Pain can be broken down into two categories: acute pain, such as a cut on the leg, a tension headache, or a bone fracture, and chronic pain, pain which lasts longer and can be more serious. Let’s take a look at the major differences between the two.
Acute pain is normal pain that lets the body know it’s been hurt. For example, breaking a leg, banging an elbow into a door, or putting a hand on a hot plate and feeling the burn are all considered good pain because the body is announcing that an injury has occurred.
Acute pain starts suddenly and usually doesn’t last long. When the injury heals, the pain stops. For example, a broken leg will hurt during recovery but will get better as time goes on.
With chronic pain, the pain itself actually becomes a disease. When the injury heals and the patient continues having pain beyond the time of expected recovery, that’s chronic pain.
Chronic pain lasts for weeks, months, and even years. Generally, it’s diagnosed after three to six months of pain. In some cases, the pain comes and goes. With chronic pain, one’s nervous system is sometimes altered, making it more sensitive to pain. As a result, painful sensations might feel more severe and last longer.
In some cases, certain chronic diseases cause chronic pain. Arthritis, for example, and cancer, diabetes, and fibromyalgia are other diseases that can cause continuing pain
Unfortunately, doctors cannot always find the cause of chronic pain. In a minority of cases, the cause is unclear. Patients should talk to their doctor about their pain if the pain lasts longer than reasonably expected. Some guidelines have defined “chronic pain” as pain that lasts longer than 3-6 months, but whenever pain lasts longer than reasonably expected, it’s crucial to treat it to keep it from worsening into chronic pain. An example of this would be a small cut or burn which normally wouldn’t cause pain after a month; if it does, a doctor should be called rather than waiting for three months.
People with disorders that cause chronic pain should also talk to their doctors about treatments that provide relief or help them to cope with pain. Treatments include pain relievers and other medications, acupuncture, biofeedback, relaxation training, hypnosis, distraction techniques, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. With this last method, patients use a TENS device to pass a mild electrical current through the skin to reduce pain.
Most patients with pain don’t need to see a pain specialist, but if the pain lasts much longer than expected, or a primary care doctor or specialist hasn’t been able to treat the chronic pain satisfactorily, asking for a referral to a pain specialist may help.
Patients should go to a physician specifically trained in pain so they’ll receive a medical exam to diagnose their problem, as well as proper pain management. Typically, these pain specialists come from the fields of neurology, anesthesia, psychiatry, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Then they undergo additional training in pain medicine.
People generally have some issues with the specific hypermobility knee exercises that are currently out there. They either don’t work or they yield very little results. This is largely due to the simple fact that the current treatment around exercises for those with hypermobility, are built on a false premise and simply do not take into account the nuances that come with this population.
The gold standard at the moment for hypermobile knee exercises, and indeed any exercise for those with hypermobility, seems to be the old “build muscle around the joint to help stabilise it” approach.
This old outdated approach that has seen many hypermobile people simply lose interest in, after seeing it return such little results, comes with 2 main issues. Issues that most people don’t really talk about.
Building muscle requires sufficient load and consistency to do so. How is anyone with unstable joints supposed to use such load required to build muscle and not get injured?
Muscle gains are slow. If we use women as an example, and whilst ensuring that training and diet are on point, we could expect to see around a 10lb gain in muscle mass over the course of a year. However, there are no studies that follow muscle gain in those with hypermobility. So how much muscle are we supposed to add to create stable joints: 5lb, 25lb? and how are we supposed to even add muscle tissue when we can’t handle the load required to build muscles in the first place?
There are also other issues, such as why do women with high muscle mass still dislocate, whilst others with less muscle mass dislocate less?
The current treatment seems to fall apart somewhat when we start to question it. No wonder this current treatment has caused so much distress and gaslighting to those with hypermobility when it doesn’t even make any sense. We have seen so many people in the studio who have all reported the same thing, they did their physio, it didn’t work, and they were blamed for not trying hard enough.
Many people have used many different forms of exercise to help stabilises hypermobile knees, and whilst we often see swimming or hydrotherapy as a form of great exercise, please remember there are issues with these.
We live on land and we need to be able to deal with the various forces that enact upon us. Whilst swimming can be a great form of cardiovascular exercise, it is not doing a great deal in the form of stabilising our joints, and it takes away the loading forces that will help up in the long run, which can decondition us further.
