Healthy Living Archives - Michigan Spine & Pain

Is Pain Making You Tired?

Pain and fatigue often go hand in hand, especially when there is chronic, long-term pain. The exhaustion and weakness that can accompany pain may develop slowly or appear suddenly. When developing a pain management strategy, coping with fatigue should also be part of the plan.

Here are some factors that contribute to the pain/fatigue cycle, and tips for how to break free:

Physical Stress

Use it or lose it…

Reducing your physical activity because of pain can weaken muscles and make you tire more easily. Talk with your pain management team and work out a realistic exercise and activity plan.

Tip: Enlist friends and family to help you achieve your activity goals and help you regain your confidence. A walk with a friend seems shorter than a trudge alone. Just remember to be realistic and tell them when need to stop and rest.

You don’t move like you used to…

Whether you’re limited by an injury, living with arthritis pain, or recovering from surgery, pain can cause you to adjust the way you move. This can create unusual stress on muscles and joints and cause more pain – and more fatigue.

Tip: Be aware of how you position your body whether you are moving or at rest. If, for example, you are favoring an injured knee, be aware that the other knee is now taking on more than its usual share of the load and will tire more easily – and be more prone to injury.

Play now, pay later…

Overdoing it can increase both pain and fatigue. Learn your limits and adjust your activity accordingly. Don’t let overexertion on a “good day” lead to a series of “bad days.”

Tip: Pay attention to the signals your body sends you and don’t try to push past your limit. Discuss any problems or setbacks with your medical team. Don’t wear yourself out trying to prevent fatigue!

Emotional Stress

Emotional stress can also contribute to fatigue. Injuries can change your everyday life in an instant. You feel a loss of control and the burden of adjusting your lifestyle during treatment and recovery. Long term pain can be emotionally as well as physically draining. Depression is a common, and serious, side effect of chronic pain. Depression can contribute to fatigue and fatigue can feed the powerless feelings that lead to depression. It’s important to break that cycle.

Tip: Do what makes you happy. Stay connected with family and friends. Continue activities that give you joy. If you find yourself avoiding the people and activities that you previously enjoyed, talk to your doctor right away.

Hidden dangers…

Finally, keep an open dialogue with your doctor about any new (or increasing) weakness or fatigue to make sure there aren’t any underlying illnesses or health conditions responsible. Don’t assume that pain alone is the culprit.

Here are some factors that contribute to the pain/fatigue cycle, and tips for how to break free:

Physical Stress

Use it or lose it…

Reducing your physical activity because of pain can weaken muscles and make you tire more easily. Talk with your pain management team and work out a realistic exercise and activity plan.

You don’t move liked to… you use

Play now, pay later…

Overdoing it can increase both pain and fatigue. Learn your limits and adjust your activity accordingly. Don’t let overexertion on a “good day” lead to a series of “bad days.”

Emotional Stress

Hidden dangers…

Missing Sleep? How Helpful is Counting Sheep?

Image courtesy of amenclinics.com

For pain patients, sleep is precious. Sleep is a respite from a tough day and allows pain patients to tolerate discomfort. Lack of sleep not only isn’t restorative enough, it also inhibits our abilities to handle pain.

Unfortunately, many pain patients also suffer from insomnia.

What to do?

The traditional answer has always been to literally “count sheep”. This has meant envisioning sheep going by and counting them. The practice probably is a relic from an old shepherding tradition of having to count the herds before bedtime.

But not every old practice works, and apparently, counting sheep actually extends wakefulness.

So, what can help you get to sleep?

A cool room, but not too cold.
Comfortable bedding and pillows.
The optimal amount of noise (white noise if you need it; silence if that is better)
Comfortable proximity to your significant other. Many people like to sleep while in physical contact with their partner. Others like their partner nearby but not touching.
All screens off (and no screen time for several minutes before bedtime.)
Comfortable breathable nightwear (or none at all, if it’s more comfortable).

