Dr Oz on Treating Chronic Pain Without Drugs Pain Management

Dr Oz on Treating Chronic Pain Without Drugs Pain Management

Dr. Oz on Treating Chronic Pain Without Drugs - Pain Management

Dr Oz How to Treat Chronic Pain Without Drugs

Acupuncture and massage have high success rate

After 25 years of performing open-heart surgeries, I can handle just about any complication that comes along. The one thing I cannot predict, though, is how my patients will respond to postoperative pain. That's because every person heals and feels differently and any trauma disrupts blood flow and nerve signaling in unique ways. Photo by Darren Braun Acupuncture may help in treating chronic pain. In recent months I have seen an explosion of research and focus on pain, in large part because of a new report from the influential Institute of Medicine. It calls on government, academia and physician groups to develop a nationwide plan to , which affects 100 million Americans and costs $635 billion annually. Here is the game-changing development: Doctors now believe that chronic pain is not merely a symptom of another condition; rather, it's a separate disease and should be treated as such. In some cases is the result of inflammation. But in others it has a more complex yet little-understood cause, one that's tied in to how the brain processes pain signals. With long exposure to physical pain, nerves may actually hard-wire that pain into a kind of neurological memory, so even when the original cause of the pain is gone, you still hurt. Pain might even be genetic. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England recently identified the HCN2 gene as a regulator of chronic pain, providing another potential drug target for .

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— Receive access to exclusive information, benefits and discounts. The typical treatment for chronic pain has been medications, including over-the-counter drugs-- like ibuprofen and aspirin, which target inflammation-- as well as prescription narcotics such as codeine and morphine, which block pain signals. But a recent report by The Bravewell Collaborative found that 75 percent of integrative medicine clinics reported success in treating chronic pain by combining traditional pain management with complementary therapies like and massage. One interesting treatment is myofascial trigger-point needling, a technique similar to acupuncture that focuses on specific areas of muscle that trigger pain. Comprehensive pain management today also targets the mind. At the Stanford University Center for Integrative Medicine, multiple studies have shown that medical hypnosis can successfully reduce or even eliminate pain. Plus, there's evidence that . At Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore researchers recently found that chronic-pain sufferers who think infrequently about their pain and have less day-to-day pain than those who dwell on it. Remember to go to the every day for tips on keeping healthy and sharp, and great deals.

Pain by the Numbers

100 Million: Number of Americans who suffer from chronic pain. 42 Million: Number of Americans who say pain keeps them up a few nights a week. 26 Million: Number of Americans who report frequent back pain. 4.6 hours: Productive time lost weekly because of pain by 13 percent of workers. $635 Billion: Annual cost of chronic pain, in treatments and lost productivity. Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures

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