Chiropractic Care For Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain and Chiropractic Care

Pain is an important body mechanism that alerts us to underlying health issues and protects us from unnecessary harm.

However, what happens when pain becomes chronic?

Chronic pain, defined as pain lasting more than 6 weeks, is an issue that can significantly affect quality of life.

Of course it’s best if it can be prevented, but when pain seems to linger there are a few underlying issues that you may be able to address to get the relief you are seeking.

How chronic pain affects our ability to function

The perception of pain in the body, whether from an injury or disease, puts a significant burden on normal function.

When we experience pain chronically, it leads to altered mental status and limits our tolerance for typical daily activities.

Plus, it leads to faulty movement patterns in an attempt to avoid further aggravation of the pain stimuli (which ironically exacerbates the issue in the long term).

Proper initial treatment and an understanding of how pain works is ideal for promoting healing and recovery while preventing onset of potentially debilitating chronic pain.

How-chronic-pain-affects-our-ability-to-function

As pain becomes chronic it completely alters the way our nervous system, particularly the brain, perceives pain.

It can lead to overactive nerve pain signals and painful body stiffness.

It can even lead to catastrophization of symptoms even with low grade stimuli (i.e. even gentle touch becomes excruciatingly painful) or the perception of pain even without any direct input. For these reasons, chronic pain is a commonly misunderstood and stigmatized condition.

Risk factors for developing chronic pain include mental health issues, negative mindset, prior injury or trauma, poor general health, genetics, and chronic inflammatory disease(s).

Outside of chronic pain directly from an injury, some of the most common diagnosed chronic pain syndromes include Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Chronic pain and neural health

It should now be clear that chronic pain typically has an underlying issue related to neural health, whether peripherally or more central in the brain or spinal cord.

And the biggest issue that affects neural health is spine alignment. Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP) is an expert-based, specialized approach for addressing any spine misalignments that may be causing chronic pain and other health issues.

If spine alignment can be restored, neural health and energy will be optimized and potentially better regulate the pain signals the brain is both receiving and perceiving.

Chronic pain and neural health

Dr. Samantha Coleman at ChiroSolutions Center in Virginia Beach is one of only a handful of CBP specialized practitioners that can help you get the root of your chronic pain.

Treatment options include pain modalities, extensive education, soft tissue mobilization, gentle manipulation, exercise and other high quality non-invasive options.

Chronic pain can leave you feeling hopeless and stuck.

Get in touch with the ChiroSolutions Center today to see if CBP care can help you tackle your chronic pain issues more efficiently.