resorting to drugs or surgery. |