We recently published a post discussing five things about chronic pain most people don't know. We couldn't discuss everything we wanted to in that post, so we decided to publish a follow-up. We hope you get a better understanding of chronic pain after reading them.
Below are five more things about chronic pain you might not be aware of. As you read, remember that KindlyMD exists to help Utah pain patients feel better. We offer tailored treatments, plant-based medicines, help to obtain a Utah medical card, and additional services. You can contact us at any time to make an appointment at one of our clinics.
With the preliminaries out of the way, here are five more things about chronic pain most people do not know:
Given that pain is almost always a symptom of another condition, it is not limited to specific parts of the body. It can be felt anywhere. Even more interesting is the fact that some types of pain can be felt in one part of the body while the root cause is found elsewhere.
Take sciatica. It occurs when a nerve in the lower back is pinched. A patient can feel sciatica pain through the hip and all the way down the leg. Hip and leg pain can be felt even if there is no sensation of pain in the patient's back.
Unfortunately, the number of possible causes of chronic pain is nearly limitless. Nerve damage can cause neuropathic pain that lasts a lifetime. Arthritis can cause pain in the joints. Fibromyalgia can cause body-wide pain that never goes away. The list goes on and on. Hopefully, you get the point.
This next point is one that many people who have never experienced chronic pain have trouble wrapping the brains around: chronic pain affects quality of life. For starters, trying to maintain a normal routine when pain is always present is challenging – even on the best days.
Just getting through the day can be hard enough. And when this is the case, patients have a tendency to limit their activities. They stop doing the things they love. They stop spending time with friends and family. They might not get out of the house very often. Losing such things can ultimately lead to depression or other mental health concerns.
Possible treatments for chronic pain are many and varied. Doctors will consider the root causes, the severity of the pain, how often the pain is experienced, and other factors when treating a patient. Treatment options run the gamut from prescription medications to physical therapy to plant-based medicines.
A general rule says that pain must persist for at least three months to be considered chronic. This further suggests that some cases of chronic pain can be cured along with the underlying condition. Unfortunately, a cure is not always possible. There is no cure for fibromyalgia, for example. Fibromyalgia pain can be managed for the most part, but it never fully goes away.
Chronic pain is a complex condition, to say the least. We are here to help you find relief if you live in Utah and traditional treatments haven't helped you. Contact us to learn more about services related to plant-based medicine and Utah Medical Cards. Our number one priority is helping you feel better in a safe and manageable way.
Chronic pain affects just over 20% of the U.S. adult population. That works out to about 50 million people. It has been our experience that many people know very little about chronic pain, especially those who have never experienced it. But even many chronic pain patients know little about their condition other than that it hurts.
Pain clinics like ours specialize in helping chronic pain patients feel better. They are staffed by pain management physicians with access to a variety of treatments not normally available through GPs and family doctors. Anyone suffering from chronic pain and unable to find relief through standard treatments is a good candidate to visit a pain clinic.
While you think on that, here are five things about chronic pain most people do not know:
From a medical standpoint, chronic pain is not arbitrary. We define it as pain that is felt either daily or on most days, for a period of time longer than would otherwise be normal for the condition behind it. As a general rule, chronic pain persists for at least three months.
In the majority of chronic pain cases, pain is a symptom of something else. Cancer patients experience pain related to both the disease itself and its treatments. Diabetics are known to experience neuropathic pain as a direct result of nerve damage in their limbs.
However, there are cases when pain cannot be traced to some other condition. Test after test indicates an otherwise healthy person. In such cases, pain is the only condition. Science doesn't quite understand how this is possible, but it cannot be denied in the face of so many patients who exhibit this sort of pain.
Playing off the previous point, pain can be specific or nonspecific. Specific pain can be traced back to a verifiable condition. Arthritis pain is specific; we know what is causing it. On the other hand, nonspecific pain is pain for which we have found no root cause. This does not necessarily mean there is no root cause. It just means that testing hasn't revealed it.
