Suffering From Chronic Pain: The 4 Types of Chronic Pain & How They're Connected Diseases/Disorders Family Health Men's Health Women's Health

Pain is a skyrocketing epidemic. About two-thirds of adults suffer with pain, with one in four having chronic pain that has lasted more than three months. About 7 percent of people have chronic pain that is so severe that it interferes with their ability to function.

Chronic pain falls into four silos that are intimately connected:

1. Muscle Pain

Muscle pain is the most common type of pain and mostly comes from shortening of muscles. When a muscle gets locked in the shortened position, it hurts. Muscle shortening is usually caused by inadequate energy, and our research shows that increasing energy in the muscles helps them to relax so the pain can go away.

2. Inflammation

Inflammation can come from injury or infection. With our inflammatory Standard American Diet (SAD), the problem often means that our inflammation and immune systems are stuck on overdrive.

3. Nerve Pain

Nerve pain, or neuropathy, is also associated with inadequate energy in the nerve. This causes the "pacemakers" in the nerve to keep firing, exhausting the nerve and triggering pain.

4. Brain Pain (Central Sensitization)

Any chronic pain triggers a form of brain cell inflammation called microglial activation, which markedly amplifies the pain. The good news is that several safe, effective, low-cost and readily available treatments can effectively turn off brain pain. It’s like rebooting your computer when it goes on the fritz.

The bigger challenge is that once any one of these pain types becomes chronic, it can trigger the other three. So, where chronic pain is concerned it’s best to treat all four at once. Which is simple to do. Consult your doctor. 

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