A patient will feel physical pain when a signal is sent from the affected body part to the brain. This helps to notify the body that something is wrong, such as an injury or infection.
Chronic pain is characterized by mild to severe pain that persists beyond the normal healing time. The normal natural healing time for the body is estimated to be around 12 weeks.
Chronic pain is a serious affliction especially considering that the CDC reported that approximately 50 million adults suffered from chronic pain in the United States in 2018.
To address their chronic pains effectively, the patient may have to include interventions in their lifestyles. This is especially true for those who lave large alcohol consumption, smoking, poor diet, and physical inactivity since those conditions cause a higher risk for chronic pain.
The changes we will focus on in this post are dietary modifications, chiropractic, and exercise.
Individuals with chronic pain should focus on increasing anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant foods in their diet. This will encourage the patient to consume foods that have low-glycemic carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, yogurt, red wine, and extra-virgin olive oil which are better for the body. Also by increasing the consumption of these items, the individuals will decrease their intake of legumes, animal proteins (such as fish, white meat, eggs, fresh cheese, and red meat), and sweets.
There are many researches that suggest that exercise may improve several factors related to chronic pain, including severity and physical function. The exercises studied are balance training, core training, yoga, Pilates, and Tai chi, as well as aerobic, strength, and flexibility exercises.
Chiropractors diagnose the patient’s pain through a physical examination and develop a treatment plan tailored to suit the individual’s needs. Usually the chiropractor will use a combination of spinal manipulation, manual therapies, and therapeutic exercises to treat the patient’s chronic pain.