10 Oct Why Natural Pain Relief Is Safer
Millions of people suffer from chronic pain due to conditions such as arthritis or injuries. Many seek the help of narcotic pain medications to relieve their pain. However, these pain medications can cause additions and negative effects. The cause of the pain isn’t actually being treated either. Narcotic pain relievers can be addictive the first time they are used. There are non-surgical and natural non-narcotic pain management solutions when it comes to chronic conditions and ailments. Natural solutions mean that your risk for addiction or complications is lower and that you will actually be treating the source of your pain. The most important part of the process is to discover the cause of your pain. Then, we can go from there to customize a plan of rehabilitative services to get you feeling better, healthier, and free of pain.
Narcotic Pain Medication: Worth the Risk?
Studies show that the most common approach for pain management involves prescription painkillers. You may know these by the terms “narcotics”, “opioids” or similar terms. These are medicines prescribed by a physician that can take away pain (even chronic pain), but likely come with side effects. Many options are addictive or prevent the patient from driving or performing properly at work. In fact, narcotic painkillers can disrupt a life just as much as the actual cause of the chronic pain. When it comes to painkiller use, you have to look at the facts and decide if narcotic pain medication use is worth the risk.
So what are some of the facts?
- Studies show that opioids can cause constipation, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, dizziness, weakness, dry mouth, respiratory depression, and even death.
- The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that between 26.4 and 36 million people abuse narcotic painkillers worldwide.
- Opioid abuse has been shown to be a serious worldwide problem that affects the health, economic, and social welfare of entire societies.
- A person can become addicted to painkillers with just the first use.
- Narcotic painkillers generally only mask pain and do not target the actual cause of the problem. They are meant to relieve pain instead of relieving a condition.
- Unintentional overdose of opioids/narcotics is easy to do. Accidental overdoses have quadrupled since 1999 and are still on the rise.
Common Causes of Pain
We see many patients on a daily basis that are suffering from episodic, chronic pain. Some of these patients have been dealing with pain and symptoms for years before coming to us. Many more have tried narcotic pain relief and have found that their pain and symptoms are still there once the medicine wears off. In our many years of practice and experience, we have found that there are many common causes of chronic or episodic pain. Those include:
- Pinched or compressed nerves (especially in the back or neck)
- Nerve damage or defect caused by injuries and common conditions, which is also known as neuropathy
- Spinal injury or compression
- Spinal misalignment, which puts uneven pressure on many points of the body
- Degeneration due to age, lifestyle, or secondary illness (such as arthritis)
- Car accidents, sports injuries, or traumatic events
- Hereditary problems like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and scoliosis
- Bad posture or repetitive motions that strain specific parts of the body
If a traumatic injury from car accidents, sports or other events has caused you an injury, we have physical rehabilitative therapies to help repair the damage that was done. If your problems stems from any of these other causes, you are also in luck. We have soothing, effective therapies to help the majority of pain-related issues.
Natural Pain Relief Is Your Best Option
Reducing or eliminating your daily aches and pains could help you get more out of life. Even the most mundane tasks throughout the day can become impossible if you are in chronic pain. With many, there are also other symptoms besides pain such as neuropathy, numbness or tingling, weakness, muscle spasms, inflammation, and more. We treat each patient by developing a custom rehabilitative plan and trying to find the cause of the pain. For many, adjusting a diet or finding and removing a compressed nerve can take away the episodic pain completely. If you are a patient that has pain, we have a therapy that can help you! We have services such as:
- Chiropractic treatments to realign the spine and joints of the body, which helps to reduce uneven pressure on those joints, the muscles, nerves, and bones.
- Anti-inflammatory joint injections that can reduce swelling, inflammation, and pain.
- Allergy testing, nutritional assessments, and nutritional counseling to correct dietary issues that may be causing your problems.
- Physical therapy services such as vibration exercises, dry needle therapy, and trigger-point therapy to heal injuries, decompress compressed nerves, and help the body be stronger.
- Neuropathy treatments to help bring back feeling to the body and reduce chronic or episodic pain.
Relief for Your Pain
Narcotic pain medications carry some major risks, even if they are effective in the short run. You must remember that many medicines help patients, but many are only treating the symptoms of a condition, not the source. When you choose natural pain relief methods, you can find and treat the actual cause of your pain to relieve it for good. That is why rehabilitative therapies are so amazing! They seek to find the cause of your pain and offer solutions that provide much longer relief than narcotics can. If you are ready to learn about and try natural pain relief solutions, call our Mile High Spine & Pain Center today at (720) 507-0080!