The Main Goal of Pain Management

Pain management is all about treating pain safely and effectively in a way that helps patients find relief. That sounds simple enough, but the devil is in the details! 

Suffering from ongoing, problematic pain often significantly affects your quality of life. Pain may be caused by an existing illness or injury or may have no known cause. Whatever it is, the experts of pain management in the Woodlands got you covered. They can help you ease your pain, concurrently boosting your quality of life in the ways discussed below. Read on!

Physical therapy

Physical therapy can be very useful in treating many painful conditions, particularly arthritis and injuries of muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Physical therapists are trained to help patients in ways that range from the simple — helping you to walk without a cane or crutch — to the complex — helping you recover from a stroke.

Therapists work by using a combination of exercise, heat, cold, ultrasound, and electrical stimulation to reduce pain and stiffness in your joints. They can also guide you in minimizing your risk of injury and strain while performing normal daily tasks.

A physical therapist can help you get back to your normal life quickly and safely if you have musculoskeletal pain. And if you have chronic pain that cannot be treated surgically, physical therapy is an excellent choice for pain management.

Massage Therapy

Massage therapy is a great way to manage your pain. It could be just the thing for you if you’re looking for a natural, drug-free approach.

Massage is one of the oldest healing arts. The ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks are known to have practiced it. Today, most people rely on a variety of massage therapy options to treat various illnesses. In the U.S, massage therapy makes up the (CAM) complementary and alternative medicine, although it does have some conventional uses.

Other than relieving pain, massage therapy can help in the following ways;

• Relieve muscle tension and stiffness
• Reduce emotional and physical stress
• Pump oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs

Dietary changes

If you want to control pain, you need to control inflammation. And that means changing your diet. Inflammation is a normal part of the healing process, but it can get out of hand, and that’s when the pain begins. There are two ways to address this:

• A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants helps reduce the production of inflammatory chemicals in the body. You can get plenty of these by eating cold-water fish (such as salmon) and lots of green, leafy vegetables.
• Some foods, such as sugar and refined carbohydrates, are also converted into inflammatory chemicals. Cutting back on these will help reduce inflammation as well.

Exercise 

Movement is important for relieving pain for several reasons:

• It increases blood flow, which carries with it more oxygen and nutrients to help heal injured tissue. 
• It helps relax tight muscles that can be pinched nerves and cause pain in other parts of the body (for 1example, if your neck hurts, it could be caused by tight chest muscles). 

Finally, pain management is a medical specialty that uses an interdisciplinary approach for easing suffering and improving the quality of life of those living with chronic pain. Some common ways to manage pain include medication, physical therapy, electrical stimulation, complementary treatments like meditation or acupuncture, and surgery. Get in touch with experts in pain management in Woodlands for help.