Chronic or persistent pain is pain that carries on for longer than 12 weeks.  The pain may feel sharp or dull, causing a burning or aching sensation in the affected area.  It may be continuous or intermittent and can come and go without any apparent reason.  It can occur in nearly any part of your body and the pain can feel different in the various affected areas.

Around 15.5 million people in England (34% of the population) have chronic pain. Approximately 5.5 million people (12% of the population) have high-impact chronic pain and struggle to take part in daily activities, and this number is set to rise with an aging population.

Whilst medication provides a number of short-term solutions, chiropractic treatment offers a long-term solution by working with your body for maintainable results.

What are the causes of chronic pain?

Identifying the causes of chronic pain can be difficult, but chiropractors are experts in the assessment and diagnosis of musculoskeletal (relating to muscles and skeleton together) disorders and can help find exactly where the pain is coming from.

This type of pain can be caused by:

• An illness or injury
• Osteoarthritis – joint pain and inflammation
• Inflammatory arthritis
• Nerve compression due to repetitive injuries
• Spinal stenosis – narrowing of the spinal canal

So how can chiropractic treatment help?

The good news for chronic pain sufferers is that chiropractic treatment can help to alleviate chronic and acute symptoms as well as correcting any underlying mechanical problems of the spine.  This is because at the heart of chiropractic treatment is the idea that we humans function at our optimum when we are aligned and balanced.

This idea makes total sense when you think how complex a structure the human musculoskeletal system is.

An example of this is if you have a neck problem this can also cause problems in your shoulders and arms, this is also true if you have back problems, depending on what side the pain is on it  may make you favour one side of the body leading to hip, knee and ankle pain!

Your chiropractor will work with you to create an individual treatment plan, which may include chiropractic manipulation or mobilisation, exercises to make sure your body keeps supple and moving and massage.

If you’d like to get started on a long-lasting solution for your chronic pain, or you would like some further information, please call us on: Hitchin 01462 420077 or Luton 01582 579687, alternatively e-mail us at: hitchin@healesclinics.com or luton@healesclinics.com