MD Podiatrist Discusses Chronic Pain

According to Dan Michaels, DPM, “Chronic pain affects more than 50 million Americans, about 20% of the population, and leads to almost $300 billion in annual healthcare costs. Definitions vary, primarily on how long someone must experience some discomfort before it can be termed “˜chronic.’ Three months is often mentioned, but six is as well, for some persistent pain, that carries on despite treatment.” 
 
“Ideally, healing occurs after some injury or surgery”¦but not always. We don’t really understand all the factors leading some painful problem to become a chronic one, and no longer proceeding through the appropriate stages of repair and recovery. But chronic pain serves no purpose, and its course is unknown. Treating it requires the use of differing approaches, varying therapies, employed congruently. This is a serious issue in modern medicine: we need to develop either better meds, or healthier alternatives to the health crisis that is chronic pain,” says Dr. Michaels.