When most of you experience pain, you choose to kill it through easy mediums like painkillers; slight pain in any part of the body and you pop a pill. However, have you ever stopped and thought that maybe that isn’t the best way to deal with pain. And you should be focusing on the message it’s trying to put across, rather than getting rid of it? Suppressing sensation of pain doesn’t remove the cause behind that pain. You might actually be ignoring a grave issue by killing away the pain through painkillers. Here is why you should pay heed to your pain and not try to manage it:
Why pain is important
The most significant factor is that pain tells you that there’s something wrong in your body, particularly in which specific part. In cases of internal pain, there might be an injury, tear, or something dysfunctional in any organ or part. For example, when a person experiences gastric issues, it first starts with a stomach ache, which lets them know that they have a gastric problem.
When it comes to external, physical injuries, it sometimes happens that you accidentally bruise yourself and don’t even realize it. You only realize you’ve hurt yourself when you feel pain at the part. The intensity of pain tells you just how bad the situation is, and if you need professional help. Even doctors ask first where exactly you’re experiencing the pain and the intensity of it, and then determine the cause, which helps them treat you. You can further fix it in the following days through treatments and proper care advised by professionals. Moreover, ignoring pain and not treating it on time can cause further, serious issues.
In some cases of spinal disc problems, we see with patients too. They underestimate the severity of the underlying cause. That is just because of the low intensity of pain. How much a disc bulges and how much compression is there on the nerve- patient least bothers about this. The patient will say, I can do my daily activities. I just need to fix the pain.
But the main aim of the sensation of the pain with the human body is- every pain has its cause and we need to understand the cause.
Don’t Ignore the pain
This is not at all about ignoring the pain!!
It is about understanding pain and its cause.
Because more you ignore your pain, the more severe of an issue it turns into and escalates causing harm. We pay attention to our bodies when we feel pain, and we can take steps to fix what hurts. Pain can also discourage us from further damaging a part of the body. Pain is a feeling that is similar to tasting, smelling, and hearing. Some senses, however, tell you what’s going on around you in the world. Pain shows you what’s going on in your own body’s universe.
The body is incredibly successful at capturing pain signals, and extremely fast at getting you to take a suitable action to alleviate the pain sensation. For example, touch an extremely hot object, and the impulse or message travels from your fingertips’ nerves to your brain through your spinal cord. The nervous system induces a feeling of pain to discourage you from doing something that might cause serious injury and let you know something might be wrong. In most cases, it will go away if you treat the cause of the pain.
Limitations of pain management
You can take medicines or other fast ways to null your pain, but it doesn’t make the actual cause go away. Medication and other methods like heat therapy, home remedies etc. only subside sensation of pain. Pain remains as it is.
This is something like, you have a bad odor in the room. And to null that you sprayed some fragrance. Fragrance can assure you there is no foul smell. But actually you are just deviating your senses. The bad smell is there. You cannot just perceive this. The same does pain management.
It would only get worse if not treated professionally and through correct treatment. Pain helps doctors in diagnosing the cause behind it, and they can easily detect the situation and suggest corrective procedures going forward to get rid of the issue. Pain management only nulls the sensation or perception of pain and further complicates the cause of the problem. Temporary solutions complicate the matter further and delay the process of finding out the actual cause. Doctors find difficulty correctly diagnosing the problem, and are not able to suggest the correct measures. The longer it takes for the diagnosis to be made, the more intense the situation might become.
What if the pain is Acute?
This is a general question from patients.
“I was in unbearable pain. Painkillers and pain management were important for me to survive”.
Treatment of acute pain has a negative impact on many aspects of patient health and may increase the risk of chronic pain growth. Although painkillers are the preferred treatment for most moderate to severe acute pain, their side effects can hinder their use and thus their clinical efficacy. Pain-relieving regimens with an improved efficacy/tolerability balance, have the potential to improve the treatment of acute pain, thus reducing chronic pain incidence.
But on the other hand, research investigating the use of multiple painkillers with different action mechanisms indicates that multimodal treatments can provide an increased balance of efficacy/tolerability over single-agent regimens.
