pain

Why You Should ACT On Your Chronic Pain

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

pain ACTOne of the biggest drawbacks of dealing with a chronic pain condition is the uncertainty that comes with it. You don’t know if a flareup will occur at the wrong time, and unfortunately this uncertainty can end up dictating your life and decisions. One treatment technique that aims to address this problem is known as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at ACT as a treatment technique for patients with chronic pain.

What Is ACT?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is similar in nature to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on changing the way you think about your pain condition and the challenges that it presents, hoping to reframe the situation in a less negative light. ACT is a little different, but its roots are also based in acceptance and understanding. With Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, the patient is taught to focus on what’s happening in the moment and not to over-analyze or fear what could happen down the road. Patients are guided to face situations head-on instead of shying away from things because of what may or may not happen.

CBT focuses on setting goals and doing what you want to do in life instead of limiting yourself because of your chronic pain. Through these technique, patients are empowered to live life to the fullest in spite of a pain condition that used to hold them back.

In order for ACT to be successful, patients need to be willing to both accept and commit. The vast majority of chronic pain patients accept that they are dealing with an uncomfortable condition, but acceptance is just part of the equation. If you’re not willing to do anything about it or reclaim your power from the condition by committing to yourself and your life, you’re not going to see any improvements. Accept that you have a pain condition, but then commit to making sure that it doesn’t dictate your life.

As you might imagine, ACT is best when paired with other treatment techniques, like exercise or physical therapy. ACT focuses on improving your mental health and your mindset, which is a major part of your chronic pain condition. However, as we’ve said in blogs in the past, chronic pain conditions typically need to be treated mentally, physically and emotionally for best results. You’ll still need to address the physical issues being caused by your pain condition, otherwise the benefits of ACT will be limited. If you’re truly doing the second part of the technique and committing to not letting chronic pain control you, it should be no problem to commit to a physical therapy or exercise routine.

It’s really easy to self-limit when we are dealing with a chronic pain condition. We sometimes put ourselves in a box where we’re comfortable, and we’re scared to step out of these walls we’ve created for ourselves out of fear of what could go wrong. Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, start thinking about what would happen if things went right. Accept your pain and confront it by committing to live the life you’ve always wanted, don’t sit on the sidelines because of pain.

If you want to learn more about the guiding principles of ACT, or you want to connect with a pain specialist who is committed to helping you find a treatment plan that works for you, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at

8 Quick Tips For Keeping Chronic Pain At Bay This Thanksgiving

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

thanksgivingThanksgiving can be a wonderful holiday to spend with family and friends, but for many with a chronic pain condition, the holiday presents numerous challenges if they want to avoid a painful flareup. And while everyone celebrates Thanksgiving a little differently, we wanted to use today’s blog to share eight ways you can work to keep chronic pain at bay this Thanksgiving.

Below, we share some tips for managing your chronic pain condition over the Thanksgiving holiday.

8 Chronic Pain Tips For Thanksgiving

While enjoyable, Thanksgiving is oftentimes much more stressful than your average day, and stress is one of the most common chronic pain triggers. To help reduce your stress and keep other potential issues at bay, here’s a look at eight tips to keep in mind as you navigate the Thanksgiving holiday.

1. Give Yourself Plenty Of Time – While we know that sleep is important, you may find it easier to keep chronic pain at bay if you wake up a little earlier and give yourself plenty of time to get ready for the day. Starting the day stressed and behind schedule can increase your risk of a flare up.

2. Leave Early – If you have to travel a decent distance, leave a little early so that you can stop for a couple minutes to stretch if pain starts to develop. Leaving a little early can also help to reduce stress in the event that you run into traffic on your journey.

3. Mind Your Diet – The Thanksgiving meal can easily trigger a painful flareup, so be particularly mindful of what you put on your plate. Foods that are high in sugar and fat are pro-inflammatory, and inflammation can cause a chronic pain reaction.

4. Skip The Alcohol – Alcohol can also end up triggering a chronic pain response, so consider sticking to water, which will also aid in the digestive process.

5. Share Duties – If you’re hosting Thanksgiving, make sure you share duties so that you’re not trying to do everything by yourself. Have others bring a dish to pass, and seek out help cleaning up the kitchen after the big meal. Overloading yourself physically during Thanksgiving can cause problems for your chronic pain condition.

