In July 2018, Canadian Chiropractor published an article out of the American Osteopathic Association which outlines the importance of early intervention in the prevention of chronic pain. Pain management can be difficult- especially when it persists past three months, at which point it becomes chronic. The period of time between three weeks and twelve weeks is known as the subacute phase. This is the zone we’re most concerned with as health care practitioners because it is the crucial time period to eliminate both the physical and mental factors that can subsequently lead to chronic pain. In this time, we’re looking to accurately identify the trigger for the discomfort and develop both active and passive strategies to resolve the problem. If not resolved during this time period, it becomes much more difficult to regress from a chronic state. This is because chronicity actually magnifies the patient’s experience of pain in the central nervous system. Rather than waiting for the chronicity to kick in, practitioners of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) can chose from non-pharmacological treatments such as yoga, cognitive behavioural therapy, and musculoskeletal intervention. Our goal through these interventions is to dampen or entirely eliminate the pain signals to the brain and prevent the progression into a chronic pain state. This is not to say that once someone is considered to be in chronic pain, there isn’t anything we can do. It instead encourages the positive lifestyle changes that people make to manage the pain to continue on into the long term and in turn decrease the chances of recurrence or regression. By implementing these tools during the subacute phase we aim to lessen the chances of progressing into the chronic phase which is so important for maintaining overall health and wellness.