Dr. Slava Shut

I’ve already talked about how we usually don’t think about the parts of our bodies that are working perfectly; instead, we tend to focus on the things that aren’t working the way we think they should be. When you have chronic pain, sometimes it’s all you can think about. 

Welcome to Topic Thursday, where we dive into a topic specifically related to finding success; in business, with your fitness, or life in general. As a physical therapist with decades of experience, I’ve helped thousands of people with their chronic pain, regardless of whether it’s touched their lives through injury or an illness.

Today, I want to share some of the things you can be doing right now to help alleviate and prevent your chronic pain. Here are 3 tips to help with chronic pain:

Get plenty of rest

Sleep deprivation can cause – and worsen – inflammation in the body. It can start out as something subtle, but can quickly get out of control. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 3 adults in the United States reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day. 

That’s around 30% of people that are dealing with a level of unhealthy discomfort that getting more rest could solve. When you get used to the cause of your pain, you might not associate the cause with the resulting pain. You might even make it a habit of doing things that are effectiving your sleep.

I hear from patients first hand about how their injuries and illnesses interrupt their sleep. It can affect almost every other aspect of their lives, and even make recovery take longer. The body repairs itself while we rest and sleep. Some of the functions of these repairs give us the added benefit of relieving inflammation.

Besides all the science behind sleep, it just feels better to be fully rested. When you’re feeling sharp, you’ll get to take advantage of opportunities that you might miss otherwise.

When you’re running on too little sleep, you won’t be functioning at your best. If your body needs rest and you don’t get it, you’re going to cause problems for yourself.

Change Your Diet

You can get plenty of sleep, you can eat a balanced diet, and you can stay in shape by going to the gym and working out. All of these are great ways to maintain yourself. Not only does it feel better to be well fed and well rested, you’ll be more productive, too. And you’ll look better. But just as the gym effects more than your appearance, your diet does, too.

But did you know that your diet can affect not only how you look, but how you actually feel?

It’s true; certain foods can have a big impact on how you feel day to day. Of course, eating delicious foods is pretty gratifying. There’s nothing like a well-deserved scoop of ice cream!

But eating too much sugar can cause big problems. It can affect your mood and energy levels, causing you to have rushes and crashes. Excessive sugar in the diet can also cause headaches, weight gain, and even dopamine problems. 

Get More Exercise 

When you’re suffering from chronic pain, forcing yourself to be active can be a hard thing to do. For most people, pain and discomfort triggers a predictable response: they do whatever they can to stop it!

If the pain were caused by a hot stove, they’d take their hand off of it. If it were a sharp rock in their shoe, they’d take it out. But even though chronic pain comes from inside the body, the instinct to avoid whatever pain they’re feeling is still there. 

Many of my patients with back injuries really struggle with this. Getting exercise can seem like the last thing you’d want to do when it feels like everything you do is going to hurt.

The back is involved in so many movements in our day to day lives that chronic back pain can really be a hindrance. It can keep you from tying your shoes, taking the stairs, or going to the gym. Because it’s such an important component of so many common movements you need to be able to do throughout the day, chronic back pain can cause people to flat out avoid doing a lot of things.

While it’s true that some injuries need rest, elevation, and compression to heal correctly, not every injury is the same.

A great way to prevent and help with chronic back pain is to stretch; not just your back, but your whole body. Do you have back pain caused by an illness or injury? Our manual therapy techniques can unlock the parts of your life that you may have had to put away. Contact my team to schedule  a 1-on-1 with me today!