How Can I Learn To Cope With Headaches And Nausea?

— -- Question: Hi, my name is Fausto Muyano, and I suffer from chronic pain since I had an accident. And I want to know if I can learn how to cope with the headaches and the nausea.

Answer: Hi, Fausto. I'm sorry this has happened to you. Unfortunately, accidents do happen, and the problem lies in whether or not you've had a thorough evaluation of your pain and other problems.

Depending on the type of accident, many things can occur, and there are multiple causes for headaches, nausea, low back pain -- all of the things that are likely to result from a car accident. So, it is important to go back to your physician and try to get an answer as to, why do I have these symptoms? Has the examination been complete? Have you've gotten the appropriate specialists involved? Have X-rays or other imaging studies been done to rule out at least the common forms of injury that people suffer in car accidents. Once you've gotten the diagnosis, now you're much more likely to be able to affect a cure by getting specific therapies.

If that evaluation has been done, and you're left without a specific cause, then you have to rely on treatments that will reduce your symptoms and help to keep you functional. And almost certainly that will involve multiple modalities of therapy -- medications to manage the symptoms themselves, but also physical therapy, body mechanics, other types of stretching exercises to make sure that you have addressed the spasms or the weakness that has occurred as a result of the trauma from the accident.

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