There are numerous other ways to handle pain professionally, but trying to manage pain on your own would only cause more harm. Focus on improving your everyday habits instead of stopping the pain entirely.
Risks of pain management
There are a lot of risks involved in pain management, while there are obvious dangers in delaying treatment through pain management, taking painkillers can also have serious effects of their own. Painkillers cause issues like cardiovascular diseases and anxiety. People are often extremely carefree when it comes to medical problems, they think a couple of pills would solve everything, and they’ll be better.
Ignoring minor pains can lead up to scary results and could also cause bigger and multiple issues later on. Carelessness is the biggest crime that you can commit against your own body, and it leads to more problems than anything else.
There are plenty of risks of taking random medicines, such as- Possibility of harmful medicine-to-food interaction, drink, dietary supplement (including vitamins and herbals), or other medication. Combinations of any of these products can increase the likelihood of interactions. To help out in emergency cases of pain, you should keep an up-to-date, written list of all the medicines (prescription and over-the-counter) and dietary supplements you’re using, including vitamins and herbals — even those you’re using only occasionally; this would help doctors examine the situation faster. In order to get the benefits you want, you need to decide what risks you can and will accept.
For example, if it’s acute pain, you may choose to take more risk in the hope of obtaining a cure’s benefits or living a longer life. On the other hand, if you are faced with a minor disease, you might decide to take a very little risk. In many cases, the doctor, pharmacist, or other health care providers’ expert advice will assist you in making the decision.
Painkillers are never safe
Painkillers are quite literally one of the most harmful things in the world. They cause problems like-
- Anxiety and depression.
- increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
- Painkillers increase the risk of liver failure.
- Because the kidney supposes to excrete these chemical-based painkillers, in this process these pain killers harm kidneys and lead to kidney failure.
- Increased risk of fractures.
The most common medicine for neurological pain is- Gabapentin. This drug is anticonvulsant. The first and foremost use of this medicine was to treat convulsions/seizures of epilepsy. Because this medicine is supposed to reduce the irritation of the neurons. The same way these are applied in case of compressive neuropathy, where bulged disc impacts on the nerve and causes the pain.
When we look at the side effects of these neurological pain killers, it is shocking. Here are the details-
The common side effects of the famous neurological painkiller Gabapentin are-
- Dizziness: Light headed feeling along with some kind of giddiness.
- Fatigue: Without any hard work body feels tired.
- Drowsiness: No freshness in the body and a person feels sleepy all the time.
- Ataxia: Problem in walking and balancing.
- Tremors: Inability to hold things properly.
- Sexual Dysfunction.
- Erectile dysfunction.
- Loss of Libido.
Besides these common side effects, there are some serious hazards of the Gabapentin and these are as follows.
Suicidal Tendencies
The FDA in the year 2009 commented that Gabapentin is among the medicines which lead to suicidal tendencies.
Even after such a strong warning, the blind use of this medicine is continued. As a clinician, working on neurological pains- I came across many patients “full of negativity”. The common sentence of these patients was- “I don’t want to live with the pain“.
Amazingly, this was not the pain behind their helplessness. This was the medicine for their pain. Which was conditioning them for negativity?
Cancer
Adulterated food is responsible for deadly diseases like cancer.
This is a common understanding among all of us. But at many times we forget that this is the blind use of the painkillers, which is responsible for such diseases.
This is well reported that medicines like gabapentin can cause pancreatic cancer and adenocarcinomas.
Addiction to the Medicines
Chemicals interrupt the working of human physiology. These chemicals overtake normal processes. Therefore lead to different problems with human psychology.
Painkiller addiction has been compared to drug addiction, and addiction to painkillers can trigger addiction to heroin later. This addiction to painkillers can lead to serious consequences such as death from overdosing. Painkiller addiction has the same effects as any other drug addiction.
This is clear, it is better to bear the pain. Rather than to invite all these “severe complications”.
But this never means that you need to stay with pain forever. Pain has a wonderful side too. Once you rectify the cause behind the pain. The pain will diminish automatically. Certainly, it is not as quick as the management of pain. But it is permanent and it helps you forever.
