For many, seeing and hearing ocean waves is calming. For Nashua neck pain and back pain patients, experiencing the wave of relief from pain can be the same if they are aware of it. For those who don’t get that pain waxes and wanes while healing, the wave of healing can be saddening. Moriarty Chiropractic helps our patients understand the wave of healing, know the research behind our relieving treatment plan, and celebrate the pain relief they get.

DESCRIBING AND RATING PAIN

Since back and neck pain experiences are complete with fluctuating symptoms as they get better, researchers tried to come up with a way to classify neck pain patients and their pain patterns by tracking 1208 neck pain patients. They produced 16 subgroups! Wow. The biggest subgroup was “mild persistent fluctuating” with 25% of the patients in it reporting pain as a 3.4 out of 10 (10 worst pain). The “moderate episodic” group had 24% with a pain rating of 2.7. “Persistent fluctuating” pain patients were those bothered more by pain than the others. (1) Instead of just describing and rating pain, researchers had patients portray their pain using a visual picture scale about their pain intensity and symptomatology over 12 months. The patient responses were very similar in explaining the pain intensity but not as much for the symptoms and their characteristics. (2) Moriarty Chiropractic notices that everybody senses pain in slightly different ways and that they find certain sorts of pain more annoying than others do. All of our Nashua chiropractic patients are distinctive!

THE HEALING “WAVE”

For a year, another study followed 1124 neck pain patients who saw a chiropractor. Neck pain patients experiencing “persistent pain” – 75% to 63% over 12 months - and very minor pain stayed relatively stable. Those who had “episodic pain” – 21% to 24% over the year – shifted more in their pain patterns. (3) This is why we tell our back and neck pain patients that recovery is more wavelike than a straight line. While healing, pain ebbs and flows. Going away more than it comes is a positive sign of healing and pain relief. Moriarty Chiropractic repeatedly tells our Nashua neck pain and back pain patients to not be discouraged along the way. We’ll get there together!

CHIROPRACTIC IN MANAGING BACK AND NECK PAIN PATTERNS

Research such as explained here regarding the patterns of neck pain and back pain sufferers emphasizes the on-going need for them to have team members like their chiropractors as well as general practitioners to manage it, understand it, and care for it. One researcher described how a patient who underwent spinal surgery 30 years ago now experienced neck pain and cervical arm pain due to adjacent segment disease – a condition often seen in spinal discs above and below a spinal level that underwent back surgery - was treated with cervical manipulation, flexion distraction decompression (Cox®), soft-tissue mobilization, and therapeutic ultrasound for pain relief. (4) Again, pain relief is rarely sudden, but rather slow and steady with treatment, coming/going pain intensity, patience, and appreciation for the relief gotten be it 50%, 70% or 90% as explained by the 50% Rule of Cox® Technic.

CONTACT Moriarty Chiropractic

Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. John Murray on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares patient cases that were complicated and yet found relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management over time.

Make your Nashua chiropractic appointment soon. Together, we’ll work toward the calming wave of healing and celebrate the pain relief.