According to the CDC, 20 Million Americans deal with “high impact” chronic pain on a daily basis. This means it impacts their quality of life regularly - limiting the ability to work or sometimes even take care of themselves. To make matters worse, we’ve got an opioid epidemic in the United States that has put people with chronic pain into an even more difficult position: getting access to appropriately prescribed medication that for years has allowed them to sustain some quality of life. Something has to change! Every National and International task force on chronic pain has clearly stated that a comprehensive, “biopsychosocial” approach to pain is the ONLY appropriate course of treatment. Sometimes, this may involve a prescription for opioids. But it ALWAYS involves: 1. Meeting people where they are 2. Helping them feel heard and understood 3. Comprehensively assessing the ROOT cause of their pain 4. Providing education on the nature of the pain to empower each person to help themselves A holistic, integrative treatment plan for pain will usually involve education around nutrition, sleep, digestion, and appropriate movement/exercise. It will usually also involve helping the person to reframe their experience of pain, acupuncture, and manual therapy. Together, we can change the lives of over 100 million Americans. Stay tuned for this month’s Holistic Pain Care Series, where we’ll get into the science of what works (and what doesn’t) for chronic pain. Source: Center For Disease Control Holistic Pain Care Dr. Robert Kachko