pain

Don’t Let Chronic Pain Break Your Back

September 10, 2020 By lyndsinreallife Leave a Comment

Do you suffer from chronic pain? Well, you’re not alone. Chronic pain is a lot more common than most people realize. Indeed, millions of people suffer from issues with chronic pain and this certainly becomes more of a common issue as you age. It’s important that you don’t let chronic pain take over your life. Instead, you need to figure out how to deal with it the right way. So, let’s look at some of the best options.

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Think About Cause

The first step should always be trying to determine what is the cause of your chronic pain. Now, unfortunately, this isn’t often an easy question to answer and there are a few reasons for that. First of all, it’s possible that there isn’t a known cause for your pain even when you go to the doctor’s. Second, you might find that it’s something that you didn’t expect or weren’t prepared for. You might suffer from GERD and this condition can cause severe pain. If you think this might be the issue, then you should consider consulting a gastroenterologist. They can provide the treatment you need.

Pain can also be psychological which is why many individuals find that they benefit from getting cognitive therapy. With cognitive therapy, you can usually address the root cause of the pain which could be an emotional issue from your past.

Once you understand the cause of your issue, you will be more than halfway to tackling the problem! However, it’s not quite enough.

Look At Coping Mechanisms

The next step will always be to explore coping mechanisms and ways to deal with your chronic pain more effectively. Cognitive retraining therapy can help a great deal. With this type of therapy, you can train your mind to essentially ignore the pain and treat it like a sensation that is not relevant. This allows many people to live with the pain far more effectively and lead more normal lives.

You might also want to think about trying herbal medicine rather than the typical meds prescribed by a doctor. For instance, many people have found great results with CBD. This is understandable as CBD does seem to have widespread benefits for both the body and the mind.

A lot of people who suffer from chronic pain do tend to avoid exercise however this can be beneficial too. Or at least it will be as long as you choose the right type of exercise. Specifically, swimming can be great because the water helps release and loosen the joints and muscles throughout the body. Tension will always make chronic pain far worse and more noticeable.

We hope this helps you understand some of the best and most effective ways to deal with your chronic pain. Chronic pain can feel like a nightmare, but if you take the right steps and follow the best strategy, then it doesn’t have to take over your life. You can still enjoy yourself and have fun with your passions as well as your family.

Thank you for reading!

Health

Don’t Accept Physical Pain, Learn To Tame It

February 9, 2020 By lyndsinreallife Leave a Comment

The older we become the more we realize that pain is just a part of life. Our bodies age and become withered, we start to feel the bite of the cold a lot more than we used to, and bruises don’t heal as fast. This can lead to feeling helpless and afraid to live your life the way you want to. Healthcare costs are always increasing so you never know how much it’s going to cost to get treatment. Hence why so many of us turn to other ways of coping, when we know we shouldn’t. But is it possible, to live a life coping with pain day in and day out? Yes, it is, but it won’t be easy. There are a few lifestyle choices you can make for this to happen.

Fuel for repairs

The simple fact of the matter is if you consumed more protein, you would heal a lot quicker. Your muscles would be denser and you would increase tissue dexterity. Taking elements of the ketogenic diet and implementing them into your normal eating habits would be greatly beneficial as you age. You’re naturally swapping out carbs for fats and protein, which helps you maintain and/or lower your weight. You’ll also have an abundance of protein that your body will use to quickly repair small tears in your muscles before they get worse. Consuming more calcium is needed to maintain the thickness of your bones and help them to better bear the weight of your body. Put a little omega-3 in your diet in the form of smoked salmon or fish oil tablets. It will keep your mind sharp and help repair soft damage such as cartilage in your joints.

Numbing a different way

When you come home from a long day, sometimes you just want to be physically numbed from the exhaustion and pain. A physically demanding role or one that is not as strenuous but relies on endurance can cause chronic pain to develop. Some people will turn to the only thing they know that will help numb the pain, which is pain killers. However, they work so effectively that it can be quite addicting if used over a long period of time (hello opioid crisis). This rehab facility will help you to slowly get off these types of pills and give you the type of therapy that you would like. They offer group, family, and individual therapy sessions so you can get to the bottom of the reasoning for taking pain killers. You’ll be introduced to natural ways to help numb and heal the body such as heat treatment, massage therapy, and meditation.