People who have no experience with chronic pain often think of it in isolation. Their own experience with temporary pain doesn't allow them to make the connection between pain and other symptoms. But truth be told, chronic pain is almost always accompanied by other things, including:
The thing about chronic pain is that it is physically and mentally draining. A patient doesn't just hurt; the constant battle of trying to live a normal life wears them down when pain is always present.
From a clinical perspective, chronic pain is often challenging to diagnose. We know chronic pain is an actual condition. What we are not quite sure about is why it persists in so many cases. Not having a full understanding of chronic pain makes things difficult for medical providers who sincerely want to help.
There is a lot more about chronic pain we have not discussed in this post. Perhaps a second post will follow. At any rate, chronic pain is as much a mystery as it is a reality. If you are living with it and haven't found adequate relief yet, consider visiting one of our clinics. KindlyMD specializes in helping chronic pain patients feel better.
It is hard to imagine that a medical clinic or individual clinician would require patients to sign a contract before receiving care. Unfortunately, contracts are pretty common in pain medicine. Pain clinics around the country establish contractual relationships with their patients, with the understanding that such relationships can be terminated for breach of contract. Here at KindlyMD, we believe there is a better way than pain management contracts.
In fairness to those clinics that choose the contract route, they do so for a reason. The primary thing they are attempting to avoid is misuse of prescription medications. Not only is medication misuse unhealthy for patients, but it could also expose a clinic to liability. Basing care on a signed contract ostensibly minimizes both.
In a Medical News Today post published in March of 2023, contributor Mary West posed an intriguing question: "how many chances do you get at pain management?" Her point is well taken. Pain management isn't a simple thing. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of time to achieve the desired results. Effective pain management is often a process of trial and error.
A pain management physician might prescribe a particular medication after an initial consultation. If it doesn't work, it's back to the drawing board. The back-and-forth between doctor and patient might eventually hit on an effective treatment, but it could take months or years. In the meantime, the patient won’t necessarily follow the doctor's advice to the letter.
That could result in breach of contract. When that happens, the patient gets dropped, and they are out of chances – at least with that clinician. Then it's on to the next. It all seems pretty strange given the fact that healthcare is supposed to be altruistic at its core.
As we said at the start of this post, we think there is a better way to handle pain management. That better way is to let the patient be the guide. No one knows a patient's body better than the patient themselves. No one knows but them how they truly feel. Most importantly, no one but the patient has to live their life. Clinicians should always remember that.
Part of our approach to patient-guided journeys is to explore alternative treatments. We are not so quick to write prescriptions. If there are other ways to manage pain, we want our patients to know about and use them. We are especially fond of plant-based medicine due to its widespread use in Eastern practices for millennia.
We believe plant-based medicine is a more natural way to treat chronic pain. We feel it is more organic and more closely aligned with how the human body works. We realize that not all pain clinics share our beliefs or agree with letting patients guide their healthcare journeys. But we can confidently say that we have had remarkable success over the years.
We believe letting the patient guide their healthcare journey is a better approach than establishing a contractual relationship between doctor and patient. It is a better approach for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that a patient's opportunities to find relief ought to be unlimited. No one should be condemned to a life of chronic pain because a contract was violated.
We understand why some pain clinics go the pain management contracts route. What they do is their business. At KindlyMD, we think that a patient-guided approach is the better way to go. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like to know more about how we treat chronic pain.
The healthcare journey is one with multiple juxtapositions. On the one hand, healthcare should be based in scientific fact and reliable evidence. On the other hand, how a patient feels doesn't always line up with science. Likewise, doctors and nurses are trained clinicians well versed in how the human body works. But no one knows a body better than the person who lives in it. We say all this to pose the following question: should patients guide their own healthcare journeys?
KindlyMD patients live with a full range of medical conditions including chronic pain, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. We operate on the philosophy that they should be the primary decision makers. They should be encouraged to guide their treatments with help from prescribers and clinicians. When all is said and done, they are in charge.
