Pain
Pain is your body telling you that you have hurt it. This is a good thing, important when you are injured. It can also help diagnose problems with your body. Sometimes pain continues long after it's necessary. Amputees report phantom pain in the legs or arms they no longer have.
There are different kinds of pain, and describing the type is useful in diagnosis: recurring, constant, steady, knife-like, radiating, sharp, dull. Medicines that dull pain are analgesics. Those that kill all feeling are anesthetics.
Recently Answered
- Q As an older adult, how should I assess my pain before calling my doctor?
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Self-assess your pain before speaking to your doctor. Rate your pain on an ascending scale of 0-10, with zero representing no pain and 10 representing the worst pain possible. You also should document how the pain impacts your daily activities or... Full Answer
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- Q Is surgery recommended for spinal stenosis?
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If you have persistent weakness or numbness in the arms or legs then surgery is often the best chance at preventing the worsening that is the natural course of this degenerative process. It can often relieve a large portion of the symptoms depending on... Full Answer
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- Q How is pelvic pain in men diagnosed?
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Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, Integrative MedicinePelvic pain, often associated with urinary urgency and burning, can come from a number of causes. Because of the diffuse nature of pelvic pain, a knowledgeable physical exam is critical to defining its source. Basically, you want to see what area... Full Answer
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- Q How does pain interfere with sleep?
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If you can’t sleep, you’re not alone—pain is the number one leading cause of insomnia. Whether from difficulty getting to sleep or problems maintaining sleep, 65 percent of those individuals who suffer from pain claim they... Full Answer
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- Q What will a doctor want to know about my acute pain?
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Acute pain can be caused by a wide variety of conditions, some of which are inherently dangerous. If you bring up your pain with a doctor, they will want as much information as possible to see if they should try to diagnose some other ailment. The first... Full Answer
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- Q Is severe rectal pain at night normal?
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Dr. Mehmet Oz, CardiologyWatch this video to learn more from Dr. Mehmet Oz about rectal pain. Full Answer
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- Q How common is acute pain?
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According to NIH statistics, more than a quarter of adults experience pain each month. (Ten percent experience the same pain over the course of a year, meaning that their pain is chronic, not acute.) Pain may be the single most common medical condition. Full Answer
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- Q What is good muscle pain?
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Rick Olderman, Physical TherapyGenerally, "good" pain is a feeling of fatigue in the muscles or tissues you are exercising or trying to restore range of motion to. Muscle fatigue may be uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean that what we're doing is hurting us -- in fact, that feeling of... Full Answer
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- Q How can my sedentary lifestyle cause me to have shoulder pain?
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Rick Olderman, Physical TherapyGravity comes into play, especially with our inactive lifestyles, which allow the scapulae (shoulder blades) to gradually be pulled down. If you think about it, we rarely have opportunities to raise our arms overhead. Many ergonomic controls in... Full Answer
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- Q What are structural diagnoses of pain?
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Rick Olderman, Physical TherapyFunctional problems of the body -- those in which muscles or joints do not move optimally, creating stress to the tissues -- often lead to structural diagnoses and pain. I believe the repeated stress from functional problems leads to physical... Full Answer
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