Chronic pain is something we’d rather not think about or deal with, but constantly trying to ignore your pain can lead to some unintended long term consequences. Left untreated, a chronic pain condition can lead to a decreased quality of life in a number of different ways. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at some of the potential long term consequences of untreated chronic pain.

Why You Need To Treat Your Chronic Pain

Here’s a look at five potential consequences of trying to power through a chronic pain condition without intervention.

1. More Pain – The most obvious potential pitfall of ignoring your pain condition is that you may be welcoming more widespread or intense pain. Sometimes your lifestyle has made your chronic pain condition worse, so if you keep doing the same things, it can lead to worsening pain. If your posture or work habits have led to chronic pain onset, and you don’t do anything to address it, odds are pain and dysfunction will only get worse.

2. Poor Sleep Quality – Chronic pain can affect our ability to get restful sleep, and if you don’t work to rectify the problem, you can string together weeks, months or years of less-than-ideal sleep. Over time this poor sleep quality can have plenty of physical consequences for your health. It can increase pain perception, contribute to a more sedentary lifestyle and increase your risk of future cognitive decline. Don’t string together long stretches of poor sleep quality because you didn’t treat your chronic pain condition.

3. Harder To Treat – While oftentimes not as serious as cancer, chronic pain conditions function much like a cancer diagnosis in that intervention techniques tend to have a higher rate of success when the condition is caught early and treatment begins sooner. The more damage caused by untreated chronic pain, the harder it is to successfully and fully treat the issue.

4. Poorer Cardiovascular Health – Studies have also shown that untreated chronic pain can actually have negative effects on your heart health. More specifically, chronic pain can decrease activity levels and increase stress, both of which can lead to a rise in your blood pressure. Over time, an elevated blood pressure level can leave you at risk for complications related to the condition, like coronary heart disease and even heart failure.

5. Decreased Quality of Life – All the above factors can play a role in the onset of the final factor, which is a decreased overall quality of life. Chronic pain affects our life in a myriad of ways, and added together they can all serve to make life a little less enjoyable. This gradual decline will only continue unless you take tangible steps to take control over your chronic pain condition, and Dr. Cohn and his team can help you do just that. For more information or for help with your chronic pain condition, reach out to his clinic today.