Category: Chronic & Acute Pain

Facial Pain Comes to Light

In Brief: Using an imaging technique to visualize pain signals in facial nerves, NIDCR researchers identified a protein that enhances neurons’ responses to painful stimuli. Blocking the protein in mice blunted pain signaling; the results could inform the development of safer, non-opioid pain therapies. From a throbbing tooth or aching jaw to a pounding migraine,…


An Opioid Success Story: Efforts to Minimize Painkillers After Surgery Appear to Be Working

The opioid epidemic has been wreaking misery and death across the nation for years. In 2017 alone, opioid overdoses killed more than 47,000 people – 10,000 more deaths than were caused by traffic accidents that year. For many people who abuse opioids, the problem begins with opioid prescriptions from their doctors for pain relief. Government…


Understanding Headaches and Migraines: Prevention Tips

Headaches are one of the most common complaints seen by primary care physicians and neurologists. There are different types of headaches. The two most common are migraine and tension headaches. Headaches tend to occur as the body attempts to detoxify. Nutrition is the key to effective detoxification and resolution of headaches. Overview The National Health…


Many Older Adults Use Meds to Block Arthritis Pain

Taking a pill may bring short-term relief for arthritis-related joint pain, but many older adults may not realize that what they swallow could raise their risk of other health problems, according to a new poll. Even if they’re managing the pain on their own, people over 50 should talk to their health care providers about…


Why It’s so Hard for Doctors to Understand Your Pain

We’re all human beings, but we’re not all alike. Each person experiences pain differently, from an emotional perspective as well as a physical one, and responds to pain differently. That means that physicians like myself need to evaluate patients on an individual basis and find the best way to treat their pain. Today, however, doctors…


How ‘The Most Dangerous Opioid’ Works on Your Brain

The United States has been in the midst of an opioid crisis for over two decades with the pandemic only aggravating an already looming problem. With words such as fentanyl, morphine, heroin, and opioids constantly being thrown around in the media, we can become fearful of these drugs that were once made and used to…


Team IDS Protein Behind Rheumatoid Arthritis Damage

Scientists have identified a protein, sulfatase-2, that plays a critical role in the damage rheumatoid arthritis causes. Rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own joint tissues, affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans. Published in the journal Cellular & Molecular Immunology, the discovery sheds new light on the molecular processes…


Apple Peels Put to the Test for Chronic Joint Pain

Are the health benefits associated with apple consumption simply due to other healthy behaviors among apple-eaters? Regular apple intake is associated with all sorts of good things, like living longer—particularly a lower risk of dying from cancer. Here’s the survival curve of elderly women who don’t eat an apple a day. Ten years out, nearly…


There’s a Link Between Gut Bacteria and Fibromyalgia Severity

Researchers have found that alterations in gut bacteria and blood bile acids of women with fibromyalgia are associated with the severity of their symptoms. Their new study also points to a biological signature that could facilitate diagnosis. Affecting up to 4% of the population and mostly women, fibromyalgia is a syndrome that causes pain, fatigue,…


These Anti-Inflammatory Foods May Offer Pain Relief

When your wrist gets sore, you don’t automatically think of food as a treatment. And maybe it’s not necessarily one, either. But it might be a preventative tool. Managing inflammation is one of the ways to treat or prevent pain. Your diet plays a major role in inflammation in the body, and although eating a…