Showing posts with label chronic pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chronic pain. Show all posts

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Suffering In Silence May Lead To Chronic Pain


The military is a place where strength and determination are the core values. In a culture that relies on persistence under adversity, acknowledgement of pain is a sign of weakness. That is why many soldiers experiencing post traumatic stress disorder and depression prefer to suffer in silence.

Veterans coming from a war assignment definitely have horrible memories of their survival. The sounds of explosions and gunfire, as well as the shrieks of friends and enemies alike may linger in their ears for a long period of time. Scenes of shooting and people dying may continue to haunt them even long after the dead bodies have been buried.

Suffering in silence can only compound the problem. The trauma of war can cause severe stress and anxiety and may lead to other serious medical conditions. Experts associate PTSD to a life of chronic pain. They usually experience severe headaches and anxiety attacks. Without proper treatment, these invisible aching wounds of war can ruin not only the soldier's life, but also the lives of the people around him. And since pain and depression usually go hand in hand, both conditions need to be treated at the same time.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Make Grooming And Hygiene Easier For Arthritis Patients

Living with chronic pain is not a breeze, but you can make it a lot more bearable if you have the following tools, gadgets, and even amenities to make daily function easier.

Definitely, people suffering from arthritis will find it hard to move around, and yet they would prefer some amount of privacy during private moments such as taking a bath. Here are a few suggestions on how to take care of your personal hygiene and grooming when there is no one around to provide help:

Equipped the bathroom with long-handled brushes or sponges to scrub hard-to-reach body parts.

Provide shower benches, not only for you to sit on, but to navigate getting into and out of the bathtub more conveniently.

Place non-skid rubber bathmats on the floor as well as grab bars to avoid accidents and easier navigation.

Install lever-type faucets instead of knobs for easier handling. A shower spray with hose attachment can make rinsing a lot easier.

For those who have difficulty bending down, a raised toilet seat can do the trick.

Author: Ramon Bravante


Monday, February 8, 2010

Take The Pressure Off Your Back


You don't have to experience a bad fall or meet an unexpected car accident for you to injure your back. Even ordinary household chores like lifting heavy furnitures can traumatized the muscles and joints in your back, enough to cause injuries that bring about back pain.

When you use your back muscles in conducting activities that you don't usually do, chances are, the muscles get strained, the ligaments are sprained, and some of the spine discs may slipped from its original place. The latter usually occurs when you twist while lifting heavy objects. Slipped disc or herniated disc is a serious injury and can be very painful. It may also warrant a surgery in severe cases.

To relieve common back pain, the following methods may be applied:

  • With your back lying on a solid and flat surface, say on the floor, rest your head on a pillow and place another one under the knees.

  • Another variation is to use a chair where you can rest your legs on the chair with the pillow. This position will also keep your hips and legs bent on right angles.

Both positions can help take the pressure and weight off your back.

Author: Ramon Bravante

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Advent Of Pain Management

Patients suffering from chronic pain used to have very limited options when it comes to treatments of their condition. Recently however, advances in medical technology paved the way for the availability of more treatment options that respond to the many special needs of patients suffering from chronic pain.

Since most chronic pain cases have no known cure yet, the medical community created a new field of specialization called pain management which focuses on different ways to handle the condition. Pain specialists work hand in hand with physical therapists, nurses, and mental health professionals. Medical Consultation services are done real-time through our advanced medical portal which provides clients with electronic medical records and the technology to connect our members to our doctors instantly.

Since chronic pain has various causes, not one treatment works best for everyone. That is why pain specialists undergo advanced and extensive trainings in diagnosis and rehabilitation of the patients suffering from the condition. They are aware that pain may change over time. Chances are, treatments that proved effective in providing relief in the past may no longer work well or may even cause unusual side effects.

Author: Ramon Bravante



Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Crowing About Chronic Pain

If you're suffering from chronic pain, you have so much to crow about. A life of chronic pain is not easy. It interferes with daily function such as walking, playing, working, or even the ability to take care of one's self. And once depression, anxiety, stress, and anger set in, these can make the pain even worse. These negative emotions can reduce the body's natural painkillers and may increase the body's sensitivity to pain.

The origins of chronic pain may be any of the following injury: sports injuries, back injuries, or car accidents. Or it could also be caused by health conditions such as migraines, diabetes, arthritis, shingles, and cancer.

However, there are cases when there is no obvious cause of the chronic pain, no trauma or injury people can point to as a source of their chronic pain problem. And this can be very frustrating for both patients and their doctors.

It’s a good thing that today’s pain specialists have effective treatments to provide pain relief. These advances have emerged in the past several years, as researchers have gained a greater understanding of chronic pain and how it develops.


Author: Ramon Bravante