Can writing replace surgery in treating chronic pain? One orthopedic spine surgeon believes it can.
1 in 5 US adults suffer from chronic painis defined as pain that persists for 12 weeks or more despite medication or treatment.
It is the largest cause of disability and disease burden globally.
Chronic pain can have an obvious cause, like long-term illnesses such as arthritis or cancer. Trauma can also cause chronic pain.
Also, it may not be easy to identify the cause.
People with chronic pain describe pain in many ways, including pain, burning, rashes, pressure, stiffness, stinging, or throbbing.
It often leads to other symptoms and conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, insomnia, and mood swings.
Pain is the main reason people go to the doctor, but with only a handful of pain treatments available, many do not get enough pain relief.
Although effective for acute pain, opioids are ineffective in many pain states and pose a significant risk of addiction.
One expert said, “The data do show that there is a 40% to 60% chance that chronic pain will get worse if you have surgery without treating it.”
He thinks there are better ways to treat it.
Dr. Hanscom is an orthopedic spine surgeon and believes that doctors should treat chronic pain by treating the underlying cause, such as sleep deprivation.
“40% of Americans are not sleeping. Not enough Lack of sleep actually causes chronic back pain, causes it. It causes chronic pain,” he explains Hanscom.
He also believes in a technique called expressive writing, where he writes down his thoughts and then tears them apart.
This method is a kind of meditation. It helps disconnect people from negative thoughts that stress the body and cause pain.
Hanscom reports, “Within 4 to 6 weeks of people starting speed reading, we expect sleep to begin to improve and symptoms to decrease dramatically.”
Several experts say What you eat also helps.
research revealed turmericcloves, capsaicin, ginger, and fish oil can all improve chronic pain.
In fact, one study at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that more than half of the patients with neck and back pain who participated were able to stop taking prescription pain relievers after taking fish oil supplements for 75 days.
Essential oils can also help with chronic pain.
A study from South Korea was found eucalyptus oil Reduces pain, swelling and inflammation in post-knee replacement patients.
long-term initiatives to end addiction, or NIH Heal Initiative, As part of that, we want to find effective, non-addictive pain treatments. New clinical research program.
Funded by NIH Early Pain Research Clinical Network is a $50 million nationwide web of 12 pain research programs that works to quickly and efficiently conduct multisite, concurrent research studies to evaluate a variety of pain treatments.
It tests not only drug therapies, but also entirely new approaches such as surgical interventions, devices, and even cell-based therapies. There may be.