What Is Chronic Pain Spoon Theory?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

spoon theoryIf you’re a chronic pain sufferer or you know someone battling a chronic pain condition, you may have heard about spoon theory or the phrase “counting your spoons.” Spoon theory is widely accepted in the chronic pain community as a way to help others understand and empathize with how a chronic condition can affect a person. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at spoon theory and how it applies to the chronic pain community.

Counting Your Spoons

Spoon theory is the idea that a person with chronic pain has a certain number of spoons that they start out with every morning. Each spoon represents the energy required to complete a certain task, and some tasks require more spoons than others. For example, because of your chronic pain condition, you may only start the day with a few spoons. One spoon may represent the energy it takes to get ready in the morning, a trip to the doctor may take a couple of spoons, and by the time a person gets home at the end of the day, they may have no more spoons left for other pursuits.

Oftentimes someone explaining spoon theory has physical spoons in their hands that they dole out based on the activities that each day presents. This way, you can actually see where your energy is being applied, and it makes sense to others how you may not have the energy or ability to follow through on certain activities, because you’re simply out of spoons.

But spoon theory isn’t just helpful in explaining to others how a chronic pain condition can drain your energy, it can also make it easier for a chronic pain sufferer to plan their day accordingly. Of course, you may not know how many “spoons” you will start the day with, but if you start to get in the habit of understanding the toll certain activities have on your body and your mind, you cans find ways to get more done each day. You can avoid wasting spoons on non-critical pursuits, or better yet, you can look to find ways to increase your spoon count. For example, while daily exercise may require some spoons each day, if this type of beneficial physical activity can keep symptoms at bay, help you destress and increase your energy levels, you may find that you have more spoons to start with every day.

Spoon theory is really about prioritization, and that can be extremely beneficial when it comes to chronic pain treatment. You need to prioritize the activities and choices that will help you overcome your chronic pain condition. Conversely, if you spend your spoons on things that help treat your chronic pain condition, or worse, actively sabotage your long-term prospects, you can find yourself with fewer spoons each day.

If you’re interested in taking small steps to find more spoons each day and work to overcome your chronic pain condition, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today. We understand that chronic pain is different for every person and that unique solutions are often required, but we’re confident we can find ways for you to fight back against your pain. Give our team a call today at (952) 738-4580 and soon your spoon count may be on the rise!

Tips For Managing Chronic Back Pain If You Have A Desk Job

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

chronic back painMillions of Americans work desk jobs or in a position where they are very sedentary for an extended part of their day. If you sit for eight hours a day, five days a week, it’s not uncommon to develop back discomfort or even chronic back pain. However, if you are a little proactive in how you approach your job and life outside the office, you can work to reduce or completely alleviate your back pain. In today’s blog, we share some tips for reducing lower back discomfort if you work a desk job.

Combating Back Pain If You Work A Desk Job

You don’t need to completely overhaul your life to combat back pain if you work a sedentary job, you just have to make a few tweaks to your daily routine, and odds are you’ll notice a big improvement in your symptoms. Here’s a look at some of the ways to help reduce back pain if you’re stuck at a desk for an extended period each day.

1. Break Up Long Seated Periods – When you’re seated for a long time, your spine is holding static stress, oftentimes in the lumbar spine. This may not feel all that strenuous in the moment, but over time it will break down structures and contribute to continued pain. Try to get up and move for a couple minutes at least once an hour. Even if that’s just walking to the end of the hall and back or to refill your water bottle in the break room.

2. Stand – Standing will help to take pressure off your lumbar spine and better disperse the stress of gravity and your body weight. See if you company will invest in a sit-to-stand workstation, or find ways to incorporate more standing in your day. Take that conference call on your feet!

3. Exercise – When you’re not in the office, commit some time to an exercise routine. Make sure that these exercises don’t overlook your core, because core stability helps to support your spine. Don’t just focus on your arms and your legs, do some core strengthening exercises, and you back will become stronger and better able to handle stress.

4. Mind Your Diet – A poor diet can be pro-inflammatory, whereas a healthy diet can help to calm inflammation that could be compressing areas in your spine. Plan ahead so that you have healthy meals at the office and you don’t fall in the habit of grabbing fast food because you’re ill-prepared.

5. Posture Checks – Poor posture can also put additional stress on your lumbar or cervical spine, so if you are going to be seated for an extended period, make sure that you have ideal posture. Regularly check your posture to make sure that you’re sitting up straight, with your head directly above your shoulders. Make corrections any time you notice that you’re out of alignment.

