What is pain management?
Pain management is a field of medicine that focuses on the relief of acute or chronic pain. You can have acute pain due to multiple causes, including fracture or skeletal injury, infection, trauma, or soft tissue wounds.
Causes of chronic pain, which can significantly impact your ability to work and live well, include:
- Hormone imbalance
- Inflammation
- Food sensitivities
- Stress, anxiety, or depression
- Musculoskeletal injury or damage
- Autoimmune disorders
- Poor nutrition
- Metabolic disorders
- Chronic health conditions
A key to holistic pain management involves understanding the underlying factors that contribute to your acute or chronic pain and seeing your pain as part of the bigger picture of your overall health and wellness.
How can pain management improve my overall health?
When you’re in acute or chronic pain, it can affect your physical, emotional, and mental health. Holistic pain management can help avoid these potential long-term effects of uncontrolled pain:
- Increased risk for anxiety and depression
- Thoughts of suicide
- Decreased mobility and ability to work
- Poor eating and nutrition
- Diminished independence
- Increased dependence on addictive substances
- Overall feeling of poor health
- Worsening of other chronic conditions
- Inadequate sleep or sleep disturbances
Treating your acute or chronic pain protects every aspect of your health and helps improve your outlook on life in general.
What types of problems can effective pain management improve?
A personalized pain management plan could help improve your chronic pain if you have:
- Headaches or migraines
- Back or neck pain
- Arthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Sports injuries
- Stress injuries
- Muscle strain or injury
- Neuropathy or nerve damage
- Pelvic or menstrual pain
Your provider develops a personalized pain management plan that includes a range of holistic treatments to relieve your chronic pain.
What are the treatment options for effective pain management?
A holistic approach to effective pain management involves using a range of treatments to help treat not just your pain, but the underlying cause as well. Treatments options may include:
- Nutritional support
- Oral medications
- Steroid injections
- Stress management
- Specialty referrals
- Manual manipulation therapy
- Behavioral therapy referral
- Hormone therapy
Alternative therapies like acupuncture, aqua massage therapy, massage therapy, and physical therapy may also help relieve your pain or help you manage your pain better.
For a consultation and personalized pain management plan, call or schedule an appointment online with Rimma Gelbert Medical PC today.
