In the United States, the term “pain management” has become synonymous with “pain medication.” Have a headache? Take an Advil. Lower back bothering you? Take a few Oxycontin left over from your relative’s back surgery. However, unlike holistic pain management, standard pain medications do nothing to solve the root of the pain problem. All they do is mask the symptoms, and leave you with a painful condition that often grows worse over time.

When you visit a doctor who takes a holistic approach to medicine, you will receive the best combination of eastern and western medicine treatment options. You can get the medications you need for temporary pain relief, as well as the evaluations, tests, and accurate diagnosis to treat your pain at its source.

Do You Suffer from Chronic Pain? Consider a Phoenix Pain Management Specialist.

Here are the ways holistic pain management will transform your relationship with pain, medicine, and your life.

1. Spend time with a doctor who cares. In the traditional medical establishment, patients are often seen and not heard. Doctors don’t have time to take the time to truly listen to their patients, carefully evaluate their medical history, and get to the root of the problem. This can result in incorrect or inaccurate diagnoses, over-prescribing of pain medication, and a missed opportunity to correct the source of the pain.
   
   A holistic pain management specialist will take the time to figure out what is causing your pain. S/he will make recommendations based on their estimate of impact from lifestyle, diet, and nutritional status. These recommendations may vary broadly since each person is different and their are many causes for pain. The use of supplements and other natural pain treatments will be used liberally to facilitate and support the healing process and stop the hurting!

2. Experience chronic pain relief without the negative side effects. Can you imagine feeling relief from chronic pain without any negative side effects? No confusion, constipation, itchiness, and so on. The most common prescription drugs for chronic pain, such as Vicodin and Oxycontin, are opiate based. These medication can cause serious long-term side effects. They are the most commonly abused medications. Often times the addiction starts from a legitimate use of the medication. Over time, tolerance, neurotransmitter imbalance, and inactivity can lead to inappropriate use of these medications. They can also cause respiratory depression and accidental overdose. The more you do to manage your pain effectively without medications, the healthier you will be, and the less likely you will have to worry about these. 
   

3. Re-gain, or increase, your pain tolerance. In addition to getting options on treating your pain naturally, holistic pain management will increase your pain tolerance. This is especially beneficial for those who have taken opiate based medications for long periods of time. Many of these people develop a condition called opioid-induced hyperalgesia. Using prescription pain medications to reduce pain can cause your nerve pathways to become more sensitive to pain from all sources. This requires increased medication doses, which furthers the pain sensitivity; it’s a vicious cycle. Holistic management techniques help you, sleep, relax, and uses other treatments such as acupuncture for pain, which can re-train nerve pathways, stimulate natural pain relievers, and reduce pain.

 What if the Natural Pain Relief Treatments Don't Work?

Luckily we have more than just natural pain medications in our arsenal to treat your pain. While we prefer to use the least invasive treatments, sometimes these do not work alone. In these cases we use a combination of holistic and non-opiate based medications to treat your pain. The bottom line with opiate based medication is they are not good for chronic pain. Some people can get away with using them long term and still get pain relief. However most cases just lead to dose escalation over time leaving you more and more dependent on the medication. Be careful though, stopping these medications abruptly will lead to withdrawal and painkiller detox. Talk to a qualified opiate detox doctor if you are considering coming off these medications.

What can Holistic Pain Management Treat?

• Fibromyalgia
• Shouler Pain Acute and Chronic
• Neck Pain Acute and Chronic
• Back Pain Acute and Chronic
• Other back and Disc Related issues
• Knee Pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Neuroapathy and other Neuropathic Pain

Phoenix Pain Management is Available at Southwest Integrative Medicine

Take control of your life and make an appointment with a Phoenix pain management specialist. We have worked with hundreds of clients to heal their chronic pain using holistic pain management strategies that work. You can transform your life and reduce, or eliminate, your dependence on pain medications using natural pain relieving techniques. Click on the link below for a free conusltation.