There is also an issue with the use of hydrotherapy, those 39-degree waters will vasodilate our blood vessels, forcing our hearts to work harder to pump blood around, as well as causing blood pooling, potentially making us dizzy and faint. Which is not want we want when we are in a large body of water.
Load is a crucial part of stabilising joints, however, it needs to be the right form of load. Open chain exercises such as the leg extension machine you would find at any gym, are a good example of bad load, putting large leverage forces through tissue, which those of us with hypermobility can not properly handle(yet).
A good hypermobile knee exercise needs to be transferable to everyday life, meaning the benefits of it cross over to other movements and other activities.
There seems to be much demand for a simple and effective hypermobility knee exercise. So, below you can find one of our favourite hypermobility knee exercises, which is aimed at helping those with hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, by addressing some of the real issues that need to be addressed.
Keep in mind, that a large problem with hypermobility exercises, in general, is that individuals tend to have trouble contracting the right tissues or even feeling the muscle they are exercising in the first place. This is why a tactile cue, used with a closed chain exercise, is a great way to train the tissue and your brain, in an exercise that is transferable to everyday life.
For this type of exercise, it is far better to use time, rather than sets and repetitions. You can start off performing this exercise for up to 1 minute twice per day, and spend the next 3 weeks trying to get up to a total of 4 minutes.
Believe it or not, chemotherapy drugs can actually be used to treat arthritis. Most people assume these drugs are for cancer treatments only, but that is not the case. The doses of medication used for rheumatic or autoimmune conditions are lower than the doses used for cancer treatment. While the pain management specialists at Chronicillness.co Site of United States is not able to administer this treatment at this time, we are always at the forefront of pain management, and can help you look into this treatment if you are interested.
In many rheumatic diseases, inflammation causes damage to parts of the body, such as what happens to the joints in rheumatoid arthritis. In most cases, inflammation results from autoimmunity, a malfunction of the immune system in which a person’s own tissues or organs are mistakenly attacked by the body’s immune system.
Chemotherapy slows cell reproduction and decreases certain products made by these cells, and therefore may help people with certain inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Because of the suppressive effect of chemotherapy on autoimmunity, these drugs are sometimes called immunosuppressive drugs.
There are quite a few chemotherapy drugs on the market, but only three are widely used in treating rheumatic diseases today. They are Methotrexate (Rheumatrex), Azathioprine (Imuran), and Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan).
Methotrexate is the chemotherapeutic drug most widely used by rheumatologists. It’s widely used for two main reasons; it is effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis and certain other rheumatic diseases (especially polymyositis and certain types of vasculitis or inflammation of blood vessels), and it is relatively safe. Most patients are able to take methotrexate by mouth in a single, weekly dose, although some patients prefer to take it as an injection once a week.
Azathioprine has been used for many years as an immunosuppressive drug to prevent rejection in patients receiving kidney transplants. It is also used to suppress the abnormal immune response in some patients with vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vasculitis. However, patients should be aware that azathioprine has been linked to lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes.
Cyclophosphamide is considerably more powerful and toxic than methotrexate and azathioprine. It is used to treat the most aggressive and dangerous rheumatic diseases, such as severe lupus and some forms of vasculitis. This drug directly attacks rapidly reproducing cells such as those in the immune system. Resting cells, that are not multiplying, can be affected if there is enough drug present. It is taken either by mouth or by injection.
Side effects of chemotherapy drugs are common, even though the doses are typically lower than the doses used to treat cancer. All of these drugs can suppress the formation of blood cells, resulting in anemia (low red blood cell count), leukopenia/neutropenia (low white blood cell count that may cause decreased resistance to infection), and thrombocytopenia (low platelet count that may cause impaired blood clotting).
In addition to those side effects, methotrexate and azathioprine can damage the liver, and cyclophosphamide can damage the urinary bladder lining and cause bleeding or cancer in the bladder lining. Cyclophosphamide also causes hair loss and sterility while methotrexate and cyclophosphamide can damage the lungs.
Patients should remember that no drug is entirely safe, and it’s best to talk to one’s rheumatologist about the possible benefits of these drugs, as well as their side effects. The occurrence of side effects depends on the dose, type of medication, and length of treatment.
It is very important to have the appropriate follow-up exams and laboratory testing while taking chemotherapy drugs, as careful monitoring can minimize all of these risks.