If these conditions still don’t bring on sleep, instead of counting sheep, which apparently is actually too boring, consider these exercises:

Reading a fairly mundane book–no thrillers, mysteries or bodice-ripping romances. I’m reminded of my friend who was a camp counselor and would read to his campers from his college macroeconomics textbook every night.
Don’t rehash the day or make lists of what you need to do (although these are great things to do as you’re preparing for bed, just not as you’re getting into bed.)
Visualize relaxing settings that you like (a peaceful coastline, a mountain view, a snowy walk, a path in the woods).
Breathe naturally but slowly and deliberately.
You can play some mind games, particularly if they are a little boring. Alphabet games are great because you typically won’t make it to “z”. Think of a place that begins with each letter or a celebrity (first or last name).
Spiritual or prayerful thoughts. If you’ve memorized a few psalms or Bible verses, say them to yourself silently. Think of every person you know and say a silent wish for them.

If you consistently cannot fall asleep (or stay asleep), discuss this with your health care team. You may need to be evaluated by a sleep specialist to rule out sleep apnea and evaluate if you would benefit from a mild nighttime sedative.

The first sign of Michigan Spring? Asparagus!

Michigan produce is legendary from its berries to vegetables to its amazing apples.

But the earliest crop to be ready in Michigan year after year is asparagus. Depending on the length and intensity of the winter, the asparagus crop becomes ready in late April or May. This year’s relatively mild winter bodes well for fresh asparagus right about now.

Did you know that Michigan is the #2 producer of asparagus in the country with the majority of the farms in western Michigan? You probably didn’t.

So, what’s so great about asparagus? First of all, ½ cup of asparagus is only 20 calories. It has no fat or cholesterol and is very low in sodium and carbohydrates. But it provides these benefits:

18% of your recommended daily Vitamin A
12% of your recommended daily Vitamin C
5% of your recommended daily iron
2 Grams of fiber

Cook asparagus and serve them as a side dish, topped with a splash of lemon juice and Parmesan cheese, added to salads of all kinds, as a base for chicken dishes or grilled with savory dipping sauces.

From the Pure Michigan website, here is a terrific recipe:

Herb Frittata with Michigan Asparagus and Goat Cheese

Servings : 4
Time : 15 minutes

Ingredients:

6-8 ounces asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces (May also roast, steam or sauté asparagus)
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
3/8 teaspoon salt
A pinch of fresh-grated nutmeg (optional)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
7 large eggs, lightly beaten (can substitute with Egg Beaters)
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 ounces soft goat cheese (about 1/4 cup)

Directions

Combine asparagus and 1/4 cup water in a small microwave-safe bowl; cover and microwave at HIGH 2 minutes or until tender. Rinse with cold water; drain. Combine chives, dill, salt, pepper, nutmeg and eggs in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk.
Preheat broiler to high. Heat a small ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add asparagus and egg mixture to pan; cook 3 minutes or until eggs are partially set, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with cheese.
Place pan under broiler. Broil 2 minutes or until eggs are set and top is lightly browned.
Remove pan from oven. Run a spatula around edge and under frittata to loosen from pan; slide frittata onto a plate or cutting board. Cut into 4 wedges.

The Sleep-Pain Paradox

It’s a problem.

People who suffer pain need restorative sleep, more than the general population. Yet, people in pain tend not to get enough restorative sleep. The 2015 Sleep Poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation says that 23% of chronic pain sufferers say they have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder.

It’s important for pain sufferers to take control of their sleep as if it were a high priority project. Pain sufferers need sleep in order to function in their already somewhat compromised state. So, here are some reminders:

