St. Louis Park Chiropractor Explains Chronic Pain.

Hi, this is Dr. Harlan Mittag. I am a chiropractor, acupuncturist and nutritionist and I have been in the field of natural treatment of acute and chronic pain for some 24 years now. I would like to talk to you today about why you can have an injury and then have the pain go on and on and on.

When you are injured, you damage tissue--whether its muscle, or tendon, or ligament or joint capsule, etc. The tissue is damaged and a process of repair begins which is called inflammation. Normally when you have an injury and the inflammatory or repair process occurs, there is full repair of the damaged tissue and full recovery. With full recovery the inflammatory process ends and with it the pain ends too.

You can liken this process to say the damage to a house in a tornado or hurricane. The house damage is like the damaged tissue. First the immune system comes in and removes the damaged tissue, which is part of the process of inflammation. Then it begins to rebuild that tissue, initially with scar tissue formation.

Finally, when the rebuilding process is complete the inflammatory process ends, there is no more swelling, no more tenderness and no more pain. Again, this is what is supposed to happen, injury, inflammation and self-repair and finally recovery.

How long this process takes depends on the severity of the injury. A mild sprain and strain is thought to heal in six to twelve weeks. This is when there is no interference to the healing process. A more complicated injury like whiplash injury in an auto accident can take two years to complete the initial healing process.

But what happens in chronic inflammation? One reason for chronic pain is chronic inflammation in the area of injury, in the injured tissue, so that the rebuilding of the house is never completed. The body is forever trying to complete the healing process, so that the rebuilding of the house is never completed. The reason why the full healing does not occur is multiple reasons. Here are some of those reasons:

Repetitive trauma
Mechanical instability
Undetected nerve damage and disruption of nervous system signaling
Chemical imbalances from poor diet (acid pH)
Nutritional deficiencies
Immune system weakness
Body toxicity
Need for mind-body healing (disruption of acupuncture energy flow)

This article is not the place to explain all of these, but if you are interested in more information on natural healing of acute and chronic pain, you can download my free ebook called Docs Guide to Natural Pain Relief at www.BestStLouisParkChiropractor.com. You can also ask me any question that you have through the website, and you will find other resources their as well.
Thank you.