Are you on the lookout for lower back pain treatment options that can ease your pain? It can be difficult to find ones that really work. Some of them give you relief, but only for a short time. Others never give you any relief at all. Still others actually leave you feeling worse. If you need help trying to figure out which lower back pain treatment options will work best for you, that is where we come in.

What Lower Back Pain Treatment Options Are Out There?

When you struggle with lower back pain, it may not seem like there are any effective lower back pain treatments out there. However, there are many to choose from. You can always start off with medications, but those can make it to where you become dependent. There is always the option of surgery, but again, that has some serious side effects that may come with it. Physical therapy is a great option when you have chronic lower back pain. However, it is not always effective. It depends on what caused your pain in the first place. Each option you have is going to have an upside and a downside to it, for the most part.

Manipulation Can Help Treat Lower Back Pain

For most people, manipulation is the most effective lower back pain treatment option. It gives you a lot of relief, when you continue with the therapy. This type of treatment includes things like chiropractic adjustments and massage. Both of these options can bring about a significant amount of relief on their own. However, when you put them together, they can be even more effective. By putting the elements of your spine back into proper alignment, it can reduce both pain and pressure. This can then reduce your chronic pain, and allow you to go back to living the life you know and love.

Exercise is an Effective Lower Back Pain Treatment Option

One of the more effective parts of physical therapy that can give you relief are the exercises taught to you. They teach you how to move your body the right way to not only alleviate your old pain, but also to avoid new pain. The movements allow your body to heal, and adjust itself so that your problematic posture does not hinder your ability to function moving forward.

When your back hurts, your posture suffers. That is just natural for managing the pain. However, when you start to treat the pain, you must also correct the posture. If you neglect to correct that problem, the pain will continue into the future despite the treatment. Getting a lower back pain treatment that also adjusts and improves this problem can improve your pain now and in the future as well.

On top of physical therapy exercises, natural exercise to tone the body and lose weight can also help. When your back hurts, having extra weight can exacerbate the problem. Plus, if you do not have a strong core of muscles, your entire body can struggle with pain. By strengthening your core and building up your muscles, your joints are stronger. Your balance, flexibility, and mobility also improve. This can help reduce, or even eliminate all of your lower back pain.

There Are Alternative Therapies That Also Work as Lower Back Pain Treatment Options

You also have other lower back pain treatment options you may not be aware of. Outside of medication, surgery, manipulation, physical therapy, and exercise, you also have what many people tout as a great way to reduce and alleviate back pain. It is called Scrambler Therapy. It is a safe and effective method for not only treating lower back pain, but also helping your body learn to better understand pain signals.

When your body sends signals around, they are like messages. These messages have to go through the nerves around your body. When a message passes through, it can change slightly if the nerve is not working properly. Think of it like the old telephone game. By the time the message gets delivered, it may not be the same as when it was sent. Scrambler Therapy allows your body to recalibrate itself in a sense. It helps to teach your body what the signals were supposed to say in the first place. This can help your brain understand what parts of your body actually hurt, and what parts of your body need something else to feel better. It can help your body begin to recognize real pain signals, and ones that just show up saying you hurt.

When you decide that you no longer want to struggle with your back pain, you have options. Reach out to us here at the Pain Care Clinic of Idaho now, by calling (208) 629-2492. Let us know what type of pain you struggle with, and we can help you decide which lower back pain treatment options can help most.

Have you been thinking about getting electrocutaneous treatment for pain in your body? If so, then you should know there are many benefits of getting this type of treatment. It can help relieve pain that is new, along with pain that may have sidelined your life for an extended period of time. Your body can begin the healing process right away, giving you quality of life back. Finding the right place to turn for electrocutaneous treatment is important. They need to understand where your pain comes from in order to help it go away.

What Exactly Is Electrocutaneous Treatment?

