Dealing with chronic pain can be both psychologically and physically stressful, resulting in anger and depression. Chronic pain lasts longer than six months and can greatly reduce your quality of life, making it difficult to perform simple tasks. Continued pain does not only affect the person in pain, but it can affect loved ones as well. Medication is only one of the available treatments available to help manage your pain and improve your quality of life.
Causes of Chronic Pain
There are many causes of chronic pain. Some of the most common types of chronic pain include back pain, migraines, arthritis, fibromyalgia, shingles, nerve damage, and multiple sclerosis. Other causes of chronic pain can include having poor posture for years, sleeping on a poor mattress, a traumatic injury, high heels, and being overweight.
Treating the underlying condition is one of the most important first steps to take to get the pain under control. Sometimes though, traditional treatment, such as pain medication, does not work the way that it should, or you may experience unwanted side effects and would like alternative options instead.
Physical Therapy
If you’re one of the millions of Americans that suffer from chronic pain yearly, you’re probably looking for relief. Physical therapy in Newark is one way to manage your pain. While chronic pain affects individuals differently, physical therapy can help reduce pain and help individuals get their lives back as much as possible. Physical therapy does a lot more than just relieve pain, it can help determine why certain muscles in your body are stiff or weak.
Physical therapy exercises can target the specific areas where you’re feeling pain and provide you with low-impact exercises that will not add additional stress to your problematic areas. When working directly with a physical therapist, you can learn the most helpful exercises for your specific pain so you can continue doing them at home. Most of the time, the first physical therapy appointment will be about discussing your condition as well as your pain and how it’s affecting you. Then your physical therapist will take that information and come up with a good approach to dealing with your pain.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is a type of treatment that has many benefits for individuals of all ages. Since chronic pain can cause a person to be stressed and have their body stuck in fight or flight mode, massage therapy can promote relaxation and decrease the feelings of being stressed. Pain can do a lot of harm to your body and leave you feeling incredibly exhausted, affecting your mobility and making it hard for you to do certain things.
Herbal Remedies
Herbal remedies can be another alternate solution for managing your chronic pain. Since everyone’s pain is different, you may have to try several to find what works best for you. Common options for pain relief include wintergreen essential oil, which is often found in muscle ache creams, ginger, feverfew, devil’s claw, cranberry juice, and capsaicin. Lavender essential oil is known to have pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects. It’s always a good idea to consult with a doctor before using herbal remedies to make sure you use them safely.
Dietary Changes
You may experience pain relief by making some changes to your diet. Some individuals have been successful with managing their pain when following a vegan or Mediterranean diet. Certain foods can help with reducing inflammation which can ease pain, including whole grains, beans, nuts, vegetables, fish, olive oil, tea, herbs and spices, and fowl.
Certain foods are known to trigger inflammation and make things worse, including red meat, processed meat, foods high in sugar, white bread, coffee creamer, instant oatmeal, and high fructose corn syrup. When dealing with chronic pain, it’s a good idea to drink plenty of water and avoid foods that can make your blood sugar spike. Your diet should include antioxidants such as nuts and dark green leafy vegetables.