Headaches are one of the hallmark symptoms of living with Fibromyalgia. Headaches can be debilitating and make everyday life seem almost impossible. But what is a Fibromyalgia headache and is the mystery surrounding them accurate?
It’s no secret that many of our new Fibromyalgia clients, both online and in studio, suffer headaches that disrupt their daily life. By the end of a programmed their headaches are either completely gone or reduced so much they’re almost unnoticeable. There is one key part of a programmed that all of our Fibromyalgia clients must go through; Understanding what Fibro is, but more importantly, what Fibro is not!
Take a look at the Fibromyalgia recovery stories we regularly post to our page and many will say the same thing: the programme is hard! But not in the way you might think. Let’s take an inside look at how our clients get rid of their headaches and how they get their Fibromyalgia success stories.
One important thing to realize when it comes to Fibromyalgia headaches is that Fibromyalgia does not cause headaches, for one simple reason: Fibromyalgia is not a clear cut pathology.
Fibromyalgia is a culturally adopted label that we use to describe a common set of symptoms that appear together. Hence the name Fibromyalgia “Syndrome”. A syndrome being a group of symptoms. In my opinion, as a Fibromyalgia specialist, the hardest part of any recovery is objectively looking at our own understanding of Fibro and our circumstances. It is incredibly difficult to change our understanding when there is so much information available that states the contrary. This bad info usually comes from Doctors, Physiotherapists and other reputable healthcare professionals. Throw Google in the mix and the outlook on Fibromyalgia can be a gloomy one.
It is incredibly easy to believe information that is freely available but is not actually correct. For example, have you heard of the following?
Goldfish have a 3-5 second memory? (Not true!)
Bulls are angered by the colour Red (Bulls don’t have the colour receptors to see Red)
The evil queen from Snow White…what does she say to the mirror on the wall? (Go ahead Google it, it ain’t “mirror mirror on the wall”)
Keep in mind that until very recently (1967) women were not allowed to enter Marathons as it was thought their wombs would fall out! It is no different with Fibromyalgia. There is an abundance of really bad info which simply is not correct. The first step of a programme involves breaking down the Fibro label. When you understand what Fibro is, the whole process becomes so much easier. So let’s take a look and prepare for some against the grain advice and support…
Fibromyalgia is a culturally adopted label for a set of symptoms with no known cause. It is usually diagnosed via a process of elimination. Once all of the “red flag” nasties have been ruled out, a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia is given and we’re put in a box and forgotten about. Been there, done it, got the T-shirt! We are then left to fumble in the dark without any understanding of what’s happening or hope of getting better.
Sound familiar?
Many of our previous and current clients experience the same thing. So bearing in mind Fibromyalgia has no pathological cause (no blood markers, no imaging findings, no sample findings, no diet findings.) Can there be headaches caused by Fibro?
The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD) do not recognise Fibro as a cause of headaches.
And this is where most people struggle. The headaches and pain are very real. I’ve personally had pain dismissed as “all in your head” with the age-old advice of “try some meditation or Yoga.” If it was that easy none of us would need help. If we can change our understanding of Fibromyalgia from a disease to a syndrome we stand a much better chance of recovery.
So what is a syndrome? Well, it’s a common set of symptoms that group together with no known cause. Some common Fibromyalgia symptoms are:
If you can change your outlook on Fibro, then recovery is possible. If not, people enter a never ending cycle of trying all kinds of different treatments then accepting life as it is. At this point, things only get worse. Please don’t be one of those people!
A few paragraphs back I mentioned NICE & ICHD do not recognise Fibromyalgia as a cause of headaches. Having worked with the Fibromyalgia community for several years now, I’ve noticed there are several types of headaches that are prevalent and also recognised by the ICHD. These are:
A very common scenario we see in studio or online is people suffering from one of the above headaches which have been passed off as a “Fibro headache.” This can pose a lot of problems, the main one being you will not receive the proper care for your headaches if they are simply passed off as being caused by Fibromyalgia.
It comes as no surprise that if you are in pain, stressed out, and unable to partake in the life you want to live, headaches are most likely going to occur. Let’s look at the cold hard facts of the common headaches we see frequently.
The sensation of tightness or pressure across the forehead or on the sides and back of the head
Tenderness in the scalp, neck and shoulder muscles
A Tension-type headache is a diagnosis of exclusion, a catch-all term used to describe a headache that isn’t a migraine. It is a pretty vague term.
