A newly published study show that alternative forms of exercise like yoga and tai chi have a profound impact when it comes to pain relief. Researchers looked at conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic back pain, osteoarthritis, chronic neck pain, and migraines. The study relied on over 100 other studies that took place over the course of the past 50 years or so to find data. Although there is much more to discover in the terms of exercise, this is a great start toward finding just how beneficial certain activities can be. The researchers also commented that just because medications or painkillers didn’t completely erase symptoms of pain didn’t mean that things could be better managed when alternative healing measures are taken at the same time. This kind of a study also can help make sure that doctors are better able to help patients that might otherwise suffer and be prescribed opioids unnecessarily.
This same study that revealed the results of collected data also indicated that acupuncture was a successful method of alternative pain management. These are all considered to be complementary health approaches because they can be used to boost health and fitness in conjunction with other helpful tasks and treatments.
This kind of information is extremely helpful for those families that have an elderly loved one that suffers from chronic pain. In the past, opioids have been a popular method of pain management, but the more this type of drug is studied, the more that researchers are finding that the long term usage of opioids can cause more problems than they solve. In fact, opioids can drastically increase the risk of premature mortality. At the very least, this method of pain management can impact health and create a dependence upon the drug.
The fact that this kind of activity could be helpful for improving fitness is not anything new. Other studies have pointed toward tai chi as helping improve physical abilities in people suffering from long term or chronic illnesses or disabilities. This is just another study that points to how helpful physical activity and exercise–even relatively simple things–can be for senior citizens. It might not prevent the need for in-home care or senior care, but it can help improve the quality of life of elderly folks who might otherwise find themselves suffering constantly.
In the past, other studies have revealed that physical fitness and exercise have a bearing on the amount of pain that someone experiences. For the elderly, exercise can be quite difficult, but even small amounts of walking every day can be helpful. And if someone is confined to a wheelchair, there are other things that can be done to promote fitness. Not only this, when someone exercises on a regular basis, their mental health tends to be far greater, too. Exercise boosts the levels of serotonin in the brain, and this helps stave off things like depression and anxiety. All of these things would be negatively impacted by the use of traditional opioids, so if there is a way around their use, it’s important to speak with a doctor to try and find it.
Leave a Reply