Make more ‘me time’

Making more time for yourself will give you the chance you need to lick your wounds. Take the time to shut off from the rest of the world, take a nap, have a hot bath or perform yoga. Anything that you can do to proactively heal your body is going to lead to a better life.

Don’t accept any sort of physical pain in your life as something normal. Don’t rely on any sort of medication, instead, eat healthier with higher protein levels in your diet and make time to heal yourself physically.

Thank you for reading!

This post was a collaboration.

Fitness Health

Refrain From The Pain! Exercising When You Have An Injury

November 21, 2019 By lyndsinreallife 1 Comment

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If you are an avid gym-goer, it becomes part of your life. You can’t imagine yourself without it. Even something simple like walking turns into a rapid sprint. But if you have this enthusiasm for hitting the gym, there will be times when you do too much, even though you think you can push it that little bit more than normal. By all means, pushing it in the gym is what helps us in the long run, but if we do it too much we could end up with an injury. It’s something we’ve all had on occasion, overdid it and got sidelined for a while. And while we need to give our body the chance to heal, we have to remember that there are ways around exercising with an injury. So, how can we do this?

Listen To Your Doctor

If you’ve been going to a shoulder surgeon, and there’s been a constant issue with this over months, if not years, you must listen to the medical advice. Sometimes your shoulder can feel okay, and as shoulder injuries are one of the most common because the muscles in the shoulders are the least developed, understanding when to cut back is crucial. Your doctor can help to guide you with relevant training to keep you strong while recovering. A lot of people choose not to listen to medical advice. But you have to do the exercises for as long as they recommend.

Make The Relevant Modifications

With a specific injury, you have to learn to train around it. If, for example, you have a knee problem, it may be recommended you avoid any cardiovascular or lower body strength activity. But this doesn’t mean you can’t work on your upper body. It’s about making those modifications to ensure that you are exercising around the issue. You can switch to a workout routine that involves you sitting down, rather than standing up and running around. This means no squats or deadlifts for a while. And while this may sound limiting, consider it to be an opportunity to figure out a different routine so that there is no pressure on the offending muscle or joint.

When There’s Pain, Stop

We can feel that, after a couple of weeks, there are minimal or no pain anymore, so we feel that we can go back to 100% exertion. But avoid the temptation to go back into your normal routine. We are constantly told that pushing through the pain is crucial to building muscle and strength but if the pain starts to get worse before you begin to develop new pains in a related area, go back to the doctor. If the pain carries on while you are doing a modified workout, play around with routines and try something else. But unfortunately, it may be best to stop, especially if you are using the improper form to get the reps.

Reducing pain is crucial, and this means you need a good time to recover as well. It’s worth trying the POLICE principle which can help you to reduce sports-related injuries, but it’s not just about protection. You have to remember that maintaining is as important especially after you’ve made a full recovery.

This post was a collaboration.

Health

Dealing With Bad Wrist Pain

August 23, 2019 By lyndsinreallife 1 Comment

Wrist pain can be difficult to deal with. Below, we look at some common types.

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Wrist Sprain

There are many different causes of wrist sprains, highlighting why the diagnosis stage is of paramount importance. More often than not, a sprained wrist occurs because of a specific incident, such as a fall, and this is exceptionally common during sports, such as skiing, skateboarding, and cycling. A wrist sprain can also occur due to overuse, which is a repetitive strain injury, while other patients suffer as a result of performing heavy manual work, or engaging in activities such as boxing and weight lifting.

If you suffer from wrist pain, you will typically experience a sudden onset of pain; especially if you have fallen over or been the victim of a traumatic injury, and this pain can get worse in the mornings. CBD oil can help, and a lot of people get their CBD oil from the internet or dispensaries. Other symptoms include stiffness, weakness and difficulty in carrying out everyday activities, including picking up objects and opening doors. The pain can be felt on the sides of the wrist as well as the front and the back, and it is not uncommon for pain to be referred to the hand or the forearm.

