Posts Tagged ‘joint’

Acupuncture Could Relieve Joint Pain Linked to Breast Cancer Treatments

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Acupuncture could be an effective therapy for joint pain and stiffness in breast cancer patients who are being treated with commonly used hormonal therapies, says a new study.

Joint pain and stiffness are common side effects of aromatase inhibitor therapy, in which the synthesis of estrogen is blocked.

Researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, led the new study.

It was previously shown that the therapy, which is a common and effective treatment for early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in post-menopausal women, causes some joint pain and stiffness in half of women being treated.

“Since aromatase inhibitors have become an increasingly popular treatment option for some breast cancer patients, we aimed to find a non-drug option to manage the joint issues they often create, thereby improving quality of life and reducing the likelihood that patients would discontinue this potentially life-saving treatment,” said Dr. Dawn Hershman, senior author of the paper.

To explore the effects of acupuncture on aromatase inhibitor-associated joint pain, researchers randomly assigned 43 women to receive either true acupuncture or sham acupuncture twice a week for six weeks.

Sham acupuncture, which was used to control for a potential placebo effect, involved superficial needle insertion at body points not recognized as true acupuncture points.

All participants were receiving an aromatase inhibitor for early breast cancer, and all had reported musculoskeletal pain.

In women treated with true acupuncture, it was shown that they experienced significant improvement in joint pain and stiffness over the course of the study. Pain severity declined, and overall physical well being improved.

In addition, 20 percent of the patients who had reported taking pain relief medications reported that they no longer needed to take these medications following acupuncture treatment.

However, no such improvements were reported in women who were treated with the sham acupuncture.

“This study suggests that acupuncture may help women manage the joint pain and stiffness that can accompany aromatase inhibitor treatment,” said Dr. Katherine D. Crew, first author of the paper.

“To our knowledge, this is the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial establishing that acupuncture may be an effective method to relieve joint problems caused by these medications. However, results still need to be confirmed in larger, multicenter studies,” she added.

The results of the study were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Pain Types and Differences

Monday, April 13th, 2009

There are two types of pain, nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain. Nociceptive pain occurs when the peripheral nerve receptors that sense actual or potential tissue damage (nociceptors) are stimulated by an unpleasant sensation (noxious stimulus). Trauma and injury are common examples of noxious stimuli.

Nociceptive pain can be somatic or visceral. Somatic pain is usually constant and concentrated in one location of the body. It is sometimes described as sharp, aching, throbbing or gnawing. Visceral pain is usually not concentrated in one area and is often described as deep, aching or squeezing pain.

Neuropathic pain is caused by damage to the peripheral or central nervous system. It is often described as burning, electric, tingling or shooting.

Pain may also be described as acute or chronic. Acute pain is triggered by tissue damage from trauma, illness, injury or surgery. Acute pain may be mild or severe. It may pass quickly or last for months. Acute pain is usually localized to one area of the body, and its cause is usually easy to identify.

Chronic pain is long-term pain due to degenerative changes (e.g., osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease), another chronic condition or pain that persists after the normal course of recovery of an illness or injury. It may remain constant or may come and go. The definition of some conditions includes a time frame, such as pain lasting at least three months for fibromyalgia or six months for chronic fatigue syndrome. Unlike acute pain, the cause of chronic pain is often difficult to diagnose. In some cases, chronic pain may occur without any indication of injury (e.g., fibromyalgia).

Pain can occur throughout the body:

* Headaches affect millions of people. The most common types of headaches include tension headaches (sometimes described as a tight band around the head) migraines (characterized by throbbing pain and other symptoms such as nausea) and cluster headaches (characterized by excruciating, piercing pain on one side of the head).

* Orofacial pain, dental pain, TMJ disorder, eye pain and ear pain are other types of head pain.

* Neck pain can result from trauma such as whiplash, improper posture and ergonomics or infectious diseases such as meningitis or encephalitis.

Whiplash is a neck injury caused by abrupt jerking motion of the head (as with a car accident). A ruptured disc (or herniated disc) is displaced from its normal position in between two vertebrae.

* Back pain is among the most common medical conditions in the United States and other developed nations. Its many causes include strain or sprain, sciatica, osteoporosis, scoliosis, pinched nerves, herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis and ankylosing spondylitis.

Osteoporosis involves the bones becoming thin, brittle and more prone to fracture, causing pain. Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine that is most common in children and adolescents.

* Shoulder pain often stems from osteoarthritis, tendinitis, bursitis, dislocation, separation, torn rotator cufftorn rotator cuff or frozen shoulder.

* Elbow, wrist and arm pain has many possible causes, including fractures, Tennis elbow is a repetitive stress injury that causes elbow pain during specific arm movements.rheumatoid arthritis, carpal tunnel syndromecarpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow and golfer elbow.

* Chest pain can be due to many disorders ranging from heartburn to heart conditions to costochondritis to asthma to esophageal spasms.

* Abdominal pain can result from indigestion, ulcers, appendicitis, kidney stones or other problems involving internal organs.

* Pelvic pain includes sexual pain and testicular and scrotal pain.

* Medial meniscus injury (and knee pain) can occur by twisting the knee violently or by normal aging.Leg pain, knee pain and foot pain have many possible causes including overuse, traumatic injury, gout and other types of arthritis, gait disturbances, diabetic neuropathy, complex regional pain syndrome and plantar fasciitis.

* Joint pain is not synonymous with arthritis. It can also be due to conditions including fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, sarcoidosis, myofascial pain syndrome, sickle cell anemia and Lyme disease.

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