Category Archives: Pain Management

There you are, tucked away deep in dreamland. Then it hits. You’re startled awake by excruciating pain in your calf. You can’t move and you don’t know what to do. Calf cramps are the worst. Not only can they wake up in the middle of the night, but that can hit while you’re watching television ...click here to read more

Who couldn’t afford to drop a couple of calories from their daily diet? If you’re snacking on leftover Halloween candy or getting ready to partake in Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts, I’m sure you know exactly what I mean. North Americans overeat. You can see it when you walk down the street, sit down at a ...click here to read more

Think you’re not easily swayed by the opinions of others? A new study might change how you feel about that—and how well your pain medicine works. If you haven’t heard of the “placebo effect,” it means the power of belief. Experiments are often conducted to compare treatments against placebo—sugar pills or fake treatments without healing ...click here to read more

Inflammation is a bit of a buzzword these days. Sometimes it can be a little scary; it’s associated with some of the most common and severe chronic illnesses, yet is also just a fact of life. It can get a little bit confusing to say the least. Most simply, inflammation is your body’s natural immune ...click here to read more

When lower back pain hits, the impact is real. Limited mobility, debilitating pain, and an inability to enjoy yourself can put severe limitations on your life. But what’s even more frustrating is that the majority of chronic back pain cases don’t have a diagnosable cause and traditional treatments rarely work. What does seem to work, ...click here to read more

For the first time, scientists have found an association between gut bacteria and fibromyalgia. This new research is the first to show that people who suffer from chronic pain have a variation in microbiome composition. Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder that affects two to four percent of the population and has no known cure. It ...click here to read more

It’s hard to say one type of joint pain is worse than the next. It can cripple those who suffer and drastically pick apart a decent quality of life. But there may be no more frustrating pain than when it hits in the wrists or hands. When it becomes impossible or unbearable to button a ...click here to read more

Those who suffer from gout may be twice as likely to also get a diagnosis of chronic pain, according to a new study published in Clinical Rheumatology. The study shows the most frequently diagnosed type of inflammatory arthritis is gout, and it may also represent a correlate of non-flare chronic pain. Gout is a form ...click here to read more

Older adults with chronic lower back pain have less skeletal muscle mass. The study followed 100 participants with chronic lower back pain (CLBP) for at least three months, along with an additional 560 participants without CLBP. Participants were asked to report pain intensity from zero to 10 on a visual analog scale. Skeletal muscle mass ...click here to read more

People with diabetes are more likely to report neck and lower back pain, but it is unclear whether diabetes is the cause. Diabetes was associated with a 35 percent increased risk of reporting back pain in a study of 131,431 people. Neck pain was 24 percent higher risk among a group of 6,560 people. In ...click here to read more

Muscle and joint pain can hinder your exercise efforts. That soreness you feel after an intense workout can prevent future workouts from being as effective, which can stop you from reaching your fitness goals. There are some tips you can utilize to reduce recovery time and optimize future workouts, and by employing these tips, you ...click here to read more

What came first, the chicken or the egg? If you think about that argument, there are valid points to support either side. The same type of argument can also be made when it comes to poor sleep and pain. Does poor sleep contribute to pain, or does living with pain rob you of your sleep? ...click here to read more

Mindfulness meditation may help reduce chronic pain, according to research findings. A recent study found that mindfulness meditation may help lessen the severity and impact that chronic pain has on everyday life, along with improving the distress that chronic pain brings. The researchers suggest that the use of mindfulness meditation is a good alternative for ...click here to read more

Positive self-belief, along with physiotherapy, has been found to reduce shoulder pain. The findings come from the University of East Anglia and the University of Hertfordshire. The researchers looked at over 1,000 patients undergoing physiotherapy for shoulder pain. They found that those who expected physiotherapy to improve their shoulder pain were more likely to recover ...click here to read more