6. Keep The Conversation Light – Family members don’t always see eye to eye, and the stress levels can get ratcheted up if the conversation turns sour. You can’t always control what gets discussed at Thanksgiving, but consider removing yourself from stressful conversations if the topic turns to politics, sports or previous family issues.

7. Stay Active After The Meal – We know that it can be tempting to lay down on the couch after the Thanksgiving meal, but being sedentary will make it harder for your body to break down and digest the meal, and this can actually increase your risk of a chronic pain flareup. Make it easier on your body to digest your food by standing or walking for 15-20 minutes after the meal.

8. Good Night’s Sleep – It can be easy for our body’s sleep schedule to get a little thrown off by the Thanksgiving holiday, and healthy sleep is imperative for chronic pain patients. Work to maintain a normal sleep schedule over the next few days.

Keep these eight tips in mind over the next couple of days, and we hope that you’ll have a wonderful and pain-free holiday! For more information, or for help with a chronic pain issue, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.

Individualized Care Key To Treating Back Pain

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

low back pain lifestyleBack pain is incredibly common, as more than 90 percent of people will deal with acute or chronic back pain at some point in their life. So while back pain is common, it doesn’t mean that any old one-size-fits-all treatment will cut it. In fact, researchers actually found the opposite to be true. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at the importance of connecting with a pain management specialist if you want to put an end to your back pain.

Patient-Specific Care Key For Combating Back Pain

Although general back pain is common, the underlying condition that you are dealing with is highly unique. Nobody else is experiencing exactly the same type of back pain, so we shouldn’t just assume that a singular type of treatment will work for everyone.

That theory was at the heart of a recent meta-analysis published in the Journal of Pain. For the study, researchers looked at the data from 58 randomized trails involving over 10,000 individuals suffering from chronic low back pain throughout the world. When looking closer at the data, researchers scoured to learn more about treatment techniques and whether an individual was treated with a conventional form of treatment or a more individualized care plan. In this instance, individualized meant things like personal coaching, targeted physical therapy, and professionally-guided patient care techniques.

According to the study, patients who received individualized therapy for their chronic back pain were much more likely to experience successful treatment results. The success rate for pain alleviation was 38 percent greater in the individualized group compared to conventional treatment techniques. As you might imagine, individualized attention may require more professional resources and effort, but researchers say it’s worth it.

“The higher effort required for individual treatment is worthwhile because patients benefit to an extent that is clinically important,” said lead author Dr. Johannes Fleckenstein from the Institute of Sport Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Researchers took the study even one step further. They also compared treatment success when combining individualized techniques with a talk therapy technique known as cognitive behavioral therapy. By giving patients individualized attention and talking with them about personal ways to handle and cope with pain, researchers found that treatment was 84 percent more effective than conventional back pain treatment.

If you are dealing with back pain or a similar chronic pain condition, it’s imperative that you seek out a professional and get individualized advice instead of just trying some generic exercises that you find on the internet. We pride ourselves on giving each patient the time and attention they need to overcome their physical pain, and we know we can to the same for you, and the research backs up this individualized approach! For more information, or to connect with a specialist to have a conversation about your pain condition, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.

5 Ways To Treat Your Arthritis Today To Feel Better Tomorrow

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

arthritis painArthritis is one of the most common medical issues, having been diagnosed in roughly 1 in every 4 adults. Because it’s so common, many people assume that arthritis-related symptoms are simply something that they have to get used to dealing with, but that simply isn’t true. And while you can’t turn back the clock and restore your joint health to how it felt decades ago, you can improve your symptoms and slow or stop the progression of joint degeneration.

Best of all, treatment is oftentimes pretty simple and only involves a few adjustments to your daily life. With that in mind, we highlight five things you can do to treat your arthritis today so that you’ll feel better tomorrow.

Daily Treatments For Arthritis

Arthritis is a degenerative condition that can be caused by natural factors like normal wear and tear and aging, or it can be exacerbated by injuries and illnesses. However, you can fight back against your arthritis by doing these five things regularly:

1. Exercise – Perhaps the best thing you can do to improve the health of your joints and help them become stronger for tomorrow is exercise. Exercise strengthens your joints and the soft tissues that help to keep them stable. Pressure on your joints has less of a degenerative impact on the joint when the supportive structures are stronger and better able to disperse this stress. Strive to get at least 30-45 minutes of exercise each day, or at least 3-4 times a week.

