I was recently reading about an extremely rare disorder known as CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis), in which patients are unable to feel pain or sweat properly. For people with this disorder, injury or disease go unnoticed because their brains don’t receive the signals for pain. There are fewer than a hundred cases of this disorder in the United States, and sadly it’s rare for patients with CIPA to live past the age of 25.
This disorder illustrates not only the importance of pain, but also the need to address pain as quickly as possible. In other words, pain is a good thing. It is your body’s way of alerting you that something is wrong so that you can do something about it.
The problem is that many people will continue to live with pain as if it were a normal, everyday part of life. I’ve witnessed countless cases where pain was ignored, and the results are never good. The purpose of pain is to spur you to action, not to remind you repeatedly of an injury for no reason.
Let’s take a closer look at how pain works. First, pain is experienced following an injury or trauma of some sort. Nerve fibers at the source of the injury send pain signals to the brain. This is known as acute pain. Acute pain does not always need to be addressed; we’ve all had some type of accident where the pain simply went away on its own.
Sometimes the cause of pain is significant enough that this acute pain does not subside on its own. These are cases where an injury has occurred that must be addressed before the pain will go away. For example, we can treat back pain with spinal decompression traction, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and/or other pain management techniques.
But what happens if you don’t address the cause of your back pain?
Well, eventually the nerve fibers that transmit acute pain signals to the brain give up hope that you will ever pay attention to them. Pain signals begin to be sent instead by slower nerve fibers. This is the beginning of chronic pain—pain that can be dull, achy, and stubbornly persistent. It can lead to endless sleepless nights, fatigue, a compromised immune system, and even depression.
At our pain management office in Red Bank, we take both acute and chronic pain very seriously. Because of my personal commitment to improving the health (and lives) of our patients, I’ve spent the last fifteen years creating a medical office that includes the healthiest, most effective treatment modalities for pain relief.
Rather than force patients to shuffle from one office to another for medical care, physical therapy, and other forms of rehabilitation, our office includes all of the following treatments for pain relief under one roof in Monmouth County:
- Medical Care for Pain Management;
- Acupuncture;
- Physical Therapy;
- Massage Therapy; and
- Chiropractic Care for Acute and Chronic Pain Sufferers
Chronic Pain Treatment at Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation Center
The body cannot always heal by itself—sometimes it needs your help. Pain sounds the alarm that something is wrong so that you can do something about it. Basically, pain is giving you the opportunity to live the healthiest life possible. We’re here to help; visit our Red Bank, NJ rehabilitation facility today, or contact our Monmouth County pain management office to learn more about our treatment options.
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