Medical science is a wonderful thing when it's working well. So
if you break a bone, doctors are very good at splinting it (or covering
you with plaster to stop you moving around too much) and waiting for it
to knit back together again. The mechanics of how to deal with this
situation are well understood. But if you ask doctors about why it
hurts, no-one can really explain how the pain system works. For the
record, the word “pain” comes from the Greek for penalty. Pain is a type
of punishment for your body failing. As to the nervous system, there
are nerve endings all over your body and when a stimulus passes a
threshold, this is interpreted as pain. Under normal circumstances, the
pain will be localized, i.e. there will be pressure or an injury that
triggers the sensation. But there is also “referred pain” which is where
pain from one part of the body is felt in a different part, e.g. pain
from the gallbladder is often felt in the right shoulder because the
nerves are distributed by the same root in the spinal column. This is
confusing when it comes to diagnosis.
When the stimulus generates the pain message, it is transmitted
to the brain. This depends on the neurotransmitters, yet it is still not
certain how everything works together. One thing is clear. Pain is
pain, and it does not matter whether it is classified as acute or
chronic, i.e. short-term or likely to last a long time. The real
difference is that the cause of acute pain is often clear, e.g. you
broke a bone, so you know it will heal. But the causes of chronic pain
may not be clearly identified. Nevertheless there are a number of
approaches to deal with the problem. There are drugs from the
pharmaceutical companies. You start with aspirin for the less serious
pain and work up to the seriously powerful opiates that will knock you
out and kill all but the most severe of pain sensations. The majority of
the drugs come in a pill or capsule, but there are also topical creams
you can rub on to the affected parts of your body and, in the more
extreme cases, there are injectable versions that deliver the drugs
close to the point where they will do the most good.
Holding the middle ground is tramadol and Fioricet to buy. This is a opioid, i.e. it
has the same general effect as an opiate, but is synthetic rather than
produced from a natural substance. This drug is now the first response
used by doctors for moderate to severe pain. It's not completely clear
how or why it works except that it affects the levels of
neurotransmitters. The brain therefore becomes less aware of the pain.
This gives relief and, if the pain is acute, you have greater peace
while the cause of the pain is treated and heals. For chronic pain,
tramadolbestbuy.com is equally effective but there are two issues. The first is you
should not take too high a dosage over too long a time. This can be
habit-forming. The second problem is psychological. The acute patient
knows the pain will stop fairly soon. It is harder to maintain a good
quality of life if the pain is chronic.
