If the pain is long-lasting, studies have indicated that the longer pain lasts.
The management of chronic pain involves assessing the potential causes of the pain,
and for Atlanta residents that could involve either a regular physician or an Atlanta chiropractor. There is a good choice of Doctors of Chiropractics throughout the state of Georgia, and living in the state capital, and Atlanta residents suffering from chronic pain should be able to find a chiropractor close to their own area of the city.
Chronic pain differs from acute pain in that the latter is a signal to your brain that something is wrong, and has to be dealt with immediately in order to prevent further damage. A burn for example, or a fractured limb produces a form of pain that demands immediate attention. However, if the pain is long-lasting, and has lasted for six months, it no longer has the intended effect and becomes not just a nuisance, but can severely affect your quality of life.
Conditions that can cause chronic pain include long-term illnesses such as cancer and gastric ulcers, and also nerve damage or ongoing nerve irritation. Studies have indicated that the longer pain lasts, the more the body can adapt to causing it by increasing the number of neurons that carry pain signals and reducing those that can help prevent pain transmission from being made. Hence, the longer the period of acute pain, the more likely it is to develop into chronic pain.
However, some forms of chronic pain can be treated using chiropractics, and the results of a study by the Atlanta School of Massage and Emory University was published in 2007 suggesting that neuromuscular therapy, a form of manipulation to treat the root causes of pain, could improve symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Atlanta chiropractors can also treat chronic pain caused by spinal deformities, irregularities and disc problems, and other forms of pain caused by trapped or pinched nerves.
An important part of the management of chronic pain is speaking to the patient, and finding out as much about their condition as possible. The site of the pain, as with acute or occasional pain, need not necessarily be in the same place as its source or root cause. Sciatic pain can originate with a herniated disc pressing against the sciatic nerve where it leaves the spinal cord, but the brain can place it in the leg. The same is true of carpal tunnel syndrome, where the cause of the pain could be rooted in a problem with the cervical vertebrae and not with the wrist.
This is the reason that Atlanta chiropractors are quite frequently asked by residents to treat chronic pain that has been unsuccessfully treated using other more conventional means. Often the only form of pain management these patients have is pharmaceutical in the form of analgesics. The patient is amazed that chiropractic treatment such as IDD therapy can relieve their pain in a very short period of time, and then go on eventually to effect a permanent cure in a reported 86% of cases.
This figure might not be related specifically to Atlanta chiropractors, but to those in the USA as a whole, although some have reported up to 90% success with herniated discs using IDD Therapy. However, Atlanta residents suffering chronic back pain have as good a chance as any of being one of these 86%. Whether they are or not will depend a great deal upon how the chiropractor approaches the assessment of the pain, its treatment and the measurement of the effectiveness of the treatment.
The measurement of chronic pain management is very patient dependent, and relies on the patient’s assessment of their own pain. It could be described in graphical terms, although a common method is to assess it on a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being the greatest pain the patient could imagine.
It is therefore highly subjective, but there seems no other way of quantitatively assessing pain without using equipment to measure the brain’s reaction. Even then it is very difficult where chronic pain is concerned. Nevertheless self-assessment by the patient appears to be good enough to judge the effectiveness of a course of treatment designed to manage chronic pain.
The result is that Atlanta chiropractors, as those anywhere else in the USA, can help in the management of chronic pain where it is not caused by disease or a degenerative condition other than that of the bones. Pain caused by degeneration of the spinal discs, for example, or of the vertebrae themselves, is a suitable candidate for chiropractic treatment, as are most conditions caused by neuro-musculoskeletal problems. In such cases, pain management is normally permanent.
