Chronic pain comes in many forms and happens for various reasons; maybe you had an injury years ago and it never healed, or you developed sciatica or back pain from degenerative changes.
Regardless of the cause, inflammation shapes how you feel. If chronic pain persists, Dr. Scachi Patel and the Delmarva Pain and Spine Center can help.
Dr. Patel is an experienced pain management specialist who provides joint injections, stem cell therapy, and regenerative medicine to treat chronic pain and the inflammation that drives it.
The inflammatory process is the body’s defense against harmful stimuli, such as injury and infection. When the immune system senses a problem, it quickly sends cells to the area to protect the injured tissues and help them heal.
In acute situations, this process is critical for healing – but when the immune system is compromised, inflammation can become chronic, leading to pain and other medical problems.
Chronic inflammation has a strong link to chronic pain in many ways. A few of the ways inflammation influences pain include:
Inflammation triggers chemicals that stimulate pain receptors. The result is that these nerves fire more easily, leading to more intense and frequent pain.
The inflammatory process may continue to spread from the injury site throughout the body, which causes other issues like depression. These conditions cause further pain and problems far past the initial inflammatory site.
Chronic inflammation sensitizes cells in the central nervous system to pain.
Continued inflammation leads to inflammatory chemicals moving to the brain and spinal cord. The CNS becomes hypersensitive to stimuli, causing pain where none would normally occur.c
If you’re living with chronic pain, you likely have an inflammatory problem within the body. The key to fighting off inflammation is through a healthy lifestyle.
Focus on a whole-food, anti-inflammatory diet and limit processed, sugary, or fatty foods. Diet significantly influences inflammation.
There are other lifestyle changes to make as well to control inflammation and pain, which include:
These changes help manage inflammation and pain, but sometimes more is needed.
If you’ve tried reducing inflammation on your own without success, Dr. Patel offers diagnostic testing and professional treatments to eliminate the problem.
She assesses the underlying causes to determine the most effective treatment plan. Treatment options may include epidural steroid injections to reduce inflammation near the spinal nerves and relieve back or leg pain, or radiofrequency ablation to target and decrease pain signals from chronically inflamed nerve cells.
Other options, such as nerve blocks or physical therapy, may also be considered based on your specific condition. It often takes a combination of lifestyle changes and professional treatments to get long-term pain relief.
To learn more about the pain management services we offer, call our Newark, Delaware, office to schedule an appointment or request a consultation with Dr. Patel on our website.
