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 reported having
pain daily. A recent questionnaire study of them noted that
the greater the pain acceptance, the lower the pain intensity they had.
(1) Accepting pain is hard though! Luckily,
study after study shows that some
optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more
reasons, Aaron Chiropractic Clinic incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain
patients’ Fort Wayne 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 conclusion of a 3-month study of
chronic low back pain patients who either exercised or didn’t,
researchers documented that pain disability scores in the exercisers
dropped significantly more. In both groups, lowered
pain scores correlated with higher self-efficacy scores
(feelings of independence). Chronic low back pain exercisers’ improved
disability reflected a beneficial 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 documented
that improved self-efficacy was linked to decreased
disability whether they felt any decrease
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 outlook toward
pain can be a positive! Fear-avoidance is a
not-too-unusual a 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 stated greater self-efficacy and
patients with higher pain disability and depression had lower self-efficacy. (4)
Understanding this, we encourage our
Fort Wayne pain patients to be physical 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 linked to chronic
musculoskeletal pain and can even heighten it! What
is the solution? Physical exercise, of course.
Researchers explained in a recent study that exercise
programs that combine a variety of types
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 done 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) Aaron Chiropractic Clinic
formulates a plan specially for
each Fort Wayne chiropractic patient.
CONTACT Aaron Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Kelly Brinkman on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she
details the effective gentle
protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating
chronic back pain.
Make your Fort Wayne chiropractic
appointment now. Whether you’re a retired NFL
player or NFL fan or neither of these, bring your chronic pain and worried mind
to Aaron Chiropractic Clinic. We’ll work together to reduce
pain and fear of pain and improve your sense of
independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!