Did you know that almost one-fifth of the population experiences chronic pain? Pain is reaching epidemic levels in the US, mirrored by a record level of addiction to painkillers.

Many people think that managing pain is as simple as popping a few pills, using an icepack, and waiting for it to resolve itself. While your pain might eventually go away with this method, it will only come back. To get rid of your pain once and for all, you need comprehensive pain management.

Treating your pain at its source is the best way to minimize or eliminate it from your life entirely. Read on to learn our top tips to treat your chronic pain and to get your life back!

Revamp Your Lifestyle

You can make several lifestyle changes that will reduce your pain and improve your outlook. While these aren't treatments for chronic pain, they will help you find some relief in the long term:

Exercise

One of the best ways to address chronic pain is through exercise. Regular exercise has been proven to reduce the severity of chronic pain and improving physical function. You don't have to turn into a complete gym rat, even walking for half an hour every day can be beneficial.

You must stay within your limits when working with chronic pain. Don't push it too hard or add too much too fast. Your exercise should make you feel good, it shouldn't make your pain worse.

Walking and biking are great ways to start slow, getting your blood pumping while respecting your limits. You can also find a simple calisthenics routine that works with your body. Building up your strength with calisthenics is a great way to reduce pain caused by muscle imbalances.

Sleep Habits

Improved sleeping habits can make a world of difference when it comes to chronic pain. Sleeping allows your body's natural anti-inflammatory cells to get to work, and your muscles to fully relax. Sticking to a regular sleep schedule and ensuring you get at least eight hours of sleep every night can help ease stubborn chronic pain.

In addition, fatigue can make you more irritable and increase your perceived pain during the day, making your pain feel less manageable. While your discomfort might make it difficult to sleep sometimes, practicing good sleep hygiene can help you drift off more easily.

Diet Changes

Making a few diet changes can also help reduce chronic pain. Try to eat a variety of foods, allowing you to nourish yourself without being too strict. Foods rich in Omega-3 fats will help mitigate painful flareups and inflammation.

On the other hand, processed junk food and very sugary or salty foods will have the opposite effect.

Hydration

Water is the best way for you to keep your body healthy.

Studies have shown that dehydration can make pain feel more intense, and reduces the effectiveness of painkillers and other pain therapies. Proper hydration will lower your perceived pain and help your pain treatments stay effective, so make sure you keep your water bottle with you at all times!

Physical Therapy

If you've tried exercising and are rewarded only with more pain, it's time to call in some help.

In some cases, the way you move is doing more harm than good. You might have some muscles that are working too hard, while others aren't working enough. This can result in faulty movement patterns that leave your body aching.

This is a very common cause of chronic pain, but difficult to detect on your own. A physical therapist can assess your gait, how you carry yourself in space, and identify any muscular sources of pain.

With a few targeted exercises, you can restore physical function and reduce your chronic pain.

Seek Interventional Pain Management

Chronic pain can have many sources. Trying to treat your pain at home is just guesswork, and is one of the reasons that your pain just keeps coming back. For stubborn or severe pain, call in the big guns.

If it's not muscular in nature or isn't responding to physical therapy, it's best to seek a pain management specialist. These are experts in chronic pain management who provide you with a variety of treatments for your pain.

Treatments like steroid injections, cortisone injections, and nerve blocks can help reduce inflammation and relief pain that just won't go away. Other treatments like trigger point injections and PRP can target injured joints.

Treat It at the Source

If you don't find the cause of your pain, it's unlikely that you'll be able to find relief. Your chronic pain is likely a combination of your medical history, a previous injury, or a genetic condition.

Your pain management physician will go through all the potential causes of your pain. Finding the root of your pain is the best way to eliminate it.

From there, your pain management group will form a treatment plan that will minimize both the symptoms and the condition in the long term. Your plan will be some combination of physical therapy, regenerative medicine, and other minimally invasive treatments. If necessary, you might also get a prescription for some medication, but it's preferred to treat pain without painkillers.

Eliminate Your Pain With Comprehensive Pain Management

Treating chronic pain is not a matter of grinning and bearing it. It's not a matter of using painkillers until it goes away. It's a matter of treating it with a holistic perspective.

Comprehensive pain management allows you to make the lifestyle changes you need while treating your discomfort, so you can live a life you love. Schedule your first appointment with Colorado Pain Experts today to experience the difference!

