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Spinal cord stimulation may help those who have suffered from failed-back-surgery syndrome control their pain.
Adam Voorhes
We are a nation in pain. Sharp, burning, nagging, achy, throbbing, can't-sleep-at-night pain. Some of it is temporary — what docs call "acute" pain — from a hammered thumb, say. Chronic pain, though, not only lasts long after the initial trauma but also transforms our brains and nervous systems into hurt machines, pumping out pain, day after dismal day. The more we learn about pain, however, the more we learn of ways to put an end to it. Here are six ways to take back control.
Strategy No. 1: Don't let it start
As if you needed one more reason to get moving: Research shows that people who exercise as well as those who meditate are less likely to suffer from chronic pain, perhaps because those two activities alter the brain in some protective way.
In fact, researchers at Northwestern University recently found that "the structure of a person's brain may make one more susceptible to chronic pain," says study author A. Vania Apkarian. He envisions that one day, diagnostic brain scans for people in pain will become routine to identify those most at risk. "Early treatment does seem to keep the brain from reorganizing itself into the patterns associated with chronic pain," Apkarian explains. His team is now using brain scans to see which treatments work best for people with particular types of pain. "It's coming," he says. "That's where we're going."
Strategy No. 2: Figure out exactly what type of pain you have
Doctors used to identify pain by its cause — an injury, an illness or an infection — so people would talk about arthritis pain, cancer pain or back pain. Increasingly, though, docs identify pain by the way it affects the nervous system. This is good info to have if you're trying to stop such pain.
Inflammatory pain occurs as the result of a specific trauma, which causes your body to release pro-inflammatory cytokines that stimulate your nervous system and promote healing. This is good, but for some, the inflammatory response never turns off, causing chronic pain.
Dysfunctional pain can be triggered within the brain in the absence of obvious trauma, inflammation or damage to the nervous system. Fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome are common examples of dysfunctional pain.
Neuropathic pain is caused by damage to the nerves themselves, and can be triggered if nerves are cut during surgery; pinched, as with a bulging spinal disk; or targeted by viruses, such as the chicken pox virus, which causes shingles.
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