Whilst the etiology of TTH is thought to be multifactorial, involving genetic and environmental factors, the most common theory supports a heightened sensitivity to pain in people who have tension-type headaches. Increased muscle tenderness, a common symptom of tension-type headaches, may result from a sensitised pain system. Hmmm…. sounds a lot like the people diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, doesn’t it? When diagnosed with Fibro, moving can be an absolute nightmare. The threat of a flare-up can all but make us a hermit. This lack of movement and a sensitised system may be a large contributing factor in causing tension-type headaches. We know that stress and anxiety naturally cause us to tighten up which throws further fuel on the fire.
Fibromyalgia headaches can also come with a cocktail of meds. GABA drugs, amitriptyline drugs and opioids like Tramadol amongst others like Codeine/Morphine. Starting a course of these drugs can cause horrific headaches and cognitive impairment (brain fog). Do you feel like a zombie after taking Tramadol or Pregabalin? I certainly did and I was still in pain! Getting off meds is just as bad.
Probably the most guilty of this are the GABA drugs; Pregabalin and Gabapentin. A little known fact about these drugs which shocks a lot of our clients (it may shock you too!) is they are primarily used an anti-epileptic drug. In other words, they dampen activity in the brain. Check out the NHS & BNF descriptions of Pregabalin and see for yourself its uses and side effects (Spoiler; It’s headaches amongst other nasty stuff) No wonder we feel like a zombie!
The secondary use is for nerve pain. So if you’re an epileptic with nerve pain, this is the drug for you. If you suffer from chronic pain, this drug is may contribute to the problems of brain fog and headaches. When our clients lay their Foundationsand start to see results, we then start to have them dose down their meds with their doctor when they realise it’s doing them no favours.
Migraines are another common finding with Fibro. Some people have true migraines, others have a lacklustre diagnosis after seeing a GP several times with previous headaches. You may then be prescribed a drug like Amitriptyline or Sumotriptan and left to it. If these drugs help your headaches, then it is likely that you are suffering from a true migraine. However, if they don’t, they may be contributing further to your headaches. These drugs are also guilty of causing incredible jaw stiffness, which can further add to the tension-type headache described earlier. Diagnosing migraines is a difficult business.
Any good Doctor will give you a headache diary and compare it to the diagnostic criteria to come to the conclusion of a migraine. If you were given a migraine diagnosis after presenting with a headache, I’d consider reconsidering! It may be a simple fix and save you years of angst.
Another guilty party when deciphering the headache puzzle is the dehydration headache. It seems so simple and is often the first call to action when addressing headaches….How much water do you drink? Not orange juice, tea, coffee or pop, but clear tap or bottled water? For many, the answer will be incredibly low. Sometimes our brain needs to bathe in the liquid gold which is water. Ever had a hangover and a stinking headache? It takes time for it to go away and plenty of fluids.
Our NHS suggests we drink 6-8 glasses per day. That’s often a big ask for even the most active person. But I would trade off not having a headache for needing to pee any day of the week.
When we look at the paragraphs above one thing is clear: Fibromyalgia does not cause headaches: because it’s a word and a label.
People experience headaches for a variety of reasons. The reason headaches are so prevalent in those with Fibromyalgia is likely from the various biological, psychological and social stresses that come with being in pain. From a career of helping people with Fibromyalgia, I can tell you that headaches do not go until all of these stressors are either eliminated or mediated.
It can be hard to follow the advice that is against the grain. Our clients are always tedious when it comes to headaches as they can be one of the worst experiences of chronic pain. It’s not easy to read and accept that Fibro is a culturally adopted label. You may have spent years being told it is an incurable disease and this is life now.
If you trust me on anything it should be this; Fibromyalgia doesn’t need to be your life. We post recovery stories on a regular basis of people just like you. People with debilitating pain, headaches and mobility problems. The only difference between you and them is the context in which chronic pain is viewed. For those that realise recovery is possible, it’s just around the corner.
We’re on a personal mission to lift the veil on Fibromyalgia and Fibromyalgia treatment. What we do has been shrouded in mystery for years but now we’re finally being recognised as the cultural authority on Fibromyalgia treatment and we want to help as many people as possible.
We’ve all been there and taking the plunge is scary. But it’s worth it.
Sciatica refers to pain, weakness, numbness, and/or tingling in the leg and it is caused by injury to or pressure on the sciatic nerve.
