Young Chiropractic Helps Back Pain Sufferers Fight Fear Avoidance and Move More
Fear of back pain? Once you have experienced it, you answer “yes!” Your Easley chiropractor gets it. Easley back pain and neck pain patients do not want to experience that pain again. Young Chiropractic helps spine pain sufferers regain their confidence with encouragement and exercise.
FEAR AVOIDANCE DUE TO BACK PAIN
Back pain sufferers don't want to revisit back pain if they have any options at all. That desire - whether obvious or subtle, stated or just ruminated in the mind – sets up the situation for a behavior known as fear-avoidance. Patients with persistent spinal pain syndrome - post-surgically caused or not – provoked high levels of fear avoidance, anxiety, and depression. (1) Researchers noted that the pain experience isn't just physical because emotions, behaviors and beliefs are mixed in, too. Fear avoidant behavior like fearing the act of lifting an object grows and impacts muscle behavior without realizing it. A new study compared fear-avoidant beliefs and the lumbar spine paraspinal muscle activity use while lifting in both back pain and in pain-free volunteers. Fear of lifting an object with a flexed spine as described in a questionnaire was negatively related with erector spinae activity to protect the spine from injury. The proper way to lift has been discussed through the years. Lifting with a straight back has been described as safer than lifting with a flexed back though research has not necessarily supported that while lifting with a lordotic posture has been reported to result in more erector spinae muscle activity resulting in muscle fatigue and pain. (2) Young Chiropractic knows the significance of managing fear avoidance and its link to better quality of life.
HOW TO MANAGE FEAR AVOIDANCE
Researchers documented that back pain sufferers today ‘get’ that they must keep active but some require a little more support and encouragement to move and exercise because of a lack of confidence in their spines’ ability to exercise without causing pain. The healthcare provider not only can share the latest findings on pain control but also teach the back pain patient to be physical in the safest way possible. (3) If you’re that patient, Young Chiropractic is your trainer! We’re a team and can help you move better and with less fear and deliver gentle, relieving spinal manipulation. Three months of chiropractic manipulation along with exercise for older adults with chronic back pain boosted their self-efficacy and fear-avoidant behaviors along with decreases in disability. A 30% or more reduction in the Oswestry Disability Index indicated positive response to care. (4) The more engaged a patient is with treatment, the greater the influence on the feeling of self-efficacy and disability reduction. (5) Let’s work together to control your Easley back pain so it does not control you.
CONTACT Young Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Tom Menendez on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for an older patient with back pain for whom fear avoidance is logical.
Schedule your Easley chiropractic appointment now so that if you are asked if you fear back pain, you can say “no”!