A good way to think of the KindlyMD approach to healthcare is to compare it to building a house. The builder and general contractor are trained professionals with the knowledge and experience to make sure the actual construction is done correctly. But they are not the primary decision makers.
They sit down with buyers to have frank discussions about what the finished product should look like. Builders and contractors rely on buyers to make architectural decisions, design decisions, budgetary decisions, and so forth. The buyer guides the journey while the paid professionals make it happen.
If builders and contractors built what they wanted without regard to their buyers, they would have a tough time selling houses. That's why they don't do it. Should healthcare be any different? We don't think so. We think patients should be the primary guides. They should lead us along their healthcare journeys while we provide the know-how to get them from one point to the next.
Some types of healthcare services are more black-and-white than others. That said, many of the conditions we treat can be pretty fluid from patient to patient. We work with patients experiencing chronic pain in different ways and for different reasons. We treat PTSD patients who experience a range of symptoms that are not always identical.
In terms of mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, there are some basic things common to most cases. But the details of each case are unique to the individuals they pertain to. No two mental health patients are exactly alike.
We have learned a lot about the practical aspects of pain medicine over the years. One of the big things is that pain clinics can offer treatment options and sound advice. We can offer recommendations to patients who desperately want relief. But we cannot truly know how they feel. They know how they feel, and it is up to us to listen to what they say.
Patients visiting KindlyMD for the first time discover that our clinicians love to ask questions. Questions are important to helping us understand what a patient is going through. We rely on answers to understand patient experiences as best we can. We are also genuinely interested in what a patient feels is the best direction for treatment.
Should patients guide their healthcare journeys with prescribers and clinicians in support? We believe so. That is the position we take. Patients are in a unique position to know where they were, where they are, and where they think they are going. It's not up to us to dictate what that journey looks like. Our role is to provide support, sound advice, a full array of treatments, a listening ear, and an open mind.
As a medical specialty, pain medicine tends to be more open minded than more traditional approaches to handling chronic pain. But even within the specialty we can be close-minded at times. We can get set in our ways. We can fail to consider that even pain medicine evolves over time. The solution is for the specialty to adopt a more open mind toward everything from diagnoses to treatments.
KindlyMD believes that a more open mind leads to discussions about alternatives, including applying for a Medical Card. Here in Utah, a state-issued Medical Card gives chronic pain patients access to a particular form of treatment they may have never tried before. It is a treatment that works very well for thousands of our patients.
Of course, a Medical Card isn't the only avenue for alternative treatments. There are many others. The point is to not be locked into a single way of thinking. Chronic pain is very personal. It requires an equally personal approach from pain clinics, pain medicine practitioners, and patients.
As a Utah pain clinic, KindlyMD serves patients from all walks of life. We work with professionals and blue-collar workers. We work with men and women. Virtually anyone struggling with chronic pain is a good candidate to visit KindlyMD. At the heart of what we do is plant-based medicine.
Plant-based treatments are actually not new. Eastern medicine has taken tremendous advantage of plants throughout human history. Western medicine has historically avoided them. We feel it is time to change that. We could use more plant-based medicines in Western healthcare.
For the record, this is what the Utah Medical Card is all about. Receiving a card means opening the door to plant-based treatments as an alternative to the more traditional approach to pain management. A treatment rooted in plant-based medicines just works better for some people.
One of the things we have been learning in pain medicine over the last two decades is just how much healthcare relies on static diagnoses and treatment options. But we have also learned that good health isn't static. What do we mean by that? We mean that there is no uniform standard for everyone.
Pain management is the perfect example. Not all patients experience pain in the same way. Not all patients exhibit the same pain threshold. Not all doctors interpret responses to the pain scale the same way. There is so much variation that it is impossible to come up with a static diagnosis and treatment applicable to every patient.
