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Chronic Pain Explained
Tags: chronic pain, chronic pain causes, chronic pain management, chronic pain relief, chronic pain symptoms, chronic pain treatment, physical therapist Prescott, Prescott physical therapy
Chronic pain affects 116 million Americans each year. Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting more than three months. From a biological standpoint, injured tissues heal within three to six months so pain lasting longer than this is usually not due to a structural issue or tissue injury. It’s usually due to the nervous system (brain and spinal cord) becoming too sensitive and overactive. This is the reason pain medication and surgery often times do not fully resolve chronic pain. How do you treat chronic pain then? Education and movement. People with chronic pain need to understand that it’s multifaceted and includes psychological and social influences. If people with chronic pain understand this and stop focusing on what tissue (disc, joint, nerve, etc.) they think is to blame and start focusing on improving their activity level, chronic pain often decreases. Below is a great video from a pain science group out of Australia. It’s only five minutes long and does an excellent job of summarizing chronic pain and what it is.