6 Surprising Chronic Pain Triggers

Chronic pain may continue for weeks, months, or even years and sometimes it occurs without any clear causative diagnosis. This pain may be in the form of joint pain, headaches, neuropathies or muscle pain. The pain may be from the peripheral or the central nervous system. The pain could also be associated with numbness, tingling or weakness.

Obviously, there is always a cause of the pain, even if it is never properly diagnosed. As a chiropractor, I deal with cases of chronic pain on a regular basis. The cause of chronic pain in my opinion usually can be related to some biomechanical problem, stress component or an exposure to chemical toxins, The chronic pain can also be related to excesses or deficiencies. Some of those categories include; diet, sleep, exercise, body weight, oral health, electromagnetic frequencies and genetics.

Chronic Pain Is a Leading Cause of Disability:

Chronic pain, particularly back pain, is a leading cause of disability among Americans, significantly interfering with quality of life and productivity.
When the medical costs and economic costs (disability, lost wages, and lost productivity) are factored in, pain care costs the US health care system up to $635 billion a year!

Pain Pills:

If you are in chronic pain, you just can’t enjoy your life. Being frustrated, broken down and not having a proper diagnosis, many people turn to pain pills for relief. But pain relievers do not get after the cause of the pain, they simply mask them. The side effects of pain relievers, which many believe are their only option for relief, must also be factored in.

Congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians stated that Americans consume 80% of the pain pills in the world, even if Americans only make up about 5% of the world’s population!

Chronic pain can lead to prescription drug abuse and addiction. Opioid painkillers, such as morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl are commonly abused drugs. These drugs are not only addictive, they can lead to slowed breathing and death if too much is taken. The risks are compounded if you add alcohol to the equation.

6 Common Pain Triggers:

1. Emotional Trauma - Few people want to be told that their pain is psychological or emotional in origin, but there’s quite a bit of evidence that backs this up. Increased stress is associated with increased pain.

2. Painkillers - Ironically, the very drugs that many physicians prescribe to treat pain, may end up making your pain worse.

3. Poor Sleep - Poor sleep can impact virtually every aspect of your health. The reason for this is because your circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle) actually “drives” the rhythms of biological activity at the cellular level. Further, your body needs deep sleep for tissue growth and repair, which is crucial for pain relief. According to recent research from Great Britain, poor or insufficient sleep was actually the strongest predictor for pain in adults over 50.

4. Leaky Gut - Good nutrition is crucial for providing the raw materials needed for healing. If you have leaky gut, you can’t be healthy. In my opinion, gluten, GMOs and the Roundup that is sprayed on crops and ingested are the prime culprits that cause leaky gut. The tight junctions in the intestines open up and allow undigested food particles, bacteria and other toxins to “leak” into your bloodstream. Leaky gut can cause digestive symptoms such as bloating, gas and abdominal cramps, as well as cause or contribute to many others symptoms, including inflammation, premature aging, autoimmune disorders and chronic pain.

5. Magnesium Deficiency - Among magnesium’s many roles is blocking your brain’s receptors of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that may cause your neurons to become hypersensitive to pain. This is especially important because an estimated 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium. Two major factors that further deplete your body of magnesium are stress and prescription drugs.

6. Lyme Disease - Some of the first symptoms of Lyme disease may include flu-like symptoms, but lyme disease can linger chronically for more than a decade, before it is properly diagnosed and treated. These people can experience chronic pain. Lyme disease often mimics other disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, Parkinson’s, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and more.

If you’re suffering from chronic pain and don’t know why, it’s worth considering Lyme disease, even if you don’t think you’ve been bitten by a tick. Fewer than half of Lyme patients recall ever getting a tick.

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