We can establish general guidelines. We can establish basic recommendations based on established facts. But when push comes to shove, healthcare needs to be flexible enough to accommodate the many differences between patients and their experiences. That's something Western medicine hasn't done very well throughout history.
A more open-minded approach to Western medicine recognizes that it is possible to pursue whatever works for patients, within reason. From our point of view, Medical Cards and plant-based medicines are well within reason. Plant-based medicine has thousands of years of history behind it. Medical Cards give patients access to it.
Throughout human history, we have treated injuries and illnesses through a variety of means flexible enough to accommodate individual needs. Somewhere along the way, Western medicine lost much of its flexibility. It's time to change that. Specifically, where pain medicine is concerned, we need more pain clinics adopting a more open-minded approach. The more we open our minds to new treatment possibilities, the better we will be at offering genuine pain relief.
Do you feel like your doctor doesn't listen to you? If so, you're not alone. There is growing sentiment among patients that our healthcare system isn't responsive to their needs. When patients feel that way, obtaining healthcare services can seem frustrating. It can make patients feel both helpless and hopeless.
For the record, none of this is a knock against doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc. Unfortunately, most of them are locked into a system that doesn't allow them to pay as much attention to patients as they would like. They must walk that fine line between providing adequate care and keeping things moving. We can empathize with them.
Nonetheless, it is never good when a patient feels as though their doctor doesn't listen. That's why we take a different approach at KindlyMD. Our approach is a holistic one designed to treat the whole patient in body, mind, and spirit. We avoid focusing exclusively on symptoms alone.
The holistic approach to medicine isn't necessarily a new approach, per se. Rather, we like to describe it as a different way of thinking. It is different in the sense that the goal is the same as traditional medicine – to help patients feel better – but the journey to reaching that goal tends to be anything but traditional.
The typical Western approach to medicine seeks to make the patient feel better by addressing symptoms. If something hurts due to inflammation, we prescribe a medication designed to reduce that inflammation. But what about the root cause of the problem?
Another important aspect of holistic care is the fact that it addresses both the mental and physical. At KindlyMD, we combine mental health services with alternative medicines for a more thorough and comprehensive treatment. We want patients to feel better physically and experience better mental health at the same time.
Getting back to the main premise of this post, know that you can change doctors. Your health is important to you. It is too important to continue working with a medical provider in whom you don't have confidence. So if you don't feel like your doctor listens and you have unsuccessfully tried to resolve the issue, perhaps it's time to start looking for a new provider.
We actually see this quite a bit in pain medicine. It is very common for pain management doctors to take on new patients who feel as though their GPs are unable to help them. Again, we are not knocking GPs. They have their hands full dealing with everything from allergies to colicky babies and the common cold.
Chronic pain is something that GPs and family doctors do not always address well. Switching to a pain medicine doctor is a better option for many patients. And that's okay, by the way. Seeking out a new doctor capable of helping you doesn't make you unappreciative or disloyal. It makes you smart.
If you feel like your doctor does not listen to you, we understand. We get you. We also want you to know that we are here to listen. KindlyMD practices a holistic form of medicine that seeks to treat the whole patient rather than just symptoms. Our specialty is chronic pain management.
We have multiple clinics ready to serve you here in Utah. Check out our Clinics page to find the one nearest to you. Whether you need help with medication management, mental health, or obtaining a Utah Medical Card, we are ready to work with you to help you feel better.
Chronic pain is a curious thing. It can be completely debilitating to one person while only mildly inconvenient to another. Yet chronic pain always has the potential to diminish a person's quality of life. How would a person know? By applying what pain medicine physicians refer to as the Quality of Life Scale for pain.
If you've never dealt with chronic pain for an extended amount of time, you might be wondering how a person could not know that their pain was diminishing quality of life. That is understandable. But here's the deal: a person living with chronic pain for long enough can actually get used to it. You can get used to a “new normal” to the point of forgetting what life used to be like.
