Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic Helps Back Pain Sufferers Fight Fear Avoidance and Move More
Fear of back pain? Once you have experienced it, you answer “yes!” Your Augusta chiropractor totally understands this. Augusta back pain and neck pain patients don’t want to experience that pain again. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic helps spine pain sufferers regain their confidence with encouragement and exercise.
FEAR AVOIDANCE DUE TO BACK PAIN
Back pain sufferers don't want to revisit back pain if they have any options at all. That desire - whether obvious or subtle, stated or just ruminated in the mind – sets up the situation for a behavior called fear-avoidance. Patients with persistent spinal pain syndrome - post-surgically induced or not – elicited high levels of fear avoidance, anxiety, and depression. (1) Researchers noted that the pain experience is not just physical because emotions, behaviors and beliefs are mixed in, too. Fear avoidant behavior like fearing object lifting grows and affects muscle behavior without realizing it. A recent study compared fear-avoidant beliefs and the use of lumbar paraspinal muscle activity while lifting in both back pain and in pain-free volunteers. Fear of lifting an object with a flexed spine as described in a questionnaire was negatively associated with erector spinae activity to protect the spine from injury. The proper way to lift has been debated for a long time. Lifting with a straight back has been described as safer than lifting with a flexed back though research has not necessarily supported that while lifting with a lordotic posture has been reported to result in more erector spinae muscle activity resulting in muscle fatigue and pain. (2) Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic recognizes the importance of managing fear avoidance and its link to better quality of life.
HOW TO MANAGE FEAR AVOIDANCE
Researchers documented that back pain sufferers today ‘get’ that they must keep moving but some require a little more support and encouragement to move and exercise due to a lack of confidence in their backs’ ability to exercise without causing pain. The healthcare provider not only can offer the latest findings on pain control but also train the back pain patient to be physical in the safest way possible. (3) If you are that patient, Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic is your coach! We’re a team and can help you move better and with less fear and deliver gentle, relieving spinal manipulation. 12 weeks of chiropractic manipulation and exercise for older adults with chronic back pain boosted their self-efficacy and fear-avoidant behaviors along with decreases in disability. A 30% or more drop in the Oswestry Disability Index indicated positive response to care. (4) The more engaged a patient is with treatment, the greater the influence on the feeling of self-efficacy and disability reduction. (5) Let’s work together to control your Augusta back pain so it does not control you.
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Tom Menendez on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the relief with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management for an older patient with back pain for whom fear avoidance is logical.
Schedule your Augusta chiropractic appointment today so that if you are questioned whether you fear back pain, you can say “no”!
