chronic pain

Could Man’s Best Friend Help With Your Chronic Pain?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

dog painA recent article posted in Physician’s Weekly posited if dogs should be prescribed for chronic pain patients. The piece went on the say that roughly 1 in 5 U.S. adults deals with a chronic pain condition, and that dogs may be able to help them with their pain condition. Although many of the claims are not linked to scientifically backed studies, it’s not hard to see how a dog could help with some aspects of your pain condition.

How A Dog Can Help With Your Pain

For starters, there’s the idea that a dog can help you maintain an active lifestyle. Staying active is certainly something that we preach as physicians, because exercise helps to strengthen crucial structures and ward off potentially problematic inflammation. Dogs require daily exercise, so if getting a dog will get you outside and keep you active, there’s reason to believe it could end up being helpful for your pain condition. That being said, you don’t need to get a dog in order to go for a daily walk.

Next, there’s the idea of caring for your mental health. Many physical ailments are connected to your mental well-being. According to the article, the presence of a dog and petting the dog can help distract chronic pain sufferers from their pain and combat feelings of loneliness. Dogs can do wonders for our mental health, but at the same time, if you’re struggling to care for yourself, adding a pet to the equation may only add to your burden and leave you feeling even more stressed. There are mental health benefits, but there can also be drawbacks, so don’t just head out and buy a puppy without doing some research.

Another area that was discussed in the article was sleep health. Sleep is imperative for chronic pain patients, as its a restorative process for our body to heal from the stresses of the day. The article mentions the “overwhelmingly positive” health effects of chronic pain patients who co-sleep with their dog. While a dog may help you feel less anxious or lonely and in turn help you fall asleep, it’s not all positive. Adding a dog to the bed can cause disruptions as you or the dog move throughout the night. Even if you don’t let them sleep in your bed, odds are a puppy isn’t going to be able to make it through the night without going to the bathroom. If you find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep because of your pain condition, adding regular nighttime potty sessions to your schedule may only make the pain condition worse.

At the end of the day, there certainly may be some benefits to adding a four-legged companion to your home if you have a chronic pain condition, but there are also plenty of drawbacks that you’ll want to acknowledge before picking out a dog. A new dog or puppy can add financial or physical stress to your daily life, which may make chronic pain flareups even worse, so make sure you’ve addressed all potential pitfalls before considering your own therapy dog.

Tips For Managing Chronic Pain During The Summer

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

summer heatThe summer should be one of the most enjoyable times of the year in Minnesota, but for many people who deal with chronic pain, the summer heat can make their condition worse. So how can you not only survive, but thrive, during the summer months if you have chronic pain? Consider this blog your playbook to managing your pain condition this summer.

Handling Chronic Pain in the Heat

Here are a number of ways to fight back against your chronic pain condition during the summer:

Exercise During Non-Peak Hours – As we talk about on this blog all the time, exercise is very important to help strengthen key structures and treat chronic pain conditions. However, if you’re exercising when it’s hottest out, it can trigger a flareup or lead to a less than successful exercise session. Wake up early or exercise when the sun goes down to avoid the heat.

Dress For What’s Ahead – Becoming overheated can trigger a pain flareup or make your CRPS worse, so look ahead at the weather and plan accordingly. Wear appropriate clothes for the day and try to be inside when it’s supposed to be the hottest to avoid problems with your pain condition.

Swim – Swimming is one of our favorite exercises during the summer, because not only does it get the heart pumping and strengthen supportive muscle groups, but it also helps to keep you cool. On days when you don’t want to do a traditional workout outdoors, head to the community pool or a nearby lake to do some swimming. If you want help developing a water-based exercise routine to treat your pain condition, reach out to our office today.

Stay Hydrated – Pain conditions can also trigger if you’re dehydrated, as can other problems like an increased risk of muscle strains and sprains. Make sure you bring water if you’re going to be outside for long periods or if you’re going to be sweating.

Stay Inside – Finally, if you don’t have to go outside and take on the heat, stay inside where it’s cool. Do your workout inside where it’s cool, or go for a run indoors on your treadmill. It’s important to stay active even when indoors to help keep healthy blood pumping throughout your body, but don’t go out in the heat if you know it’s going to cause problems for your pain condition.

If you follow these tips, we’re confident that you’ll be able to take control of your pain condition even in these hot months. And if you need additional assistance with any aspect of your pain condition, reach out to Dr. Cohn’s office today.

4 Ways You’re Incorrectly Treating Your Chronic Pain

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

pain treatingWhen you’re dealing with chronic pain, you’re willing to do almost anything to find respite. You’ve probably done some research online or talked to others with similar issues and come up with a plan. But what if you’re treating your chronic pain condition incorrectly? Not only can this prevent you from finding pain relief, in some cases, it can actually make pain worse. Below, we take a look at four ways you may be incorrectly treating your pain condition.

4 Wrong Ways To Treat Pain

It is in your best interest to talk to your doctor about how you can manage your specific condition, but in general, here are four ways that you may be mistreating your pain condition.

1. Not Exercising – You might think that rest is the best thing you can do for your body, and while it may be good in the short term, it may not be the best bet for your long term health. Exercise helps to increase healthy blood flow throughout your body and strengthen key structures that can help prevent pain. For example, if you’re dealing with back pain, although it may cause some discomfort to exercise because of your spine pain, strengthening your core and your back muscles can help to treat the underlying issue. Don’t just assume that rest is what you need to take care of your pain.