Try to sleep for at least eight hours per night, not too much more and not too much less. If it takes you a long time to fall asleep, you need to create a sleep schedule that gets you into bed for more than eight hours to allow for that extra “sleep prep” time.
Regarding too much sleep: it is a real thing. Pain sufferers benefit greatly from daily physical activity and too much bedrest contributes to poor circulation, weight control issues, and even more pain.
Some people find naps restorative. If you must take a nap, limit the nap to 30 minutes. Make sure your nap is at least six hours prior to your scheduled bedtime.
In addition to scheduling your sleep, schedule your physical activity with a goal of 30 minutes of stretching, cardiovascular or weight-bearing exercises daily. Avoid exercising just before bedtime.
All days are equal. You need to have a sleep routine on Tuesday night and on Saturday night that allows for eight hours of sleep. Weekends are a great opportunity to catch up on sleep, but overdoing socializing or overscheduling is a missed opportunity. In addition, oversleeping is a mistake, too.
Eat dinner at least two to three hours before bedtime.
If caffeine affects your sleep, avoid it after 12:00 noon. If you can, wean yourself from caffeine altogether.
Avoid alcohol use or limit your intake to one drink in the evening.
Remove all screens from the bedroom. From the TV to your smartphone, the temptation is too great to keep watching, keep reading or keep texting. Better to read in bed or do crosswords than have a screen to stimulate your brain and visual cortex and prevent deep sleep.
See a sleep specialist if you consistently cannot obtain restorative sleep to rule out sleep apnea and other sleep disturbances.

Getting enough sleep is as important as pain treatment. It is a lifestyle decision that only you can control.

Is Laughter the Best Medicine?

You’ve heard it before: Laughter is the best medicine. But is this a cliché and what does it mean?

Ultimately,”laughter is the best medicine” means that being able to laugh makes nearly everything bearable.

Now, scientists are discovering that this is not just an old proverb, but a scientific fact.

Laughter actually causes the following good changes to your body:

Laughter brings oxygen into your lungs, which is distributed throughout your body.
Laughter causes an increase in endorphins. Endorphins are the “happies” in your body; they provide a feeling of contentment and even joy. Endorphins are also increased with vigorous exercise and sexual activity.
Laughter can actually be a form of exercise, increasing your heart rate.
Laughter can decrease stress, which can then ease the physical responses to stress like muscle tension, headaches and nervous digestive issues.

So, now that you know that laughter is the best medicine, you need to add some into your daily routine. Take time to:

Watch and read funny stuff. Whatever it is that causes you to actually laugh out loud, take time during the day to do it, whether it’s a late night talk show bit, looking at your best friend’s Facebook posts, or watching cat videos. Take time out to giggle.
If you face difficult times including acute or chronic pain, seek comfort from others who manage to deal with these issues, while maintaining some semblance of humor. Hanging around depressed people and those who have poor coping skills is not conducive to your mood.
Search for more sources of humor. Borrow a great library book written to entertain. Pick up a favorite comic strip collection. Listen to any of the comedy channels on XM-Sirius.
Don’t feel that you always have to be “on”. Yes, laughter is healing, but you are allowed to feel sadness and grief over losses and challenges.

Try to fit in laughter and see if it helps you. If it does, make room for more and more of it in your daily and weekly routine.

Kitchen Workout: Changing the Moves on Old Recipes

Trying to make changes to your eating? Sometimes it’s your recipe that needs the workout. Here are some easy steps to make your favorite recipes just a touch lighter and healthier.

Cut back on fat. If a baked good calls for butter, oil or shortening, you can substitute half the amount with mashed banana, prunes or even applesauce. If the recipe calls for whole milk, switch to ½ % or even skim. Sour cream can be replaced with the lowfat offering, and most cheeses can be replaced with their lower fat counterparts.
Sugar can be replaced with any no calorie substitute of your choosing. Sometimes you may actually have to add more than the equivalence. Try some taste tests to see what works best.
Reduce half of the salt in most dishes without sacrificing flavors. The caveat is baked goods that call for yeast may require an exact salt amount.
Switch out ground turkey for ground beef, especially in casseroles, soups and chili. It not only is lower calorie, it’s cheaper too.
Try the least amount of oil and always use a liquid, not shortening if you can. Sprayed non-stick oil works for lots of cooking jobs like sautéing meat and vegetables.

If you are afraid to “mess” with a classic, consider serving the modified recipes first for your family. If they don’t notice or complain about the changes, you can feel confident in bringing your altered recipe to any potluck celebration.

