Pain is an uneasy sensation that lets us know there’s something not right in our body. It is our body’s means of warning our brain. Our spinal cord and nerves function as the pathway for signals to travel to and from our brain and the other parts of our body.
Receptor nerve cells in and under our skin react to heat, cold, light, touch, pressure, and pain. There are thousands of these receptor cells, most feel pain and the fewest react to cold. Whenever there is some kind of injury to our body—the receptor cells send signals along nerves into our spinal cord and then up to our brain. So the way pain medicine works is by blocking these receptor signals or lessening their strength on our brain.
At times pain can be just annoying for example a mild headache. Sometimes a pain that won’t go away—can indicate an underlying problem we’re not aware of yet. So it’s advisable to always inform your doctor right away whenever there’s a pain because that could indicate a hidden problem.
Common pain medications
Analgesics like acetaminophen or paracetamol are prescribed to deal with mild or moderate pain, and also to reduce temperature due to fevers. Narcotic analgesics known as codeine can be used to reduce dental pain, period pain or migraines. There are also non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin that are used to lessen pain due to inflammation. They can also be used to reduce fever. Consult your doctor before taking any medications.
Common Pain Conditions
There are several types of acute and chronic pain :
• Back and Leg Pain
• Musculoskeletal pain
• Neck, Shoulder and Arm Pain
• “Whiplash” Injuries
• Motor Vehicle, Work-Related and Sports Injuries
• After Surgery Pain Syndromes
• Pain Due to Arthritis
• Fibromyalgia
PAIN due to CANCER
• Primary and Metastatic Cancer Pain
• Medication Side Effect Management
PAIN due to other conditions
• Vascular Pain
• Raynaud’s Disease
• Psychogenic Pain
• Trigeminal Neuralgia
• Spinal Cord Injury
• Spasticity
• Pelvic Pain
• Pediatric Pain
NEUROPATHIC PAIN
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome(RSD)
• Shingles
• Neuralgia
• Nerve Injuries
• Phantom Limb Pain