2. Over-Reliance on Opioids – Opioids certainly have a place in a pain care management plan, but they shouldn’t be your only source of treatment. Many people assume that because opioids help dull or eliminate their pain, that it is their best source of treatment. However, opioids do nothing to treat the underlying cause of pain. They may make it easier to exercise or fall asleep, but they need to be paired with active treatment options in order to be the most effective. Make sure you follow through on your other treatment options if you are given painkillers to help with your condition.

3. Isolation – There are times when it can feel great to have the house to yourself to do as you please or to shut out the world for a night, but if you’re constantly isolating yourself from others, it’s not going to help with your pain condition. Some people with pain problems avoid group settings or cancel plans because they don’t want to feel like a burden for others, but there have been studies on the importance of human and social interaction when it comes to pain management. We’re not saying you need to take up public speaking or be the office chatterbox, but social interaction, even if it’s just talking with a family member on the phone or having a friend over for dinner one night a week can really help your mental and emotional state. You’d be amazed at how much your mental and emotional health affects your physical health, so don’t shut out the world because of your pain.

4. Not Seeing A Specialist – The rise of the internet has made it much easier for people to research their symptoms and come up with a diagnosis and care plan of their own. The problem is that it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole of misinformation or incorrectly diagnosis yourself based on inaccurate or surface level symptoms. If you truly want to get a grip on managing your pain, visit a Pain Management Specialist like Dr. Cohn. He’ll be able to provide a comprehensive diagnosis and set you up with an individualized care plan. Contact his office today to learn more about your options.

Could This Be The Next Big Thing In Pain Management?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

pain controlLast Sunday in the science section of the newspaper there was an article about research on a new pain drug. The scientists behind the drug are convinced they have the next great drug. The skeptic in me hopes but doubts it. The reason the news has not made the traditional rounds in in all the reputable medical sites that spread news of discoveries. Furthermore, the work to date is only in animals and there has not been definite evidence this will transfer to humans.

The article discusses the work of Dr. Bruce Hammock, an entomologist at University of California-Davis. In the 1970’s he was working on an enzyme that converted a corn ear-worm to an insect. Removing the enzyme essentially killed the insect before it converted to the moth and was able to breed. Overall this was not found to be a cost effective strategy for this insect to be controlled. Since that part of his work did not pan out, he started looking for how the enzyme or related enzymes might occur in other species. especially humans.  

Eventually Dr. Hammock found these compounds in humans and they supposedly reduce pain. Of note, he does not specify what these compounds are, but only says they are chemically broken down rapidly in the body naturally. He then found a way to keep them from being broken down in the body as quickly. Dr. Hammock believes this compound can somehow help relieve pain.

Believe It When We See It

The reason to be skeptic is that naturally this compound that reduces the intensity of pain is very transient in the body by the description given. This makes me believe it is likely easily broken down by chemicals in the body and is in a very limited location. This type of compound is very hard to deliver conveniently (like a pill) into the body and be absorbed. It is also likely to be easily broken down no matter what one does. Lastly, the chemical sounds like it may be something that exists in the nervous system, and thus isolated by something like the blood-brain barrier.

The researchers behind this new novel compound are just looking at starting human trials. So far there has been little funding toward the research from what has been said in the regular press. Further, as noted earlier there is no information in the extensive research pain literature on the animal-level studies discussing this compound. If the research was really promising, more money would be involved without question since pain treatment is a billion dollar industry with huge potentials.

The bottom line is that there is research going on in the field of pain medicine trying to develop new treatments and medications. However, whether any of the current research will lead to new drugs is difficult to guess. A lot of treatments have been proposed but most die as they are tested. Human studies usually take between five and 10 years to complete. Only time will tell if this research will ever lead to a new drug that is useful to treat pain.

Work Can Be Exercise

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

work exerciseAdding an exercise to a busy person’s life is sometimes difficult. Many people claim that their daily activities give them enough exercise to stay healthy, and in some cases this may be true. Physicians are beginning to recognize that what we do as part of our regular routines may count as exercise. For meeting the goal of aerobic conditioning, the movement we do routinely is helpful.

Aerobic conditioning is one component of exercise. Any activity that increases the heart rate and increases the body’s use of energy is good. A term given to this is “non-exercise activity thermogenesis,” or NEAT. It is also the exertion of daily living for many people. People who are up on their feet and walking all day are performing exercise. Among the professions that are known to have high levels of activities include waitresses, preschool teachers, maintenance workers, and mail carriers that have walking routes. Monitoring step counts on these people, they often have well over 10,000 daily steps.

Daily Activities and Physical Fitness

Regular activities of daily living can also be helpful in aerobic conditioning. During the summer, cutting the lawn and performing yard work keeps many busy for hours on end and adds 5,000-10,000 steps to a day’s routine. Doing household chores such as cleaning, laundry, vacuuming and doing dishes all require standing and motion. When shopping, park a little further away from the nearest door and walk the extra distance. To make it worthwhile, track how much you actually do with a fitness tracker. Good fitness bands that track heart rate and steps are now less than $100, and almost every smart phone has a built-in step counter that can be activated.  

If you have chronic pain, aerobic conditioning is just one aspect of needed exercise. Conditioning maintains cardiac health, improves endurance and the ability to perform activity, and increases the body’s own painkilling compounds known as endorphins. However, most with chronic pain need to do more than just conditioning and need to also do routine stretching and strengthening. Physical fitness for everyone requires the combination of the above three routines. “NEAT” is a great way to meet the conditioning component of fitness. Developing a routine to meet stretching and strengthening goals to maintain function and decrease pain can be the focus of time spent exercising beyond aerobic activities.