Chronic Pain & The Overlap of Other Medical Issues Involving Pain

Every part of your body was designed to work together in perfect harmony. When there’s an issue in one area, there tend to be problems in other areas as well. The modern practice of labeling the issue you’re experiencing and treating the symptoms doesn’t always work well.

The main problem is that labeling diseases in general is a very one-sided way of looking at things.

Take osteoarthritis, for example. We know that this is degeneration of the joint that is common amongst the elderly. In fact, most doctors will tell patients it is age-related and unavoidable. While this is true, it is not the only potential cause of osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis could be caused by an overload of iron in the body which in turn is caused by certain conditions such as hemochromatosis or rare forms of anemia. Or it could be caused by estrogen deficiency, among many other things.

So, would this mean you just have osteoarthritis? Or would you call it estrogen deficiency with joint problems being one of the symptoms?

Another disorder, fibromyalgia, could also be the result of numerous other issues. Many patients believe they have fibromyalgia or are diagnosed with it by their chronic pain doctor when they have serious sleep apnea or arthritis instead. Lyme disease or nerve damage could also be mistaken for fibromyalgia.

Treating Your Body as a Whole

These are important distinctions to make when diagnosing a disorder. If you’re undergoing osteoarthritis treatment for joint problems when it is caused by iron overload, you’re probably not going to get too far unless you also address the iron issue. This also goes for many other illnesses. If doctors only treat the symptom and not the body as a whole, then patients are often being set up for failure.

While it’s easy to label a symptom or self-identify with a certain disorder, this may not be the best way to look at things.

When you treat your body as a whole and work on nourishing it through a combination of natural pain treatments, you stand a much better chance of not just reducing your symptoms but eliminating them entirely!