Physical Therapy, Fitness, and Pain Reduction

Here’s fascinating research on how movement and fitness protect you from pain.

Are you in pain? Whether it’s transitory or more constant, no one likes to feel pain. It’s draining, exhausting in fact, and the inactivity associated with it tends to lead to other problems such as weight gain and increasingly worsening health. It’s been well-established individuals in pain are less active and it makes sense.

But what if the drugs so commonly prescribed for pain made you feel pain more intensely, and for a longer period of time?

What if movement caused you to get out of pain faster while also acting as a prevention agent?

New research from professors at the University of Colorado Boulder reveals an insidious cycle whereby opioid drugs used to treat chronic pain are not only addictive but contribute to long term pain.  The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2016, revealed only 5 days of morphine treatment caused chronic pain lasting for months. The morphine treatment was found to increase pain responsive nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain, thereby resulting in increased pain during for a period of several months.

It is not new data that certain pain medications are “designed” or “engineered” to maintain their customers. I remember being new in practice decades ago and learning how drugs such as Midol manipulated a pathway in the biochemistry of the body to ensure a woman would indeed have menstrual cycle pain in the future, thereby needing more of the drug each month.

Pain medications actually result in patients feeling the pain more acutely, to maintain their use of the medication.

The recent research discovered a natural alternative to medications that has none of the negative side effects of dangerous pain meds. The alternative not only avoids the increased pain sensation that lingers for months but in fact is protective and speeds healing.

Sound good?

At a meeting of the American Pain Society, the researchers, Grace, and Watkins presented an alternative to dangerous opioids in the form of movement or exercise.

Two key points emerged from their research:

1.       Movement/exercise plays a major role in the reduction of pain

2.       Those who have been exercising prior to an encounter causing them pain recover faster.

3.       The exercise yields a “protective effect” lasting up to 90 days.

While the researchers utilized an animal model, it has long been noted athletes recover more quickly from injury than the inactive, general public.

Why do these effects occur? It turns out exercise induces an anti-inflammatory reaction, causing the body to recover faster, and being fit prior to an injury not only allows for faster healing, but the anti-inflammatory effect lasts a full 3 months.

Opioids increase pain lasting for several months and movement/exercise does exactly the opposite – lessening pain and protecting the body for months with enhanced healing potential.

The purpose of this is to make the point that movement/exercise is good for you. You don’t have to be a marathon runner, in fact, we don’t recommend it, but getting more movement and fitness in your life is helpful on many levels.

Our last blog on the subject (Can Fitness Prevent Cancer and Other Diseases) cited a variety of health benefits from being fit. Today’s article focuses on a new benefit – pain protection and healing after injury.

Summary

1.       If you take medication for pain, get evaluated for a customized fitness program with our Doctor of Physical Therapy.

2.       If you feel pain, either intermittently or chronically, the benefit of movement/exercise is critical.

3.       If you want to avoid the need for dangerous pain medications and ensure you’ll heal faster from any future injury, enhance your fitness.

We are, on the whole, a fairly inactive country. We’re busy yet sedentary. Here at Root Cause Medical, our Physical Therapy Department offers a gentle, easy program to gradually regain your fitness. Whether you have trouble climbing stairs, getting out of a chair, or ready to take your fitness to the next level, we can tailor-make a fitness program for you.

Customized programs are safer and get better results because they are created for you individually.