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Pathway of Pain

Learn what is causing your pain

Two Types of Pain

Acute Pain – Typically lasts less than 3 to 6 months or pain that is directly related to soft tissue damage.

Chronic Pain – Any pain that lasts for more than three months. The pain can become progressively worse and reoccur intermittently, outlasting the usual healing process.

The Pathway of Pain

As your body deals with a prolonged, unresolved injury, it loses the ability to effectively manage pain. As pain progresses, our options become limited, and many feel they are left in a hopeless state of pain and discomfort with no way out.

Understanding the root cause of pain and all the treatments available to you can make the difference between risking surgery and becoming dependent on painkillers or being able to live a natural pain-free life.

Injury: hurt, damage, or loss sustained

There are two types of injury:

Traumatic – which involves tissues being bruised, broken, torn, or damaged as a result of a physiologic overload to a specific area of the body.

Overuse – which involves tissues being irritated, inflamed and painful as a result of a repetitive physiologic overload to a specific area of the body.

After the injury the body’s first step to healing is the Inflammatory Response; it ultimately increases blood flow to the injured area, bringing much-needed oxygen and nutrient, essential for healing and regenerating. Problem areas such as your joints, ligaments, and cartilage have limited blood flow, making it difficult for them to heal.

Recovery: the act of regaining or returning toward a normal or healthy state

In many ways, the way you recover from treatment can be as important as the treatment itself. You are at risk of scarring after surgery, especially if you are in your later years, which is often the cause of postoperative pain. This can result in further surgery or dependence on painkillers to mask the pain.

What Is Your Goal?

What results are you expecting from your treatment?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself and your doctor when deciding on a treatment.

How long will I remain in pain if the treatment?

Am I treating the root cause of my pain or only the symptoms?
Will my pain permanently go away with this treatment?
What about rebound pain?

Can this treatment actually make my condition chronic?

What is the recovery time with this procedure?
Are there less aggressive, less invasive procedures that have been proven to be equally or more effective than this treatment?

Healing: the process of getting well

Besides the natural deterioration of your body’s ability to heal itself, there are other factors that can prevent you from healing properly.

A Disabling Injury impairs a person’s ability to perform day-to-day tasks and often shut people off from loved ones and activities they once enjoyed. This can be temporary or permanent. In some cases an injury can be so extreme that evasive actions, such as surgery, need to be made.

Inflammation supports the healing process, but sometimes it can be too much. Overwhelming inflammation over an extended period of time can lead to chronic pain from swelling, and shrinking of muscles surrounding the joint from under use.

If left untreated soft tissue can become less pliable and makes you more susceptible to further injury. Too much inflammation can also cause poor blood circulation to the injured area. This means your body is not getting the oxygen and nutrients it needs to heal. Oxygen is the most critical nutrient for energy production and healing. Without it, cells simply cannot repair.

Pain at any level can be stressful, but chronic pain sufferers often feel cut off from the rest of the world. Studies have shown that depression and stress can have an impact on your ability to heal.

Treatment: the action or manner of treating a patient medically or surgically

Knowing all the treatments available to you will allow you to make the best decisions for your body on your path to wellness.

Depending on the severity of your injury there are inexpensive and natural ways to treat your pain permanently and often help you avoid surgery, such as RenuO2. These natural therapies assist the body in healing the root cause of your pain, instead of masking the problem.

For catastrophic injuries, surgery may be your best option. It is then important to consider our recovery. Not healing properly after surgery can cause more harm than intended, resulting in the never-ending cycle of chronic pain.