Chronic Pain Today

Mark Wallace M.D. brings you this video on Chronic Pain in Women: Pain Management. From the UCSD School of Medicine and the Diana Padelford Binkley Foundation, Mark Wallace M.D. bring you this groundbreaking series to improve awareness of the prevalence and severity of pain in women.

I highly recommend viewing this short video, so much so that instead of a link I embedded it directly into this post so that its convenient for all my readers to get the information. If you are female and you suffer from any of the known chronic pain conditions, you do yourself a service to watch this video and see how it affects your day to day life.

Chronic pain has been seen to have gender differences between men and women. This video explores some of the pain management given to women in chronic pain (whether that be fibro, interstitial cystitis, or other chronic pain conditions).  To see more on Female Differences in Most Chronic Pain cases please see the embedded blog link.

For More Info:

How We Feel Pain

How We Perceive Pain

Ten Tips on Caregiving Chronic Pain Sufferers

Some of the more frequently asked questions regarding chronic pain.


What is Chronic Pain?

By simple definition, chronic pain is any pain that lasts over time. But really, what does that mean? Chronic pain was formerly defined as a pain that lasted over six months, then it was three months, and now it is widely accepted to be any pain that last longer than what normal healing time would be. It is also used to define pain that is caused by an unknown or incurable condition, such as fibromyalgia.


What Does Pain Mean?

Pain means different things depending on what meaning of the question you are going to answer. Learn what it means by definition, the mechanics of how pain works in your body, and the changes it takes on in the individual.


Who Is At Risk for Chronic Pain?

According to the University of Michigan Health Systems, while one in five live with chronic pain in America, most were women and many of those women were African American. Typically a woman’s chronic pain complaint was less likely to garner a reaction than their male counterparts at their health care professional’s office. Research in this area has also shown that adults over age 50 were more able to cope with their pain, while those younger were more prone to depression.


Where Should I Start in Beginning to Get a Chronic Pain Diagnosis?

Wondering what medical specialist is right for your specific chronic pain condition? There are several choices, and one is right for you. From family practitioner, to chiropractor, to pain specialists and psychiatrists, some of the different types of medical professionals are explained for you.


How Can Chronic Pain Affect My Career?

Coping with chronic pain while you are at work is a necessity. Without some changes in the workplace, you risk getting worse pain than you have originally or injuring a different area that currently isn’t in pain. Some of the injuries that you can get in the work place are neck, back, shoulder, and wrist pain. Others include eyestrain, stiffness, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, and repetitive strain injury. Some of these come simply by doing basic office things like typing for long periods of time or staring at a computer monitor eight hours a day, but there are things that you can do to help lessen your chances of increasing your chronic pain.

To begin your exercise plan designed to help with your chronic pain, you will need to check with your doctor to see what is right for you. However, by starting slow you will eventually need to get up to exercising three to five times a week for half an hour to an hour each time. You will also need to incorporate flexibility exercises, strengthening exercises, and aerobic exercises in your workout.

Flexibility -Flexibility exercises includes yoga, stretches, and pilates. It will help keep you limber and mobile.

Strengthening - Strengthening exercises includes lifting weights. This will build muscle tone and improve bone condition.

Aerobic - Aerobic exercises includes biking, walking, swimming, and dancing. It will keep your circulation good, your heart healthy, and will help aid in weight loss.

Exercise That Increases Pain
Exercising without a proper warm-up or stretching beforehand.
Overdoing your exercise plan or overusing your joints.
To do any exercise that will hinder instead of help your pain condition.

Are You Overdoing Exercise?
You may be overdoing your exercise routine if you are experiencing any of the following:
Increased, or new, pain that lasts an hour past your exercise routine
Lesser range of motion than before your exercise routine
More fatigued after exercise than before it
Weaker after your exercise than before it

One of the best things a person with chronic pain can do is exercise. However, it is the one thing that most people with chronic pain seem to avoid. The feeling seems to be “why exercise when moving hurts me?” and that is a very valid point. It may indeed make you feel worse after starting an exercise program however you will eventually begin to feel better as you progress. Exercising regularly though will increase your stamina and regulate pain messages so that you will hurt less day to day. Exercise is a proven way to release your body’s natural painkillers, called endorphins. These pain killers last in the body and help ward off new pain. Exercise also helps regulate weight that can contribute to chronic pain levels.

What Exercise Does
Your joints will stay moving.
Your muscles will strengthen.
You will have more stamina.
It helps manage pain through endorphin release.
It will increase your energy.
Your heart will strengthen.
It will improve your overall health.
It will help control your weight.
It will reduce your stress levels.

Opiods, or narcotics, offer some of the best pain relief on the market. There is no maximum dose, but higher levels can affect things like breathing. These drugs are supervised to adjust the dose to make sure that the degrees of side effects are lessened and there isn’t any addiction occurring. The main side effects of these seem to be sedation, nausea, and some constipation. The purpose of these will allow the patient to live a more normal life with more function. However, you shouldn’t drive taking opiods, as you can be legally charged with driving under the influence while taking opiods.

Categories of Opiods:
Narcotics are classified in categories that are called “schedules”. These are ranked. A schedule three drug is like Vicodin and must be called into the pharmacy by the doctor, or verified by phone. These are just safety measures to assure that the harder drugs are not easily tampered with or abused.

Classifications of Opiods:
Narcotics are classified in many ways. There are immediate release that dissolve immediately and lasts several hours or sustained release that breaks down more slowly and may last a couple of days. Doctors typically use sustained release formulas for chronic pain sufferers, however immediate release formulas are better for the breakthrough pain.

Examples of Opiods:
Morphine (MS Contin)
Fentanyl
Tramadol (Ultram)
Methadone (Methadose)
Oxycodone (Oxycontin)