According to the American Academy of Pain Management, 1.5 billion people worldwide are suffering from some form of chronic pain. That is a great number of people having to go about their daily lives with chronic pain and not being able to function 100%. If you have chronic pain that is hard to relieve, or you’re waiting to have surgery, it can be really tough to live with.
If you are suffering with some form of chronic pain, then you might feel like the best thing for you to do is to take it easy and to lay in bed, rest, relax, and not do anything that could cause more pain. However, there is research that shows that moving your body can actually be one of the best things that you can do for some chronic pain relief.
What Is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is a persistent type of pain, which lasts more than 12 weeks, despite any treatments or medication to end the pain. Most chronic pain comes from pain with backaches, arthritis, and headaches. Chronic pain can impact your joints, bones, and your muscles. It can also feel like it is all over your body, rather than just being in one place. This is common with fibromyalgia. You could have an injury that becomes chronic and can last for years. Other chronic pain can happen as a result of conditions that can be quite sudden, like arthritis and another autoimmune disease.
No matter what the cause is, chronic pain is something that can be very debilitating for people that experience it. It can seriously impact the quality of life and can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Sleep can be massively impacted by chronic pain; If you repeatedly cannot get a good night’s sleep, then it will have quite traumatic and disastrous effects on your daily life.
Looking for ways and things you can do to treat chronic pain, so that you can sleep better, is a must.
Ways to Treat Chronic Pain Without Surgery So You Can Sleep
If you are suffering from chronic pain, there is surely a lot of negativity, misunderstanding and stigma, you must repeatedly deal with – but there is also good news. The good news is that there is actually quite a lot that you can do to ease the chronic pain that you are experiencing and do so without drugs or surgery. You could even help to heal some of the underlying conditions you may be experiencing that are making your pain worse, or that are contributing to it.
To begin, as mentioned briefly above, moving and getting your body in motion can actually help to balance the nervous system pain pathways. These are related to serotonin and the naturally produced opioids in your body. These pathways can help you to feel less pain for the time that you are exercising, moving, or walking. The impact can be felt for a number of hours afterwards, as well. So, if you are someone that experiences pain from conditions like fibromyalgia or myofascial pain, then exercise has got to be worth a try.
Exercise is also something that can help to reduce and ease inflammation. Having inflammatory responses from our body can be helpful in some instances, as they can help to heal our body. But if the inflammation becomes something that is chronic, then nerves can get involved, which leads to pain and an uncomfortable feeling. It has been found that only twenty minutes of exercise each day was what was needed to help to boost the body’s anti-inflammatory abilities and response.
The Connection Between Exercise and Better Sleep
Exercise can relieve pain and leave you with some positive pain-free hours after the exercise is complete. But exercise is also something that is linked to improving sleep. If you have been exercising to relieve chronic pain, not only will you feel less pain for some time, but you’re more likely to fall asleep that night too. Completing regular moderate aerobic exercise is something that can help insomnia. This is something that is pretty significant because having issues with sleep, and having chronic pain are usually two things that do go hand in hand.
There are a number of exercises that you can do to help with chronic pain. With chronic pain, you do not want to overexert yourself too much. Your joints can be sore, so taking things steady can be best. Begin with are regular walking, or stretching, yoga or tai-chi. Swimming, water aerobics and resistance training are also good ideas. All of these methods of exercise can be calming and can last for as long or as short as you want. They all burn calories, get your heart rate up, help you to get stronger, as well as easing pain for at least a bit, and tiring you out for a good night’s sleep. The bonus is that these exercises are all low impact.
If you are someone who experiences chronic pain, it can be hard to push and motivate yourself to get moving and to do some exercise. It can almost feel a little counterintuitive. However, the evidence is there that low-impact exercise and a decent night’s sleep can vastly improve your health, and with that, the pain you experience. Give 20 minutes of exercise a day a try and see what difference you notice. You may end up being pleasantly surprised by just how much natural chronic pain relief you get just by moving your body.
