When Battling Chronic Pain, Finding A Balance Is Key

December 8, 2020 / Thomas Cohn, MD

balance Balance is a key component in almost every aspect of our life. There are benefits to having a healthy work-life balance, and many of us grapple with the daily decision of whether money should be earmarked for needs or wants. But finding a healthy balance also plays a key role in helping patients fight back against their chronic pain condition. Below, we take a closer look at how finding a healthy balance in certain lifestyle factors can help you better manage your chronic pain condition.

Finding Your Daily Balance To Treat Chronic Pain

Now, we’re not here to say that all chronic pain conditions can easily be cured by making certain choices each day, but there is a lot of evidence that suggests improving your balance in these aspects can help to make chronic pain more manageable. So if you are struggling with a chronic condition, reflect on some of these factors and work to identify some imbalances that could be contributing to your chronic pain or inhibiting effective treatment of your condition.

Activity/Inactivity Balance – Developing a healthy relationship with activity and exercise is very important for helping to control your pain condition. Exercise triggers the release of endorphins in your brain that act as a natural pain reliever, and it can also help you work towards a healthy weight. Being inactive, gaining weight and losing muscle mass can lead to additional stress in areas of your body that are no longer best able to handle this stress, which can lead to inflammation and pain flare ups. We don’t expect you to become an ultra marathon runner because we know how pain can make it more difficult to exercise, but strive to get regular exercise 4-5 times a week. Whether that is in the form of a run, a walk or a routine in the weight room, it can help your body better manage your pain condition.

Food Choices – It’s also important that you find a healthy relationship with your daily food choices. Again, not every decision needs to be perfect, but each day you should strive to make more positive food choices than unhealthy choices. Aside from weight gain and the added stress that can put on your body, high fat and carbohydrate-dense foods can trigger inflammatory responses inside your body, again worsening chronic pain. Food choices are one of the more controllable aspects of your daily life, so strive for more positive food choices and you may notice less chronic pain.

Stress Balance – One of the reasons why we spoke about food choices being a more controllable factor is because this next factor can oftentimes feel uncontrollable. You can’t control whether your company has pending layoffs or your car got a flat tire, but you can try to identify certain stress triggers and either work to avoid them or teach yourself new coping mechanisms to prevent them from causing such large stress spikes. Some stress can bring out the best in us, but too much stress can heighten problems like chronic pain. Work with your pain specialist to identify sources of stress and develop healthy coping mechanisms.

Mindset: Yourself Vs. Others – There is a large psychological component to chronic pain that cannot be ignored, so it’s important to find a healthy balance in how you think about yourself and others. Being completely selfless will be exhausting and can make a pain condition worse, but being selfish and choosing a short term quick fix over a harder long-term solution will also lead to problems. You have to find a way to make time for yourself while also realizing that you can’t always act in your immediate best interests. Being able to step back, evaluate the totality of a situation and making the right choice will provide you peace of mind that can go a long way in helping control chronic pain symptoms.

If you can find a healthy balance with these factors, we’re confident that you’ll have a better chance of treating and controlling your chronic pain condition. For more information, or for help with your pain issue, reach out to Dr. Cohn’s office today.

Self Management Tips For Chronic Back Pain

July 1, 2020 / Thomas Cohn, MD

Chronic back pain is one of the most common conditions that affects Americans over the age of 40. Because it is so common, many people often try to push through the pain and keep on living their daily life. While this is admirable, it may not be your best move, and it can actually lead to worse pain. However, if you are proactive and deliberate in how you care for your spine, you can help treat these types of pain and get back to a pain-free way of living. We share those tips in today’s blog.

Managing Back Pain On Your Own

There’s no perfect playbook for managing chronic back pain on your own, but here are some helpful tips to start you off on the right foot.

Get A Diagnosis – Now, this may go against your idea of managing your back pain “on your own,” but getting a diagnosis can play a key role in helping you self-manage your pain. If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, it can be hard to follow the right self-care management techniques. The vast majority of spine specialists will recommend conservative care before moving towards surgical intervention, so one appointment can lead to a comprehensive conservative care plan. Knowing what you’re dealing with and how to best treat your pain leads to higher treatment success rates.

Exercise – This may seem like it goes against conventional wisdom, but exercise or physical therapy can help strengthen weakened spinal areas and resolve inflammation that could be leading to pain. Your first instinct may be to rest, but after 24-48 hours, controlled activity often proves more helpful than extended rest. Again, this depends on your root cause of pain, which speaks to the importance of getting a clear diagnosis.

Don’t Over Rely On Painkillers – Painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications can help manage pain, but they don’t always target the underlying cause of discomfort. Simply relying on rest and painkillers to fix the issue will often leave you unsatisfied and still in pain. Use these medications to pursue more active treatments if pain is making things like therapy or exercise unbearable.