Wrist Tendonitis

Wrist tendonitis is an overuse condition that can occur when patients carry out prolonged or repetitive activities that place strain on the wrist tendons. Pain varies and it can cause people to have trouble when carrying out normally daily activities, such as using the computer or opening a jar, which is why you need to get your wrist seen as quickly as possible.

There are many different activities that can place strain on the tendons in the wrist, including manual work, such as working at a computer, sewing, using vibrating machinery, bricklaying, painting, and carpentry, as well as sports, including tennis, golf, gymnastics, and badminton. Essentially, any activity that involves repetitive gripping, forceful gripping or something of a similar nature, can cause wrist tendonitis to develop, which is why it is a health condition that is common. In rare cases, this condition can occur suddenly as the result of a traumatic injury.

There are many different signs and symptoms of wrist tendonitis, including stiffness in the wrist, achiness, crepitus, and swelling, while symptoms tend to get worse in the morning and at night, or when the person carries out an activity that they are unaccustomed to or is aggravating. Wrist tendonitis can also make it difficult for people to carry out their usual daily tasks, such as using the computer, opening jars and carrying the groceries; even shaking someone’s hand can cause pain.

Physiotherapy is the best form of treatment for anyone suffering from wrist tendonitis, with most patients making a full recovery when going down this route, yet patient compliance plays a huge role, as you will have to follow the exercises and advice provided at home. A full range of treatments are used to ensure you get back to your best, such as electrotherapy, joint mobilisation, dry needling, and massage, but you need to ensure you follow our self-care advice as well.

•Do you suffer from wrist pain? What was your best course of action?

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Thank you for reading!

Health

Surprising Causes of Headaches and How to Stop Them

June 4, 2019 By lyndsinreallife Leave a Comment

Did you know that it isn’t just stress and colds that can cause headaches? Sometimes little things, like cleaning your home or even sleeping in, can cause them too. If you want to help yourself then here are the top surprising causes of headaches.

Relaxing

Do you find that headaches strike you more on the weekend? Especially on a Saturday morning? If this is the case, then there is a very good reason. As you relax, the tension from the week subsides, and your stress hormones start to drop. This can cause a release of neurotransmitters, which sends out impulses to the blood vessels in the brain. When this happens, the vessels constrict and dilate. This can cause serious headaches, and it may cause you to suffer all weekend as a result. If you want to stop this, then try to avoid the temptation of sleeping in on the weekend. Instead, go for a yoga class or a walk.

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Pent up Anger

When you are angry, all the muscles that are in the back of your scalp and your neck really tense up. Of course, this will cause you to experience a constricting sensation around your head, known as a tension headache. If you want to try and stop this from happening, then try to breathe in deep and slowly. Also, focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. This will relax your back and your neck.

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Poor Posture

Poor posture can create a lot of tension in your upper back. This can cause you to experience a headache, and you may find that you get a throbbing pain in the back of your skull. If this is the case, then avoid sitting in one position for a long period of time. If you get pain behind the eyes, this could be because of an eye problem. If this sounds like you, then check out Biotrue ONEday for astigmatism. I have astigmatisms in BOTH eyes, so I know the pain and frustration associated with it.

Perfume

If you think that housework gives you a headache, there is a high chance that you could be right. Cleaners, fragranced air fresheners, and strong perfumes can all contain chemicals which are notorious for bringing on headaches. If you want to fix this, then try and avoid heavy perfumes, and also make sure that you keep your windows and doors open as much as possible. The same applies to your workplace as well. When someone is spraying perfume, open the window and always make sure that you turn on your air conditioner where possible.

Bad Weather

If you are prone to getting headaches, you may find that they are brought on by high humidity, increasing temperatures, and even grey skies. Pressure changes can trigger electrical and chemical changes in the brain and this can irritate your nerves. This can then lead you to developing headaches and other side effects. If you want to stop this, try and take some pain relief for when bad weather does strike. I get terrible migraines, and they’re almost always due to the barometric pressure (or a change in air pressure). High humidity causes mine, as well. When in Ohio, where it’s always over 50% humidity, I get severe migraines. Here in Las Vegas, the humidity is almost always under 10%, and I get fewer migraines!

Do you get headaches? How do you combat them? Comment below!

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Thank you for reading!