Many small life changes can make a big difference when it comes to back pain. Leading the charge are daily trackers and lifestyle integrated tools that can help you create better habits to help prevent and manage back pain. Mobile apps are particularly helpful with this as they offer everything from calorie tracking to videos to…
From the yoga instructor to the office worker to the stay-at-home parent, our daily activities are possible because of our backs. The spine itself is a remarkable structure of the body. It is strong, but also flexible. It provides mobility, but it also helps protect our nerves. By understanding the anatomy of the back and spine,…
Have you ever heard about the pencil experiment and its impact for positive thinking? In a study conducted in the 1980s, researchers asked participants to hold a pencil in their mouths and watch videos that influenced various reactions ranging from disturbed to amusement. Their conclusion was that individuals forced to smile by holding a pencil…
Kyphoplasty, a minimally invasive procedure, is often used to treat vertebral compression fractures caused by osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a bone disease that affects over 50 million people in the U.S. each year. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, “one in two women and one in four men over the age of 50 will break a…
One of the primary concerns with prescribing opioid medications to patients is the possibility of developing a dependence to the drugs. Opioid dependence is classified as a tolerance to the medication that requires the patient to take higher or more frequent doses to achieve the same level of pain relief. However, just as concerning as…
In today’s technology driven world, the use of online and mobile applications is skyrocketing. At one time thought only to be useful for the younger generations, today everyone has access to technology that makes daily organization easier. Can pain sufferers use these apps to better manage and monitor their use of prescription painkillers? Let’s take…
Physical activity is imperative for the human body to function at peak efficiency. Doctors are encouraging everyone to add exercise into daily routines. There is even some recent evidence to indicate that exercise can be more effective in treating diabetes than prescribed medications. A team of researchers from the London School of Economics, Harvard Medical…
The connections between meditation and stress or exercise and pain management are easy to draw. Did you know there may be more low-impact options to help manage your stress and pain, though? Art therapy, which is often used in psychology to help individuals overcome their mental blocks and explore their feelings, can be used in…
While many healthcare professionals are already studying the links between depression and chronic pain, there are fewer studies made into the topic of pain for people with less common mental disorders. People with conditions like addiction, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder may all suffer from additional bodily chronic pain that is related to their condition. Addiction…
We all know that the perceived experience of pain varies widely from individual to individual. Researchers are just now beginning to understand why that is by studying both genetic and environmental variables that contribute to pain sensitivity. What is pain sensitivity? Pain sensitivity, the point at which stimulus is regarded as painful or not, was…