Remove the cause, not just the sensation of pain
The first step after identifying the pain is to treat it. In the haphazard lifestyle in which we live, our first reaction is to take instant pain relief medications, i.e. Ibuprofen, which is readily available without treating the actual cause. Though our body has an excellent self-treating mechanism, we still require additional medications to expedite the process of healing.
The healing can be temporary if it’s for terminal illness, but it surely can reduce the pain or help the subject to live a better life.
In the case of spinal disc problems, most of the patients come with a complaint of backache, neck pain or radiation of the pain. And they just need some miracle to happen. The miracle that can help them to get rid of the pain. And in this haste of pain management, everybody overlooks the cause behind the problem.
Until unless this is not clear why one of the spinal discs is bulging or herniated. There is no way to remove the pain permanently, without removal of the cause.
If the cause behind the disc bulge is- degenerative changes, the concern should be to renourish the disc. In this condition, taking painkillers cannot be an option or solution.
The same type of disc bulge can be caused by loss of lordosis. So treatment should be for rectification of lordotic curvature.
In both conditions, pain is just a reflection of the underlying cause. Once we have pain and body wants to tell us, that something is wrong somewhere. We should address the cause. So that the problem can be rectified from the roots. Avoidance of any cause behind the problem can cause severe and serious impact on health.
Don’t wait until pain turns into numbness/paralysis
Just like you’d keep a vehicle of yours kempt, get it serviced regularly, and take it to a repairman as soon as it faces the slightest issues, you should also do the same with your health. As soon as you experience even minor discomfort, go to a doctor and get yourself checked out. Minor pain could also turn into paralysis, and it would be useless going to a specialist then.
For example, with a bulged disc, a simple condition left unattended may lead to serious complications like- foot drop, paralysis of particular muscles and numbness in a particular region of the area- supplied by the nerve.
In haste, many patients move here and there for pain management. And in the same rush, they went for manual manipulation and that too under untrained person. The simple case of spinal muscle stiffness turned in to a case of Spondylolisthesis. Because the person who was supposed to set the disc just ensured a sound of “clitch”. And told see this clitch was all about your disc. But the patient just broke up the pars, which cause the condition of listhesis. A case that was easy to handle became complicated.
On another hand, many other patients ignore the pain for long. For them, it is just a back pain normally and they keep on overlooking the problem deep inside the spine. You might use some local ointments or heat pads to relieve the pain. And later on, the same pain can disable you completely.
Conclusion
Your wellbeing fails, then everything else that happens in your life can be overshadowed. Through relatively minor health issues such as aches and pains, lethargy, and indigestion to significant health issues that may endanger your life, health can have a real impact on levels of happiness and stress. Engaging in this time’s healthier habits can have a far-reaching payoff: you’re going to feel better about everything you’re doing. This is especially important because it has to do with stress. The stress that comes with poor health is significant because it affects so many areas of your life when you face a health challenge.
Daily tasks are becoming more difficult, spending on health may pile up, and the ability to earn a living may even be at risk. And stress itself can exacerbate health issues from the common cold to more severe conditions and diseases, so it really pays to maintain healthy stress management habits not only to manage poor health stress but to help prevent it altogether by staying healthy. If our bodies operate well when we don’t feel any pain, we can create something significant with our mind; on the contrary, when we are in pain, our bodies are tired, it becomes too hard to pass the pain and focus on something else. That’s why we should take good care of and pay adequate attention to our bodies.
This is the real meaning of the Sukhayu where we treat all your pains from the root. So that you can lead your life normally. You can consult me on the following link too.
Vaidya Dr. Pardeep Sharma is “Chief Ayurvedic Physician” at Sukhayu Ayurved Jaipur. He is an M.D. (Ayurveda) doctor. He is the founder of the “Sukhayu Ayurved” and working with patients clinically since last 15 years. Vaidya Ji is well known for his specialisation in Ayurvedic treatment of different ailments. Among these diseases “To set the slipped disc to normal” is one. Vaidya Dr. Pardeep does it according to the scientific principles of Ayurveda. Under his