Pain is more than a source of discomfort as it affects your overall feeling. Pain can also affect your mental condition causing anxiety and depression. Your doctors can determine your overall health depending on the amount of pain you experience. If you are experiencing such, a Matawan pain management specialist is ready to help you. The provider will offer you a variety of treatment options to choose from. Why suffer when there is a solution!
How does pain affect the body?
Pain is an integral part of evolution that protects the body from any harm and danger. Your body has pain receptors linked to two major types of nerves that sense danger. One nerve spreads messages slowly, causing throbbing, dull pain. The other nerve spreads messages quickly, causing sharp pain.
Some areas in the body, like skin, have more receptors than others. The skin is easy to detect the type of pain and its exact location. There are few receptors located in the guts, so it is hard to see a stomach ache’s precise location.
The skin receptors are activated by contacting something dangerous; these nerves alert the spine and then to the thalamus, a part of the brain. In some cases, the range sends an immediate alert back to the muscles to make them contract, moving the affected part of the body away from the source of harm. This happens before you feel pain and is a reflex reaction preventing the occurrence of further damage.
When the message reaches the thalamus, it figures out the nerves’ information, considering the previous beliefs, culture, experience, expectations, and social norms. This explains why people’s response to pain is different.
Types of pain
Neuropathic pain
Neuropathic pain is combined with disease or injury of the nerve tissue. People experience this pain when they have sciatica, shingles, lumbar radiculopathy, or diabetic neuropathy. Neuropathic pain can also be described as prickling, shooting, burning, and stabbing pain with hypersensitivity to touch.
When you have neuropathic pain, it can be painful making a gentle movement or a very light touch. Medication has a vital role to play in managing neuropathic pain, mainly if the pain is acute.
Chronic and acute pain
Acute pain comes suddenly and has a limited period. It is usually caused by damage to tissue like muscle, bone, or organs, accompanied by emotional distress or anxiety.
Chronic pain has a longer duration than acute pain and usually is resistant to medical treatment. It is generally associated with illnesses, such as osteoarthritis. Chronic pain can result in damaged tissue, but it contributes to nerve damage more often.
Both chronic and acute pain can be devastating, and they can be affected or affect a person’s state of mind. The nature of chronic pain makes people prone to anxiety and depression. Similarly, psychological distress can cause pain.
You should not allow pain to hinder you from doing your daily activities. There are several ways of relieving pain from any part of the body. What you have to do is seek medical attention from trained doctors, and life continues smoothly. NJ Spine and Wellness Center has all treatment options you may need ranging from conservative to aggressive techniques. Book an appointment today and get a pain management solution.
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