Chronic Pain & Treatment

You’re not the only one suffering from chronic pain.

Over 20% of people experience chronic pain, and over 8% are significantly limited by it in their daily lives.

Chronic pain is pain that sticks around after an injury has healed.

How chronic pain develops is a complex process that can involve multiple systems, including your nervous system, your musculoskeletal system, and your immune system.

Many factors contribute to chronic pain, which means that your treatment plan needs to address multiple factors to get you feeling well again.

We offer mobile chiropractic treatment for chronic pain in
Delano, Maple Plain, and the rest of Wright and West Hennepin Counties.

The effects of chronic pain are numerous, including:

  • Tense muscles

  • Limited mobility

  • Fatigue or a lack of energy

  • Changes in appetite

  • Depression and anxiety

  • Anger

  • Fear of re-injury

  • Real or perceived disability, or inability to work or enjoy life

  • Increased risk of substance abuse or addiction

Common chronic pain complaints include:

  • Headaches

  • Low back pain

  • Neck pain

  • Arthritis pain

  • Neurogenic pain or nerve pain

  • Fibromyalgia

  • Pain from previous injuries or surgeries

  • Pain related to your work or hobbies

  • And many, many others

How Chronic Pain Works

Pain is very complex, and scientists don’t fully understand how it works. There are a multitude of factors that go into pain, including biopsychosocial mechanisms - meaning that your biology, your mental health, and your socioeconomic status can all play a role in how you feel and manage pain.

Chronic pain can also be related to ongoing processes in your tissues (like your muscles and joints), or it can be an entirely neurological phenomenon.

Conditions like arthritis can create ongoing pain signals as we try to do our daily activities, but these can often be managed well with exercise, chiropractic, and other treatments and lifestyle changes.

Other times, the brain and nerves get used to these incoming pain signals, so even when the painful stimulus is gone, the nervous system continues to fire off pain signals. This is called “centralized pain.”

Chronic pain can be managed.

Dealing with chronic pain in the long-term requires a multifaceted approach. As we’ve said, chronic pain is complex. Addressing only one factor may not provide the results you want.

An individualized treatment plan for chronic pain may include:

  • Chiropractic Adjusting - Chiropractic adjustments provide neurological input that “drowns out” pain signals, reducing pain for some time after. Adjustments can also help to address underlying movement deficiencies and restrictions that can create low-grade pain signals, which can influence chronic pain.

  • Soft Tissue Mobilization - Assisted stretching techniques, manual therapy, and trigger point work can help to loosen up tight muscles. This reduces pain and increases mobility, again addressing underlying movement deficiencies and issues that can have an impact on chronic pain.

  • Nutrition - A significant part of many chronic pain symptoms is ongoing inflammation. The food that we eat as Americans (the “Western diet”) is highly inflammatory - the processed grains, oils, gluten, and dairy that we eat don’t make our bodies happy or healthy. Addressing this ongoing inflammation typically requires nutritional interventions, including changes to your diet (such as avoiding highly inflammatory foods) or supplementation to address nutritional deficiencies that contribute to pain and inflammation.

  • Lifestyle Changes - Depending on your occupation and daily routine, certain changes may be necessary. These could involve reducing stress, meditating, addressing sleep issues, or incorporating more physical activity into your day.

  • Corrective Exercise - Specific stretches and exercises are used to strengthen weak muscles while relaxing tight and painful muscles. These are incorporated slowly into a chronic pain treatment plan, to allow you to build confidence in your ability to move and participate in the activities you love without getting injured again.

At Northbound Chiropractic, we work with you to find the cause of your chronic pain and create an individualized treatment plan targeting your specific problems.

We’ll make a plan with you to get lasting results, so you can continue doing the things you love.