Pain – The Invisible Illness

Pain is incredibly common in the USA. Yet it does not get mentioned much by those suffering from it.

Pain should be less invisible. How aware are you of the problem of pain? Take the following little quiz and see how you do.

How many adult Americans have daily chronic or severe pain?

•             10 million
•             20 million
•             35 million
•             50 million

If you guessed 50 million, you are right. According to a 2012 study by the National Institutes of Health 25 million adults have chronic daily pain and another 24 million have severe pain. That is over 10% of the population! When you go about your day today, look around you; 1 out of 10 people you see is probably hurting badly right now.

Try this one: Out of these millions of people in the most severe kind of pain, how many of them rated their health good or better?

•             Less than 10%
•             10-30%
•             30-50%
•             More than 50%

The answer: More than 50%. These people are not staying at home because of pain. They don’t feel sick, but they hurt very badly somewhere in their body.

Many different things can be done to try to reduce the pain, some more effective than others. There is medication but many of these have side effects (also see this post). There are all kinds of exercise programs, healthy eating habits, postural techniques, etc.

All of these are good and useful if they achieve the following outcomes: pain is reduced, the patient can move around easier and participation in normal daily activities is better than before.

A drug that is very effective at taking away the pain temporarily but also makes you drowsy so you can’t concentrate or drive while taking it is therefore not an ideal solution.

Fortunately, there is an effective tool to reduce the amount of pain without any of the side effects associated with drugs – TENS Therapy. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation is a simple, safe and non-invasive technique where surface electrodes deliver small electrical pulses to the skin. When using specific frequencies and intensities, the sensation will mask the pain and stimulate the body to produce endorphins, the body's very own pain-relieving drug (also see this post).

Using TENS is cheap, widely available and easy to use. Search Amazon for "TENS unit" and many units will show up. Some offer more bells and whistles and some are wireless (see the WiTouchPRO developed by Hollywog).