Importance of Pain Management

Pain could rob you of the joy of living a happy life; you should see a pain expert who could use both integrative and interventional pain relief methods. The integrative pain management approach could require complementary pain management methods, such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, and physical therapy. On the other hand, interventional treatment uses clinically proven means of dealing with pain, such as surgery and medications. You should ask your doctor about their methods and approach to pain treatment before making an appointment. It could help to ask for recommendations on the best anesthesiologist in Houston near you who could help you deal with pain. A pain expert could help you know the cause of pain, the appropriate treatment, and why you need to deal with pain adequately.

Importance of Adequate Pain Management

Pain leads to stress, making your endocrine system release excess hormones that affect you both physically and psychologically. Your body could react to the excess hormones by destroying fat catabolism, producing excess carbohydrates and proteins, and lead to poor glucose use in the body. The body’s hormone reaction and chemicals combined with the inflammation that occurs due to pain could lead to weight loss, fever, shock, tachycardia, and death. The unrelieved pain could lead to a prolonged stress response, which adversely affects the body and affects the recovery process.

The cardiovascular system could react to pain by activating the sympathetic nervous system, which acts on the pain-related stress. The reaction might lead to increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and increased oxygen demand. Patients under anesthesia could die from cardiac morbidity, which results from exposure to chronic pain-related stress. Additionally, the sympathetic system activity increase could destabilize normal intestinal secretions that keep the gut healthy. The sympathetic nervous system’s response could lead to severe impairment of the gastrointestinal functions leading to low absorption of food and water, leading to further health deterioration.

Pain could suppress the immune system and expose cancer patients to the quick spread of metastatic cancers. Constant pain could impair the body’s natural pain killer cells that prevent the formation of tumors and metastatic cancers. Thus, proper pain management could help prevent the growth of cancers and improve the immune system.

When you do not take care of acute pain, it could become chronic and get out of hand later. Pain should be treated aggressively to prevent future complications. Chronic pain could impair the ability of the patients to undertake everyday activities. Continuous pain does not only affect the patient but the loved ones who would be in distress. The typical response by the caregivers could be depression and anxiety as they lose hope. The patient’s inability to escape the pain could form a sense of hopelessness, which could lead to chronic depression and more intense pain. Patients who have had inadequate pain management treatment in the past might not seek medical attention for other health problems.

The Bottom Line

Interventional pain treatment methods are critical in preventing pain from growing from small intensity to chronic pain. Patients should be careful when handling pain as it could affect their lives immensely. For instance, pain could affect the cardiovascular system, the gut, and lead to catastrophic adverse health outcomes. It is wise to see a pain expert that could help you overcome severe pain using conventional, interventional medicine and anesthesia.