"WHY DO I HAVE CHRONIC PAIN?"
Ross Hauser, M.D.
 
It is quite common for the first words out of a new patients mouth, after they tell me their story and are calmed down to be "Why did this happen to me?"

In this question are many assumptions and other questions...the person is really asking, "I was healthy, why did I get this chronic pain?  Why did this injury not heal?  Why didn't all the therapies I did not work?  Can you help me?  I don't want surgery?  How can I make sure this never happens again?" 

What I typically tell them is the reason this happened to them is because of one of the following reasons.

1. The Injury was too severe for their body to heal it completely

2. The treatment they were getting actually stopped the healing process!
This is the number one reason I believe people get nonhealed injuries that lead to chronic pain.  They get a tendon and/or ligament injury that would heal by giving therapies that promote healing (exercise, heat, nutrients, Prolotherapy) but instead the person is prescriped anti-healing therapies including:
 
Anti-inflammatory medications
Narcotics
Ice
Immobility
Cortisone Shots
Depo-Medrol (steroid) pills
The above therapies inhibit the inflammatory reaction that is needed for healing and the person is left with a non-healed injury.
 
3. Chronic Pain Because of Poor Nutrition and Eating Choices

4. Chronic Pain Because of Depressed Immune System 
Many times the person is tinkering on poor health and the injury is just the straw that broke the camel's back.  In such an instance the person needs a comprehensive natural medicine evaluation and treatment along with Prolotherapy to recover from the chronic pain.  They also need to stop taking their anti-inflammatories and narcotics, which just suppress the immune system and make the body unhealthy.  In other words, they need to move their physiology from the catabolic (breakdown) state to the anabolic (healing) state.

5. Chronic Pain Because of Too Much Activity
When tissues are injured and weakened it doesn't make sense to work them to death.  Sure, I believe in exercise. However, a person with a hamstring injury should not be doing quarter-mile repeats on a track.  Cycling and swimming would be a much better idea. For this reason it is helpful to go a doctor who performs Prolotherapy who is also an athlete.  Your advice about exercise will be a lot more accurate and helpful.
 
6. A test leads a doctor astray
I have written at length about the problems with diagnosis solely from x-rays and MRI's. I only occasionally order them, though only in extremely rare cases.  So doctors find a disc on MRI and believe that is the cause of the person’s pain and direct all treatment to that area, when the disc has nothing to do with the pain.  At Caring Medical, we commonly find that the diagnosis the person comes with is not the one they leave with. We can tell the “true” diagnosis in most of our clients just by talking to them.  So if you or a loved one is not improving, it may be because the diagnosis is wrong (and thus the treatment.)
 
7. Getting Prolotherapy
Certain injuries in our experience do not heal unless a person gets Prolotherapy.  Ligaments are notorious for nonhealing because of their very poor blood supply.  The main treatment to regenerate injured, lax, or torn ligaments is Prolotherapy.  Most arthritis pain, myofascial pain, low back pain, degenerative discs in the spine (back through neck) and chronic muscle spasms and pain is due to ligament injury.  The best treatment in the world (in our opinion) to heal weakened injured ligaments is Prolotherapy.  Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair injured areas.  Because ligament weakness is the main cause of clicking or cracking joints, weakness in an extremity, and the reason for chronic pain, Prolotherapy to the injured ligaments in a person with chronic pain is often curative.