National Pain Week 24th-28th July 2023

It’s National Pain Week July 2023 ! The purpose of this week is to bring awareness to those Australians suffering from chronic pain.

According to Chronic Pain Australia, 3.6 million Australians are currently living with chronic pain and is therefore a leading cause of disability. Unfortunately, a stigma remains around those suffering from chronic pain due to previous misconceptions so National Pain Week is raising this profile. One of the main misconceptions is that the pain ‘is all in your head’.

What is chronic pain?

Chronic pain is a condition of the nervous system and is characterised by pain persisting for 3 months or greater.  It impacts a person’s ability to move, sleep, socialise, work, participate in leisure activities and greatly impacts quality of life. When a person is suffering from chronic pain, their nervous system has reprogrammed itself to constantly remain on high alert and react acutely to relatively mild triggers.

Normally, when we injure ourselves, the body sends pain signals to help protect the injured area. In approximately 12 weeks, with the assistance of health professionals, this pain subsides, and the injured person can return to their normal lifestyle without too many hiccups. When an injury persists for greater than 12 weeks and is poorly managed, they are at higher risk of the nervous system reprogramming itself to remain on high alert.

There are three pain types of chronic pain

1. Nociceptive pain
   • This involves pain associated with tissue injury, damage or even the potential damage.
   • Examples include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis
2. Neuropathic pain
   • This involves pain associated with injury or disease to nerve tissue.
   • Examples include shingles, radiculopathies associated with the neck or back, diabetic neuropathy
3. Nociplastic pain
   • This is more complex and involves pain arising from altered nociception (pain related nerve receptors) despite no clear evidence of actual or threatened tissue damage
   • Examples include chronic regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia

How can Williamstown Health and Lifestyle assist you?

Chronic pain requires a multidisciplinary approach. It initially starts with your GP and any other specialists (pain specialists, rheumatologists, psychologists etc) to create a management plan that is individually tailored to the chronic pain sufferer.

In conjunction with these health professionals, our team of osteopaths, physiotherapists, myotherapists and exercise physiologists can assist you in the musculoskeletal aspect. We can help relieve aching muscles, reduced function, guide strength and exercise training and assist you in moving to the best of your ability.

It is no simple feat and it requires a positive attitude to get through day to day but with an A team of health professionals who you trust behind you, quality of life can improve.

Book online via this link or call our reception team (03) 9397 8877 to make an appointment.

Elizabeth Lynch 

Osteopath

References:

All information regarding this blog was obtained from Chronic Pain Australia and their resources.