Exercise Combats McHenry Chronic Pain and Related Distress
Do you experience chronic pain? You’re 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 found that the greater the pain acceptance, the lower the pain intensity they experienced. (1) Accepting pain is hard though! Luckily, study after study shows that a little optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more reasons, OrthoIllinois Chiropractic incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain patients’ McHenry chiropractic treatment plans!
EXERCISE: GOOD FOR BODY AND MIND
Exercise benefits extend beyond the physical body improvements. Exercise also improves the mind and outlook of a person in pain, especially 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 didn’t, 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 showed a beneficial effect 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 decreased disability whether they felt any reduction of pain intensity. They summarized that helping chronic pain patients tweak their sense of self-efficacy could be a good way to help chronic pain patients cope with pain in addition to just relieving their pain. (3)
OPTIMISM FOR A BETTER, LESS PAINFUL DAY
And an optimistic point of view toward pain can be a positive! Fear-avoidance is a common problem for patients with pain. They do not want to do anything to provoke their condition and exacerbate pain which leads them to move less and have less optimism for a life without pain. Research showed that patients with longer periods with pain who expressed greater self-efficacy and patients with higher pain disability and depression had lower self-efficacy. (4) Understanding this, we support our McHenry pain patients to be active and keep living life! ’Better’ is coming!
EXERCISE: Time to Move!
And we all know it: physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle are bad for us. Researchers even write that they are associated with chronic musculoskeletal pain and can even exacerbate 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 combinations are also more flexible to an individual patient’s issues. Light-to-moderate intensity exercise performed two to three times a week for a month 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) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic works with each McHenry chiropractic patient to make a plan just for him/her.
CONTACT OrthoIllinois 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 McHenry 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 OrthoIllinois Chiropractic. We’ll work together to decrease pain and fear of pain and raise your sense of independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!