2. Eat Right – Your diet can also play a role in arthritis symptom prevalence. Foods that are high in sugar or fat tend to be pro-inflammatory, and this inflammation can cause problems for you joints. Avoid these pro-inflammatory foods and reach for more fruits and vegetables, and you may find that you are experiencing fewer arthritis symptoms.

3. Use Ice And Heat To Your Advantage – Ice and heat can help to improve your circulation or prevent swelling and inflammation, so use their powers wisely! Ice your arthritic joints after exercise or periods of extended activity to help keep swelling and inflammation at bay, or use a heating pad if your joints are feeling stiff or uncomfortable.

4. Physical Therapy – Physical therapy is very similar to exercise, but it can be even more beneficial at controlling symptoms because you can target specific areas. Your pain management specialist or a physical therapist can help set you up with some home-based therapy exercises to perform each day or when symptoms begin to help you get more control over your arthritis. Physical therapy can be both a treatment and prevention technique, so don’t underestimate the power of connecting with a physical therapist!

5. Mind Your Posture – Finally, it’s important to be mindful of your posture each and every day. When your body is out of alignment, you’re putting excessive stress on certain areas, including pivotal joints. Poor posture or body mechanics can cause problems for your facet joints in your spine, the joints in your wrists or put excess pressure on your knees. Improve your posture each day, and your joints will thank you for it!

If you do these things each day, and you connect with a pain management specialist like Dr. Cohn, we’re confident that you’ll notice an improvement in your arthritic symptoms! For more information, or for help with a different pain issue, give our office a call today at (952) 738-4580.

Will My Chronic Pain Get Worse Over Time?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

post-traumatic painA chronic pain condition can make life uncomfortable, and oftentimes it leaves patients wondering if things will ever get better. A recent study out of Europe found that patients who had chronic pain in their forties were more likely to have chronic pain and other health issues later in life, which leads many to assume that chronic pain conditions will get worse over time.

But is that the truth? Are you really stuck with pain for the rest of your life, or is there something you can do about it? Below we explain why your chronic pain doesn’t have to get worse as time goes on.

Will My Pain Condition Improve?

As we’ve said numerous times on this blog, the following is just general advice. Chronic pain is both complex and highly individualized, so we can’t sit here and say that your condition will certainly get better or get worse depending on the treatment route you pursue. That being said, many patients don’t realize how much control they have when it comes to managing their chronic pain condition on a long-term basis. While chronic pain can oftentimes feel out of control, there are steps you can take each day to help you find more control over your condition down the road.

So we’ll start by saying that chronic pain is typically a health issue that will continue to worsen as you get older if you do nothing to treat the problem. While sometimes rest or activity avoidance can help you overcome small issues like a muscle strain or a headache, you’re not going to be able to do nothing and watch your chronic pain condition disappear. Chronic pain suggests that there is an underlying issue, and if you keep doing the same things that led to your condition in the first place, things won’t get better, and oftentimes they will only get worse.

That said, the opposite is also typically true, and that’s wonderful news for chronic pain sufferers. Targeted active treatments can oftentimes alleviate symptoms, calm inflammation, slow natural degeneration and improve your overall physical function. It’s not always easy, and you’re not always going to enjoy doing your physical therapy exercises or watching what foods and drinks you put in your body, but it’s these little daily wins that will make you stronger in the long run.

Another way to greatly improve your likelihood of overcoming your chronic pain condition is to connect with a specialist who can give you the individualized attention and advice that you’d benefit from. Chronic pain can be a very isolating health condition, and that can lead a person to withdraw from their friends, family and even their healthcare professionals. You need to know that you are not a burden and there are plenty of people out there who want to see you overcome your chronic pain issue. We rely on professionals for a number of different aspects of life, whether that’s to change a faulty piston on our vehicle or to install a new garage door, so don’t feel like you need to take on your complex medical challenges by yourself. Connect with a specialist and let them put their expertise to work for you.

And finally, many patients find it helpful if they acknowledge the fact that recovery is going to take some work. You’re not going to be able to take a magic pill or lay in bed for two weeks and all of a sudden you’re feel better. You’re going to have to put in the work with active interventions, like daily exercise, regular physical therapy, posture improvements, weight loss and more. As we mentioned above, it won’t always be fun, but working towards these goals is way more fun than living each day with chronic pain.

Know that your pain doesn’t have to remain consistent or worsen as you get older. You have a say in your chronic pain story, and we’re here to help in any way we can. For more information, or to get started on your journey to become free from chronic pain, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.