Exercise Combats Nashua Chronic Pain and Related Distress

Do you experience chronic pain? You are not alone! Chronic pain can influence the mind and the body. Over 80% of retired NFL football players experience pain daily. A recent questionnaire study of them revealed that the greater the pain acceptance, the lower the pain intensity they experienced. (1) Accepting pain is hard though! Fortunately, study after study shows that a tad bit of optimism and physical activity improves pain and optimism. For these and more reasons, Moriarty Chiropractic incorporates exercise into our chronic back pain patients’ Nashua chiropractic treatment plans!

EXERCISE: GOOD FOR BODY AND MIND

Exercise benefits extend beyond the physical body improvements. Exercise also enhances the mind and outlook of a person in pain, particularly one dealing with 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 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 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 documented that improved self-efficacy was linked to lowered disability regardless of any reduction in pain intensity. They concluded that helping chronic pain patients improve 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 aggravate their pain and cause pain which leads them to move less and have less optimism for a life without pain. Research indicated 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 encourage our Nashua 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 aggravate it! What’s 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 more effective. Such combinations are also more adaptable to an individual patient’s issues. Light-to-moderate intensity exercise performed two to three times a week for a month were demonstrated 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) Moriarty Chiropractic formulates a strategy expressly for each Nashua chiropractic patient.

CONTACT Moriarty Chiropractic

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.

Schedule your Nashua 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 Moriarty Chiropractic. We’ll work together to decrease pain and fear of pain and improve your sense of independence and joy of life with chiropractic and exercise!