Exercise Combats San Jose 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 reported having pain daily. A recent questionnaire study of them revealed 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 a little optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more reasons, Chiropractic Solutions incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain patients’ San Jose chiropractic treatment plans!
EXERCISE: GOOD FOR BODY AND MIND
Exercise benefits go 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 did not, researchers found that pain disability scores in the exercisers decreased significantly more. In both groups, reduced pain scores correlated with higher self-efficacy scores (feelings of independence). Chronic low back pain exercisers’ increased disability reflected 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 reported that improved self-efficacy was linked to lowered disability whether they felt any reduction in 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 point of view toward pain can be a plus! Fear-avoidance is a common problem for patients with pain. They do not want to do anything to aggravate their condition and cause 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 stated greater self-efficacy and patients with higher pain disability and depression had lower self-efficacy. (4) Understanding this, we support our San Jose pain patients to be physical and keep living life! Improvement is just around the corner!
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 exacerbate it! What’s the answer? Physical exercise, of course. Researchers explained in a new study that exercise programs that combine several types of exercise – flexibility, balance, aerobic, strengthening – tend to be more effective. Such combinations are also more adaptable to a particular patient’s issues. Light-to-moderate intensity exercise done two to three times a week for a month were shown to be of greatest benefit for chronic pain patients particularly for those with spine pain conditions like chronic low back pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. (5) Chiropractic Solutions works with each San Jose chiropractic patient to design a plan just for him/her.
CONTACT Chiropractic Solutions
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Kelly Brinkman on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as she describes the effectiveness of the gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating chronic back pain.
Make your San Jose chiropractic appointment now. Whether you are a retired NFL player or NFL fan or neither of these, bring your chronic pain and worried mind to Chiropractic Solutions. We’ll work together to reduce pain and fear of pain and raise your sense of independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!
