What's The Difference Between Acute And Chronic Pain? | MagniLife

Back pain affects people of all ages in all different walks of life. In fact, back pain results in approximately 264 million lost days of work each year. Yet, this pain is not uniformly the same. Most pain falls in one of two categories. Learn the differences between acute and chronic pain and you will be better able to tackle your own back pain.

Acute Pain

The defining feature of acute pain is that it typically lasts a short amount of time. In general, it lasts less than three months and no longer than six. This type of pain is usually a direct result of tissue damage, as when you get a paper cut or needle prick. Even short-term pain that is much more intense, such as labor pains, is considered acute as long as it is short-term and has an identifiable cause.

In the case of back pain, yours could be acute when you pull a back muscle from lifting something heavy or suffering a fall. You can treat the aches with pain relief cream, but the overall pain will typically go away once you heal the underlying cause.

Chronic Pain

In contrast, those who suffer from chronic pain feel the effects long after the initial injury heals. Many people who live with chronic pain don't even know what the root cause of the pain is, making diagnosis and treatment rather tricky. If you've been experiencing back pain for longer than six months or beyond the point of the affected tissue healing, then it would likely be considered chronic pain.

By nature, medical professionals understand chronic pain much less well than acute. People who have chronic pain will often keep regular routines of going to acupuncture or massage appointments. They may also find help from back pain relief cream or other topical pain relief creams that soothe aching nerves.

With its different forms, back pain is not a one-size-fits-all type of condition. Neither are the treatments. If you're looking for lower or middle back pain relief, or any other type of joint pain relief, peruse MagniLife's selection of products today.