Natural pain relief, Neuropathy pain: Causes, symptoms and pain relief
What is Neuropathic Pain?
Neuropathic pain or nerve pain is a less common, chronic pain that is usually caused by a progressive nerve disease, but which can also occur as the result of injury or infection.
Neuropathic pain affects 7-10% of the population*
Neuropathic pain (also known as neuralgia, or nerve pain) is pain that manifests due damage or injury to the nerves that usually transfer information from the brain to other parts of the body. When neuropathic pain is referred to as chronic pain, this means pain that isn’t typically triggered by an event and can flare up at any time, without an obvious cause.
What are the symptoms of Neuropathic Pain?
Pain that comes from damage or injury to the nerves is described by sufferers as feeling like a burning sensation and affected areas may be sensitive to the touch, even from clothes. It can be both an excruciating pain, described as pins and needles, or a feeling of numbness and loss of sensation. The pain may be either be constant or occur intermittently.
What are the causes of Neuropathic Pain?
Occasionally there is no identifiable cause for the onset of neuropathic pain, which can be distressing and frustrating for the person in pain. More commonly, however, there are four identifiable causes.
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- Disease – Neuropathic pain can be a symptom or side effect of cancer, notably multiple myeloma, and of cancer treatments. It is often linked to diabetes – particularly when diabetes has caused nerve damage – to multiple sclerosis and to trigeminal neuralgia, a painful condition that causes shooting pain on one side of the face. Long-term alcohol abuse may cause nerve damage, which can also lead to chronic neuropathic pain.
- Injury – Tissue, muscle or joint injury may cause neuropathic pain. As can injuries to the back, leg, hip and arthritis – anything that damages the nerve fibres around the spine. Occasionally, an injury will heal but the nerve damage will remain, leaving a sufferer in persistent pain with no underlying injury.
- Infection – It is rare that infections cause lasting neuropathic pain, but some people might experience short-term symptoms if they suffer from shingles, syphilis or HIV.
- Limb loss – Another less common cause of neuropathic pain is also known as phantom leg symptom and occurs when a limb has been amputated but the brain still thinks it’s receiving pain signals from the absent body part. The cause for this is misfiring nerves near to the amputation, but it doesn’t make the pain feel any less real.
What is the best way to treat Neuropathic Pain?
With so many underlying causes of this type of pain, it’s important – where possible – to first identify the source of the pain. From here, there are several treatments available.
- Pain medication – Either over-the-counter or prescription drugs can be used to treat neuropathic pain, but their effectiveness is questionable if they don’t directly target the source.
- Antidepressants – Antidepressant drugs have been shown to be effective in treating this type of pain. They will also target any underlying anxiety or depression caused by neuropathic pain.
- Anticonvulsants – Anti-seizure medication is another type of drug that has been found to temper the effects of neuropathic pain. It’s believed these medications interfere with pain signals, stopping faulty transmissions from the nerve.
- Nerve blockers – Coming in the form of steroid injections or local anaesthetics, temporary nerve blockers will cut out any faulty pain signals. However, this is a temporary treatment.
- Implantable device – A rather more drastic form of treatment, this involves minor surgery to implant a device into the body that will send electrical impulses to stop irregular signals from the nerve.
- Lifestyle treatments – Physical therapies, as well as relaxation and message therapies can be beneficial when dealing with neuropathic pain. Working closely with a therapist, people suffering from his type of pain can learn different ways to move, which will help to relieve symptoms.
- External machines – Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) will deliver small electrical impulses to the affected area of the body, which helps to mask the pain signals being sent to the brain. Rather than masking the pain, BioWaveGO actually blocks pain at the source to prevent signals travelling to the brain.
How BiowaveGO Relieves Neuropathic Pain
- BioWaveGO’s 100% drug-free pain blocking technology cuts pain off at the nerve from the very first moment
- Find the affected area of the body and place the non-invasive electrodes over the source
- Start your device for a 30-minute treatment
- Just one session can provide pain relief for up to eight hours
- BioWave has an immediate effect, but there is also a cumulative effect on the nerve signals so prolonged used might have additional benefits
*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5371025/