Just a Little Bit: Micro-Resolutions for Pain Sufferers

Photo: postmemes.com/meme/rearranging-my-new-years-resolutions/

Doing a little more and a little less.

These might be the components of successful New Year’s Resolutions for everybody, especially those in the pain community.

Why do people fail to stick with their resolutions? For many, their goals are too ambitious; it is too challenging to make massive changes all at once.

Instead, we encourage you to make incremental changes that can have staying power.

For pain patients, consider choosing from any of or all of these small changes:

Drink one more glass of water a day. First of all, the 8 glasses of water is a myth. For the most part, you should drink when you are thirsty and you’ll be fine. However, remember that water is the best drink with which to hydrate your body. So, consider substituting water for coffee, soda, juice or milk. If you drink no glasses of water a day, start with just one. Drink a glass of water before your morning coffee or with it or to replace your second one.
Be physically active for 30 minutes per day. This can mean parking five minutes from your office door, so you add ten minutes of walking. It can mean taking a break during the day to stretch or do light weightlifting. It can mean walking the dog for longer in the evening, or walking in place or doing calisthenics during your evening screen time.
Take 100 extra steps each day. It’s not much. But it’s a measurable and achievable goal.
Do one less thing that you currently feel obligated to do. Pain patients need to spread out their time of activity and reduce stress; it is critically important for pain patients. You’d be surprised what really doesn’t have to get done. hat church event that you have chaired…maybe it’s time to train your successor. The family dinner that you regularly host will be just as enjoyable if you don’t cook it yourself. The golf game at 7:30 a.m. isn’t truly mandatory.
Spend five minutes a day noting your physical and mental state. Keep a journal with old-fashioned pen or paper or in your smart phone. Keep track of how much pain you are experiencing from a scale of 1-10 (ten being the worst). Also jot down what your anxiety level is.
Keep a food and drink diary for one week. Lots of people have pain this correlates to certain food and beverages, but they can never get a handle on it, because they have no data.
Schedule one complete physical. Let your physician spend the time to go over all of your health issues and pain complaints.
Do one thing you enjoy. To heck with the rest of them. Whether it’s a movie that nobody else likes, a museum that you can’t get your spouse to visit with you, or going out with a friend whom only you like, just do something that makes you happy.
Get 30 more minutes of Go to bed a half an hour earlier than normal. Turn all the screens off, even if you depend on them to lull you to sleep and just relax in your bed until sleep overtakes you.

This year, resolve to make small changes that can add up to improved health, and we hope, to decreased pain.

Wishing You a Happy Holiday-filled December and a “Smoothie” New Year!

Over time, we have included in our blog writing information about cuisine trends that might support healthy-living goals. Our patient community often shares recipes, cooking and snacking tips, product updates and information on advances in nutrition science with us. It is often our pleasure to pass along these tidbits to you.

This week, in a slight departure, we want to share a website we found with you. It seems the perfect resource for our friends who have adopted the art of smoothie making into their healthy eating lifestyle. We won’t promise any pain remedies from these recipes – but we will guarantee that at least a few of these winter-themed drinks will bring a smile to your lips.

Tell us which recipes you tried and what your reviews are.

Cheers!

http://thankheavens.com.au/2014/12/01/drink-in-the-holidays-with-our-fantastic-12-smoothies-of-christmas/

Health Saving and Cost Savings

One of the issues that we all face in health care is the rising out of pocket or out of paycheck costs. You can’t control all aspects of your health care costs, but you can try some of these cost saving measures:

