Chronic Pain Suffering, The Real Crisis

The media and government have brought to light the massive problem we have with opiates in the US.

It’s rightfully being called the biggest drug crisis we have ever faced in the US, Arkansas, Texas, and Texarkana.

I agree, however, in order to do something about it we have to understand why it’s occurring.

It’s not occurring because MDs are trying to create an Army of people addicted to narcotics.

It’s not even because the pharmaceutical companies are evil, greedy businesses… well that could be true to some extent (lol).

Here’s the real problem… we as a nation are experiencing a lot of pain.

More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain at a cost of around $600 billion a year in medical treatments and lost productivity, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

This dwarfs any other health problem in our country and our town of Texarkana and like so many other problems… it’s getting worse.

Let’s say you are one of the millions of Americans that are suffering with chronic pain.

You are following the general approach used to help reduce your pain…

• It likely started with taking over the counter pain relievers,
• maybe using some topical pain reliever you put on your skin,
• followed by trips to your family doctor where you are prescribed various prescription pain relievers and often muscle relaxers to help reduce your symptom of pain,
• commonly you end up taking stronger pain relievers over time to help reduce your symptom of pain,
• occasionally a pain sufferer is referred to physical therapy,
• most people end up seeing various medical specialists as the their symptoms continue… this may include orthopedists, neurosurgeons, physiatrists, pain management specialists, rheumatologists, and more.
• many end up taking narcotic pain relievers in an attempt to control their pain,
• some people end up having surgery or maybe multiple surgeries.

It’s not that any of these treatments are ‘bad.’

Every treatment has a place.

Ideally though a treatment is meant to get a person better and not cause new problems or a complete reliance on the treatment for the rest of your life… especially if the longer the treatment continues, the higher the potential for serious side effects and problems.

The problem is that too many people are ending up on the bottom of the above scenario, taking opiate pain relievers, and still suffering every day.

The problem is that this approach to treating people suffering with pain isn’t working.

It often doesn’t address the cause of pain.

We, as a nation, focus on treating a symptom (pain).

Pain is complex.

If it begins as a soft tissue injury (a lot of pain starts with this) due to a sudden trauma or an ongoing repetitive stress – then the right treatment can often prevent chronic pain from ever occurring.

If chronic pain exists, then it’s important to look at the entire neuro-musculoskeletal system with a physical exam followed by treatment to correct the problem areas.

Taking medication doesn’t really change many of these physical problems.

This is the domain of chiropractic.

Let me point out a simple observation when looking at the above scenario on how a person ends up suffering every day with chronic pain…

At what point does the MD recommend trying Chiropractic Care?

The truth is that most people that could be helped are never referred to a Chiropractor by their family doctor or specialist.

This is generally because most MDs don’t know enough about Chiropractic to refer.

This is why the FDA strongly recommended last year that MDs learn more about Chiropractic Care.

I strongly recommend taking control of your care and seeing a Chiropractor if you are suffering with a recent injury or with chronic pain.

We need to change how we approach treating injuries, pain, and chronic pain.

The standard care for you and for millions of others clearly isn’t working.

If it were, we would not have so many Americans, so many Texarkana area residents, suffering with chronic pain that is interfering with their ability to enjoy life and perform the daily activities that they want to perform, that they need to perform every day.

If you’re in the Texarkana area and are suffering from pain, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, arthritis, disc problems, TMJ pain… you can probably get better regardless of what you’ve been told.

The first step is to change your current path by contacting our Texarkana office so you can see for yourself that there really is an alternative.