What is Causing Your Pain? Healing Pain Through Functional Medicine, Chiropractic Care, and Massage Therapy
As a functional medicine practice, we encounter all different types of pain. It is safe to say that a vast majority of our patients come to us because they are experiencing pain and discomfort. Whether it be chronic internal pain, pain caused by an accident/trauma, or muscle and joint pain, we see patients seeking treatment for pain in many forms.
Some would say that experiencing pain is a part of life. However, the ways that you identify and address that pain can make all the difference in the quality of the life you live.
September is Pain Awareness Month, and we are delving into the various types of pain we encounter as practitioners and what you can do to help yourself heal without the need for traditional medicine and costly prescription medication.
Structural Pain
Structural pain is experienced in your bones and joints. It affects the way your body moves, and makes it more difficult to complete everyday tasks.
Structural pain can be very debilitating and get progressively worse, making it one that should be addressed quickly by a skilled chiropractor. Timely and regular chiropractic care can address the source of your pain and adjust your body accordingly to ease the pain and get you back to regular movement.
Chiropractors use a variety of methods and tools to adjust your spine and joints. These adjustments are quick movements applying pressure to affected areas of your body in order to increase your range of motion, release pressure on nerves, or correct a misalignment.
If you are always talking about a stiff back, a hitch in your step, or constantly stretching your neck during the day, a chiropractic visit may be just what the doctor ordered for treatment of your pain.
Muscular Pain
Muscle pain, or myalgia, is commonly caused by injury, malnutrition, overuse, stress, or tension. The human body has over 600 muscles, so this type of pain is common and can be felt on much of your body. Sometimes it’s hard to determine if the pain you are feeling is muscular in nature. Here are some tips to narrow a particular pain you are having to a muscular issue.
- You find it difficult to stand up straight
- The pain gets worse when you move, especially when bending or stretching.
- There is swelling or bruising in a specific area.
- The pain is sharp or aches.
- The pain is causing spasms or cramps.
It is important to seek a professional opinion about your muscle pain and its treatment, particularly if you injure yourself suddenly, notice significant swelling, or the pain is not improving over time. Massage therapy can be an effective method of treating muscular pain and discomfort. It is a common misconception that massage is part of a spa treatment and not part of integrative medicine, but it is very common to seek massage therapy as a form of treatment and rehabilitation. Take a look at the graphic below to see a list of ways massage therapy can improve your quality of life.
Functional Pain
Pain that is caused by metabolic imbalance in your body can be hard to pinpoint and diagnose. When you have too much or too little of something in your system, it can cause all kinds of symptoms and issues. You can’t always “see” where the pain is coming from like you can with structural and muscular pain. Some types of pain that stem from metabolic issues are:
- Inflammation / Arthritis
- Menstrual or chronic pain due to hormone imbalances
- Gastrointestinal pain and discomfort
- Migraines
- Numbness and tingling
- Joint pain and swelling
- Muscle pain and tension
At Brookview Wellness, we use physical exam, health history, bioimpedance analysis, and various lab tests to determine if your symptoms are due to a metabolic imbalance somewhere in your body. We commonly see malnutrition, thyroid issues, autoimmune disease, hormonal imbalance, chronic infection, toxicity and dietary intolerance that are greatly affecting people’s quality of life.
Using nutrition, supplements, and lifestyle changes, we work together to formulate a Functional Medicine plan to get your metabolic pathways back to normal, effectively treating your pain and discomfort. The right professional guidance and some lifestyle adjustments can make a big difference and get you back to feeling and living better.
Emotional Pain
Emotional pain is not something that is often addressed in medical settings. Just like metabolic imbalances can affect your gut and joints, they can also affect your brain and mind. Grief, anger, resentment, and similar heavy negative emotions can result in a physical symptom in your body. When your brain signaling is off, your physical body lets you know in the form of inflammation, headaches, illnesses, skin breakouts, stomach aches, anxiety, depression, and more. The list can be long.
Taking care of your emotional health/brain health is just as important as taking care of your physical health.
If you are struggling with emotional health, it is important for you to seek professional guidance just as you would for any physical medical issues. At Brookview Wellness we work with you to help identify some of these visceral-somatic relationships as well as address your flight or fight patterns via Poly Vagal exercises. Letting these negative emotions live in your body for too long may result in physical symptoms, such as pain, chronic fatigue, autoimmune conditions, and even cancer.
We hope this article has been helpful in highlighting the treatment of the various types of pain we commonly see within our practice. If you are dealing with structural, muscular, functional or emotional pain, we encourage you to reach out and schedule an appointment to RESTORE + OPTIMIZE your BODY + MIND!
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