Exercise Combats Murfreesboro 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 noted that the greater the pain acceptance, the lower the pain intensity they experienced. (1) Accepting pain is a challenge though! Fortunately, so many studies show that some optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more reasons, Most Chiropractic Clinic incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain patients’ Murfreesboro 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, 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 didn’t, researchers found that pain disability scores in the exercisers decreased 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 beneficial 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 found that improved self-efficacy was associated with lowered disability whether they felt any decrease of pain intensity. They concluded that helping chronic pain patients raise 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 attitude 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 pain and exacerbate pain which leads them to move less and have less optimism for a life 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) Knowing this, we support our Murfreesboro pain patients to be active and not avoid living life! Improvement is just around the corner!
EXERCISE: Time to Move!
And we all know it: physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle are bad for us. Researchers go so far as to write that they are linked to chronic musculoskeletal pain and can even aggravate it! What is the solution? Physical exercise, of course. Researchers explained in a recent study that exercise programs combining several types of exercise – flexibility, balance, aerobic, strengthening – tend to be better. Such combinations are also more flexible to a particular patient’s issues. Light-to-moderate intensity exercise performed two to three times a week for a month were shown 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) Most Chiropractic Clinic formulates a plan expressly for each Murfreesboro chiropractic patient.
CONTACT Most Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Kelly Brinkman on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she describes the effective gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating chronic back pain.
Schedule your Murfreesboro chiropractic appointment soon. Whether you are a retired NFL player or NFL fan or neither of these, bring your chronic pain and worried mind to Most Chiropractic Clinic. Let’s work together to decrease pain and fear of pain and raise your sense of independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!