The sciatic nerve starts in the lower spine and runs down the back of each leg. Not only does it control the muscles of the back of the knee and lower leg, but it also provides sensation to the back of the thigh, the sole of the foot, and part of the lower leg. When there is pressure or damage to the sciatic nerve, sciatica occurs.
The most common causes of sciatica include pelvic injury or fracture, tumors, herniated discs, and piriformis syndrome (a pain disorder involving the narrow muscle in the buttocks).
When a herniated disc presses on nerve roots, it can cause pain, numbness, and weakness in the area of the body where the nerve travels. A herniated disc in the lower back can cause pain and numbness in the buttock and down the leg. Sciatica is the most common symptom of a herniated disc in the low back.
If a herniated disc is not pressing on a nerve, patients may have a backache or no pain at all.
Sciatica pain tends to vary from patient to patient. Some may feel a mild tingling, dull ache, or burning sensation, but in more severe cases, the pain is sometimes intense enough that a patient is unable to move. Though it usually only affects one side of the lower body, patients occasionally experience pain on both sides.
Symptoms of sciatica are burning or tingling down the leg, pain in the rear of the leg that is worse when sitting, shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand, and weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving the leg or foot. Pain may also extend to the foot or toes depending on where the nerve is affected.
Pain can also start slowly and get worse after standing or sitting for long periods of time, at night, when patients sneeze, cough, or laugh, and when patients bend backward or walk more than a few yards (this most often occurs with spinal stenosis patients).
After sciatica is diagnosed by a pain management specialist, the next step is determining and treating the underlying cause because sciatica is a symptom of another medical condition. In certain cases, recovery occurs on its own and no treatment is required.
The main objective of sciatica treatment is to calm the symptoms and reduce inflammation. Applying heat or ice to the painful area is a good idea, as well as taking over-the-counter pain medications such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) or acetaminophen (Tylenol). Patients should reduce their activity for several days, though bed rest is not recommended. Also, avoid heavy lifting or twisting of the back for the first six weeks after the pain begins.
If patients still feel pain, injections to reduce inflammation around the nerve may have to be given. Other prescription medications may also be prescribed, along with physical therapy exercises. Since nerve pain is typically difficult to treat, patients may want to see a neurologist or a pain specialist.
Lower back pain is a common problem among people suffering from chronic pain, and while upper back pain is not a very common spinal disorder, it can cause significant discomfort and pain when it does occur. The most common causes of upper back pain are muscular irritation (myofascial pain) and joint dysfunction.
While there can sometimes be an injury to a disc in the upper back (such as a thoracic herniated disc or degenerated disc) that causes severe upper back pain, such injuries are usually very rare.
The reason why upper back pain is so rare is that the thoracic spine (also called upper back, middle back, or mid-back) is very different in form and function than the cervical spine (neck) or the lumbar spine (lower back). The neck and lower back are designed to provide us with mobility, but the thoracic spine is designed to be very strong and stable to allow us to stand upright and protect the vital internal organs in the chest. Because this section of the spinal column has a great deal of stability and only limited movement, there is generally little risk of injury or degeneration over time in the upper back.
Because there is little motion and a great deal of stability throughout the upper back (thoracic spine), this section of the spine does not tend to develop common spinal disorders, such as a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, or spinal instability. These conditions can cause upper back pain but are exceedingly rare in the upper back.
Because of this stability and lack of motion, in most cases, anatomic causes of upper back pain cannot be found, and an MRI scan or CT scan will rarely image an anatomic problem that is amenable to any sort of surgical solution for the upper back pain.
Upper back pain can occur as a result of trauma or sudden injury, or it can occur through strain or poor posture over time. As an example of the latter cause, in recent years, upper back pain has become a familiar complaint from people who work at computers most of the day. Often, upper back pain occurs along with neck pain and/or shoulder pain.
The vast majority of cases of upper back pain are due to one (or both) of the following: muscular irritation (myofascial pain) and joint dysfunction.
The shoulder girdle attaches by large muscles to the scapula (the shoulder blade) and the back of the thoracic rib cage. These large upper back muscles are prone to developing irritation (myofascial pain) that can be painful and difficult to work out.
Often, muscular irritation and upper back pain are due to either de-conditioning (lack of strength) or overuse injuries (such as repetitive motions). Muscle strains, sports injuries, auto accidents, or other injuries can all result in pain from muscular irritation.
