#chronic-pain-conditions

#chronic-pain-conditions

It felt like I had a needle through my back, and it was coming out my front, and I couldn't twist past it. Your mental health is affected. You get brain fog, you're tired, you're fatigued. You can't function as a woman and that's every day for 10 years.

It is one of the most common reasons that adults look for medical care. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are over 58 million adults who are living with doctor-diagnosed arthritis in the US alone. In addition to this, over 25 million people battle with daily limitations caused by joint pain. (CDC, 2024). Probably, even more concerning, is the fact that an estimated 15 million adults experience severe joint pain rated

Some people tolerate pain better than others, and emotional pain (anxiety, anger, depression) is no different. Some can endure and are resilient, with high tolerance levels, while others—due to trauma, personality, or physical makeup—have lower ones. Just as your doctor suggests ways to manage physical pain, there is much you can do to handle emotional pain.

Low back pain is the most common and debilitating of all pain complaints. Heavy lifting can cause it, but so can sitting at a desk all day, especially if you have bad posture and poor back support. Think hunching over a laptop at your dining table. Most times, an acute injury causing lower back pain will get better on its own in a matter of weeks. But it also can become a more lasting problem, especially as you age. Now some new science suggests one reason for this could be that we've been approaching the inflammation that comes with back pain all wrong.

Healthcare spending in the United States continues its upward climb, approaching $5 trillion annually in 2023. Employer-sponsored family plans now average $27,000 per year, placing mounting pressure on households and businesses. Yet despite this spending, the country's health outcomes remain far from world-leading. The latest OECD data show U.S. per-person spending is roughly twice the OECD average, with Switzerland and Germany trailing behind as the next highest spenders.

Our brain interprets grief as stress. As a result, it activates our stress-response systems, especially the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system. These systems release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which are meant to protect the body in short-term crises. In acute grief, these responses are adaptive. They help us cope with shock and disruption. If unresolved, however, the same systems can become dysregulated.

Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant medication that is FDA approved for the treatment of seizure disorders and postherpetic neuralgia-a chronic, often debilitating, nerve pain syndrome often linked to shingles. It is classified as an anticonvulsant and a GABA analogue, meaning it mimics the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which normally reduces nerve excitability.