Chronic Pain Relief Methods

For chronic pain that lasts for more than three months, the core relief programs that have been jointly verified by domestic and foreign clinical guidelines to be effective can be divided into four categories: daily behavior adjustment, non-drug intervention, standardized drug treatment, and invasive treatment. There is no universal "optimal solution" and it needs to be used in combination with the type of pain and individual tolerance. Common methods such as "cutting off the root in seven days" and "relieving pain with one trick" spread online have no clear evidence-based medical basis.

I am not saying this out of thin air. I have been following patients in the pain department for more than half a year and I have seen too many patients who have taken detours. The one who impressed me the most was a 42-year-old freight driver who had suffered from lumbar disc herniation and chronic low back pain for nearly 6 years. He had saved half a drawer of special effects plasters, bone-setting folk prescriptions, and plasters. The skin on my waist was ulcerated and I was still struggling with it. Finally, I adjusted the height of my lumbar support when driving and used extracorporeal shock wave therapy twice a week. In less than two months, the pain dropped from 8 out of 10 to 2. Now I can run long distances without having to stiffen my waist to the point of being unable to straighten up.

Interestingly, practitioners in different fields have very different preferences for exercise interventions. Most modern rehabilitation doctors will recommend more targeted movements such as McKenzie therapy and core stability training, which are suitable for young patients with good sports foundation. I have contacted several Internet practitioners in their 20s who have been sitting for a long time and have lumbar prolapse. After practicing with the video for about 3 weeks, most of the soreness after sitting for a long time can be eliminated. ； Doctors in the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology of Traditional Chinese Medicine prefer low-intensity guided movements such as Baduanjin and Wuqinxi, which are much more friendly to elderly patients with weak muscle strength and are less likely to cause secondary strains due to improper movements. There is no difference between the two programs, but they are suitable for different groups of people.

As for whether physical factor treatments such as shock wave, medium frequency, and infrared are IQ taxes that people often ask, it actually depends on the situation. If you have pain from soft tissues such as myofasciitis or muscle strain, you can basically see significant improvement after 3-5 shock waves. There used to be a little girl who worked in design. She suffered from shoulder and neck fasciitis pain for more than a year. She spent more than 20,000 yuan on essential oil massage and bone setting at an Internet celebrity physical therapy center. The more she massaged, the more swelling she got. Later, she went to the hospital and had 4 shock waves, 15 minutes each time. The total cost was less than 1,000, and she no longer hurt when she raised her head and turned her head. But if you suffer from neuropathic pain such as post-herpetic pain or trigeminal neuralgia, these projects are basically useless and are a waste of money.

Many people have a strong prejudice against the use of medication for chronic pain. They always think that "medicines are only three parts poisonous" and "taking painkillers will make you addicted." They refuse to take medication even when they suffer from insomnia and anxiety. In fact, chronic pain is now administered in a step-by-step manner. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as celecoxib for mild pain, as long as you follow the doctor's instructions and take them according to the dosage, the probability of addiction is almost negligible. On the contrary, taking them will sensitize the pain center, and the pain will become more and more frequent and severe in the future. Of course, many researchers in pain psychology have pointed out that almost 30% of chronic pain is directly related to emotions. If you only take medicine without emotional counseling, the probability of recurrence after stopping the medicine is very high. I used to have an aunt with trigeminal neuralgia. It was well controlled by taking medicine, but she had a fight with her daughter-in-law and was hospitalized because of the pain.

By the way, don’t just believe what is said on the Internet: “If it hurts, apply heat” or “Rub it if it hurts.” These are really not universal rules. In the acute stage of gout, try applying hot compresses. It will only aggravate the redness and swelling and make you jump in pain. ； There are also patients with lumbar protrusion in the stage of nerve root edema. If they undergo heavy-handed bone-setting massage, the nerve may be directly pressed, and surgery will eventually be required to solve the problem. I have seen many such cases in the outpatient clinic.

In fact, if you come into contact with more patients, you will find that for most chronic pain patients, pursuing "no pain at all" will make them more anxious. It is more important to find a rhythm of peaceful coexistence with pain. There used to be a girl born in 1995 who suffered from fibromyalgia. Now she drinks a cup of warm milk every morning and practices stretching for 10 minutes. If the pain is severe, she takes half a painkiller. On weekends, she and her friends still go hiking and shopping. She doesn’t take the pain as a big deal at all, and her life is more comfortable than many people who are not sick. To put it bluntly, the best method is what suits you.