Don’t Overdo It – Your spine is with you for the long haul, so be sure to prioritize your long term health over your short term physical desires. Athletes, for example, are notorious for trying to rush back from injury before they are truly ready. The same can be said for many older adults who work manual labor. Listen to your body and realize that missing a game or a couple days of work is worth it to help it heal instead of overstressing it while it’s injured. Manage these issues before they snowball because you tried to power through them.

Food And Water – A healthy diet can also go a long way in helping provide back pain relief. A diet rich in key vitamins and nutrients can help strengthen your spine, and staying hydrated will ensure healthy blood flow to key spine structures. A good diet can also help you maintain a healthy weight, which will limit excess stress and strain on your spine.

Mind Your Mental Health – Finally chronic pain back can be just as much of a mental battle as it is physical, so don’t ignore your mental health. Make sure you are doing things that benefit your mental health, like exercising, reading, socializing and getting a good night’s sleep!

For help managing your chronic spine pain, reach out to Dr. Cohn’s office today!

What is the Best Treatment For Low Back Pain?

February 10, 2016October 25, 2017 / Thomas Cohn, MD

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that the best treatment for low back pain was exercise. It would be great if the answer was that simple, just to exercise and everything will be better. However we all know life is not that easy, if it was no one would be going to the doctor and no one would have ongoing problems with pain.

Anyone who has had low back pain that did not go away quickly has struggled with finding the answer of what is wrong and what should be done about it. Every patient that comes and sees a specialist for back pain is asking the same questions. Most have tried to exercise, but for many it just doesn’t work. The main reason is because pain extremely complex, and when it does not go away easily, there are usually complex interactions occurring between multiple structures perpetuating pain signals. Studies that show simple solutions to back pain often concern only a small segment of those people who have problems. These are people with muscle strains and no other structural, psychological or nervous system changes affecting the lumbar region.

Best Bet For Back Pain

Simple problems like muscle strains, no matter where they are in the body, tend to heal. The best solution is often exercise to promote structural repair and to strengthen the muscle so that it is not re-injured. Sometimes one can do this on their own and at other times working with a trainer or other healthcare professional is necessary. The key here is that the damage is not permanent and can be reversed with the proper care.

Those who have complex pain often need a more comprehensive treatment plan. The first step is finding a good expert who can determine what is causing problems and devise an overall management strategy. Complex problems often have components that are not reversible, such as general age-related joint or disc degeneration. The goal then becomes how does one manage the symptoms and keep them from interfering with other functions. It often takes multiple different things from drugs, injections, exercise and possibly surgery to control the problem. Essential to treatment in most cases is of some type of exercise. Movement keeps the body healthy and often improves healing of most structures in the body including the back. Exercise is definitely one of the most important elements toward healing a sore back, but doing the right type and intensity along with other interventions from medical providers is often necessary. If a sore back does not get better with simple exercise, seek out expert medical advice.

Chronic Pain: The Benefits of Exercise

January 8, 2015March 18, 2016 / Thomas Cohn, MD

Chronic pain is tough to deal with, and oftentimes it can seem like and endless cycle of pain, medications, and failed treatments. Since your chronic pain can be caused by hundreds of different issues, pinpointing the problem is key, and what works for some may not work for others. But one thing that most pain management specialists agree on is that exercise is beneficial for treating chronic pain.

Now you might be saying, “How is running going to make my chronic back pain any better? Staying still is pailful, moving is only going to make it worse!” We’re not saying you need to get off the couch and run 10 miles, but moderate exercise has been shown to lessen chronic pain symptoms. Just check out this study. As individuals exercised, their pain tolerance increased. While they still felt similar amounts of pain, their ability to cope with it improved.

Another reason exercise is beneficial is because it kickstarts your body’s release of endorphins. These endorphins help decrease discomfort during a workout, and their effects can linger after your exercise is complete. This process is known as “exercise-induced hypoalgesia.”

Regular Exercise

As I mentioned in my post “Practicing What You Preach,” I suffer from spondylolisthesis that affects the nerves in my back. I suffer back pain from time to time, but I know the best way to control it. Time and time again the best way to keep back pain from slowing me down is to incorporate aerobic exercises into my daily routine. It’s gotten to the point where my back aches if I don’t find time to exercise.

Stretching and exercise can alleviate chronic pain problems, so it’s important to find a workout that works for you. I can no longer run or jog, but I’ve found that long walks or a half hour on the elliptical works wonders. I pair the workout with anti-inflammatories, but I know there is no magic pill that will cure my pain without me putting in effort. Just like diet pills, you can’t lose weight simply by popping a pill, you need to pair it with nutrition and exercise.

There are a lot of reasons to avoid exercise, especially if you have chronic pain; you’re in too much pain, you don’t know what exercises to do, you don’t have the right equipment or you simply find it easier to stay seated. If you are truly interested in alleviating chronic pain, it starts with taking care of your body. Modern medicine is great, but it’s only one prong of the multifaceted approach. You can’t always cure chronic pain, but with exercise, you can help control it.