Every body ages at a different rate, and every brain does the same thing. That is why if you’re living with chronic pain, there’s a good chance that your brain is actually aging faster than it should be. Pain management doctors, like the ones at Innovative Pain Solutions in Dr. Phillips, have been studying research to help patients avoid these from happening. If you are experiencing chronic pain, it is imperative that you keep reading to find out how your pain can be affecting your brain!
How Does Living With Chronic Pain Impact Your Brain?
It is not a new finding that a number of external and internal factors can affect your brain and cause it to change and develop. For instance, according to research, a person with a higher education level than another may have a younger-looking brain. Also, stress has been found to cause your brain to look older while meditation and dance have helped keep it younger. Now, thanks to new research conducted by pain management doctors, it has been discovered that a person with chronic pain has a brain that looks up to two years older than it should. The reason it has become critical for people to learn more about this is that there have been studies that suggest accelerating brain aging raises a person’s risk of developing poor mental and physical health as well as an elevated risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Also, the higher level of pain a patient is experiencing the fast their brain has aged. During the same research, it was found that patients who didn’t experience any type of chronic pain had a brain that appeared up to four years younger than they actually were.
The study that was conducted came to these conclusions by measuring and evaluating the volume of the brain’s gray and white matter in a group of about fifty adults between the ages of 60 and 83. Some of the individuals participating in the study lived with chronic pain while others didn’t experience any. In order to evaluate the gray and white matter of the brain, the doctors used magnetic resonance imaging scans. Another thing these MRI scans looked at and measured was the brain atrophy in each participant. This is something that naturally occurs as people age, so the doctors examined each scan and compared the amount present with the average amount that should be there at each age.
The reason this research is so necessary and critical is that over one million Americans alone are suffering from chronic pain. There are more people in America living with chronic pain than there are with diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined.
Contact Pain Management Doctors
Innovative Pain Solutions in Dr. Phillips provides pain management solutions for our clients. We pride ourselves on offering the treatments that can help our patients find pain relief. If you’re in the area and living with chronic, you need a doctor who is up to date on all the research and technology that surrounds research and therapy call or visit today to learn how we can help cure your chronic pain.