6. Connect With A Specialist – If you’re still dealing with chronic back pain even after pursuing some of these techniques, connect with a specialist like Dr. Cohn. He can get to the bottom of your spine pain and suggest additional conservative techniques to help manage discomfort. If more hands-on care is needed, he can provide pain-relieving injections or perform a minimally invasive procedure to put an end to your pain.

For more information, or to talk to a specialist about your back discomfort, reach out to Dr. Cohn’s office today at (952) 738-4580.

When You Don’t Have Time For Chronic Pain

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

busy chronic painNobody has time for a chronic pain condition, but for busy individuals who try to push through the pain to get on with their day, taking the time to appropriately treat their condition may be the first item that they skip when they are trying to plan their hectic schedule.

You may even convince yourself that you don’t have time to receive treatment for your chronic pain because between getting the kids to school, working, planning dinner and doing chores around the house, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

If this sounds like your life, this blog is for you. Below, we explain how you can work to improve your chronic pain condition when you’re struggling to find the time to treat it.

Treating Chronic Pain On A Bust Schedule

Here are some tips for how you can work towards a healthier version of yourself and treat your chronic pain condition when you don’t have a lot of extra time to spare.

1. Incorporate More Movement In Your Life – Movement is wonderful for your body and your chronic pain condition. Activity helps to strengthen muscles, boost your circulation and avoid weight gain that can further stress your body. Find little ways to become more active throughout the day if you find it hard to get to the gym for a full workout. Take the stairs over the elevator, park further away from the entrance to work or the grocery store, or walk around while you’re on a phone call or waiting for your kids to finish soccer practice. Strive to take more steps every day.

2. Make The Time – This is obviously easier said than done, because you can’t physically create more hours in the day, so any time you carve out for physical therapy or exercise will come by sacrificing something else. Our best advice here is to make 15-20 minutes each day where you turn off all the distractions and focus on yourself and your health. That may mean waking up 15 minutes earlier, staying up a little later, or simply having a conversation with your family about how you need a few quiet minutes after dinner to focus on yourself and your health. Finding just a few minutes each day where it’s only about you will do wonders for your physical and mental health.

3. Improve Your Diet – Your diet can help or hurt your chronic pain treatment, so make some simple adjustments to ensure it’s working to solve your chronic pain. Busy people can sometimes over-rely on unhealthy options like fast food or flash frozen options. Meal plan for the week or take a few minutes each night to prep your meals for tomorrow so that you know where your meals are coming from and you can make healthier choices. Also, consider investing in a water bottle so that you can always stay hydrated when you’re on the go, as dehydration can lead to blood pressure issues and muscle pain.

4. Reevaluate Your Priorities – We understand that exercise and physical therapy may not be the most fun thing in the world, but few things are more important than your health, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when you’re planning your day. Really start to get in the habit of making time each day for your health, and soon it will become easier to follow through with your exercises as you develop a routine. Make sure your priorities are in the right order.

5. Connect With A Professional – Finally, if you’re too busy to fight your chronic pain condition on your own, enlist a professional. A pain specialist can figure out what’s going on, develop an individualized care routine and may even be able to see you through a virtual visit so that you don’t have to take time driving to and from the clinic. Let a professional make sure that you get the most out of the limited time you have to commit to a pain management program. In the greater Twin Cities area, connect with Dr. Thomas Cohn for help with your chronic pain problem. Give his clinic a call today at (952) 738-4580.

How Can We Do More For Chronic Pain Patients?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

chronic pain patientsChronic pain affects more than 50 million people in the US alone, and yet it doesn’t seem to be an issue that is getting the attention it deserves. We need to be doing more for the millions of people who battle a chronic pain diagnosis on a daily basis, but how can we provide better care?

We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we’re going to use today’s blog to talk about some of the ways that pain care in America and across the globe could be improved.

Solving Chronic Pain On An Individual Level

Let’s first look at the problem on a local level. What can a pain care physician do to help solve chronic pain? They need to focus on what they can do to provide the best level of care to the patients they are seeing in their office. This involves:

Taking the time to listen – Everyone’s pain is different, and there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to chronic pain. Doctors need to take the time to really get to know their patients and their condition so that they can help them find a treatment that works for them.