Getting used to that new normal could make it more difficult for a chronic pain patient to decide whether the pain was diminishing quality of life. It is almost as though the patient doesn't know any better. In this case, the patient’s reference point for quality of life is skewed.
The Quality of Life Scale was originally developed by the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA). It was designed as a number-based scale that could be used as a reference point by pain management doctors and their patients. From the doctor's perspective, the scale provides a baseline for measuring future pain.
To fully understand how pain affects your quality of life, a doctor would want to know how your pain influences:
If a pain management doctor wanted to apply the Quality of Life Scale to your situation, you could expect to be asked certain questions. You could expect to be asked to rate your pain in relation to the things listed above. Your rating would be on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being non-functional and 10 being normal.
It is generally a good idea to work with a pain management doctor to track your pain and how it impacts your daily life. A pain management doctor is a qualified medical provider who specializes in pain. All of that said, you can utilize the scale at home, by yourself.
Just rate the five things listed above on a scale of 0-10. The numbers you choose when first using the scale make up your baseline. They are your starting point. Future ratings are compared to this baseline to see how you're doing.
Now, there are two things to pay attention to:
One of the unfortunate things about treating chronic pain is that we have no diagnostic test to measure it. Pain management physicians need to rely on the Quality of Life Scale to understand where patients are. The good news is that you can use the scale to see for yourself how you're doing. If you are concerned that pain is diminishing your quality of life, we invite you to visit us at KindlyMD.
Pain clinics specialize in treating patients unable to find significant pain relief by working with their family doctors or GPs. From the patient's perspective, finding a good pain clinic can be easier said than done. It can be disappointing to visit a clinic for the first time only to discover that its doctors have the same mentality: treating only with prescription meds.
The WebMD website offers a pretty detailed article on pain clinics and what patients should know about them. Near the end of the article is a recommendation to "stay away from pain clinics that offer mostly narcotics to treat pain." The article then goes on to briefly discuss the highly addictive nature of such medications.
Given the recommendation, the question becomes one of whether you should avoid pain clinics with a prescription med mentality. The choice is ultimately up to you, but we can give you some information that might help you make a decision.
A good starting point is discussing the different types of pain medications doctors recommend. Some, like prescription narcotics, provide relief by masking the pain. They make patients feel better by making it more difficult for their brains to both recognize and interpret pain signals. These medications, in particular, are the ones that give so many people pause.
There are other medications that offer pain relief by reducing inflammation. Still others relieve pain through the analgesic effect. Both anti-inflammatory and analgesic medications can be offered as over the counter (OTC) or prescription drugs.
A third type of medication is a plant-based medication. It is the option KindlyMD medical providers are most likely to recommend under normal circumstances. Plant-based medications are considered alternatives to Western prescription meds. But their “alternative” status does not make them any less effective.
While the addictive nature of prescription narcotics is the primary issue discussed in the WebMD article, it is also worth noting how a medical provider actually approaches pain management. This is important since most people who visit pain clinics suffer from chronic pain. So, they are engaging in long-term relationships with their pain management doctors.
Though there are exceptions to the rule, a medical provider with a prescription med mentality approaches pain management from the perspective of taking a given number of pills per day. It is a pharmacological approach that doesn't necessarily yield the best results. A clinic that offers alternative therapies, with or without prescription meds, tends to take a more holistic approach to pain management. We think offering both traditional and alternative pain management options will give our patients the greatest chances of success.
A holistic approach does not zero-in on the symptom of pain exclusively. It doesn't seek to merely relieve pain and nothing else. The holistic approach helps us treat the whole person—not just their symptoms—so pain is no longer a life-dominating factor.
A major benefit of the holistic approach is that it offers the opportunity to create individualized treatment plans for each patient. On the other hand, individualized treatments are the rare exception when a pain management physician relies exclusively on prescription meds. The pharmacological approach is very static. There is little room for individuality or flexibility.
