Acute Injuries To The Neck And Back Sometimes Result In Chronic Pain

Americans spend more than $50 billion each year on low back pain alone. It is the most common cause of job-related disability and the second most common cause of all disability as documented by the CDC* (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Only disability due to arthritis or rheumatism is more common. Heart trouble at number three follows.

Most of these injuries to the neck and back will be quickly forgotten and are of no more significance than a twisted ankle. Some, however, will result in a residual mechanical dysfunction that eventually leads to matters more serious. To make it simple, imagine for a moment that you forcibly hit the curb with the front tire of your car, an acute injury to the wheel, if you will. If you were lucky there may be no damage at all, simply a scary bump and you drive on your merry way, the impact soon forgotten. But, hit the curb a bit harder, at a less favorable angle, and you can bend the wheel or twist a support strut. Now what happens? Well, initially it steers a little funny, but you tell yourself it doesn't. You tell yourself that maybe it was always that way - the car is, after all, no longer new. You tell yourself that it is not really that bad and you can learn to live with it. You tell yourself that others likely have cars that pull to one side or the other too, especially on bumpy roads. Eventually, of course, you'll notice that the tire is going bald. This makes it really hard to steer, especially in the rain. Mechanical dysfunctions gradually get worse and sooner or later bald tires go flat so that you are un-able to drive the car. Likewise, degenerating discs eventually result in a dis-ability.

Disabled Is Usually Reserved To Describe Someone Who Is Not Able To Work

That day can be postponed by doing less and less which is really no different than driving your car less and less. Perhaps a steering problem would be easier to tolerate at a lower speed and if you only drove on sunny days, never in the rain. If you had a car like this would you learn to live with it? If you were unable to stand or walk or sit due to back pain or neck pain what would you call it? "Un-able", "not-able", and "dis-abled" are quite similar although disabled is usually reserved to describe someone who is not able to work and thus unable to earn a living.

Wear and tear in the wheel world results in a bald tire that eventually goes flat and leaves you stranded on the side of the road. Wear and tear in the neck and back world results in degenerative joint disease or degenerative disc disease that gradually results in a lesser and lesser ability to do the things you need to do, and to do the things you love to do. Tires and wheels can be fixed, you don't have to learn to live with it. Finally, modern medical science has a non-surgical solution to neck pain and back pain that actually works too - non-surgical spinal decompression. You no longer have to learn to live with it.

DATA SOURCE*

Data were collected in June-September 2005 by U.S. Census Bureau using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP); CDC and the U.S. Census Bureau analyzed the most recent data and released their findings in May 2009.

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/dsAdultDisabilityCauses/

CDC. Prevalence and Most Common Causes of Disability Among Adults --- United States, 2005. MMWR 58(16); 421-426.

Dr. Michael L. Hall, D.C. was originally trained as a chiropractor. He practices at Triangle Disc Care in Raleigh, North Carolina specializing in Spinal Decompression for the treatment of acute and chronic neck pain and back pain due to herniated, degenerated discs.

For more information click on http://www.triangledisc.com/decompression.php or email office@triangledisc.com. Type "Free eBook - 101 Things I Need to Know about my Bad Back" into the subject line.

Endorphins Vs Chronic Pain

It seems to me that there are many people who would benefit by utilizing the endorphin/serotonin way of alleviating chronic pain, whether it has been cast upon us by osteoarthritis or pain developed from a sports or job injury. Or consider pain from your lower back, or fibromyalgia or shingles. No matter where it comes from it tends to become chronic or long lasting and has affected far too many people for comfort: The American Pain Foundation states that this is a complicated state to be in and it has downed 42 - 50 million Americans and only 58 percent of these are helped by a thoughtful prescription of pain killing drugs. Chronic pain has a psychological as well as a biological effect. We know the biology of pain, which tells us that an aberrant nerve impulse will hammer the brain in search for tissue damage that may or may not have ever existed, continuing to call that pain to our attention: In addition, a person with chronic pain can experience a negative or positive reaction which dictates who survives the pain and who caves in under it.

Sometimes pain elicits negative emotions and other times the emotions cause the pain. It is very important to treat chronic pain in all its aspects because when we are experiencing it, there is nothing that can surpass it. So, why can't we think, "Endorphin Boost", when pain is calling the shots? The brain chemicals, the endorphins, improve your pain resistance and your outlook on life. We know that not only does exercise increase the levels of endorphins that come naturally, and assists the pain reducing molecules, it lowers stress, depression, and therefore, pain. And while all this is going on, Serotonin has a leading part in changing our bad moods for good and pleasant ones: high stress increases our perception of pain.

Exercise, while lowering our perception of pain does more than that: it contributes pain reducing effects by strengthening muscles which help in preventing injury that creates more pain. Exercise will help you keep your weight down, lessen your risk for heart disease, and keep blood sugar under control. The stretches I have in mind are for painful knees: Hamstring Stretch, Knee to Chest, Calf Stretch, Straight Leg Raises. Try these exercises slowly at first and ramping up the numbers as you progress, keeping your body and mind open to changes that might indicate a " high" or pain reduction.

At the present time I wonder if my questions are a little farther out than contemporary research covers. How much pain relief can a person receive from endorphins stimulated by exercise? I see that "runner's high" has been documented by a study that claims that euphoria, a floating feeling, as if your feet are not touching the ground, a perception that the runner could continue on, even after the workout is over, without pain or struggle. This study was limited to the role of endorphins on the runner, but the speculation is that more studies may uncover a variety of brain chemicals namely dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline and others that work together to produce an euphoric feeling and to reveal how these chemicals effect pain reduction. The studies may also ask how much exercise and what intensity does it take to produce pain relief. Another question would be "How long does it last?" So, at least we know that we can achieve a "high" by exercising intensely for a 2 hour period, but look to the near future for better news on pain reduction by exercise. Also, I would not hesitate to say that there are substances in our bodies that, know it or not, are working for our good.