Don’t go for the quick short-term fix – Opioids can help mask the symptoms of chronic pain, but they won’t treat the underlying issue. As we’ve said on the blog countless times in the past, prescription medications can play a pivotal role in a comprehensive treatment plan, but they should not be the only form of treatment. Doctors should not rush to medicate without pursuing more active treatment methods.

Be ready to pivot – If one treatment isn’t working, it means that doctors need to be ready to pivot to another treatment. As we’ve mentioned, pain is highly individualized, so what works for one person isn’t guaranteed to work for another, and providers need to be flexible in their approach.

Continue to learn – Pain care is always evolving, and pain physicians need to keep furthering their understanding of chronic pain and how to best treat difficult cases. Doctors need to continue to seek out highly credible research in order to provide patients with the highest level of care.

Solving Chronic Pain On A Global Level

Solving chronic pain on a global level will take a more concentrated effort. Obviously there is no simple solution, but there are two main areas we should be focusing on. For starters, chronic pain prevalence needs to become more mainstream. Roughly one in five Americans deal with a chronic pain condition, so odds are a number of your family and friends are fighting an invisible fight each and every day, and many of them aren’t talking about it. We need to combat the stigma of chronic pain and find ways to talk about it so that more people are willing to take the necessary steps to treat their issue head on. Chronic pain patients shouldn’t have to live in the shadows, hiding their pain from those around them.

The other main way to work towards an effective solution to chronic pain is to increase funding for research. As we mentioned above, 50 million Americans battle a chronic pain condition on a regular basis, so there is clearly an audience ready to jump towards more effective treatments. We just need to find them, and the best way to do that is to invest in research programs dedicated to better understanding chronic pain.

If you want to speak to a pain management specialist who will work hard to accomplish those individual tasks and champion the idea of tackling chronic pain on a larger scale, trust your care to Dr. Cohn and his team. For more information or to set up an appointment, give his office a call today at (952) 738-4580.

Will I Ever Celebrate Independence From Chronic Pain?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

indepedent painIndependence Day is right around the corner, and the holiday got us thinking about the notion that everyone hopes to eventually become independent from their chronic pain condition. But how can we break free from our chronic pain condition and find that independence? In today’s blog, we share some some tips for becoming independent of your chronic pain condition.

Chronic pain conditions are highly unique to the individual, so there’s no one-size-fits-all path to break free from chronic pain. That said, many people who have been able to overcome their chronic pain condition have been able to do so by following some similar techniques. Here’s a look at some helpful ways to work towards independence from your chronic pain condition.

Be Active – We know it’s easier said than done to say “be active” when pain can make movement uncomfortable, but movement is crucial for your total body health. Activity gets your heart pumping, which pushes healthy blood throughout your body, ensuring that structures get the nutrients and oxygen they need to thrive. Exercise and activity has also been shown to release endorphins in the brain that can act as natural pain relievers.

Tweak Your Diet – There’s no magical diet that can cure your of your chronic pain, but if you are smart about what you put in your body, your diet can play a positive role in chronic pain relief. High fiber vegetables, fatty fish and vitamin-packed fruits can all help your body get the nutrients it needs to thrive. On the flip side, foods that are high in fat or carbohydrates can contribute to inflammation onset, which can make joint movement more uncomfortable. Strive to improve your diet or create a food journal so that you can get a better idea of what’s working and what’s not when it comes to your diet.

Work With A Specialist – Don’t try to overcome a chronic pain condition on your own, because it can be extremely daunting. Instead, connect with a specialist who can help develop an individualized treatment plan based on your specific needs. Knowing you have an ally in your corner can go a long way in helping your mental health, which is imperative for overcoming chronic pain, because pain conditions aren’t just a physical issue. Let a professional help guide you to independence from chronic pain.

Stay Hydrated – Your joints and muscles work optimally when they are appropriately hydrated, so drinking plenty of water throughout the day can help your body function and reduce instances of chronic pain. Being appropriately hydrated improves your circulation and makes it easier on your heart to effectively pump this blood throughout your body. Being hydrated won’t solve your chronic pain by itself, but it can make it easier for your muscles to move effectively during exercise.

We hope you have a wonderful 4th of July, and if you want help becoming independent from your chronic pain condition, consider syncing up with Dr. Cohn and his team. For more information, or for help with your chronic pain issue, give Dr. Cohn’s office a call today at (952) 738-4580.