Know the rules of your insurance provider. Be sure you have to up-to-date knowledge of your physicians’ and hospital networks, your out of pocket deductible, the dates of your plan and your co-pays for doctors, lab work, screening, emergency room and urgent care visits.
Be sure your doctor and you are on the same page regarding costs. Make sure that your doctor understands that you are trying to save money, so that prescribed medication is not cost-prohibitive.
Do your homework. If you have a large deductible to meet and you have an upcoming procedure, find out what the costs will be. If you need a surgical procedure, sometimes outpatient centers are much less costly than traditional large hospitals.
Understand your options with your medication. If you take a 20 mg pill which is also available in 40 mg, it may be possible to order the larger pill and split it, saving yourself some money. Or sometimes, the reverse is true: the smaller pill is much less expensive than the larger one. You can take two pills instead of one. Discuss these possibilities with your health care providers and your pharmacists. Not all pills can be split or doubled.
Find cheaper alternatives that provide similar results. Generic drugs may be a good fit (they also sometimes are not). Certain complementary practices like massage and acupuncture can substitute for other more expensive medications.
Understand what a true emergency is and reserve emergency room visits for just those. Chest pain? Go to the ER. Sore throat on the weekend? This is a great reason for a trip to the nearest urgent care or convenience clinic.
Utilize your employer’s health savings account to the maximum allowable, but make sure you use all of it. Add up your expected out of pocket medical costs from medication, physicians’ visits, contact lenses and glasses and dental and orthodontic care. Have your employer deduct the maximum allowable amount to get as close to your annual outlay as possible. At least, you will not be taxed on these amounts. In addition, many HSA’s are now issuing debit cards that are pre-loaded with your deducted money that can be used at pharmacies, doctors’ and dentists’ offices and hospitals and clinics.
Don’t scrimp on what’s already free. Lots of screenings are now free with no copay: mammograms, PAP smears, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings. Ask your doctor or your health care plan administrator what is free and sign yourself up!

The best way to control costs is to do your research and work in partnership with all of your health care providers and your insurance providers, too.

Avoiding Overuse Injuries

Sometimes our body aches because of the presence of disease, like arthritis or fibromyalgia or various headaches, like migraines. Sometimes, we are in pain because of injuries to the bones or muscles.

There are several common injuries that are typically the result of overuse, either from athletic pursuits, work routines or regular daily life activities. Overuse kind of sneaks up on you. It may start off as a twinge that goes away and over time develops into more constant or consistent pain associated with specific activities.

Frequently occurring overuse injuries are:

Shin Splints (Leg pain which worsens with running or walking)
Tennis Elbow/Golfer’s Elbow (weakness and/or pain inside or outside the elbow)
Runner’s Knee (pain behind the kneecap, made worse with running, walking, jumping, cycling and ascending or descending steps)
Rotator cuff tendinitis (shoulder pain felt when lifting the arms straight up or in a circular motion like a swimming stroke)
Plantar Fascitis (usually felt in the feet and ankles upon first waking up)
Achilles Tendinitis (typically presents as ankle pain)

Overuse injuries are the result of too much exertion, combined with muscle weakness. The major ways to prevent the above injuries include babying yourself a little bit by not hitting the same muscles day after day. When you work out, be sure to warm up before true exertion. Most importantly, after exercising or after a long period of working, take time to stretch and cool down. Be sure you are moving appropriately. Contact a coach or trainer to check your form or consult with a physical therapist to demonstrate what hurts and learn compensating exercising to increase strength, flexibility and reduce pain.

If you are trying to increase exertion or activity, do so gradually, not all in one spurt of activity. If you’ve led a sedentary life, you can’t go from sitting on the couch to running a marathon. Start by adding 15 minutes of exertion and add a maximum of 10 minutes per day.

Being more active is a great goal. Being safe and avoiding overuse injuries should also be a concurrent objective.

1-800-586-7992

Is Pain Making You Tired?

Physical Stress

Use it or lose it…

You don’t move like you used to…

Play now, pay later…

Emotional Stress

Hidden dangers…

Physical Stress

Use it or lose it…

You don’t move liked to… you use

Play now, pay later…

Emotional Stress

Hidden dangers…

Missing Sleep? How Helpful is Counting Sheep?

The first sign of Michigan Spring? Asparagus!

The Sleep-Pain Paradox

Is Laughter the Best Medicine?

Kitchen Workout: Changing the Moves on Old Recipes

Just a Little Bit: Micro-Resolutions for Pain Sufferers

Wishing You a Happy Holiday-filled December and a “Smoothie” New Year!

Health Saving and Cost Savings

Avoiding Overuse Injuries

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