3 Unusual Things That May Sabotage Your Pain Management Regimen

If your physician has prescribed a pain management regimen to help diminish your chronic or acute discomfort, you may experience quick relief from your symptoms, or it may take a while to notice an improvement. While your doctor has devised a treatment protocol specific to your medical history, pain threshold, and body weight in order to generate the best results, there may be certain things that might sabotage your your pain management program. Here are three unusual things that may require a change in your therapeutic pain program:

Nightshade Foods

If you are sensitive to nightshade foods, you may be susceptible to inflammation and chronic pain. Peppers, eggplant, potatoes, and tomatoes are in the nightshade class of vegetables, and if you enjoy eating these foods and would like to continue to do so despite your nightshade sensitivity, cooking them may help eliminate much of the inflammatory chemicals they contain.

According to Green Med Info, "many  who  suffer with arthritis or an arthritis related disease, such as lupus, rheumatism, and other musculoskeletal pain disorders, have found that consuming foods from the nightshade family is in fact adversely affecting their health."

Anxiety

When you are in a heightened state of anxiety, or experiencing a panic attack, you may perceive pain differently than you do when you are calm. Oftentimes, pain is perceived to be stronger than it actually is when people are stressed, as pain and other bodily sensations are amplified when more adrenaline circulates throughout your bloodstream.

If you have an anxiety disorder, seeking treatment through cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, exercise, and restful sleep will help you cope better with your chronic pain so that your pain management regimen will be more successful. 

Seasonal Allergies

If you have seasonal allergies, you are probably very familiar with the sneezing, runny nose, and watery eyes that they produce. What you may not be aware of is that your allergic response may be triggering a systemic inflammatory reaction throughout your entire body.

This can promote the release of cytokines, which further increase inflammation, resulting in pain. Treating your allergies by keeping your doors and windows closed during high pollen, mold, and ragweed count days, and taking your prescribed medications, will help diminish the release of cytokines, thereby reducing inflammation and subsequent pain. When your allergies are under control, your pain management protocol will work more effectively. 

If you have any of the above conditions and notice that your pain program is not working as well as before, talk to your doctor who may need to readjust your medication dosage or even recommend different medications altogether.