Up to 40% of people in America will experience sciatica at some point during their lifetimes. This is a very painful condition that affects your sciatic nerve and can limit your ability to carry out simple day-to-day tasks.

People living with sciatica may experience one period of this condition during their lives. However, depending on the cause of their sciatica, for others, it can become a chronic condition that flares up regularly.

Fortunately, there are several options when it comes to sciatic nerve pain treatment. These vary from managing the nerve pain in your back to tackling the cause of sciatica.

Are you struggling with lower back or hip nerve pain? Then you've come to the right place. Read on to find out everything you need to know about sciatic nerve pain treatment options.

What is Sciatic Nerve Pain?

Your sciatic nerve runs from your lower back down through your hips and buttocks. It extends down both of your legs to your ankles, however, only one leg generally experiences sciatic nerve pain, also known as sciatica.

This happens when the nerve (or area around it) becomes inflammed. This can cause pain along the nerve itself (from your buttocks to your ankle) and can leave your legs feeling numb. A number of things can cause this — let's take a closer look at these.

Common Sciatic Nerve Pain Causes

Understanding the causes of sciatic nerve pain can help you to find an effect treatment for it. Usually this occurs when something compresses, inflames, or irritates your sciatic nerve.

The most common causes of this are:

• Bulging or herniated discs
• Spondylolisthesis
• Spinal cord injuries as a result of trauma
• Lumber spinal stenosis
• Piriformis syndrome
• Spinal tumors

Other less common causes of sciatica include endometriosis, spinal abscesses, and nerve damage from diabetes. You may also experience sciatic nerve pain during pregnancy, as the foetus grows. This should subside after you have given birth.

Because a number of different things can cause sciatica, this also means that there are several different ways to treat it. Let's take a closer look at some of the things that your doctor might recommend.

Pain Management Treatments

While you are getting to the root of the problem, most doctors will recommend pain relief options to people with sciatica.

They may recommend pain relief medication, such as asprin, and they may also prescribe anti-inflammatory medications. Muscle relaxants in particular can help to relieve pressure on the siactic nerve.

If you are unable to use certain types of pain relief medication, you can also use ice packs to provide immediate relief. This is not a long-term solution but it can make you more comfortable while doctors get to the heart of the problem.

Physical Therapy and Anti-Inflammatory Exercises

A lot of doctors will recommend physical therapy exercises to help relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve. Doing these regularly can help to relieve sciatica within a couple of weeks. Ideally, you should set aside a little time every day to target your sciatica.

Some commonly used anti-inflammatory exercises include:

• Alternating knee-to-chest bends
• Standing hamstring stretches
• Pelvic tilt exercises
• Glute bridges and lying deep gluteal stretches

Of course, not all exercises are suitable for everyone. You need to take any other physical needs or limitations into account before you do them. So it's a good idea to get advice from a professional physiotherapist and to not push your body if you are struggling.

You may find that you have to gradually build up to certain exercises. Start slowly and you will often find that they get easier with time.

Your physiotherapist may also recommend alternative pain relief treatments, such as acupuncture or theraputic yoga.

Spinal Injections

Your doctor may recommend spinal injections to treat your sciatica. This often happens if a patient has been struggling with sciatica for four months or more. Or you may receive them if your pain is making physical therapy too difficult.

Spinal injection treatments involve injecting the inflammed area of your spine with a local anesthetic and steroid medication. This goes into the epidural space around your spinal cord and sciatic nerve.

Spinal injections can reduce the inflammation in this area and improve your mobility in the affected area. It is also very effective relief for sciatic nerve pain. This makes it much easier for patients who are struggling to complete beneficial physical therapy.

Surgery for Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief

It is very rare that a doctor will recommend having surgery to relieve sciatica. However, some conditions do require surgical assistance if they do not heal on their own.

For example, most herniated discs will heal on their own with time. If they do not, then a microdiscectomy will help. This clears out sections of the herniated disc that are putting pressure on the spinal cord.

If your spinal cord becomes compressed, your doctor may recommend a laminectomy instead. This surgery involves removing a small section of spinal vertebra. This frees up more room for the spinal cord so that it is no longer under pressure.

Get Support With Sciatic Nerve Pain Treatment Today

As you can see, when it comes to sciatic nerve pain treatment you have plenty of options. An experienced doctor will be able to help you determine the best course of treatment for your condition. So what are you waiting for?

Make an appointment with our team of pain relief experts today. We're here to help!