A lot of people suffer from chronic pain. It is a part of life for most working people. About 50 million American adults are currently suffering from chronic pain.

If we talk about global estimation, then at least 1.5 billion in the world suffer from chronic pain, which is about 19% of the whole world population of 7.9 billion people.  Moreover, this is occurring at a rate that’s increasing with age.

Since chronic pain is such a major issue, it is important to talk about it to make people aware of its causes and prevention methods.

Injuries That Can Turn Into Chronic Pain

One of the most common causes of chronic pain is injuries that don’t recover completely. These injuries, although visibly eradicated, stay deep down in your body, just looking for a chance to come on the surface again. And when they do get a chance, you start experiencing occasional pain – sometimes real bad and sometimes mild.

If an occasional pain lasts for 6 months or more, it is chronic, but then it’s already too late to expect a quick recovery.

Therefore, staying aware of such injuries beforehand is a sensible thing. Below are some of the injuries that cause chronic pain syndrome.

1.    Whiplash

Whiplash is a kind of neck injury that mostly occurs due to rapid force from the back that triggers your neck to go in a sudden back-and-forth movement, such as rear-ended car accidents. However, there can be other causes as well, like sports injuries, or it can occur from traumas, like a fall from the stairs.

In whiplash, the torque of your body – the part of your spine that connects with the skull – messes up due to force or trauma. It results in severe pain, which may or may not be identified at once. Initial symptoms are neck and back pain – the pain can mild or severe – but it is bound to get worse if the treatment isn’t started right away.

More than 200,000 whiplash cases occur in an average year in the US. Usually, you can be treated with medicines and rest to recover from whiplash. However, if that’s not enough, you can always opt for a special whiplash injury treatment to alleviate the pain.

Even after that, if the injury hasn’t gone away forever and is just suppressed, it can develop chronic pain, which you will have to battle for the most part of your life.

2.    Pulled Muscles

Muscle pulling is very common for those who work out, perform any other physically demanding work, or play sports. The expert opinion states that muscles are likely to be pulled when a body is performing tediously in a repetitive position.

The movement of the body can stretch, pull, or tear the muscle or tissue that connects your muscles to the bone, which are called tendons. This pull is called muscles strain.

Muscle strains often occur in the lower back and in the back of the thighs, with a possibility to occur in a different part of the body. Swelling, muscle spasm, and restricted range of motion of that muscle are the ideal indicators of this injury.

Over 3 million people in the United States of America have experienced muscle strain at some point in their lives. You can diagnose it and treat it yourself, but that wouldn’t provide a long-term goal. That is because, similar to many injuries, muscle strain can extend onto become a chronic problem.

Delayed soreness and long hours of pain in the muscles indicate chronic pain. The wise choice would be to let the muscle injury heal 100% before getting back out there.

3.    Nerve Compression

Nerve compression syndrome is said to occur when a nerve in your body is “compressed,” pressured, or squeezed, which typically occurs at only a single location of your body at once. Car accidents are one of the main causes of that because they always pressurize the nerves in your body.

Nerve compression is most likely to occur in the limbs and torso. Symptoms of nerve compression syndrome can be a pain in that area, numbness and tingling sensation, and muscle weakness at the area of the compressed nerve.

Since pinched nerve or nerve compression can result in pain, you are expected to let that pain heal in the best way possible. It is true that it can heal itself with time, but it is important that you take measures to make sure the problem isn’t about to stay. Initially, this can be a minor problem, but it doesn’t take much time to be severe, and eventually cause lasting problems, like chronic pain in the muscle.

4.    Bulging Disc

A bulging disc or herniated disc is a condition where one of many discs forming a spinal cord bulge and let the rubbery stuff out of the cushions. In other words, when the soft center of the disc in the spine pushes out of the tougher cast through a crack, it pressurizes the nearby nerves, which results in pain.

Sometimes, the issue of a herniated disc can be so minor that it doesn’t cause any pain. Other times, the irritation and pain due to the effect to the nearby nerves can cause immense pain, followed by numbness and weakness in limbs.

If the case is bad, medication and physical therapy can solve it. However, sometimes the surgery is the only option left.

More than 3 million people in the US go through disc herniation in a year. In most cases, the patient needs proper diagnoses and medical treatment to recover from this condition. Although it depends on how mild or severe the case is, in most cases, not following up proper treatment schedule and moving without caution can trigger intermittent back pain.

Therefore, it is advised that a person doesn’t do anything that can make their case worse if they are recovering from a complicated condition like a bulging disc. Otherwise, it can become a chronic problem.