Electrocutaneous treatment is a form of treatment on the skin to help your body properly interpret pain signals. It involves electrical stimulation on different parts of your body. The intention is to stimulate the nerves to send signals that your mind and nervous system can translate. Sometimes, the body registers pain when there isn’t any. This is often called neuropathy. It tells your body that something hurts, when in fact, it may not be pain that your body experiences. Instead, it could be nerve problems that lead to a tingling, burning, itching, or similar feeling.

When the body gets sent these signals, it sometimes processes them as pain. By using electrocutaneous treatment, you can often get it to interpret the signals better. This lets your central nervous system work with your mind and realize that what your body is feeling is in fact, not pain. It can begin to register the feelings of burning, itching, or tingling instead. The stimulation goes near where the pain is felt by the patient. However, the stimulation does not go on the location that hurts directly. Instead, it is put on a healthier part of the body so that the signals are clear.

What Types of Electrocutaneous Treatment is Out There as Options?

Many people refer to this type of treatment as electrocutaneous treatment, but it also goes by many other names. You may find options for treatment under names like temporal stimulation, electrocutaneous stimulation, and vibratory stimulation. They are all basically the same type of therapy. They all use electrical pulses, or vibrations, to stimulate the body cutaneously, or by means of the skin. However, the effect they get differs based on the technology used.

Scrambler Therapy is a Promising Form of Electrocutaneous Treatment

One of the most promising forms of electrocutaneous treatment is called Scrambler Therapy. It is a specific type of therapy that is working well for patients with many types of neuropathy. Researchers originally started using Scrambler Therapy to help peoplestruggling with chemotherapy induced neuropathy. They noticed many people got significant levels of relief from this process. Since that initial research, it now helps with many types of neuropathy, not just that caused by chemo. It also helps neuropathy stemming from things like diabetes and injury.

Scrambler Therapy helps to train the brain. When you have signals traveling through the body along the same paths where pain signals travel, your brain automatically takes the messages and processes them as pain. However, they are not always pain messages. What Scrambler Therapy has the ability to do is retrain the brain to recognize those signals properly. Instead of reading each signal as pain, it begins to decode each message slowly and carefully. The brain begins to recognize signals for tingling, numbness, and other similar signals. This way, your brain begins to remember what actual pain is, and what other sensations are.

Benefits of Getting Electrocutaneous Treatment

When you go through and get electrocutaneous treatment, your body can begin feeling better. Instead of your brain always telling you that you are in pain, you have the opportunity to feel more normal. Pain can cause your life to become much more difficult. By having less pain to battle each day, life becomes easier. When people lose quality of life to pain, depression often follows quickly. By alleviating pain from your day, it allows you to feel more hopeful and happier.

When you take life back, it helps you feel empowered. It helps you to realize that pain does not need to dictate your life. Make the choice of what you want to do with your future instead of letting pain choose. Something as simple as getting electrocutaneous treatment can give you the ability to do things your pain once took away. Reach out and find out what benefits you may get from this therapy, based on your specific conditions.

When it comes time to getting past pain, one of the best options you have is electrocutaneous treatment. Contact us here at the Pain Care Clinic of Idaho and let us help. You can reach us by calling (208) 629-2492. Let us see if electrocutaneous treatment would be the best way of relieving your pain and giving you back your life.

Oncologic pain is pain that is related to a person’s cancer. Many times this pain can be severe and at times debilitating. Many oncologic pains can be treated so that the patient does not have to suffer and can live as comfortably as possible.

What Causes Oncologic Pain

Oncologic pain is caused by the cancer itself. Typically a tumor pressing on a nerve, organ, or bone is to blame. The type and severity of pain depends on the type of cancer as well as what stage it is. Other times the pain is caused by cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy. This type of pain can result in numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. Some pains can also be normal aches and pains, like headaches or muscle strains.

Types of Oncologic Pain

There are different types of oncologic pain that range in severity as well as location. A cancer patient may only experience one type or multiple types of pain.

Acute Oncologic Pain

Acute oncologic pain is usually the result of some type of injury. It lasts until the injury goes away which in some cases can be a long time.

