Today, the military utilizes treatments such as acupuncture to help wounded soldiers tolerate chronic pain. NPR news featured the militarily health care systems ongoing changes towards more conservative treatments such as acupuncture and chiropractic care and away from their former approach “a pill for every ill” was announced. Sgt. Rick Remalia, who broke his back, hip, and pelvis in Afghanistan, said “acupuncture is the first treatment that has really made a difference.” Arizona Pain Specialists is honored to have a working relationship with Phoenix department of Veteran Affairs helping this country’s injured servicemen.
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Preventing Back Pain: 10 Ways to Protect Your Back
Back pain is one of the most common ailments encountered by US physicians and causes of job-related disability and missed work, costing Americans more than $50 billion per year on diagnosis and treatment2.
Common causes of back pain include degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis, muscle strain, mechanical problems such as a herniated disc, soft tissue injury and vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis2. Rare, but more serious, causes include cancer, infection, vascular problems and damage to nervous tissues.
Often the best treatment for back pain is prevention; below are the top 10 methods for protecting the back from injury and preventing pain.
8 Signs You Need to Visit Your Pain Physician
Pain is an unpleasant sensation produced by the nervous system. There are different types of pain, such as sharp or dull, localized or widespread, acute or chronic.
While acute pain is a transient sensation designed to warn a person of potential injury, chronic pain is persistent. With chronic pain, signals in the nervous system continue to fire for weeks, months, even years[1]. Chronic pain may occur long after the initial injury or infection that initiated it, or may arise from a prolonged disease such as arthritis or cancer. Some people even experience chronic pain in the absence of any tangible cause. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain from damage to nerves or the central nervous system), and painful disorders such as fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome. A person may have two or more co-existing chronic pain conditions[2].
5 Reasons to Visit your Chiropractor
There are many good reasons to seek chiropractic care. Our top five?
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Preventing Neck Injury: 5 Ways to Protect Your Neck
Neck pain can occur with injury to any of the structures in the neck, including bones, muscles, nerves, ligaments, and the inter-vertebral discs that stabilize and support the spine1. The most common neck injuries include2:
- Strains, or tears of muscles and tendons
- Fractures, or broken cervical (neck) vertebrae
- Spasms, or tight contractions of neck muscles
- Stingers, or injuries of the nerves between the neck and the arm causing numbness, weakness and tingling
Neck injuries are often minor, but can be serious if there is a fracture or spinal cord damage2. These are the top five methods for protecting the neck from injury:
