How long pain lasts has a major influence on what medications are considered safe to use and the impact pain has on a person's quality of life. 

Acute pain is clinically defined as pain that is lasts 3 months or less. It’s usually directly linked to a cause – like a surgery or injury. Because acute pain isn’t expected to last long, drugs like opioids are often prescribed with a low perceived risk of negative side effects like constipation, “brain fog” or dependency.

Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting more than 90 days. It may be constant, daily pain. It can also come and go with pain “spells” lasting for days or longer. Sometimes, chronic pain can las long after the injury or disease that caused the pain has resolved. Sometimes, there's no injury or specific cause at all.

Chronic pain disrupts work or school and can cause other health problems like insomnia, eating disorders, constipation and gastro-intestinal disorders and depression. But because it’s a long-term condition, pain professionals are reluctant to prescribe the most powerful pain killers fearing that potential side effects further complicate an already serious health condition.

For example, when opioids are considered necessary, they're often prescribed intermittently (off/on cycles), or episodically (for short periods to control serious “flare ups”) to avoid dependency and addiction. During periods when opioids are not used, pain professionals help patients to structure multi-modal therapies consisting of less powerful drugs, physical therapy and diet and exercise programs in an effort to minimize pain. 

Although chronic pain frequently results from a condition like osteoarthritis or diabetic neuropathy that’s being treated by a physician, because pain is considered to be a byproduct of the underlying cause, it may not be specifically and separately treated unless it’s considered severe. As a result, many people must cobble together a solution to their pain by trial and error, from a combination of over-the-counter drugs, acupuncture, chiropractic and more to try to live decent lives. 

Most Drugs Have Negative Side Effects from Long Term Use

Opioids are demonized because of the tragedy and human cost of addiction, but even over-the-counter drugs as "harmless" as low-dosage aspirin can have dire side effects with long-term use. 

81 mg aspirin was FDA approved in 1985 for widespread use in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Widely prescribed by doctors and promoted for low-cost prevention, CDC estimates that more than 30 million adults use low-dosage aspirin today.

In 2022, the US Preventive Services Task Force, an organization directly related to the FDA, found that low-dosage aspirin was only useful in preventing heart disease in a very small number of cases. For most, especially those over 60 years old, aspirin had “no net benefit” in preventing CVD, but increased the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, intracranial hemorrhage, and hemorrhagic stroke. Other studies over hlarge uge patient populations indicate that low-dosage aspirin may even increase the risk of type II diabetes.

In short, the longer pain lasts, the more complex treatment is.

Dietary Supplements Can and Do Help

Dietary supplements like omega 3 fatty acids and glucosamine with chondroitin sulfate are widely recommended by doctors to slow joint disease which can help reduce pain. None of them are FDA-approved, but animal studies and decades of field use prove that there are no significant side effects with proper use.

Nápreva is a dietary supplement made from terpenes that aims to become a part of the pain management regime for people with chronic pain.

●       Our ingredients are all plant-based and organic.

●       They have FDA generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

●       We conduct rigorous testing to ensure formulation accuracy and consistency from batch to batch.

●       Animal studies and dozens of customer reviews indicate that Nápreva  can provide relief for many types of pain

More than 51.6 million Americans suffer from chronic pain that limits their quality of life. It’s our mission to help.

Learn More:

Differentiating Acute from Chronic Pain  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1875958/

Supplements for Neuropathic Pain https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8231824/ 

US Preventive Services Task Force Report on Low Dosage Aspirin https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/aspirin-to-prevent-cardiovascular-disease-preventive-medication