Chronic Oncologic Pain

Chronic pain can last a long time, sometimes months or years. It can be mild or it can be severe. It can also limit what a patient can do on a daily basis as well as be debilitating.

Breakthrough Oncologic Pain

This pain may be the most frustrating for patients because it happens despite the fact that the pain is being treated. As the name suggests, it “breaks through” any relief a patient is receiving from medication or other treatments. It can’t be predicted and can range in severity.

Oncologic pain can affect different parts of the body which can also determine how it is treated.

Nerve Pain

Oncologic pain can put pressure on the spinal cord and the nerves. When this happens, a patient may feel numb or get a tingling feeling. Sometimes patients also have trouble moving when they have nerve pain.

Bone Pain

Bone pain is sometimes referred to as somatic pain. Cancer can spread into the bone and damage the bone tissue. This pain can be dull or throbbing.

Soft Tissue Pain

This type of pain is felt from an organ or muscle. It is also referred to as visceral pain. It can be extremely severe causing cramping, aching, or throbbing.

Phantom Pain

This pain is pain felt from a body part that is no longer there. Often times breast cancer patients who undergo a mastectomy get phantom pains. Most times phantom pains go away within a few months, but they can last up to a year.

Treating Oncologic Pain

Treating oncologic pain is about managing the pain effectively for the patient. The type of treatment will depend on the patient and the level of pain. Here are the most typical ways oncologic pain is treated:

Over-the-counter pain relievers: This can be anything from Tylenol to Motrin, or ibuprofen.
Weak opioids: These require a doctor’s prescription. An example of such medication is one that contains codeine.
Strong opioids: These also must be ordered from a doctor and can include morphine, oxycodone, and methadone, among others.
Therapy. Besides medication, there are other forms of treatment and therapies that may be used. The Pain Care Clinic of Idaho can help you determine which ones are best for you needs.

Depending on the pain level, some patients may opt for more intense pain management treatments. These can include:

• Surgery. If nerve pain is the source, a neurosurgeon may cut the nerves to stop the pain. When this is done, the patient will have no feeling and become dumb. This surgery is delicate in nature and should be discussed with a doctor thoroughly so a patient understands all of the risks.
• Nerve Block. This is not as intense as surgery but is still serious in nature. During this procedure, a numbing drug combined with a steroid is injected around the nerve to stop the pain. It’s important to note that a nerve block can cause muscle paralysis.
• Epidural. Pain medicine is injected into the areas around the spine, similar to when a pregnant woman receives an epidural during labor. Some patients end up getting pumps implanted so pain medicine can be distributed around the nerves.

In order to accurately treat oncologic pain, patients should track the pain and its severity levels. Keeping a log of pain triggers and length of pain as well as pain location can help doctors determine which type of treatment is best.

For more information on how to deal with oncologic pain, contact the Pain Care Clinic of Idaho at (208) 629-2492. Let their team of experts help you determine what treatments can help to ease your pain.

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Sources:

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/pain/facts-about-cancer-pain.html

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/coping/physically/cancer-and-pain-control/causes-and-types

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/in-depth/cancer-pain/art-20045118?pg=2

For those suffering from neuropathy, staying active can become a challenge. By understanding the condition and its triggers you can learn what exercises and movements are still safe and effective.

What is neuropathy?

Neuropathy is a condition that occurs when your nerves become damaged. It’s estimated that neuropathy affects a little over two percent of the general population and about eight percent of those 55 and older. Neuropathy affects the peripheral nervous system that is in charge of things like voluntary muscle movement, involuntary organ activity, and sensory nerves. When these nerves become damaged, it can cause pain as well as difficulty moving.

What causes neuropathy?

Neuropathy can either be acquired by birth or can develop later in life due to another illness or condition. The neurological disorder Charcot-Marie Tooth disease is the most common form of inherited neuropathy. It affects 1 in every 2,500 people in the United States.

