Dr. Oz: Chronic Pain
Dr. Oz talked about how to cure chronic pain, speaking with three women from the audience about their constant sources of pain. There are more than 100 million people in the United States who have been suffering from chronic pain for six months or longer, making this one of the biggest health issues in the United States.
Nadiya has been suffering from severe pain for the past 10 years throughout her entire body. It’s mostly in her knees, hips, and neck. Cecily has been suffering from pain for about 10 months. Casey’s chronic pain has caused her to quit her job, quit coaching her son’s tee-ball team, and lose friends.
Dr. Oz: What Causes Chronic Pain?
Dr. Oz talked about how to overcome some chronic pain conditions, including adjusting your pain meds, evaluating your quality of sleep, and looking at your mind-body connection. (Maridav / Shutterstock.com)
Dr. Oz had a three-step plan to end chronic pain. He spoke to Dr. Natalie Azar about this issue, who said there’s more than one kind of pain. People can have acute pain from a fracture, diabetic nerve pain, or arthritis pain from a swollen joint. Chronic pain is different because lab work shows the patient’s body to be normal. They’re told the pain is all in their head.
Dr. Azar said the real issue is that the brain is perceiving and processing pain signals differently. Dr. Azar sees a lot of people with chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, who ask her if they’re going to end up in a wheelchair. But a lot of chronic pain syndromes tend to not result in a significant amount of dysfunction.
Dr. Oz: Pain Meds for Chronic Pain
Dr. Azar said that a good pain medication is critical to pain treatment. People with chronic cancer and acute pain should be taking opiates. But people with chronic non-malignant pain like fibromyalgia and chronic arthritic pain should not be taking opiates. It has not been demonstrated that using opiates long term in those types of patients is either safe or effective. Instead, it can be very harmful. It can be additive and cause things like overdoses and accidental deaths.
All three women from the audience are prescribed opiates. Natasha said she feels groggy from her medication, but it doesn’t really help.
Dr. Azar said that patients often want quick pain relief and doctors want to give it to them. It’s very easy to fill a opiate prescription rather than establish a multi-disciplinary team to heal the patient.
Dr. Oz: Non-Opiate Medications for Pain
Dr. Azar said that she likes medications that raise levels of norepinephrine in the brain. There are many neurotransmitters in the brain and norepinephrine is one of them. It’s often thought to be responsible for exacerbated pain syndromes. So she recommends SNRIs for that. She also recommends Pregabalin, which works directly on the nerves to reduce the pain signals to the brain.
Dr. Oz urged people to talk to their physicians about less addictive medications to treat their pain.
Dr. Oz: Sleep Chronic Pain Connection
Dr. Azar said the first question she asks people who have pain is whether they feel tired. The answer is always yes. She’ll ask them if they feel rested in the morning. This is a key question, because lack of restful sleep might exacerbate pain and pain might keep people up.
Dr. Azar said when you treat pain, you need to also address any underlying sleep issues. All three women from the audience agreed they don’t get good sleep. Dr. Oz shared Casey’s sleep cycle results from a test that showed she’s not getting enough deep sleep.
Dr. Azar recommended people with pain issues get a sleep study done. A sleep study is done overnight to show exactly what kind of quality of sleep the patient is getting. This also rules out other issues, such as sleep apnea.
Dr. Oz: Mind-Body Connection
Dr. Oz said that if you’re feeling anxious and you’re in pain, then you might be more aware of every single sensation, causing depression and the exacerbation of your condition. Dr. Azar recommended doing tai chi, meditation, or yoga to help you connect more with your mind and body.
So in order to treat your chronic pain effectively, you should look at the kinds of medications you’re taking, how good your sleep is, and your mind-body connection. If you work on these things, you may be able to overcome your pain.
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