Our Someone 2 Know is a Reno doctor who specializes in pain management - physical and mental.
Dr. Ali Nairizi uses less invasive procedures and alternative therapies to avoid or reduce the use of opioid drugs. The doctor runs Reno Tahoe Pain Associates and United Pain Urgent Care, where we observed as he saw two patients. One was there for a treatment to the spine, another for the brain.
Dr. Nairizi is passionate about finding solutions for the many pains that vex so many. "Just a normal headache, it can be very hard, even having - imagine 10 minutes, 20 minutes of pain. But for someone who's been having pain for days, you know months, years.”
Some pain is acute - or sudden - brought on by something specific like a sports injury. Nairizi says these are very common and how a person heals - is important. “To be able to come back to what they do faster without having any problem with medication or facing any opioid misuse – abuse.”
The battle against opioid epidemic has been a driving force for Nairizi. He sits on advisory boards and pours over medical studies. "They show that every time you prescribe the opioid, you increase the chance of misuse by 44% percent in someone who has not been on opioids.”
But what about that excruciating pain?
"You cannot let the patient suffer.”
Nairizi says there are many non-drug options - that work. KTVN’s own Chief Meteorologist Mike Alger suffered from chronic - or ongoing - back pain. And, like many patients, received radio-frequency ablation. "It is a well-proven treatment for the people who suffer from - we call it facetogenic pain.”
Never-ending, chronic pain has also been known to cause major depression. For this, Dr. Nairizi offers NeuroStar. “It's a machine that sends basically magnetic pulses over the prefrontal of the brain.”
And it works -
It's the success stories that inspire Dr. Nairizi to keep pushing for these alternatives to be widely available. "It needs to be not here in Reno but also everywhere in the state and across the states all in the United States.”
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Dr. Nairizi runs Reno Tahoe Pain Associates and the newly opened United Pain Urgent Care. It's open seven days a week - where you can be seen same day, without an appointment.
Reno Tahoe Pain Associates
United Pain Urgent Care
Open 7 days a week, 8am - 7pm
Walk-in's are welcome!
6522 S. McCarran Blvd Suite A., Reno, NV 89509
P: 775-384-1380
