You Can Manage Chronic Osteoporosis Pain

The pain of osteoporosis usually caused by fractures, these fractures can take several months to heal. In many cases, the pain relieves when the fracture heals. A fresh fracture usually takes three months to heal. If your osteoporosis pain persists after that period, it is usually regarded as being chronic pain.

A chronic osteoporosis pain can be caused by fractured vertebral bones. Although some people don’t feel pain when a vertebra breaks, others experience muscle spasms and acute pain can persist long after the fracture has mended.

Pain is a message from your body telling you that you have damage. When you break your bones, some kind of pain message will be released from your nervous system to your brain through the spinal cord to the brain.

How you respond to the pain depends upon several factors such as your emotional state. If you have depression, it often increases one's pain perception and reduces our ability to handle it. Therefore, if you treat the depression you can also treat the pain.

In many cases, chronic osteoporosis pain lingers longer than the usual healing time.  It interferes with your daily life. Although the injury has healed, still the pain persists. It could be muscle tension, spasms, stiffness or weakness that triggers the pain.

You feel frustrated, angry, and fearful, and that feeling could well worsen the pain. Chronic pain impacts on all aspects of your life, and you need to take it seriously.  See your doctor and seek advice about how to manage your pain.

Some common strategies for managing the pain are: applying heat or ice packs, receiving Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS), wearing  supports  or braces, exercising regularly, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage and so on.

Heat from taking warm showers or applying hot packs is one option for pain relief. Or you can apply cold packs or ice packs.  In either case, leave the pack for 15 or 20 minutes.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation is a therapy to block pain messages by sending electrical impulses to particular areas of your body.  It is small set of electronic equipment with two electrodes placed on the part where you are feeling pain.  The mild electrical current can disturb the transmission of pain messages causing them to not reach the brain.  Some people find benefit after one session, and other people are use small portable Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation units to relieve the pain.  You can hook this type of unit to your belt and carry it around.

Spinal braces can mitigate inflammation and pain by restraining your body movements. When your vertebrae are fractured, a brace can reduce pain and you can engage in daily activities while the fracture mends. However, wearing a back brace all the time can weaken your back muscles, so you would be better off if you use it only when necessary.

Exercise is a good option as it increases the endorphin level in your body.  Endorphins are produced from the brain and work as a natural pain killer.

Through physical therapy you can learn proper posture, and practice exercises for strengthening your muscles without a risk of weakening your spine.  Water therapy is also recommended.

Acupuncture can relieve the pain by stimulating nerve endings which are responsible for the brains to release endorphins.  Keep in mind that you can’t expect to notice the benefit after just one session. Acupuncture applies fine needles to the parts of the body which trigger the pain.

Last of all, massage therapy also can assist you to manage pain.  It is done by slow and light circular motion with the fingertips or a deep and kneading like motion.  Massage helps reducing pain, and relaxes stiff muscles.  However, if you suffer from spinal osteoporosis, don’t do deep muscle massage on your back

Hopefully the above information will help you to manage your osteoporosis pain.