Exercise Combats Concord, NC Chronic Pain and Related Distress
Do you have chronic pain? You aren’t alone! Chronic pain can affect the mind and the body. Over 80% of retired NFL football players experience pain daily. A recent questionnaire study of them noted that the greater the pain acceptance, the lower the pain intensity they experienced. (1) Accepting pain is hard though! Fortunately, so many studies show that some optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more reasons, Pure Chiropractic incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain patients’ Concord, NC chiropractic treatment plans!
EXERCISE: GOOD FOR BODY AND MIND
Exercise benefits go beyond the physical body improvements. Exercise also enhances the mind and outlook of a person in pain, particularly one who has chronic low back pain. At the end of a 3-month study of chronic low back pain patients who either exercised or did not, researchers found that pain disability scores in the exercisers decreased significantly more. In both groups, reduced pain scores connected to higher self-efficacy scores (feelings of independence). Chronic low back pain exercisers’ improved disability reflected a positive influence 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 found that improved self-efficacy was linked to lowered disability regardless of any reduction of pain intensity. They concluded that helping chronic pain patients tweak 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 attitude toward pain can be a positive! Fear-avoidance is a common problem for patients with pain. They don’t want to do anything to provoke their pain and cause pain which leads to less movement and less optimism for ever being without pain. Research denoted that patients with longer periods with pain who stated greater self-efficacy and patients with higher pain disability and depression had lower self-efficacy. (4) Knowing this, we support our Concord, NC pain patients to be active and not avoid living life! Improvement is coming!
EXERCISE: Time to Move!
And we all know it: physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle are not beneficial for us. Researchers even write that they are associated with chronic musculoskeletal pain and can even aggravate it! What’s the answer? Physical exercise, of course. Researchers pointed out in a new study that exercise programs that combine a variety of types of exercise – flexibility, balance, aerobic, strengthening – tend to be more effective. Such arrangements are also more flexible to a particular patient’s issues. Light-to-moderate intensity exercise performed two to three times a week for just 4 weeks were found 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) Pure Chiropractic works with each Concord, NC chiropractic patient to make a strategy just for him/her.
CONTACT Pure Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Kelly Brinkman on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she shares the effective gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating chronic back pain.
Schedule your Concord, NC chiropractic appointment today. Whether you’re a retired NFL player or NFL fan or neither of these, bring your chronic pain and worried mind to Pure Chiropractic. Let’s work together to reduce pain and fear of pain and improve your sense of independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!
