Chronic pain is a pain that could last for more than 6 months. Most of the time, the cause for this pain is unknown and some of it is due to an original injury, but the pain remains even after the injury has fully healed. Chronic pain has also been divided into 2 broad categories. The Vacaville Chiropractors can explain the types in more detail, contact them today.

Two categories of chronic pain in Vacaville

• Neuropathic pain - If the nerves have sustained damage, then it can be classified as neuropathic pain. For example, if it's called peripheral neuropathy, then it means that the nerves of the peripheral nervous system have been damaged.
• Nociceptive pain - The nervous system has receptors called nociceptors. It only activates when your body has acquired an injury. There are instances where an injury activates your nociceptors, but they never turn off after that. When this happens, there's certainly a malfunction in your nociceptors which makes them continue sending pain messages even after the injury has fully healed. This then becomes a condition known as nociceptive pain.

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Nociceptive pain is divided into 2 categories:

Somatic pain - This is sometimes associated with joint injury or arthritic conditions. Soma comes from the Greek word root meaning "body." Somatic pain is pain that originates from injuries to the outer body. This means that your body parts such as the bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, skin, and tendons can cause somatic pain.

For example, if you have cancer, then it can cause bone pain to develop. Bone pain can come as an achy or very intense dull pain. Muscle pain can also be classified as somatic pain, since it can originate as part of certain chronic conditions like fibromyalgia. The treatment will depend on the type of chronic pain that the person is suffering so it's best if one has an idea of the different categories of chronic pain.

Visceral pain - This type of pain starts in the major internal organs. Viscera means organs that are located inside a cavity, such as the chest or abdominal cavity. There are only a few chosen organs that can cause a very deep pain because not all organs have nerves going to them. If the organs that have nociceptors sustain damage, then it can cause a deep, visceral pain.

The pain felt for this is something that can be very achy and since it comes from deep inside the body, it could be difficult to pinpoint its exact location. Another thing that makes visceral pain hard to locate is because it can have a referred pain component, which means that pain can also be felt in other parts of the body.

For example, there could be a problem with an organ in your abdomen, but the pain can transfer to your back using your nerve pathways. This occurrence will make you feel back pain, but it's actually caused by an internal organ.

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If you feel like you're suffering from any of the mentioned pain, you should get in touch with your chiropractor or better yet, with Dr. Alex Tam of Vacaville. He's a well-accomplished chiropractor in the top chiropractic and holistic center so it's best if you could check him and ask for his treatment right away.