For those who develop neuropathy later in life, there are several conditions that may be to blame. These include:

• Diabetes
• Kidney Disorders
• Chemical Imbalances due to liver diseases
• Alcohol Abuse
• Blood diseases and blood vessel damage
• Vitamin deficiencies (specifically E, B1, B6, B12, and Niacin)
• Physical trauma

Other medical conditions like HIV, Shingles, and Lyme Disease can also lead to neuropathy.

Of all of the possible causes, diabetes is the most common. High blood sugar can injure nerves throughout your body. For diabetics, this is usually seen in the legs and feet. In order to avoid developing neuropathy if you’re a diabetic it’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and remain active.

What are the symptoms of neuropathy?

The symptoms of neuropathy will vary depending on which nerves are affected. When the peripheral nerves are affected symptoms can include:

• Numbness
• Inability to feel pain or temperature changes
• Muscle weakness
• Loss of balance
• Increased sensitivity to touch
• Loss of balance, coordination, and reflexes

If a patient is experiencing neuropathy within the automated nervous system other problems may arise such as:

• Bladder control issues
• Difficulty swallowing
• Increased heart rate when you’re resting
• Stomach issues (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, bloating)

When neuropathy affects the nerves in the lower body (thighs, legs, buttocks) patients may experience sudden or severe pains in those areas as well as weak muscles and weight loss.

If only a specific nerve is involved, symptoms can include:

• Difficulty focusing
• Partial paralysis on one side of the face
• Pain in the chest, abdomen, thigh

Is there a cure for neuropathy?

Some forms of neuropathy can be cured; each case is different. But for the most part it’s about pain management and therapy. Receiving care from the Pain Care Clinic of Idahocan help if you are experiencing some of the many symptoms of neuropathy. Professionals can help pinpoint a specific therapy that will help you deal with your neuropathy issues. Other treatments can include pain medications and cream. In many cases symptoms will lessen but may not completely go away. It’s best to talk to your doctor to determine the best line of treatment for your specific case.

How can I stay active with neuropathy?

One of the best ways to treat neuropathy is to try to remain active. While you may think it is virtually impossible to keep moving through the pain, there are exercises you can do that will help.

Seated exercises with weights

Sit in a sturdy chair or on a balance ball. Choose a pair of hand-held weights that is challenging but manageable. From here you can do arm raises, bicep curls, or any other movement you’d like with the weights while staying seated.

Find the right cardio active

An appropriate cardio active can be anything from walking to swimming depending on what you feel comfortable doing. Some people enjoy water activities because of the soothing benefits of water therapy. A stationary bike indoors is also a popular activity for some with neuropathy.

Flexibility exercises

Ask your doctor about simple stretches you can do at home to keep your joints flexible. A yoga class may also be a possibility if that interests you.

Balance exercises

Maintaining balance can be difficult for those with neuropathy. Doing balance exercises regularly can improve balance and stability.

Non-weight bearing exercises are usually most recommended for those with neuropathy. Always consult with your doctor before beginning any form of exercise. Also be sure to have the proper footwear. Not doing so can lead to foot problems for those with neuropathy.

Why should I stay active with neuropathy?

It is extremely important to stay active with neuropathy to improve muscle strength. Exercising regularly can help with heart issues and increase blood flow. Keeping active can also help maintain appropriate glucose levels. Since most neuropathy cases are attributed to diabetes, keeping an eye on glucose levels is crucial. Anything that can be done to keep them at an appropriate level can help with neuropathy and other diabetic issues.

For more information on how to deal with neuropathy, contact the Pain Care Clinic of Idaho at (208) 629-2492. Let their team of experts help you determine what treatments can help to ease your pain.

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Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetic-neuropathy/symptoms-causes/syc-20371580

https://www.everydayhealth.com/neuropathy/guide/

https://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/everyday-fitness/how-can-i-stay-active-with-neuropathy/

https://www.foundationforpn.org/living-well/lifestyle/exercise-and-physical-therapy/#aerobic

https://neuropathysupportnetwork.org/faq-about-neuropathy/