Chronic pain is a wide-sweeping term, often describing pain that lasts more than three to six months or pain beyond the point of tissue healing. Some forms of chronic pain can be linked to an identifiable cause, like degenerative disc diseasespinal stenosis, or spondylolisthesis. Other forms of pain have no known or understood cause, such as fibromyalgia or neuropathic pain (nerve pain). Fighting chronic pain is a lifelong struggle for many.

Learning to relax takes practice, especially when you are in pain, but it is definitely worth it to be able to release muscle tension throughout the body and start to remove attention from the pain.

It's important to have a general understanding of the major different types of back pain, because the type of pain dictates the treatment options.

Diabetes may have an adverse effect on existing spinal conditions, including lumbar disc degeneration, spinal stenosis, vertebral osteomyelitis, spinal epidural abscess, vertebral fractures, and neuropathic pain.

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