CHRONIC PAIN |
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CHRONIC PAIN - 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.
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ORTHOTICS |
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Orthotics is the medical field concerned with the application and manufacture of orthoses, devices which support or correct the function of a limb or the torso. The term is derived from the Greek "ortho", to straighten. Sciences such as materials engineering, gait analysis, anatomy and physiology, and psychology contribute to the work done by orthotists, the professionals engaged in the field or orthotics. Individuals who benefit from an orthosis have sustained a physical impairment such as a stroke, spinal cord injury, or a congenital abnormality such as spina bifida or cerebral palsy.
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