The ribs connect with the vertebrae in the thoracic spine by two joints that connect with each side of the spine, and dysfunction in these joints can result in upper back pain.
With so much attention focused on the dangers of opioid painkillers, it’s easy to forget that even “safe” over-the-counter products carry some dangers.
If you don’t think twice about reaching for a pill to relieve aches and pains, especially medicines called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, you need to know about the wide-ranging cautions surrounding their use, especially if you take them on a regular basis and over a long period of time.
NSAIDs can also increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke, even within just the first few weeks of using one, and the risk can rise over time. Your risk for heart issues is greater if you have high blood pressure or heart disease or recently had a heart attack or bypass surgery. Aspirin is the one NSAID this warning doesn’t apply to. However, NSAIDs, including aspirin, can damage the stomach lining and cause gastrointestinal (GI) tract bleeding and ulcers.
Are also taking blood-thinners, steroids or certain other medications
If you’re considering acetaminophen, commonly known by the brand name Tylenol, as an alternative to NSAIDs, know that acetaminophen can also cause severe liver damage, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Like NSAIDs, it’s also in hundreds of other products, so as with all drugs, read medication ingredient labels to avoid taking too much of the same active ingredient and potentially overdosing.
In general, always take the lowest effective dose for the shortest amount of time possible, and only after talking to your doctor if you already have high blood pressure or any other chronic condition.
Methadone is often used in the fight against opioid addiction, but long travel times in rural areas may be hampering efforts to get more people treated, a new study finds.
If methadone for opioid addiction was available in primary care clinics, more people would have better access to treatment, researchers suggest.
In the United States, methadone is only available at clinics certified by the federal government as Opioid Treatment Programs, or OTPs. This restriction, along with state and local laws, limits the number of clinics that offer methadone for opioid addiction.
For the study, researchers looked at drive times to OTPs in rural and urban counties in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. These states are among those hardest hit by the opioid epidemic.
Drive time is important because methadone treatment requires six visits a week to an OTP, the study authors noted.
Except in the largest cities, average drive times to OTPs were longer than to other clinics, the study found.
The average drive time to a methadone clinic was 37 minutes, compared with 16 minutes to other medical clinics and 15 minutes to kidney dialysis centers. In rural areas, the drive time can be close to two hours, the researchers found.
“This study makes clear how poorly accessible methadone is for rural communities harmed by the opioid epidemic,” study author Dr. Paul Joudrey, a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University, said in a university news release.
Joudrey noted that another drug, buprenorphine, is used in primary care settings to treat opioid addiction, but it doesn’t help everyone. Addiction experts recommend that methadone should be available in all communities to improve health and reduce death among people who are addicted to opioids.
The report was published Oct. 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
One of the most common complaints Chronicillness.co Site of United States sees amongst dancers knee pain following an injury. Dancers are hyper-mobile, meaning the joints move in a larger range of motion than normal. Typically, this is desirable for dancers, however, it can cause other body parts to control movements and lead to painful problems. Knee pain is common because dancers are usually back on their feet and performing at high levels following an injury.
At Chronicillness.co Site of United States, our team of board-certified pain specialists helps patients overcome chronic pain every day. With the most advanced treatments and management strategies available, Chronicillness.co Site is the leading pain relief facility in the entire state of the United States. If you or someone you know suffers from knee or thigh pain as a result of a dancing injury, contact Chronicillness.co Site today for a full evaluation.
The knee commonly referred to as the hinge joint, is the largest joint in the human body, responsible for supporting bones, muscles, tendons, cartilage, and ligaments. The knees can bear weight up to four times of a person’s body and are consistently bending, moving, and moving to keep us mobile. For dancers, proper and capable knee function is imperative. If you have suffered an injury from dancing or need to prevent an injury from occurring, please review these 5 common dancing injuries that lead to chronic pain complications if left undertreated.
Adolescent Anterior Knee Pain. The patella, kneecap, is a common place for healthy young athletes to endure pain—especially females. Excessive stress to the knee is common in dancers who are required to train hard. Dancers often go through early growth spurts, which decreases flexibility. Bones grow more rapidly than muscles during this time putting more stress on the kneecap.
Hyperextension.Locking the knee joint or using extreme flexibility to the knee joint often places excess stress on the knee joint and lower leg.
