When you are in pain, the last thing you probably want to do is be intimate with your partner. It is natural to worry that sexual intercourse will cause you physical pain. You can address this concern by experimenting with different positions that are more comfortable.

It is important to remain close to your loved one. A healthy intimate relationship can positively affect all aspects of your life.

Chronic pain is a painful condition that lasts longer than 3 months, a pain that persists beyond the reasonable time for an injury to heal or a pain that persists 1 month beyond the usual course of an acute disease.

There are four basic types of chronic pain, pain persisting beyond the normal healing time for a disease,  pain related to a chronic degenerative disease, cancer-related pain, and pain that emerges or persists without an identifiable cause.

Be sure to seek treatment if your pain lasts longer than 2 to 3 months. Early treatment may prevent the pain from getting worse.

Some chronic pain is caused by specific conditions that can be treated. For example there are treatments for headaches, arthritis, neck pain, low back pain or depression.

While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years.

There may have been an initial mishap, sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain,  arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain.

People suffering from chronic pain do not receive adequate treatment. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap — sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain, arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. People suffering from chronic pain feel their pain more acutely during the night hours when they are trying to sleep than in the day. This is because the number of competing messages arriving at the “gate” at night is usually far less than in the day. As a result, many more pain messages get sent through. Acupuncture works partially on the principle of sending competing messages to the brain by exciting nerve centers directly.