By Gary Dickson
Pain can have a strong impact on a person; so strong in fact that throughout history people have used the infliction of pain or even the threat of it to force others to do what they want them to do or to tell them what they wish to know. Most people have a strong aversion to pain. Unfortunately, there are more than 50 million Americans who deal with chronic pain every day of their life.
The kind of pain produced by torture or from an injury is known as acute pain. With acute pain the cause is generally obvious. In the case of chronic pain, the cause and origin may not be quite as clear. The root cause of chronic pain can emanate from a variety of issues such as diseases including cancer or auto-immune maladies like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Chronic pain can also originate from the very fact that the lifelong wear and tear a person subjects their body to has caused deterioration in certain key areas. Lately, I”ve been dealing with that type of issue. I kept having pain in my left hip and groin. My doctor sent me for an MRI and it showed that I have a disc deterioration problem causing a nerve impingement that is producing the pain.
I”m sure that, with the help of my doctor, I”ll get my pain problem resolved. Unfortunately, some people can”t get or expect relief. It is a permanent fixture in their life. I know people who deal with this type of pain and I am amazed by how well some are able to cope and lead a fairly normal life, while others are basically incapacitated.
According to Dr. Michael Lewandowski, author of “The Chronic Pain Care Workbook,” “Pain is the most common reason Americans seek medical care and is a leading cause of disability in the United States.” Everyone”s tolerance to pain is different. What is disabling to one individual may be only irritating to another because of the pain threshold difference of the two.
One thing that is true for nearly all sufferers of chronic pain is that it wears on them and can cause other physical and mental health issues. People who deal with unrelenting pain often experience nearly constant fatigue or exhaustion. Victims of chronic pain frequently and understandably have more difficulty sleeping, which only exacerbates the fatigue problem.
Some form of depression is a common development for those with chronic pain. It is easy to see why. If a person has lost all optimism that their pain will ever diminish or go away, it only makes sense that they would be susceptible to depression.
In 2008 researchers from Northeastern University reported that long-term chronic pain actually changes a person”s brain. They discovered that in a person dealing with chronic pain an emotion center in the front of the brain is constantly activated. Normally, it turns on and shuts off, depending on what a person is experiencing. The fact that it never shuts down on a chronic pain sufferer causes this area of the brain to “wear out and die prematurely.” The impact on the brain can cause personality changes and issues such as a difficulty to concentrate.
Since the primary reason that people seek medical attention is due to pain, you would think that every physician would be well-trained on treating pain. Dr. Lewandowski claims it is just the opposite. He wrote, “Most medical students don”t take a single course focused on treating pain.”
Since it is thought that about 45 percent of the entire population will seek medical assistance for ongoing pain issues at some point in their life, I would think that every graduate of medical school should have to be well-versed on the latest pain treatment procedures and on the most up-to-date pain medicine regimens to prescribe with careful attention also paid to the potential for addiction to the pain killing drugs. Chronic pain sufferers need more help and hope.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