Patellar Misalignment. When the patella slips out of its place, it will generally relocate back. When this happens repeatedly, it can be very painful in the future and lead to dislocation and inflammation.
Meniscus Tears. The “C” shaped cartilage of the knee joint helps protect the femur and tibia from grinding against one another. Landing a high jump, twisting a knee, or other dancing injuries can cause a tear in the meniscus. Range of motion, walking, and gait are affected when this injury occurs.
Osteoarthritis. Inflammation and degeneration of cartilage within the bones of the knee joint cause osteoarthritis. Pain, swelling, and stiffness often result, in limiting capable activities and dance abilities if untreated.
We’ve all had back pain from time to time. Maybe we lifted luggage that was too heavy, held a baby for too long or carried a backpack overloaded with books.
Some aches and pain here and there are normal—ones that tend to go away after you rest or exercise. But millions of Americans have ongoing back pain. It’s the leading cause of disability in people younger than 45, and many factors can cause it.
You shouldn’t be in severe and significant pain for a long time. So, how do you know if your back pain is serious? Read on to find out more.
Here are a few signs that your back pain shouldn’t be taken lightly.
1. You fell. Consider if you’ve had a serious trauma, such as you fell from a height or had a car accident. Even if you’ve had a minor trauma and are over 50, your health care professional will want to talk to you and examine your back pain. When you’re older, falling down even a few steps can cause a fracture. If there is no fracture, you may be told to manage your pain with medicine and physical therapy.
2. You have an ongoing fever. A fever that isn’t responsive to medicine and is accompanied by back pain could be a sign of a serious infection. If it’s an infection, you may be prescribed antibiotics. You may be told to rest and then resume your daily activities once you feel better.
3. You have tingling or numbness. Here, you have a pins-and-needles feeling in your back that won’t go away. It usually means that you have nerve damage or irritation, making it more significant than your typical back pain. You can experience permanent disabilities if you leave this condition untreated. Your health care professional can evaluate you and may order tests to get images of your spine. Treatment depends on your diagnosis.
Vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are the most common fractures in people with osteoporosis, a silent condition that weakens your bones and makes them more susceptible to fractures. VCFs affect about 750,000 people annually, says the National Osteoporosis Foundation. And they affect about one-quarter of postmenopausal women in the United States. The risk of this condition increases with age; about 40 percent of women age 80 and older are affected.
VCFs happen when the bony block or vertebral body in the spine collapses. That can lead to severe pain, deformity and height loss. These fractures happen more commonly in the middle portion of the spine.
Most of the time, a VCF happens without an injury or pain. It can be caused by something as insignificant as a sneeze. One of the first signs of VCF is height loss. Think about whether your adult children seem taller. Do you need to hem pants you’ve worn for years? Are you suddenly unable to reach a shelf? These signs may mean you’ve experienced VCF.
VCFs can be very painful. People who’ve had one VCF are at five times greater risk of having a second one. Risk for death goes up to more than 50 percent a year after a vertebral fracture.
Each broken vertebra raises the risk for another since it changes how weight is balanced on the spine. You’ll experience pain in your back and chest as these muscles have to work more to hold you upright. It gets more difficult to walk. You develop stomach troubles and difficulty breathing. If you do nothing, you may experience disability.
When a fracture leads to a vertebral body collapse of more than 50 percent, there is a risk of segmental instability. Because spinal segments work together, when one segment deteriorates or collapses, it can produce pain and impair daily activities. The instability eventually leads to a quicker degeneration of the spine in the affected area.
Here, the front of the vertebrae will collapse and “wedge” because of a lack of normal vertebral space. Kyphosis leads to a more rounded thoracic spine, which may be referred to as hunchback or dowager’s hump.
If the fracture causes part of the vertebral body to place pressure on the spinal cord, the nerves and spinal cord can be affected. The normal space between the spinal cord and beginning of the spinal canal can be decreased if pieces of the broken vertebral body push into the spinal canal.
The narrowing of the spinal canal due to a VCF can injure the spinal nerves or cause problems later from nerve irritation. The lack of space can also lower the blood and oxygen supply to the spinal cord. This can lead to numbness and pain in the affected nerves. The nerves may lose some of their mobility when the space around them decreases, which can lead to nerve irritation and inflammation. Back pain isn’t par for the course as you get older. If you experience any back pain, make sure to speak with a health care professional about your symptoms.
