Must Read Pain Management Tips for 2018!

Learning pain management skills is essential if you suffer with chronic back pain. And the good news is pain management isn’t all that complicated. In fact, there are some simple techniques you can easily learn that may make a big difference in how you experience your symptoms.

Here are some effective tips from our Southend chiropractor:

Exercise

Gentle everyday activities such as walking, swimming and cycling can help to ease your symptoms by blocking pain signals to the brain. Exercise also helps to reduce pain by stretching stiff and tense muscles, ligaments and joints.

Breathing

Concentrating on your breathing when you’re in pain can help to manage your condition. When you feel intense pain, breathe slowly and deeply. This will help you to feel more in control of the situation, keep you relaxed and prevent any muscle tension or anxiety from increasing your symptoms.

Counselling

Living with chronic pain can make you tired, anxious and depressed. Sometimes, this can make the pain even worse. Some people find it very helpful to speak to a counsellor to discover how to better deal with their emotions in relation to their pain.

Remember that pain management is often subjective, so it’s important that you find a technique that works for you. The bottom line is that there is always something you can do to reduce your back pain

Paz Made It Happen For This Strongman

Richard Ellis visited Cliffs with difficulty breathing and wasn’t at all positive that he was going to be able to compete in his first amateur strongman competition.

But with help from Paz, Richard got in touch to share his outstanding performance with us at the competition!

Richard wrote to us saying:

“I wanted to thank you for all your help. I first came to see Paz as I couldn’t breathe properly as my ribs and spine weren’t agreeing with one another.

I had 3 weeks left to prepare for my first amateur strongman competition and wasn’t positive about being at my best.

To cut a long story short, Paz made it happen. I did really well in my competition and couldn’t have done it without Cliffs Chiropractic.

Please see attached a video from the day.”

 

How Do You Deal With Pain?

pain management advice  from our southend chiropractorChronic or severe pain can interfere with your life on many levels and can even affect your ability to work, maintain relationships and sleep properly. But did you know that there are many pain management techniques that can work alongside your physical treatment plan to help relieve your symptoms?

Here our Southend chiropractor lists a few coping strategies that work effectively for many back pain patients:

Focus on your breathing

You may not be aware of this, but if your pain is severe, you are probably breathing more rapidly and shallowly than usual. Controlled, deep breathing can harness the nervous system’s “quieting response” and encourage a reduction in the pain you feel.

Lay down in a quiet room and switch of any distractions that may over-stimulate you. You can either close your eyes or focus on a specific point or object. Then, try to focus on nothing but breathing in and breathing out. If you can feel that you are in control of your body and take charge of your own breathing, you may feel in a more powerful position to stop your pain from controlling you.

Once you are breathing deeply, muscle relaxation will come naturally. The key is to try and let go of any feeling in your body and to remain entirely focused on your breathing.

Visualise a better place

Visualisation involves picturing a detailed situation and the emotions that accompany it. This technique can be extremely effective in providing pain relief.

If you suffer from severe or chronic pain, the situation you visualise may be one where you are pain-free, relaxed and feeling generally well. But there is not one visualisation that works for everyone; they key is finding one that works for you.

Many patients find it effective to visualise the sensations of taking a warm bath or relaxing on a beach. Religious or spiritual thoughts are also popular for helping patients to cope with pain. Oddly, even thoughts of food can help in some cases; some chronic pain patients find that focusing their thoughts on their favourite dishes helps to alleviate pain.

Remember that pain management is often subjective, and finding what works for you can take a little bit of trial and error. Make sure you talk to your chiropractor or health care professional and work together to find a strategy that suits you.

You don’t have to accept pain as part of your life.