Pain clinics adopt a variety of approaches to help patients manage pain. Should you avoid clinics with a prescription med mentality? That's up to you. We have given you some insights based on our experiences and philosophy as pain management specialists. Now you must decide what type of approach you want to take toward managing your pain.
What is integrated behavioral healthcare and how does it apply to pain management? To understand the answers, we must first recognize that pain isn’t just a physical condition, it’s also an emotional one.
Suffering from chronic pain and other chronic health issues can leave a person feeling hopeless, demoralized, and disempowered. This, in turn, can lead to anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and even anger.
People suffering from chronic pain may not realize that treating physical pain symptoms goes hand-in-hand with treating emotional distress. Treating one or the other can certainly make a big difference in one’s pain experience. Research shows treating both physical pain and comorbid emotional issues has an even greater positive effect.
That’s why pain management programs like the one offered at KindlyMD go above and beyond treating only the physical symptoms of pain. When a patient visits us for pain treatment, we include a behavioral health clinician (BHC) in the discussion.
The BHC can help you develop a number of strategies to meet your healthcare goals. The pain clinician can prescribe pharmaceuticals or recommend plant-based alternative medicine, if appropriate. Together, this coordinated care team can help you address your pain through multiple avenues.
We want to note that the behavioral health portion of a KindlyMD clinic visit is not a replacement for traditional therapy. Patients suffering from PTSD, depression, or other mental health problems would likely benefit from full-length therapy sessions, which we can also arrange.
The experience of pain differs from person to person, and it can have a wide variety of negative effects on each person’s life. We mentioned some of the negative emotional effects above, but consider that pain can also:
Good pain management programs focus on pain relief and improving the patient’s quality of life and ability to function. This means we’re attacking the pain problem from multiple angles and achieving multiple positive results. By integrating pain management and behavioral healthcare, our clinicians help patients relieve pain as efficiently as possible.
We think it’s important to listen to our patient’s healthcare goals and present them with a personalized “menu” of treatment options. We want our patients to be actively involved in the process of setting achievable health goals. Some of the best quality of life improvements come from choosing an outcome you desire, followed by setting reasonable goals to help you get there.
After all, you are the one in charge of your healthcare. Unless someone else acts as your healthcare proxy, it’s ultimately your decision to seek healthcare and carry out your treatment plan.
Once a person suffering from chronic pain makes an appointment with a pain clinic, he or she has already demonstrated a sense of empowerment. If the pain clinicians do their job well, that patient will leave the clinic feeling even more empowered. Patients visiting KindlyMD can expect that level of service.
Everyone suffering from chronic pain has a unique experience with the condition. Apart from the physical source(s) of pain, quite a few factors influence a person’s pain experience.
“For example, sex, age, and ethnic group differences in the prevalence of chronic pain conditions have been widely reported,” wrote Dr. Roger Fillingim in a study called “Individual Differences in Pain: Understanding the Mosaic that Makes Pain Personal.”
Fillingim is a clinical psychologist who researches pain and the different ways people experience it. His study also mentions genetic and psychosocial factors can shape a person’s pain experience.
Since pain can differ so greatly from one person to another, it makes sense that the most effective treatment plans are tailored to each individual.
One of the most common ways to create a customized pain treatment plan is through cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). As far as pain management goes, CBT is most helpful for patients who feel helpless about their pain situations. Such patients often believe their pain makes them unable to function.
Behavioral health clinicians help patients realize that they can, in fact, improve their lives by developing and practicing certain skills. For example, BHCs can teach patients about managing stress, solving problems, setting goals, and being assertive about reducing pain.
Once again, the advice a BHC gives is not generalized, but personalized for each patient’s unique situation and goals. With a little dedication and practice, the skills your BHC helps you develop will last a lifetime and maximize your pain relief.
If you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain, we want to help you find relief, starting right now. Click here or call us at 385-388-8220 to schedule a pain clinic appointment.
