If you suffer from chronic pain, chances are you’ve considered any available option to help ease the discomfort you live with every day, including opioids. Opioids such as OxyContin are often prescribed as short-term solutions for postoperative pain, but their highly addictive nature makes them unsuitable for treating long-term pain. Nonetheless, many people rely on opioids for chronic pain—a dangerous decision that can lead to tragic consequences. Alternatives such as ketamine therapy for chronic pain, along with lifestyle changes, can provide relief without any negative outcomes.
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than three months and impacts daily life. It can be ongoing and unpredictable, sometimes coming and going, and often affects your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Chronic pain can appear from many different conditions, including arthritis, nerve pain, back or neck pain, cancer, migraines, and more. People often describe chronic pain as burning, shooting, aching, or throbbing sensations that can vary in intensity.
If you’re dealing with chronic pain, consider meeting with a healthcare provider who can help identify the root cause and develop a plan to manage it. While there’s no proven cure for chronic pain, a provider can offer a personalized treatment, from medication to therapies, to help reduce the pain and improve the quality of your life. In addition to a medical plan, your healthcare provider can suggest a lifestyle change focused on diet, exercise, and sleep that can assist in managing chronic pain. A proper and personalized combination of medical treatments and self-care methods can help make pain more manageable so you can return to enjoying your daily life.
Opioids for Pain
Opioids are typically prescribed for acute pain, such as an injury, infection, or surgery. They are very effective at relieving pain, but they come with serious risks, such as addiction and possible overdose. Because your body develops a tolerance for opioids the more you use them, continued usage will lead to higher and higher doses—and an increased degree of danger. In fact, in recent years, opioid addiction has become a national crisis, with nearly 82,000 Americans dying of an opioid overdose between 1999 and 2022.
Luckily, pain, whether it be acute or chronic, can be treated without opioids. For acute pain, options include over-the-counter pain relievers such as aspirin or ibuprofen, acupuncture or massage, the application of heat or ice, or other forms of treatment. The body has an amazing capacity to heal itself and acute pain will often go away quickly. For chronic pain, these treatments can also prove effective, but other options may be better to ensure long-term results.
Ketamine for Chronic Pain
One great option for chronic pain treatment is ketamine infusion therapy. Ketamine was developed in the 1960s as an anesthetic for surgeries and medical procedures. It first became used during the Vietnam War because it was safer than other anesthetics. Over time, doctors noticed that ketamine had effects beyond just as an anesthetic—it helped with pain relief and even gave people a sense of detachment from their bodies, which was especially useful in treating chronic pain.
In this safe and innovative treatment, a trained medical professional administers a dose of ketamine intravenously to the patient. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, which means that it helps target pain while leading to a sense of dissociation in the patient that can help them feel removed from their painful body. Ketamine infusion is used for the treatment of a wide variety of ailments, including chronic pain, depression, and anxiety.
As for how it works, ketamine is a little different from other pain medications. It targets the NMDA receptors in the brain, which are involved in how we process pain and emotions. By blocking these receptors, ketamine helps dull pain and can also have a strong effect on mood enhancement, providing relief from chronic pain while also improving symptoms of depression and anxiety.
When given in low doses by a trained professional, ketamine has a much lower risk of addiction compared to higher doses. In a controlled medical setting, ketamine works differently from opioids and other substances that are more likely to cause dependence. Many people find relief with ketamine therapy that can last for weeks to even months. When used properly, ketamine can be a beneficial remedy for treating chronic pain.
Self-Care Activities
Aside from medical treatments like opioids, ketamine therapy, or over-the-counter pain medications, your healthcare provider might recommend lifestyle changes to help manage chronic pain. They’ll assess the cause of your pain and suggest a personalized plan, including a self-care routine, to make the pain more manageable and help you get back to living your life.
Some lifestyle changes might include:
- Eating a more balanced and nutritious diet
- Quitting smoking or tobacco use
- Partaking in activities or sports to build strength and agility
- Losing weight, if necessary
- Prioritizing a proper sleep routine
- Building and maintaining healthy relationships
These changes can help keep your body active and healthy, which can also support your overall well-being. Staying active and making these positive changes not only helps your body, but also greatly impacts your emotional health. Proper self-care can reduce the mental and emotional loads that chronic pain often brings, improving your mood and overall quality of life.
Contact Ketamine Greater Boston
If you have any questions about ketamine for chronic pain, do not hesitate to contact the professionals at Ketamine Greater Boston. Fill out the form below to get started feeling better today!
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