Acute injuries and illnesses can cause excruciating pain, but once the underlying problem goes away, so does the discomfort. Chronic conditions, however, never go away entirely despite the best possible medical care -- they either cause recurrence after recurrence or create a lingering "background" of pain and other symptoms. In these cases, the treatment strategy shifts to emphasize pain management, controlling the symptoms as thoroughly as possible so patients can enjoy a higher quality of life.
Here at Pine Chiropractic Center of Pompano Beach, we can accomplish this by employing natural, non-addictive, non-invasive pain management techniques. Chronic pain causes problems beyond the pain itself. Many sufferers become deeply depressed, adding to their overall disability. Others feel they have no choice but to mask their pain with powerful drugs.
But the drugs provide only a temporary respite -- and in the process, they may cause addiction, impair coordination and judgment, or interact dangerously with other medications. Our Pompano Beach chiropractor, Dr. Pine, has helped many patients cope with chronic pain without the potential risks and problems associated with painkilling medications. The key to our success is the fact that chiropractic adjustment can relieve nerve impingement and muscle stress, two principal issues in chronic pain.
For example, age-related flattening of the vertebral discs can cause the discs to move out of position, pressing painfully against major spinal nerve roots to cause neck pain or back pain. A series of chiropractic adjustments can relieve spinal compression long enough for the discs to return to their normal position. This can provide with you an extended period of pain relief. Of course, since stenosis is a chronic condition, the pain is likely to recur -- at which point we perform another series of adjustments to relieve the pain again.
This kind of pain management protocol can help patients enjoy their daily lives more fully without resorting to drugs. It's worth noting that a chronic condition need not count as a "back problem" to make your life miserable. Any condition that disturbs normal nerve function can aggravate your pain. For example, the headaches, muscle knots and other agonies associated with fibromyalgia may occur due an abnormal hypersensitivity to nerve signals.
