Pain can be classified into two groups acute and chronic. Acute pain hurts, but the duration is brief, perhaps a week or two. Chronic pain is excruciating and generally lasts for long periods of time, possible several months.
It is this type of pain that can interfere with activities, sleep, and mood. It increases stress, anxiety and fatigue while decreasing the quality of life.
So what causes this to occur and what are some things you can do to alleviate the symptoms? I will answer these questions and more in the following paragraphs.
Why Do I Have to Hurt So Much?
Let me explain a little bit about the nervous system. Neurons send electrical impulses, messages to other neurons through its dendrite, this message goes to the axon.
From the axon, the impulse is sent to the brain. This vital organ interprets the message, and then instructs the body on what it should do.
It’s this chain of actions that prevent us from numerous accidents, for instance, if you touch something hot, your brain will instruct you to pull your hand away. Sometimes these messages increase our pain.
Diseases can cause pain to occur; like, HIV, tendinitis, Lyme disease, heart attack, stroke, Diabetes, MS, shingles, hormone, or vitamin deficiency.
Occasionally doctors diagnose our pain as idiopathic, cause is undetermined.
Painful Symptoms
There’s a variety of symptoms that go along with nerve pain and nerve disorders. The variation depends on the underlining cause of the pain. Some of the symptoms include; tingling, numbness, maybe a prickly feeling.
Sometimes the pain can become so severe that even a gentle touch will hurt. Occasional, the damage to the nerve is so severe that it leaves a person paralyzed.
Finding the Cause
If the doctor is unable to determine where the pain is coming from he might do a few tests. Some of them include; CT scan, MRI and possible lab tests. He might give you a neurological exam. It’s possible he might do a biopsy the nerve ending.
Give me Relief
The treatment for nerve pain depends on the severity, underlining cause. And the patients’ health. If it’s caused by a disease the doctor would first treat the disease and then he would do a pain management program.
This program might include things like; Oral pain medicine, Topical pain medicine, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and tens unit. I will explain a little about each in the following paragraphs.
The doctor may first prescribe an over the counter non- steroid anti-inflammatory. He might also suggest a topical cream, gel, patches or lotions. If this doesn’t work he might prescribe something a little stronger.
Anticonvulsant medicines were first manufactured for diseases like epilepsy and other seizure disorders.
Recent studies show that a combination of an anticonvulsant with antidepressant medicines helps relieve some types of nerve pain. Theses combined medicines don’t seem to work well with people suffering with cancer and HIV.
Tens unit, transcutaneous electrical nerve is a machine that sends electrical impulses to the nerves. This electrical current blocks the pain messages that’s sent to the brain.
Another device often used is the r TMS repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Either one has shown to be painlessly helpful.
Your doctor might suggest a corticosteroid shot. This will stop the pain while it reduces the inflammation and swelling.
No More Pills, Please
Besides the pharmaceutical approach some find other types of treatments to help alleviate their pain. Some of them include; massage, meditation, yoga and acupuncture.
Ayurveda medicine is a type of massage, that dates back to the days of Buddha With this type of treatment a masseuse will do one of three types of massage, they are; Abhyangam, Udvartanna, or pizhichil.
The first uses warm herbal oil and long massaging strokes. The second uses an herbal paste and vigorously massages it into the skin.
The third an herbal oil is poured over you and massaged in. The choice of oil ant technique used depends on the illness.
Some choose to meditate. This involves sitting completely still, eyes closed and removing all thoughts from your mind.
This is hard to do at first, so it’s suggested to meditate on just one thing, while blocking everything else out. When you’ve accomplished that you’re ready to block all thoughts.
Some suggest that meditation should be done early in the morning, sitting up with your back straight.
Yoga is found to be very useful in relieving a lot of symptoms, including pain stress, fatigue, anxiety and depression.
Acupuncture is an old Chinese tradition practiced in 6000 BCE and maybe further. The acupuncturist will use tiny needles that’s 0.0137 inch thick in different areas of your body.
The treatment takes less than an hour and is used for numerous diseases including pain relief.
It’s also thought that this procedure increases the levels of endorphins, neurotransmitters, white blood cells, hormones, triglycerides, prostaglandins, gamma globulins. This decreases the pain and improves numerous disorders.
Back To the Basics
These can also help reduce the pain. I will list a few of the most popular along with some of their other uses.
– Black pepper is a good pain reliever. It helps with digestive issues and it’s good for your heart.
– Rose helps relieve pain and it makes your skin and hair look nice.
– Kava helps with muscle pain it also helps with fatigue, stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. It helps with upper respiratory infection and Urinary tract infection.
– Juniper is an antitoxin. It gets rid of the toxins that causes your body pain.
– Skullcap is also helps with nervous system disorders. It also helps with stress, anxiety and insomnia.
– Eucalyptus is used for a lot of arthritis and cancer pain. It is also helpful with respiratory disorders.
Wintergreen is used for a lot of painful disorders. When applied topically it will help relieve swelling and pain to that area. It is an anti-inflammatory antibacterial.
Lavender chamomile and jasmine are used to relieve stress and fatigue that’s often associated with pain.
