Exercise Combats Easley Chronic Pain and Related Distress
Do you have chronic pain? You are not alone! Chronic pain can affect the mind and the body. Over 80% of retired NFL football players reported having pain daily. A recent questionnaire study of them revealed that the greater the pain acceptance, the lower the pain intensity they had. (1) Accepting pain is hard though! Fortunately, study after study shows that a little optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more reasons, Young Chiropractic incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain patients’ Easley chiropractic treatment plans!
EXERCISE: GOOD FOR BODY AND MIND
Exercise benefits go beyond the physical body improvements. Exercise also improves the mind and outlook of a person in pain, particularly one who has chronic low back pain. At the conclusion of a 3-month study of chronic low back pain patients who either exercised or did not, researchers documented that pain disability scores in the exercisers dropped significantly more. In both groups, lowered pain scores connected to higher self-efficacy scores (feelings of independence). Chronic low back pain exercisers’ improved disability reflected a positive impact on increased self-efficacy and pain relief. (2) Another study of 72 patients before treatment for their chronic pain and after 3 months of treatment documented that improved self-efficacy was associated with lowered disability whether they felt any reduction of pain intensity. They summarized that helping chronic pain patients improve their sense of self-efficacy could be an effective addition to the treatment of chronic pain patients beyond just pain relief. (3)
OPTIMISM FOR A BETTER, LESS PAINFUL DAY
And an optimistic point of view toward pain can help! Fear-avoidance is a common problem for patients with pain. They don’t want to do anything to aggravate their pain and cause pain which leads them to move less and have less optimism for ever being without pain. Research showed that patients with longer episodes of pain who expressed greater self-efficacy and patients with higher pain disability and depression had lower self-efficacy. (4) Understanding this, we encourage our Easley pain patients to be active and keep living life! Improvement is just around the corner!
EXERCISE: Time to Move!
And we all know it: physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle are not good for us. Researchers go so far as to write that they are associated with chronic musculoskeletal pain and can even heighten it! What is the solution? Physical exercise, of course. Researchers noted in a new study that exercise programs that combine several forms of exercise – flexibility, balance, aerobic, strengthening – tend to be better. Such arrangements are also more adaptable to a particular patient’s issues. Light-to-moderate intensity exercise performed two to three times a week for just 4 weeks were demonstrated to be of greatest benefit for chronic pain patients especially for those with spine pain conditions like chronic low back pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. (5) Young Chiropractic designs a strategy specially for each Easley chiropractic patient.
CONTACT Young Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Kelly Brinkman on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she shares the effectiveness of the gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating chronic back pain.
Schedule your Easley chiropractic appointment soon. Whether you’re a retired NFL player or NFL fan or neither of these, bring your chronic pain and worried mind to Young Chiropractic. We’ll work together to reduce pain and fear of pain and increase your sense of independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!
