A detailed guide to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), including its symptoms, causes, and effective treatment strategies to improve energy and well-being.
Chronic pain is often the after-effect of degeneration, injury, or illness. Part of the body is left damaged somehow, and that damage causes pain. Most pain therapies concentrate on controlling the pain with medications, injections, or devices that block pain signals in one way or another. However, an emerging type of therapy may actually be able to slow or reverse the tissue damage that’s often to blame for chronic pain. Regenerative therapy encourages the body…
The most common way to control pain is with oral medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids) or opioids. Some people don’t respond to these medications, though, while others are unable to tolerate oral pain medications. Nerve blocks are another way of treating pain with medication, but nerve blocks are injected, which increases efficacy and reduces the likelihood of other side effects. Nerve block injections allow the delivery of pain-relieving medication directly to the location…
A herniated disc is one of the most painful, debilitating lower back pain conditions. The pain caused by herniated disc is different for each person who experiences it and can even change as the condition progresses. Because this condition can be unpredictable, a herniated disc treatment that works can also vary from person to person. Here’s how to treat a herniated disc. What is a herniated disc? The spine consists of 33 individual vertebrae, each stacked…
Have you ever noticed it takes you a couple of days to recover from a stressful event or over-exertion? A 48-hour recovery period is something you commonly hear about from people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. We don’t yet know why we need a couple of days to recover from … well, just about anything, but a lot of chronic fatigue syndrome research is focusing on post-exertional malaise—the intensified fatigue and flare of other symptoms following exercise. Several…
What Is Chronic Pain? Pain is a complex phenomenon made up of physical, mental, and social components. At a basic level, the ability to perceive pain has helped people survive throughout the ages. Without feeling the uncomfortable sensation when you touch a stove, which causes you to remove your hand, the heat from the stove would end up causing far more damage to the cells in your hand, than it did before you felt the…
Breaking the Cycle of Appointment Fatigue in Chronic Pain Management Living with chronic pain means navigating a constant balancing act—managing symptoms, medications, work, relationships, and self-care. At the core of this juggling act lies an unspoken burden many patients face: appointment fatigue. This term refers to the emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion that comes from attending endless medical appointments, undergoing tests, meeting new specialists, and often, repeating the same explanations of symptoms without seeing long-term…
Having to go to appointments with my doctor here in Rhode Island, so we can again fill out the form for the state to confirm that I still qualify for a handicap sticker for me, causes a humiliating and heartbreaking feeling to have to be reminded that I have two incurable conditions. And yet, I have to get that signature to confirm that I am still dealing with this future. And then, when I am…
Fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome often go together. Because of the frequent overlap and some similar symptoms, they’re often mistaken for the same condition and, as a result, people with both are sometimes only diagnosed with and treated for one. That’s a real problem, for three major reasons: Some researchers use the name “chronic myofascial pain” (CMP) instead of myofascial pain syndrome because of evidence it’s a disease, not a syndrome. (A “syndrome” is a set…
Emotional: a word used often nowadays to insult someone for their sensitivity towards a multitude of things. If you cry happy tears, you’re emotional. If you express (even if it’s in a healthy way) that something is bothering you, you’re sensitive. If your hormones are in a funk and you just happen to be sad one day, you’re emotional AND sensitive. Let me tell you something that goes against everything people have probably ever told you.…
Fibromyalgia symptoms can mask the presence of chronic inflammatory disease affecting the joints of the pelvis and spine, according to new research. The study, titled “Prevalence of Axial Spondyloarthritis Among Patients With Fibromyalgia: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study With Application of the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society Classification Criteria,” was published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research. It highlights the importance of vigilant management of fibromyalgia symptoms by doctors and patients, taking into account the possible underlying presence of inflammatory…