Tag: Pain Management

A Look At Arthritis: America’s Leading Cause of Disability

A Look At Arthritis: America’s Leading Cause of Disability
Larry Denton

The word arthritis literally means joint inflammation, but it is often used to refer to a group of more than 100 rheumatic diseases that cause pain, stiffness, and swelling in the joints. The most common are osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and gout. Most forms of arthritis are associated with pain that can be divided into two categories: acute and chronic. Acute pain is temporary. It can last a few seconds or a few minutes but diminishes as healing occurs. Acute pain is associated with burns, cuts and fractures. Chronic pain, such as that felt by people with arthritis, ranges from mild to severe and can last days, months, years or even a lifetime. Osteoarthritis is one of the most frequent causes of physical disability among adults. More than 20 million people in the United States, alone, have the disease. By 2030, according the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 20 percent of all Americans–about 70 million people–will have passed their 65th birthday and will be at a higher risk of osteoarthritis. Arthritis limits the everyday activity of 8 million Americans, and this disability creates huge burdens for the individuals, their families, and the nation as a whole. Each year, arthritis results in 9,500 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Control, in 1997, medical care for arthritis (in the U.S.) was $51 billion. This disease affects each person quite differently. In some people it progresses quickly and in others the symptoms are much more serious and painful. Medical practitioners do not yet know what causes arthritis, but they suspect a combination of factors including: being overweight, the aging process, family history, joint injury, and stresses on the joints from work or sporting activities.There is no single treatment that applies to everyone who suffers from arthritis. With your personal input, a medical specialist will develop a management and treatment plan designed to minimize your specific pain and improve the function of your joints. A number of treatments can provide short-term relief. They include: medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, the use of hot and cold packs, using a splint or a brace to protect painful joints, or perhaps using muscle-relaxing massages.In the long-term, pain relief may be found with: new drugs, called biological response modifiers, which reduce inflammation in the joints; corticosteroids such as Prednisone; weight reduction; dietary changes; exercise (swimming, walking and low-impact aerobic exercise); and even surgery to replace a joint that has badly deteriorated. In some instances, nutritional supplements may be helpful. The long-term goal of pain management is to help you cope with this chronic, often disabling disease. You may be caught in a cycle of pain, depression, and stress. To break this cycle, you need to be an active participant in managing your pain. The role you play in planning your treatment is very important. You and your health care providers must work together closely to develop a personalized and effective treatment program. Research has shown that patients who are well informed and participate actively in their own care, experience less pain, make fewer visits to the doctor and lead a much more enjoyable life. About the Author
Larry Denton is a retired history teacher having taught 33 years at Hobson High in Hobson, Montana. He is currently Vice President of Elfin Enterprises, Inc. a business dedicated to providing information and resources on a variety of topics. For an therapy room full of information and valuable resources to assist you in dealing with arthritis, visit http://www.ArthritisAide.com

Pain Treatment and Hypnosis for Children

If you’re seriously interested in knowing about hypnosis, you need to think beyond the basics. This informative article takes a closer look at things you need to know about hypnosis.

The word hypnosis seems to conjure bad images for a number of people. Im sure we have watched something, whether it is a movie or an animation, about mortals falling or doing evil things because of being hypnotized. So when you say, hypnosis for children, parents tend to be overprotective.

Perfectly, hypnotism is not bad at all. Studies have showed hypnotism helping children and adults deal lock up chronic pain, insomnia, stress, depression, weight gain and fears or phobia. Currently, hypnosis is now used in pain management.

Unlike the deep sleep that we know, people under hypnotism or hypnotherapy are conscious on what they are doing and what they can hear and understand. Hypnotism can be used to treat diseases and disorder, it is called hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is used in pain management.

There are three strategies in using hypnosis in pain management:

Physical recreation focusing on relaxation while feeling the pain, reduces the pain to vibrate and escalate. When tension is mixed pain, this heightens the pain. Muscle tension tends to drill on the muscles where it is glum.

Sensory alteration this strategy changes how we perceive the pain. Focusing to a different feeling will eventually filter out the hurt that you are experiencing.

Distraction focus is shifted to other things to remove any honor to the body part feeling the pain.

Actually there are studies showing how effective hypnosis is in pain reliving. Hypnosis with combined with other alternative form of medication like acupuncture can relieve chronic pain patients. This can also be used to help children who are in the hospital undergoing painful treatments. Self – hypnosis against pain amenability be sage and be performed by children. Sharp are studies showing children who can do self – hypnotism recorded less migraine occurrence than those children who are thinking medication.

Using hypnosis for children would show complications once the hypnosis lifted or removed. Some side – effects would include confusion, fainting, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and anxiety. Most of the side – effects are short – termed but there are some patients who experience stupefaction, psychological problems, and some patients even display recurring episodes of the previous shock. Based on these experiences, it is imperative to investigate on the background on contour of the kind and smuggle those who are susceptible to the mentioned side – effects.

A problem may also happen when the hypnotherapist forget to lift the hypnosis. The patient may sustain serious injury or any complication without the patient even astute or feeling it at all.

Over the course of applying hypnotherapy to children, studies and practices showed that children find right easier to face painful medical procedures like bone marrow aspiration, cancer patients, postoperative pain, chronic dispute and remove anxiety tin children who would undergo surgery.

Actually, if hypnosis history is traced, it would display that during early period, hypnosis is used to help patients who would be undergoing agonizing surgeries before anaesthetics were discovered. When anaesthesia was discovered in the middle of 19th century, chemical induced no sweat surgeries were favoured over tradition hypnosis. When chemicals and anaesthesia is useless or not enough in relieving the pain, this is when self – hypnosis is used.

Studies have showed that hypnosis for children was able to help them remove any pain and service them undergo medical procedures or simply just live their life. But more importantly, we must identify that it is really, well sometimes, just in the mind.
There’s no doubt that the topic of hypnosis can be fascinating. If you still have unanswered questions about hypnosis, you may find what you’re looking for in the next article.