If your chronic pain has been keeping you up at night or completely draining your energy levels, you are not alone.
Approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain.
This can include everything from shoulder pain to arthritis and back pain.
With such a common ailment plaguing the planet, we even have doctors dedicated to the profession. When your pain has about reached your limit, a pain management physician can guide you towards a healthier, happier, and more relaxed life using these next few techniques.
If you’ve ever wondered what a pain management physician would prescribe to a patient—or your pain has reached an unmanageable level—continue reading to learn more about helpful ways of treating chronic pain.
Treatments: What does a pain management physician prescribe?
Massage Treatments
A pain management physician may prescribe frequent massage treatments to help dull or diminish the pain.
Massage treatment has been used for years—dating back over thousands and thousands of years.
If you’ve been losing sleep due to your chronic pain, you’re in luck.
Massage therapy is extremely beneficial when it comes to improving your quality of sleep. It promotes the release of serotonin, which is great for lowering depression, anxiety, and yes, even chronic pain. A doctor may want to treat the neck and lower back with multiple sessions of massage therapy over the course of a few months.
Depending on the patient, they may or may not start to feel the results after the first session.
Water Therapy
A pain management doctor may also prescribe you frequent water therapy sessions. Like massage therapy, water therapy targets the points of extremely high tension in the body. Swimming and performing exercises in a warm pool or tank will help to relieve the tension in your knees and joints.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is another popular form of natural medicine that has been around for ages.
It’s a healing process that involves inserting tiny needles into the skin to help offer some relief to tight muscles.
What to expect: Your first appointment
Booking your first appointment with a pain management center or clinic is the best course of action you can take if your pain has become too hard to manage on your own. They specialize in rehabilitation, interventions, general medicine, and of course, treating chronic pain.
A physician or nurse practitioner will start by giving you a full physical examination and proceed to a questionnaire and ask about your family’s health history. They will likely prescribe you medication, one of the natural medicine alternatives listed above, or help you identify any pain triggers.
Conclusion
A pain management doctor can help you take control of your life again. They may prescribe you a wide variety of treatments, depending on your individual symptoms. These are just a few popular and widely known treatments that have been effective in treating chronic pain for many men and women.
Treatments like massage therapy and acupuncture have been used for years. Seeing a doctor and voicing your concern about your level of pain will set you up to find the best management tool for your stressor—no matter what it is.
