5 facts about chronic pain

Four out of 10 adults age 65 and older suffer chronic pain. That means pain that  isn't linked to a specific cause, and it doesn't go away. Here are some facts about what happens to the body of chronic pain sufferers.

Acute pain occurs when electrical signals from the damaged tissue travel to the brain in a process called nociception. You don't actually feel the pain until the signal hits the brain. But with chronic pain, you may experience the pain even without an obvious reason. That's because your nervous system begins generating its own electrical signals — irrespective of any injury. Those messages travel to the brain and activate pain centers in a kind of feedback loop from the brain to the nerves and back again that's become stuck in the "on" position.

Chronic pain significantly affects the quality of your life. It stops you from the health-enhancing benefits of socializing. It disrupts your sleep and affects your cognitive functioning, including memory and learning ability. This, in turn, increases your risk of depression.

Chronic pain becomes more common with age mostly because of the decades of wear and tear on your body. After five or six decades of active living, you naturally become more likely to experience ongoing pain from arthritis, worn joints, or weakened bones. If you have certain chronic health conditions like diabetes, you can develop neuropathies — or nerve pain — that are the result of decades of damage to nerve cells.

Back pain is particularly common with age (up to half of all those age 65 and older cope with it daily), due largely to mechanics. The bones and muscles that bear so much of the burden of keeping you upright also are the primary guardians of your largest nerves.

Older people are more likely to experience pain related to chronic health conditions such as coronary artery disease, Alzheimer's, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), and Parkinson's. As the chronic condition impacts your ability to remain physically active, the pain increases. The more you hurt, the less you move and socialize, making both the chronic condition and your pain worse in a debilitating downward cycle.

It's not all bad news though. The medical world has made huge strides not only in understanding pain and its remedies but also in how to help communicate with patients regarding pain.